INTRODUCTION
A famed tightrope walker came to Niagara Falls and stretched his rope across the thunderous currents from Canada to the United States. Before the breathless multitudes, he walked, then ran, across the falls. He did the same blindfolded, with drums rolling. Then, still blindfolded, he pushed a wheelbarrow across the falls.
The crowd went wild, and the aerialist shouted to them, “Who believes I can push a man in this wheelbarrow across these falls?”
A gentleman in the front waved his hands, shouting, “I do! I believe!”
“Then,” said the walker, “come and get in the wheelbarrow.”
To no surprise, the man's intellectual ascent failed to translate into personal belief.
BACKGROUND
How strong is your faith in God? More than that, is your faith just words of intellectual assent, or is it clearly evident in your life to those around you?
As we continue our series today on Unlikely Heroes, we will be examining the life of a man who, to many, may not have seemed to be a likely candidate for the title “hero.” His background makes him so implausible to have hero status. His name is Abraham.
Why is he such an “unlikely” hero? Consider that his family was not originally followers of God, but idolators (Joshua 24:2) who lived in Mesopotamia. It is unclear as to whether Abram was an idolator also or whether he was worshiping Jehovah at that time. It is possible that they all worshiped Jehovah as “High God” and also practiced henotheism, defined as the worship of a particular god by a family or tribe, which may have been represented by idols.
Abraham received two calls from God. The first call, while he was in Ur, was to leave his country and his family. But notice that his family went with him, led by his father, Terah, not by Abraham. While he did leave his country, he didn’t immediately leave his family. The second call was received after his father and the whole family had moved out to Haran. This call, made after his father died, was to go to the land of Canaan.
As we examine his life, we discover that his journey from zero to hero was a long one, yet his life became one of the most important in the history of Judaism and Christianity. We will also discover that the attribute that took him to hero status was: FAITH! For our text, we will turn to the New Testament passage found in Hebrews 11:8-10, but we will explore his life in the Old Testament book of Genesis.
I. He Trusted God for Guidance (11:9)
The author of Hebrews informs us that Abraham did not know where he was going.
Can you imagine heading out on a trip only because someone told you to go, and yet you have no idea where you are going? Today we have GPS apps that aid us in making our trips, but of what use are they if we don’t know where we are going? We would be called fools to embark upon such a journey!
Now imagine what Abraham must have endured! His friends and family must have asked what he was doing when they saw him packing up. Maybe he suffered from their derision and cruel jokes. Maybe his own immediate family thought him crazy. But he trusted this unseen God.
This was his first call. God said go, and Abraham obeyed. Abraham's faith was so great, that he was not particularly concerned as to where he was going. His faith displaced all worry as to where he was going. He did not trouble to think upon the matter.
This could not have been an easy experience for Abraham. His whole life, his family, his livelihood, his friends were all there in his homeland. Yet he trusted his God sufficiently to immediately obey. The words here should be literally translated, “By faith Abraham, while he was being called, obeyed.” It indicates that Abraham’s immediate response to the call of God was obedience.
This is the expectation of God for all of His children. Such blind trust is sometimes required. Our only response to God’s direction should be to trust and obey. It is never easy just to trust because we think we must have all of the information in front of us in order to trust. But that is not trust. That is walking by sight, not faith.
Bob Utley said it best when he commented, “God is not looking for ‘super-saints,’ but for flawed humans who will respond to Him in repentance and faith and live for Him regardless of the circumstances.”
Are you trusting God for guidance in your life? Do you believe that God will lead you where you need to be for His honor and glory? Are you living for Him where He has led you, and are you trusting His continued guidance in your life?
II. He Trusted God in His Promises (Romans 4:18-21)
"In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.' He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."
Moses recorded for us in Genesis 11:30 concerning Abraham’s wife, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.” Yet in Genesis 12:2 we find documentation of God saying to Abraham, “And I will make of you a great nation.”
Now I don’t know about you, but it appears to me that there is a problem here! Barren wife equals no children! Abraham was already 75 years old when he departed from Haran, as yet with no children in tow. Nevertheless, God tells him that he will have a nation as his posterity!
Later, when Abraham was 99, God told him that Sarah would have a child. At that time, God renames him from Abram, “high father,” to Abraham, “father of a multitude”!
I want you to hear what is recorded in Genesis 12:4 after the second call of Abram: “And Abram went.” At the time, there was no record of doubt and consternation concerning their barrenness, only that he obeyed. When told at the age of 99 that Sarah would conceive, his faith would be tested severely. But initially, he trusted God at his Word that He would do as He had said.
Charles Wesley, studying Abraham's faith as described in Romans 4:13, wrote a hymn of 11 stanzas about faith. The most popular stanza goes like this:
Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to that alone;
Laughs at life’s impossibilities,
And cries, it shall be done!
Do you trust in the promises of God’s Word? There are so many that God has given to us, and, unfortunately, we often forget them and falter. If we would but trust Him at His word, we would find ourselves living with peace and wholeness rather than worry and distress.
III. He Trusted God for His Future Inheritance (11:9-10)
In Genesis 12:1, God directed Abraham to go “to the land that I will show you.” The writer of Hebrews terms it “the land of promise.” What you must realize is that Abraham had no idea where this land was! He couldn’t Google it and find information about the terrain, and whether it was good for crops, or even if there were grazing lands for livestock. He couldn’t go to Yahoo! and search for the mean temperature or how much rainfall it received in a year.
All he knew was, it was land promised to him and his future descendants!
I’m not sure how God led him. The only knowledge we have is that God said, “Go!” and Abraham said, “I’m coming, Lord!” He really did not know where he was going, but he knew it was his by God’s promise and design. He trusted God so much that he went without knowing where he was going, but he went!
In 2000 I was working my 6th year for Food Lion in Dillon, having left the ministry in 1993. I was a key-carrying manager and manager of the grocery department. But I knew God was not finished with me in ministry yet. Just after becoming fully vested in my retirement fund with the company after my 5th year, I became to pray for God to open up a ministry for me.
In June 2000, our Pricing Manager, who was a member of the Latta SMC, came to me and informed me that DCS was looking for a Bible Teacher. She knew this because she went to church with someone who was teaching there at the time. Though we talked at times, she knew nothing of my recent prayers. She looked me straight in the face and said, “Lanny, you should apply!” Wow! I took that for a sign from God. Sandy and I discussed and prayed about it. I called the Head of School and set up a meeting, which was successful, and I was hired.
While that was a God thing, I must give you this information. At the time Sandy and I had 6 children, and one was less than a year old. I was making very good money as a manager, and Sandy was not working. The starting salary I was offered by DCS was $12,000/yr. lower than what I was earning! But I never worried about that because I had the assurance I was in God’s will. Some of my co-workers called me crazy, and they urged me to remember that I had a family. I could only counter with these words: “The Lord will provide!” I can attest to you that we never went without food, clothing, or shelter.
I say that to testify to this: We serve a big God! He can and will do whatever He wants, and whatever He promises He will do. None of us know what our future holds, but we serve the God who holds the future! Abraham lived his life by faith looking not at current reality but promised reality. Faith says, “This world is not my home;” faith says, “God's promises are sure;” faith says, “Reality is not what I see, but what God says!”
Where do you stand as far as your future is concerned? Are you anxious? Scared? Discombobulated? You shouldn’t be! God knows you, and He knows your future. Like Abraham, our “Father in the Faith,” we must fully trust our Lord for our future. Proverbs 3:5-6 instructs us well: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
The old Ira Stanphill song we sang at camp is still true:
I don't know about tomorrow
I just live from day to day
I don't borrow from the sunshine
For its skies may turn to gray
I don't worry o'er the future
For I know what Jesus said
And today I'll walk beside Him
For He knows what lies ahead
Many things about tomorrow
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand
CONCLUSION
You all probably know the story of the man who slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking on a mountain top. Luckily, he was able to grab a branch on his way down. Holding on for dear life, he looked down only to see a rock valley some 1500 feet below. When he looked up it was 20 feet to the cliff where he had fallen.
Panicked, he yelled, “Help! Help! Is anybody there? Help!”
A booming voice spoke up. “I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me.”
“I believe! I believe!” yelled back the man.
“If you believe me, let go of the branch and then I will save you.”
The young man, hearing what the voice said, looked down again. Seeing the rock valley below, he quickly looked back up and shouted, “Is there anybody else up there!”
Regrettably, that man represents us far too often. We find our faith lacking, in spite of the fact that our God can do anything. J. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, said it better than I can: “Not a great faith we need, but faith in a great God.”
Someone today is watching your life with hero worship in their eyes. Do they see someone whose faith rests in a great God? Is your life exhibiting that kind of faith in your daily walk, believing God’s promises, with no anxiety over your future? If Abraham could do it, so can you!
