- Hebrews 6:13–18 Title: The Power of a Promise
- If you read the promises of God as individual, you will misunderstand almost all of them.
- Our hope is secure because it rests on God’s unbreakable promise not just to individuals, but to His people. Christianity is not an individual endeavor. It never has been, and it never will be.
- we’ve been trained to think individually. we read the promises of God like they’re written to us.
- And when life doesn’t go the way we expected, or we don’t receive what we thought we should, we get frustrated because we’re reading it wrong. We thought it was for us alone.
- Inheriting the promises of God individually is like trying to win a team sport by yourself you can’t. We’ve all heard it: “he’s not a team player.” That hurts the team and it hurts him.
- Because Christ didn’t come to save isolated individuals He came to redeem a people.
- You don’t inherit the promises of God alone you inherit them by belonging to His people.
- This Scripture
- God made promises to Abraham-would bless him and multiply his descendants.
- Abraham didn’t see those promises fulfilled overnight he patiently endured while waiting
- God wanted the heirs (The Hebrews) of that promise to know with absolute certainty that His plan would not change, so He confirmed His promise with an oath. To Abraham for his people
- there are two immutable things: God’s promise, and God’s oath guaranteeing that promise.
- Both are unchanging because it is impossible for God to lie.
- God didn’t just make a promise. He swore an oath on Himself because there is nothing higher.
- So the point is simple and powerful. What God has promised, He will do. His word does not change, His plan does not shift, and His promises will come to pass for his people.
- These promises are for “ who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us”
- These collective promises to Israel are in us and for those in Christ today through the church
- My goal for this message is simple- that you would see the promises of God as unchanging, and for the collective of the Church, not just for you as an individual.
- God has always made and continues to make promises
- God has promises of what he Would DO (Historical / Redemptive Promises)
- Major promises from the OT are covenantal through the OT Fulfilled across history
- These promises are what God said he would do- He would redeem, Make a great nation, give them land, a royal lineage, a new covenant, their sin forgiven, the spirit of God, a messiah to save them, and a King to rule them with an eternal Kingdome
- These are the timebound promises of God in the OT fulfilled in the NT in Jesus Christ.
- All of this is established and walked out through and by the Love of the Father through Jesus
- Deuteronomy 7:7–9 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people… but because the LORD loves you… therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
- God has promises of what he Said He Would BE (Relational / Experiential Promises)
- Not only does he describe what he would DO in his love- its what he would BE in his love
- God proves Himself in history- God gives Himself in relationship, in OT and in Jesus
- I Will Be Your God (Covenant Relationship) relationship and belonging. central covenant identity of Israel and later the Church.I Will Dwell With You (Presence)
- I Will Be With You (Personal Presence) I Will Bless (Relational Faithfulness) – This includes:
- • prosperity• protection• victory over enemies• fruitfulness I Will Forgive You (Grace) – I Will Give You a New Heart (Transformation) – I Will Be Your Shepherd (Care) God promises that he will walk with his people, and care for his people, to guide them I Will Hear You (Access) I Will Bring You to Myself Forever (Eternal Relationship) – This is who he said he would BE
- The point of the entire story is God drawing a people to himself forever. For eternity.
- These promises are why the New Testament repeatedly says “according to the Scriptures.”
- Every major hope of the OT is fulfilled in Christ, the Church, and the coming Kingdom.
- Christ is now our anchor for each and every promise of the Old Testament in the new covenant
- The Writer of Hebrews is writing within a framework of understanding to the Hebrew listener that now knows Christ. He knows these redemptive promises are fulfilled in Jesus alone.
- To whom do these promises belong?
-
- But here’s the hitch- they belong to The people of God. The collective group of God’s people, gathered together for him. This is a collective promise thread that flows from the OT to the NT.
- Every promise God made found its Yes in Jesus. He is the great nation. He is the land. He is the temple. He is the new covenant. He is the suffering servant and the coming king.
- Christ didn’t just fulfill the promises He IS the promises embodied. Heb. wants it to stay in him
- a core promise here that has remained the same throughout all redemptive history:
- God will have a people, he dwell with them, they will inherit His kingdom. Now its in Jesus
-
- This is a collective redemptive arc throughout all humanity that must break our individualism
- The promise was never merely: “God will fix your individual life.”
- The promise was always: God is creating and loving a redeemed people who will live with Him forever in His kingdom.
- And that is what this scripture is saying when it says- who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us- US. Not for YOU for US. For all of US who are in Christ Jesus.
-
- This is completely contrary to the current American ethos of individualism
- US is 250 years old This year. I love America. I’m American. But we’re not together as a nation
- Benjamin Franklin said “we must all hang together” or assuredly we shall all hang separately
- He said this at the signing of the Declaration- If we don’t act as one, we die as individuals.
- The Dec said- we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
- They knew it could cost everything- Collective risk. Collective identity. Collective inheritance
- They believed, “If we don’t stand together, we don’t stand at all.”
- We’ve shifted to, “As long as I’m standing taking care of myself, I’m good.
- We don’t gather like we used to… we scroll. We stay home. We insulate and separate.
- There’s a radical individual mindset. Its “My truth” over shared truth and focus.
- Freedom used to mean responsibility together now it often means independence from everyone. We feel it. Media, culture, its all splintered. There’s no shared narrative.
- Today we want comfort over sacrifice. Our founders risked everything. We want convenience.
- And we’ve all been infected with this current mindset- all of us. We all think this way.
- They pledged their lives… we struggle to give our time and a measure of our resources.
- 1776: “We will give everything for something bigger than us.” We will die if need be.
- 2026: “What does this cost me personally?” whats the absolute minimum to gain the whole
- And now, people bring that same ethos into their walk with God and his church.
- This book, this bible was not written to you. Ever. Its always written to a GROUP a collective.
- But our constant individual mindset will erode the foundations of the church like you see in US
- Ancient Isreal
- Ancient Israel and the early church was radically different from modern Western individualism.
- A typical Israelite did not think primarily in terms of personal fulfillment but participation in God’s covenant people. identity, hope, and future were corporate first and individual second.
- Ancient Israel did not think like modern Americans who ask, “What do I personally get out of this?” They thought of Family, clan, tribe and nation. Them?- How does this affect my people?
- Exodus 19:5–6 keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people… And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
- The promise was never primarily: “You individually will prosper.”
- The promise was: “You belong to God’s nation.” “We are the people God lives with.”
- That was the win. You are part of the group. And you wanted to be part of it and stay with it.
- To be part of the people whom Yahweh personally chose and dwelled among was the highest identity imaginable. The Ultimate Prize Was God’s Presence within the people of God
- The central promise was not land, prosperity, or power. It was God dwelling among them.
- Leviticus 26:11–12 I will set My tabernacle among you… I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
- This Blessing Was Experienced Through the Nation. Yes there were individual effects-food, peace, prosperity, but they came through the GROUP of national covenant blessing!
- The idea was simple: If Israel is blessed, I am blessed because I belong to Israel.
- This is similar to how citizens benefit from a prosperous nation today. You are blessed bc USA
- Israel understood that they were chosen to represent God to the nations.
- Their thought was: We are the people through whom God is revealing Himself to the world.
- The Power of this Promise is a collective promise!
-
- This Shared Story Created Shared Hope Israel’s story reinforced this collective mindset.
- The entire nation saw themselves as participants in one continuous story.
- The hope was: Israel restored Messiah reigning nations coming to God peace covering the earth
- To inherit that future meant to be part of the people of God. You stayed with the group
- Modern Western culture is extremely individualistic. So people naturally read Scripture asking:
- “What does this promise mean for my personal life?” what do I gain by believing in this?
- default lens is:community → covenant → people → kingdom Not individual fulfillment.
- the New Testament talks about inheriting the promises, it still preserves the corporate idea.
- The Core Motivation for an Israelite If you reduce it to one sentence, the motivation was this:
- To belong to the people whom God chose, protected, lived among, and would ultimately redeem and glorify. The personal hope was inseparable from the collective hope.
- The logic was: If the covenant people inherit the kingdom, and I belong to that people, then I inherit it too. That is the worldview Hebrews is appealing to when it says:
- 6:18 we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
- The encouragement is not: “God has a personal promise just for your situation.”
- The encouragement is: Stay faithful so you will share in the inheritance of God’s people when His kingdom is fully revealed. Stay w the group and when its redeemed you’ll be with them
- The NT writers consistently present believers as a new covenant people, a kingdom, a household, a body, a nation who together inherit the promises. We are the people of God
- The Church is the collective group of God’s chosen people who inherit these promises
- 1 Peter 2:9–10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people… who once were not a people but are now the people of God
- Ephesians 2:19–22 fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…
- OT promise: God dwelling among His people. God now dwells in His gathered people.
- Even when applied to Christians, the language remains collective covenant language.
- The promise is still: “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
- The promise is that the community will reign with Christ. He is our God we are his people.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.
- resurrection promise is experienced together, not individually. the gathered people of Christ.
- The final promise is not a collection of individual heavens .It is a city, a people, a kingdom.
- I don’t think about HS sports often, but sometimes football. What frustrates me is the talent we had but the leadership we lacked. No one brought us together. Factions ruled. Bullying reigned
- If we collectively had an idea of a team winning v an individual stats, we coulda done somethin
- So the promises of God are not merely for YOU to experience and behold. You join the community of faith, you are engrafted into the people of Isreal as his collective people.
-
- This changes- How you read the scriptures- you realize that you’re part of a larger story
- How you deal with people- you see them as the collective group of the people of God
- Your mindset when it comes to the Church. You see it as the collective whole of God
- So when you attend, serve, give, fellowship, worship and pray you realize you are
- Hebrews 12:28 receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
- Live this out. Live as the collective people of God, not merely an individual w personal benefits
- You’re not just saved into a relationship you’re saved into a people and together, we inherit a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The kingdom ruled by King Jesus who wants your full devotion
- And that kingdom is not theoretical. It’s already secured by a risen King who cannot fail.
- So here’s the question are you actually part of this people? Do you see yourself as a part?
-
- Not just saved, but engaged, committed, present, and invested in the collective? Because you can’t inherit a kingdom you’re too individualistic to participate in.
- To live as a lone-wolf Christian isn’t just culturally out of step it’s a rejection of what Christ died to create. He didn’t bleed for a collection of individuals. He bled for a bride.a body. A nation
- Christ loves you. His outstretched arms are inviting you into his covenant promises
- And you and I, together will inherit them if we remember to what and whom we belong
- There is nothing more secure in this world than belonging to the people of God- IRL
For more sermons please visit our SERMON PAGE
Please subscribe to our YOUTUBE PAGE
