Hebrews 10:35-11:3 The Righteous one will live by faith

The first state I visited outside my own after coming to the United States was Georgia. While planning a fall trip, I looked for places in Georgia that would be suitable to visit with senior members. The places recommended online included Stone Mountain, the Coca-Cola Museum, the aquarium, the CNN Center, and a park commemorating the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Georgia is also the hometown of Jimmy Carter, known as America’s “Peanut President.” As I looked further, I discovered that Georgia is the birthplace of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a leading figure in the African American civil rights movement, and that the church where he served as pastor has been preserved as a memorial. I visited that place myself. At his memorial, you can often hear his famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” This speech was delivered on August 28, 1963, from the balcony of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of the creed, ‘All men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day, right there in Alabama, little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little White boys and White girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream that one day, every valley will be filled, every hill and mountain will be made low, the rough places will be made smooth, the crooked places will be made straight, God’s glory will be revealed, and all people will see it together. When that happens, when we let the bells of freedom ring, when we let them ring in every village and hamlet, in every state and every city, we will be able to bring closer the day when God’s children—Black and White, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic—will join hands and sing the old spirituals of the past. 'We are free at last! We are free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'

I cannot quote his entire speech, but most of the dreams in it have, 60 years later, largely come to be seen with our own eyes. Back in Martin Luther King’s time, when people heard this speech, many must have doubted whether such a world would ever come. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. can be seen as someone who foresaw what was to come and what God would do at a time when many people were living without hope in the darkness and despair of reality. Therefore, his speech can also be understood as a proclamation of the faith he had in God and of what God had shown him.

There is a biblical figure who is nicknamed 'the dreamer.' In today’s terms, you could call him a 'dreamer guy,' and that person is Joseph. When Joseph was young, he had dreams. In one dream, he was binding sheaves of grain in the field, and his sheaf stood upright while his brothers’ sheaves gathered around his and bowed down to it. In another dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. When he told his brothers about these dreams, he became the object of their jealousy and hatred. However, these dreams later came true. Joseph’s eleven brothers ended up bowing down to him before he became the prime minister of Egypt, and even his father survived the severe famine under Joseph’s protection. These dreams were God showing Joseph what He would do, and Joseph became a person who, after a long time, witnessed his earlier dreams coming true in reality. People of faith walk a path like Joseph, the ‘dreamer.’

 Today, many people in the world do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and Savior. They do not believe that He was born of a virgin, nor that He will return as the promised Second Coming. But we live by faith, confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, our Savior, and that He will indeed come again. Furthermore, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that all the events and miracles recorded in the Old Testament were accomplished by God. We have walked the past year with this faith, and we will move forward into 2026 with the same unwavering faith that God has given us. A key passage about this faith is Hebrews chapter 11, but it is also very helpful to consider the closing verses of chapter 10 in relation to it. In Hebrews 10:36, it says, 'You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what He has promised.' In an easy-to-understand translation of the New Testament, this is rendered as, 'You must persevere and endure in order to practice God’s will and receive what He has promised.' The path of our faith often involves many things that require patience and waiting, rather than immediate results. Joseph, too, did not fully understand the meaning of the dreams he had as a child or how they would come to pass, but after a long time, he was able to see them fulfilled with his own eyes. Martin Luther King Jr. also declared, “I have a dream,” yet most of his dreams were only realized after his death. Hebrews 11 describes Abraham, called the father of faith, saying, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were assured of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Abraham, his wife Sarah, and his descendants Isaac and Jacob all lived their lives holding fast to the promises God had given them, yet they did not see those promises fulfilled in their lifetime. That is why the Scripture says they “saw them afar off and welcomed them.” However, we, 4,000 years later, live seeing God’s promises fulfilled with our own eyes.

 In Matthew 1:1, it says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham, the son of David.” God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand on the earth, and we know that this has been realized in faith today. Abraham is not only the ancestor of the Jewish people, but as the father of faith, all who believe in Jesus Christ and become God’s children today also become Abraham’s descendants, becoming as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand on the earth. We, too, have the Word of God and the dreams that God has given us. I am not talking about the dreams I want or the things I wish to accomplish. I am speaking of the dreams and visions that God has given to me, and the dreams and visions that He has given to our church. When these words and dreams do not come to pass quickly, over time we may begin to doubt whether they will ever be fulfilled, or we may gradually forget about them.

That is why today’s passage emphasizes that 'perseverance is needed' (Hebrews 10:36). Verse 38 also says, 'But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' God’s people do not live according to what they see with their physical eyes, but by relying on and looking to God’s promises and His Word. However, in the reality of life, when nothing seems to change and our dreams begin to fade in our sight, we can become discouraged, or we may even shrink back. It is like Abraham or Isaac, who were told to live in the land that God promised them and not to leave it, but when a famine came and there was nothing to eat, they went down to Egypt to survive. God does not take pleasure in us shrinking back, in living not by faith but being controlled by the circumstances around us. So how should we live? Let us read verse 39 together. But we are not of those who shrink back and perish, but of those who have faith that leads to the salvation of the soul. It means that we are to live with faith in God and in His promises, and not turn back and focus on the world when the fulfillment of those promises seems slow. Instead, we are called to keep moving forward on the path of faith, looking to and trusting in the faithful God. This New Year, I want us to reflect on ourselves in light of this Word. God has given us His Word, dreams, and visions.

 As we pray for our unbelieving family members, relatives, and neighbors, are there promises and words from God that we have grown weary of or discouraged about because so much time has passed? Do you still remember the dreams and hopes God gave you in your childhood, just as He came to Joseph?

 Are you still holding on to them and moving forward? In this New Year, may you remember them once again, hold fast to those promises and dreams, and be filled with the blessing of moving forward. People of faith are not those who are controlled by their circumstances or who change according to each situation. Rather, they are those who look to God, who gave the Word and the dreams, and keep moving forward until God’s promises are fulfilled. Even if those things are not accomplished during our lifetime, like the faithful ancestors of our faith, we live on this earth holding a clearer vision of what God has planned. As mentioned earlier, Martin Luther King looked forward to what would happen in the future and expressed the vision he saw through his speech. He was someone who foresaw what was to come. Today’s passage, Hebrews 11:1, defines faith in this way: 'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.' Faith is not believing only in what is already visible before our eyes. Rather, it is seeing and moving forward as if we can touch and experience, in God, what cannot be seen with our physical eyes but is certain in Him. In our walk of faith, we do not always live a life of smooth success or constant peace. In fact, in real life, things can become tangled and complicated, like a knotted skein of thread. Yet even in such a life, we look to God, rely on His help, and live in prayer. No matter how much we pray, all our problems are not immediately resolved. Our problems in reality remain the same. Illnesses remain, financial difficulties remain, our children’s issues are unresolved, and strained relationships with neighbors remain. Yet God gives His Word and shows a vision to those who rely on Him and pray in the midst of these circumstances. At that time, we do not focus on the visible problems or the reality before us. Instead, we look to God, who will answer our prayers, and move forward. Then, in God’s timing, we will see all these problems resolved. This is the path that people of faith walk. When I previously faced great difficulties and major problems in my family, as always, there was nothing I could do on my own. So I came before God, fasted, prayed, and held fast to His Word. Then, as I was reading the Bible, God gave me an answer. The passage I read was Daniel 10:12: "Daniel, do not be afraid. From the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words." Amen. I cannot describe how relieved my heart felt, how clear my eyes became, and how a peace that the world cannot understand enveloped me. God prepares all the answers even before we come to Him with our problems in prayer. The moment I read this passage, it was as if an electric current flowed through my whole body, and all the problems that had been so pressing before my eyes completely disappeared. Why? Because God already knew all my problems and already had the answers. With a peaceful heart, I continued to pray, and I experienced in a truly astonishing way that all the tangled problems were resolved. Moreover, God even filled my life with blessings I had never imagined. God tells us that this is the way we are to live on this earth. People of faith do not live by what they see in the visible world, but by the reality of the unseen world that truly exists. Though the rulers of this world may seem powerful, people of faith are those who believe in God—who governs the entire universe even though He is unseen—and who live looking to Him. We see many such people of faith in the Bible. Among them, let us remember what young David said when he faced Goliath, a giant warrior over three meters tall. Goliath came out wearing armor all over his body, a bronze helmet on his head, and carrying a huge sword, and with a thunderous voice, he mocked the soldiers of Israel and even ridiculed God. King Saul and all the soldiers were so afraid of Goliath that no one dared to step forward. They were trapped by what they could see with their physical eyes. But young David stepped forward and said: “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 17:45) Goliath, a man entirely focused on the flesh, came relying on his great sword, spear, and javelin—on his own strength. But David came forward relying on the name of God. Because the Lord of hosts, incomparably greater than Goliath, was with him, David could stand before him without fear or cowardice. This year, I pray that the members of Venice Church will live with healthy physical eyes. However, I also bless you to not be confined only to what your physical eyes see, but to lift up the eyes of faith, look to the works of God, and move forward holding fast to God’s promises and dreams. Is there anyone who is in a frustrating and desperate situation? Let us come before God, the solver of all problems, to the place of prayer and the Word. He will surely give an answer. At that time, let us focus not on the circumstances or the problems, but on God, the one who resolves them, and continue moving forward in faith. If we do not shrink back, God will take pleasure in us and respond. Even if we cannot see with our physical eyes, He will allow us to see more clearly, as if in a picture, and we will also experience His grace throughout our life on this earth—just like Abraham… The lives of our faith-filled ancestors, who lived as strangers on this earth with this kind of faith, are introduced in chapter 11 following today’s passage. When you go home, I encourage you to remember today’s message and read it for yourself. I believe the Holy Spirit will strengthen the faith within us and help our faith grow. The righteous shall live by faith! Hallelujah!