Letting your Faith do the Walking part 3
Believing God out of Obedience and Hope
Hebrews 11:8-10
Introduction
Tonight we will continue out series on “Letting your faith do the walking”, tonight we will see the faith of Abraham, “Believing God out of Obedience and Hope.”
Tonight by way of introduction I will go back to the original account of Abram and his calling by God to go the land God would show him. (Read Genesis 12:1-5)
Abraham demonstrates one of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible. He believed God against all odds and he endured in his faith. Abraham’s faith was an obedient, believing faith—a faith that genuinely obeyed and believed God. Tonight as we trek through this Chapter in Hebrews we will see what we can learn from the life of Abraham in order to help us to learn to Believe God in our lives.
Read Scriptures: Hebrews 11:8-10
I. The Great Call of Abraham.
Vs. 8 “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
God gave Abraham a great call. He called and challenged Abraham to be a witness to the other people of the world—a witness to the only living and True God. God challenged Abraham to separate himself from the world and to follow God—to leave his home, friends, employment, and his country. If Abraham would heed and obey God’s call—if Abraham would believe God unquestionably—then God would do three wonderful things for Abraham in Genesis 12:1-5:
A. God would cause a people to be born of his seed.
B. God would bless all nations through his seed.
C. God would give him a promised land, the land of Canaan.
II. The great faith of Abraham.
Vs. 9 “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.”
Abraham obeyed God; he believed God. Let’s see exactly the kind of faith he had.
A. He had a decisive, obedient faith. He obeyed, and he went out not knowing where he was going. When God called he acted immediately. He did not hesitate, argue, question, or waver back and forth. He obeyed.
Abraham did not know where he was going. He did know where following God would lead him. He simply believed the promises of God; therefore he acted on his belief. He believed; therefore, he obeyed.
When a person truly believes God they will obey God. There is no such thing as belief without obedience, not genuine belief.
Not one of us knows where our faith will lead us, but we are not to fear following God. God is good and He has only good things in store for any true follower of His. If we shrink back and do not believe and follow God, then we will miss out on the promises.
B. He had a hopeful, obedient faith. It’s worth understanding that Abraham never received the inheritance of the promise land, He never saw a nation of people born of His seed. In fact, Abraham never owned a piece of land which He could settle and live. He was only a stranger and wanderer from place to place in a strange land.
He even lived to a ripe old age, seeing both His son and grandson born, and He witnessed them become the heirs of promise. But even they were heirs of the promise not the inheritors of the land. He never even saw them receive not once piece of land, but despite it all, despite what appeared to be all kinds of odds against the promises of God from ever being fulfilled, Abraham still believed God. He still believed in the hope that God had given Him. He believed it so strongly that even taught the same promises to the son, Isaac and grandson Jacob.
III. Abraham’s reward for believing God.
Vs. 10 “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Abraham’s reward for believing God was the great city which had foundations, whose architect and maker is God. The great heavenly city was His hope. This verse plainly teaches that Abraham’s faith was the faith that looked beyond the world to Heaven.
He looked beyond the struggles, the heartache, the disappointments, failures of this life and had a heavenly focus. It didn’t matter to Abraham that He never was able to see all of the promises of God fulfilled in His lifetime, He simply believed God and looked forward to spending eternity with Him.
Conclusion
Are we walking so much by faith and not by sight that this life is not all we are living for, but we are looking forward to that city whose maker is God.
