"Developing A Faith That Lasts"
Scripture - Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19.
INTRODUCTION
What does it take to Receive God’s Approval? Or perhaps another way of saying it: what does it take to Make God Happy? Many people, throughout history, have tried to figure this out and have made countless attempts to gain God’s approval for their lives. Some people try to make God happy...
-- By doing more good than evil in their life.
-- By dressing in a certain way.
-- By following certain dietary restrictions.
-- By praying a certain number of times a day.
-- By performing certain religious duties as prescribed by their "faith".
-- By going to church.
And, as we’ve unfortunately discovered over the last two months, there are some people who will perform acts of terrorism and kill those they consider to be God’s enemies -- all in an attempt to gain God’s approval. It’s tragic to think of all of the needless pain and suffering that has been caused by people trying to make God happy.
The Bible tells us that there is only one way to get God’s approval? There’s only one way to make God happy. What is it? "Without FAITH, it is impossible to please God." Hebrews 6:12 (NIV) The Bible tells us that FAITH is the key to pleasing God -- without it, we can do nothing. And that is why we have been talking about Faith for the last number of weeks: to find out how to develop a Life-Changing Faith -- a Faith that pleases God.
What is Faith? We started out with the definition from Hebrews 11:1, which says that "Faith is the Confident Assurance that what we hope for IS going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see." (NLT) And we’ve built on this over the last number of weeks, discovering that:
-- Faith is "Expecting The Best!" As you remember, I shared with you a quote by Dr. Rick Warren, who said that faith is "The Confident Assurance that God is In Control of the future and that He plans What Is Best for my life because He Loves Me."
-- Faith is Believing that God can bring something Good out of even the Worst of Circumstances.
-- Faith is Believing that God can Use You to make a Difference in our world.
-- Faith is taking advantage of the Fresh Starts that God makes available to us.
-- Faith is having the Courage to Step Out in Faith -- Taking Risks for God’s sake -- and Resisting Discouragement in order to accomplish the tasks that God lays before us.
-- Faith is Trusting that God will Provide for your Needs, and then Responding in Generosity to the needs of others.
-- Faith is Choosing to Obey God -- Immediately, Completely, Joyfully, and Continually -- even when we don’t understand what He is doing.
As we wrap up this series today, we want to ask one further question: "How do we GROW in our Faith?" How do we develop a faith that will last a lifetime? To gain the answer, let’s look back to Hebrews 11:1-2, which says that "Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Faith is the reason we REMEMBER GREAT PEOPLE who lived in the past." (NCV) And let’s consider this verse from Hebrews 6:12 in which the writer says "We do not want you to become lazy, but to IMITATE those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." (NIV) What does that mean?
Well, let me ask you this question: "What is the best way to learn a skill?" Perhaps a sport, or making crafts, or perhaps a specific trade? One way of course is to read a book about it; unfortunately, that only gives you part of the answer. Another way is to simply try to do it yourself -- trial and error. Again, that may get you started, but in order to really develop a skill to the point that it will stick with you, the best way is to Observe someone else who does it well -- in a sense, become their Apprentice, and watch them and have them train and help you to develop that skill in your own life.
The same is true when it comes to our Faith. Probably the best way to grow in our faith is to observe someone else who has great faith, and then strive to follow their example. As Hebrews 11 suggests, we should look at the lives of past heroes of faith, and then follow their example. So today, we’re going to take a brief look at the life of someone that the Bible hails as one of the greatest men of faith who ever lived -- Abraham. So please turn with me to Hebrews 11:8-12,17-19 as we look to discover some Principles for Building a Life of Faith.
PRINCIPLES FOR BUILDING A LIFE OF FAITH:
1) When God CALLS -- Choose To OBEY.
We find God’s Call to Abraham in Genesis 12. Listen to what God said: "The Lord told Abram, ’LEAVE your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and GO to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and... All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.’"
That’s a pretty big call, isn’t it? God was telling Abraham (then known as Abram) to leave behind everything that he has known up to this point -- security, family, friends, etc -- in order to go to a place that God would lead him. And notice, God left the destination pretty vague, didn’t he? He was saying, "Abram, leave it all behind -- come follow me and I will bless you." How do you think you would respond? I suspect that most of us would struggle with this.
As I was getting ready to come to church today, I was helping my son to get a bath -- and quite frankly, he didn’t want to have a bath, especially because he couldn’t sit and play in the tub for awhile. And so he resisted and complained and made it difficult -- but we struggled through it and got him clean for the most part. As we finished up, I told him to stand up and get out so we could get him dried off and dressed for church; to which he responded, "I Can’t!"
-- I replied, "what do you mean, you can’t?"
-- He scowled at me and said, "Daddy, I Can’t!!"
-- Now unfortunately, we’ve been through this routine before so I knew how to respond. "You mean -- You Don’t Want To, right?" To which he begrudgingly nodded. It wasn’t that he "couldn’t" get out, he "didn’t want" to get out of the bathtub -- he wanted to stay in and play for awhile.
And I couldn’t help but think that this is so similar to the way that we respond to God’s call. He asks us to do something, and we reply, "Lord, I CAN’T! -- I’m too old... I’m too young... I’m not ready... I’m too busy... I have too many other things to do... etc. But deep down, what are we really saying? "I DON’T WANT To!" I don’t want to do it... I don’t want to change... I don’t want to sacrifice... I don’t want to stretch, etc.
How did Abraham respond to God’s Call? "So Abram departed AS THE LORD HAD INSTRUCTED HIM... Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran." (Genesis 12:4 - NLT)
He chose to Obey -- to do what God called him to do. "Faith led Abraham to obey when God called him to go to a place that he would receive as an inheritance. Abraham left his own country without knowing where he was going." (Hebrews 11:8 - God’s Word Translation)
2. When God DELAYS -- Wait PATIENTLY.
Have you ever been in a hurry when God wasn’t? So many times, it seems like God is moving in slow-motion. And that drives us crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, we live in such a fast-paced society and we expect everything to happen immediately. We want what we want and we want it NOW!!!
Think about it -- what is the one thing that most of us absolutely hate? Having to wait! We hate being behind slow drivers... we hate waiting for the light to turn green... we hate waiting in line at the checkout stand (and doesn’t it seem like every time you’re in a hurry, the cashier’s tape runs out just in time for your order?!). We hate waiting!!
Unfortunately for us, God is rarely in a hurry. Oh, occasionally He’ll answer a prayer quickly for us, but that seems to be rare, doesn’t it? More often then not, there is a time delay between when we ask for something from God, and when we receive it. God is rarely in a hurry.
That’s something that Abraham discovered -- especially with one of the promises God had made to him. God had promised that he would become the "Father of many nations" -- however, Abraham didn’t have any children. Now he and his wife, Sara, had tried for many years, but she never became pregnant. And even after God made this promise, filling their lives with tremendous hope, nothing happened. Sara still did not become pregnant. And not only was this an ongoing problem -- it lasted for almost 25 years AFTER God gave them the promise. Talk about a long delay. And different times, Abraham asked God what was going on -- why didn’t they have any children yet? To which God simply replied "it’s still going to happen, just trust me."
When we look at Abraham’s life, there are two lessons we learn about waiting.
a) Don’t Take Matters Into Your Own Hands.
After some time had passed and nothing happened, Abraham and Sara did just that. Notice what they did: (Genesis 16:2-4,16; 17:1,18-19 - New Century Version)
-- "Sarah said to Abram, ’Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children, so have sexual relations with my slave girl...’ It was after he had lived ten years in Canaan that Sarah gave Hagar to her husband Abram..."
In other words, they figured that since God hadn’t delivered on his promise yet, maybe He needed a little help. So they set up a little rendezvous with Sara’s slave, and sure enough: "she became pregnant... Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael." They did it!! Abraham finally had a son and began to raise him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t God’s plan.
-- "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him.. Then Abraham said to God, ’Please let Ishmael be the son you promised’." Abraham was saying, "Hey look, we’ve helped you out! Now I have a son and he’s the one you talked about, right? He’s the one that you’re going to bless..."
What was God’s reply? "God said, ’No, Sarah your wife will have a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will make my agreement with HIM’ ."
How many times do we try to force God to work...do we try to "hurry God up"... do we try to create the answer that we were looking for rather than the one that God wanted to give us? And, like Abraham, we often create a situation that is much worse than the one that we started with. We have to learn to trust God and follow His timetable, not our own. We should take matters into our own hands.
b) Don’t Focus on the Obstacles, Focus on God -- what He can do.
This is the other problem we struggle with, isn’t it? Not only do we hate waiting, often times we get discouraged by the obstacles that seem to be insurmountable, and we think "it will never happen!" But notice how the Bible describes Abraham’s attitude:
-- "When God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, Abraham BELIEVED him... even though such a promise seemed utterly impossible! Abraham NEVER WAVERED in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger... He was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that God was able to do anything he promised." (Romans 4:18, 20-21 -- New Living Translation)
-- "When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live NOT on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said HE would do... Abraham DIDN’T FOCUS on his own impotence and say, "It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up." (Romans 4:18-19 -- The Message)
It’s not easy, but it is so essential that we develop an attitude of trust and confidence in God. We have to stop looking at the obstacles and focus on God.
3. When God TESTS Your Faith -- TRUST Him Completely.
The time came when God did answer Abraham’s prayer -- they did have a child, a son named Isaac. And Abraham and Sarah raised him to joy because this was God’s answer -- it was the fulfillment of a promise.
And that’s why this next step was a tough one for them -- God asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice (to kill him) of worship for God. Now it’s hard for us to imagine what God was thinking here, but try to imagine how Abraham and Sarah must have felt -- here they finally had their son, and now God wanted him back -- it didn’t make sense. I suspect that each and every one of us would have struggled with this decision -- I know that I would have.
But notice Abraham’s response:
-- "It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was READY to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, though God had promised him, ’Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.’ Abraham assumed that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again." (Hebrews 11:17-19 - New Living Translation) Now that’s Faith!!
-- "(Abraham) was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith was made complete by what he did-by his actions." (James 2:22 - New Living Translation)
-- "He proved that his faith was real by what he did. This is what the Scriptures mean by saying, ’Abraham had faith in God, and God was pleased with him.’ That’s how Abraham became God’s friend." (James 2:22-23 - Contemporary English Version)
The fact is that God DOES choose to test our faith. God allows us to be placed in circumstances that challenge our very faith and trust in Him. Quite literally, He asks us "how much do you trust me?" It’s not easy to be in those circumstances -- and quite often we’ll buck at them, we’ll try to avoid them, we’ll try to ignore them -- but in the end we are forced to make a decision.
What is it that God is asking from you? Perhaps it’s a dream that you’ve had... perhaps it’s the security of your home or your job or your family... perhaps he’s asking you to delay your "retirement" or come out of retirement in order to serve Him. Perhaps God is asking you to give something away, trusting that whatever the sacrifice, He will make it up in the end. How are you going to respond when God tests your faith?
4. When God DELIVERS -- Remember to REJOICE.
One thing I noticed about Abraham is that each time God delivered a promise, Abraham took time to worship and express his thanksgiving to God.
We see this after Abraham left his homeland and followed the Lord’s directions:
-- "They arrived in Canaan, and Abram traveled through the land... At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ’I’m going to give this land to your descendants.’ So he BUILT AN ALTAR there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:6-7 - God’s Word Translation) Even though his journey was not yet complete, Abraham took time to worship, to be thankful.
When Isaac was born:
-- God did as he had promised, and Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a baby son in his old age, at the time God had said... And Sarah declared, ’God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this shall REJOICE with me. For who would have dreamed that I would ever have a baby?...’ Time went by and the child grew and was weaned; and Abraham GAVE A PARTY TO CELEBRATE." (Genesis 21:1,6-8 -- Living Bible)
When Abraham’s faith was tested and God intervened by providing another sacrifice:
-- Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and SACRIFICED IT AS A BURNT OFFERING instead of his son. So Abraham called that place "The Lord Will Provide." (Genesis 22:13-14 -- New International Version)
So often we pray and pray for an answer, but then when God delivers, we say a token "thank you" to God, and leave it at that. Other times, we don’t even say that! We can become so forgetful at times, and we shouldn’t be. Abraham serves as a good reminder for us -- when God delivers a promise, take time to worship... to be thankful... to rejoice. And if at all possible, rejoice with other people because that brings glory to God.
PERSONAL APPLICATION.
As we wrap up, let me ask you: "How is your faith this morning?" We’ve been talking about faith for two months now -- how have you grown? How has your faith grown? How much of this have you acted upon?
Now I realize that all of these lessons on faith took Abraham a lifetime to learn, but at some point we have to get started -- we have to do what God is calling us to do. We won’t grow in faith if we don’t ACT in faith. So let’s take time to ask God "What is the NEXT STEP that HE wants us to take?"
