Even When Our Faith Falters, God Is There
Genesis 12:10-13:4, NLT
Intro: Helen Roseveare was a missionary in the Belgian Congo, now known as the republic of Congo in Africa. She spent many years there and she shared this story about her faltering faith and how God reminded her that He was still there.
. One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do she died, leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator) and no special feeding facilities.
Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed.
As in the West it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.
"All right," I said, "Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."
The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.
During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God," she prayed, "send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby’ll be dead, so please send it this afternoon."
While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she’ll know You really love her?"
As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen"? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything. The Bible says so. But there are limits, aren’t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home; anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box.
From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys; eyes sparkled as I pulled them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas --- that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the ..... could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out --- yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle! I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.
Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted.
Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?"
That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child --- five months before --- in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year old to bring it "that afternoon."
. Sometimes, even those who seem to work the hardest for God see their faith falter.
. That’s what we see this morning in our scripture.
. Abram, before he was known as Abraham, the man that is held up as an example of faith, at times struggled with his faith.
. We see that in our scripture this morning. We will see how that even when our faith falters, God is still there.
Genesis 12:10- 13:4
10At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.
11As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, you are a very beautiful woman.
12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’
13So please tell them you are my sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.”
14And sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai’s beauty.
15When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to Pharaoh, their king, and Sarai was taken into his palace.
16Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her—sheep, goats, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
17But the LORD sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and accused him sharply. “What have you done to me?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ and allow me to take her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and get out of here!”
20Pharaoh ordered some of his men to escort them, and he sent Abram out of the country, along with his wife and all his possessions.
1So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned.
2(Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.)
3From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.
4This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the LORD again.
. The first thing we see here is that Abram’s faith faltered:
. Look at verse 10 again;
. 10At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.
. When tough times came, Abram’s faith was on shaky ground.
. Abram had just picked up his family and moved to where God wanted him through faith.
. He had believed that God would care for him and his family but as times got hard, it seems Abram faltered.
. Nowhere do we see that God told Abram to abandon the place that God had sent him.
. Abram didn’t say God, you brought me here, what do I do now. You promised to make me a great nation. That all the nations of the Earth would be blessed through me. I have come here on faith and I am depending on you to carry me through.
. Can you imagine what Abram thought as he realized that the land that the Lord promised to him would not be able to feed him and his family? I imagine that Abram was a lot like you and I, he probably started questioning the will of God for his life.
. You see our faith falters when we doubt what God can and will do.
. Have you ever stepped out in faith and when you got to where you were going you faced difficulty and you think, “I have made a mistake”?
.That’s our tendency as humans, and that is often the challenge that we face when the circumstances of life get hard.
. We begin to doubt the will of God because somehow we got the notion that being in the center of God’s will means that we do not face tough times. That is not the case!
.God will often allow us to go through tough times to mature us, and if we are going to meet the challenge and not begin to doubt the will of God then we must recognize that the hard times that come our way can bring us closer to God if we will only trust Him and not falter.
. Tough Times may cause us to falter in our faith. God is calling on us to trust Him during the tough times.
. Abram’s faith faltered during these times but God was still with him.
. We as a people of God and a church must resolve not to let our faith falter when things don’t work out just the way we want them to.
. Even during trying times, god is still there as we will see as we move through this scripture.
. Abrams faith faltered for another reason also:
. Fear
. You see fear will many times cause us to “lose our religion” as some people call it.
. Fear causes us to do things that we wouldn’t normally do and things that are contrary to the way a Christian should live.
. Look at verses 11-16 again
11As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, you are a very beautiful woman.
12When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’
13So please tell them you are my sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.”
14And sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai’s beauty.
15When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to Pharaoh, their king, and Sarai was taken into his palace.
16Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her—sheep, goats, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
. Again, instead of trusting God Abram concocted a lie because of the fear that he had of the Egyptians.
. Not only did he try to deceive, he was willing to allow his wife to be taken and be guilty of adultery.
. This mighty man of God, this pillar of faith, this father of God’s chosen nation, showed himself to be a liar and a schemer and a husband that would basically sell his wife into adultery.
. Abram did this out of fear. Obviously his fear of the Egyptians was greater than his fear of God.
. You say Pastor, I would never do something like that. We may not have the same customs that they had but we can allow fear to make our faith falter.
. As I was preparing this sermon, I read a story from a pastor about a pastor friend who called one Monday morning to tell him how bad his day went. He had spent the morning at the hospital because of his deacons had passed away.
When he arrived back at the church and the parsonage he found the fire department there putting out a massive grass fire that had consumed the cemetery and about thirteen acres of a church members property behind the church.
What made this situation bad is that his friend knew that the bond fire that he and his youth minister started behind the church the night before was the cause of the fire.
To make things worse, when the church member who owns the land behind the church and who was also a deacon came up to him and asked him if he knew anything about how the fire started, his friend, in fear, lied and told him no. Of course the Holy Spirit did not let him get away with the lie and he had to go and tell the member the truth.
. This pastor was letting his fear overcome his faith. His faith faltered, just like Abram.
. We all have times when fear can overcome our faith.
. Young people, students are faced with this choice on a daily basis.
. If they stand up for the Lord, if they do what is right, will they be accepted by their peers?
. Many time, in order to fit in, we let our faith falter.
. Guess what, even then God is there.
. Even though our faith may falter, God does not falter. He does not waver.
. Look at 12:17- 13:4 again
17But the LORD sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18So Pharaoh summoned Abram and accused him sharply. “What have you done to me?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ and allow me to take her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and get out of here!”
20Pharaoh ordered some of his men to escort them, and he sent Abram out of the country, along with his wife and all his possessions.
1So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned.
2(Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.)
3From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.
4This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the LORD again.
. Verse 17 says, “But The Lord”
. Those three words are a declaration of God’s faithfulness. In fact, this story of Abram’s faltering faith is more about a faithful God than it is about a faithless servant.
. Even though Abram’s faith had faltered, he had not trusted God, he had lied and schemed, the Lord was still there.
. God watched over Sarai and kept her from becoming one of Pharaoh’s wives.
. God sent Pharaoh a message through plagues letting him know that these people belonged to him.
. God was faithful. He watched over Sarai and Abram.
. Even though Abram’s faith had faltered, God used it for his glory.
. Abram and Sarai left Egypt with much more than they had when they arrived.
Vs 13:1&2 tell us that they left and were very wealthy. They came to Egypt destitute, just trying to stay alive during the famine.
. They left very wealthy the scripture tell us.
. God used this time of doubt and faltering faith to strengthen Abram and Sarai.
Our scripture ends this morning with Abram right back where he had started, and he realizes that God had been with him.
. Look at what he did when he returned to the land God had promised him.
. 4This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the LORD again.
. God had never left Abram, even when his faith faltered.
. God brought him back to a place where Abram could worship Him.
. Christian, do you find yourself in circumstances that cause your faith to falter? I think we all do.
. Remember that God will never leave you nor forsake you.
. Even when we falter, God will not.
.Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Illustration from sermon central
When Faith Falters, Patrick Mead, sermon central
