Jamie Dew said as he traveled in Europe years ago, the cathedrals he saw made a big impact on him.
“The cathedrals of Europe … took centuries to build,” said Dew, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
“It meant that there were entire generations of stone masons, and these people would be born into this world, they’d grow up, start an apprenticeship and become a master, and for their entire life, they’d cut stone and they’d lay stone,” he said. “And they never saw the finished product.”
That’s what it’s like for followers of Christ who live faithfully day after day knowing they will not see the fulfillment of their hope on earth, he said.
“Friends, that’s our job. We’re not going to see it all in this lifetime.”
Preaching from Hebrews 11, he told those present at the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting Nov. 16 that followers of Christ are tasked with one thing — being faithful. He described three characteristics of faithful people.
1. People who are faithful trust even when they don’t see.
Dew reminded listeners of how Abraham responded in faith to move to a “super nondescript” land he couldn’t see, just because God told him to.
“To be faithful means you trust even when you don’t see,” he said. “God has not abandoned you. God is at work.”
He noted that whole generations — like the stone masons building the cathedrals — “have lived, served and died in faith and never saw the redemption of their Lord.” But that redemption is coming in the life to come, and faithful people trust in that, Dew said.
2. People who are faithful are increasingly unsettled in this world and they long for another world.
Dew said when he was younger, he used to think the deep longing he felt was for the things he didn’t have yet, things like marriage and a family.
Then when he got those things, “it was all as good as I thought it would be, but there was still a hunger for something more,” Dew said.
He feels that hunger even though his bucket list is empty. That’s by divine design, he said.
“I long for a new home, a King and a Kingdom that will come to me. … Friend, your joy and your life is not found in platforms or experiences; it is found in Christ, the coming King and His kingdom. Now that I know Christ, there is no amount of anything that can satisfy my soul.”
3. People who are faithful set their minds on that which is above.
Dew said it will “always be our temptation to want to go back to live a different kind of life where you didn’t have to live constantly with this call to crucify the flesh.”
“It is an easier life, but it is not a better life,” he said.
The faithful men and women named in Hebrews 11 didn’t just acknowledge the coming Kingdom — they kept their mind focused on it and lived accordingly, Dew said. “It all starts right here, with what you meditate on.”
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