“I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”
On Wednesday the story of Maria Grasso, the nanny who won the lottery millions, caused a lot of us to play the fantasy game “what if it were me?” The quiet, Chilean immigrant was the single winner of the Big Game lottery. About an hour before the press conference at which she announced her win, her lawyer deposited a check for $70,244,814.02 in her personal account. This amount is the total of her win, minus $34 million in taxes. Where would I go? What would I do? How would my life change? These are the kinds of questions we ask ourselves when we hear a story like that of Mrs. Grasso. It makes an interesting daydream, but with odds of winning approaching 1 in 52 million, only a fool would build his life around the hope that he, like Mrs. Grasso, would become a rich man from the Massachusetts Lottery! So the fantasy fades and life goes on.
In our Bible text this morning, there is a story that is also amazing. It could produce in us the same kind of fantasy... what if? OR, the story could be a spark that ignites greater faith in us. Fantasies are mere dreams that float through our minds and are soon forgotten. Faith is much different. As we learned last week, faith is born out of God’s promises to us. As we take hold of those promises, we become people who please Him and who discover that He is actively leading and guiding us.
My prayer is that Abraham’s story, though ancient, will take hold of your imagination and ignite a fire of life-changing faith in you! I don’t want you to hear it; fantasize about it, and then to just let life go on! For unlike the lottery, God’s promises are sure and obtainable. They are not handed out to a lucky few. They are given to us all. So as I share the Word with you this morning, let it settle into your mind and heart so that it will bring about a right kind of life, pleasing and acceptable to the Lord.
Turn with me this morning to Hebrews 11 once again. Our text begins at verse 8, the account of Abraham’s faith. (Read vv. 8-12)
Two key phrases stand out to me in this brief account....
“By faith, Abraham, when called... obeyed and went” and
“By faith, Abraham, tho’ past age... was enabled to become a father.”
As I mentioned last Sunday, the writer of Hebrews because he was writing to Jewish converts refers to these heroes of faith as tho’ the reader knows their story but some of us don’t. Let’s take a closer look at Abraham.
We first meet him in 11th chapter of Genesis. Abram, his first name, was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the southeastern part of what is now Iraq. Archeological digs at the site of this ancient city reveal that it was a rich center of commerce along the Euphrates River. The city was a sophisticated place with brick homes, temples, and libraries. From this we can infer that Abram was, in his time, a wealthy nobleman.
Sometime after he was married, his father moved his clan from that small city to one some 350 miles distant, Haran, in the region of modern Turkey. The Bible gives us little information about why this re-location took place. In the city of Haran, Abram’s father died and he became the head of the clan. One important detail slips into the story in Genesis 11:30 “Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.” Just hang onto that little fact.
In the city of Haran, God spoke to Abram and gave him a promise. Genesis 12:1-5
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
This is the first instance where we discover his great faith. From the fertile area of Mesopotamia, from established cities and familiar surrounding, Abram at age 75 sets off on another major journey of some 300 miles into Canaan, a place where he would not be living in settled cities, but rather in tents as a wandering sheik.
∙ Why did he do it?
∙ What caused this wealthy, respected man to uproot his family and move into a land that was still relatively untamed and uncivilized?
Our text explains... “By faith when called he obeyed and went... for he was looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.” His faith gave Abram the ability to see the bigger picture. He took his family out of Ur and Haran away from their worship of false gods, away from the deceptive wealth and sophistication, to follow God and to discover His ways. In the process he became the father of the faithful... first the Jews and now the Christians. What faith it required for him to do this! He couldn’t call up the Century 21 Real Estate office in Canaan and have information faxed up! No local Community Development Board contacted him and extended an invitation for him to bring his business down to Bethel! He heard God’s voice and he believed the promise.
Listen to what happened when he obeyed the call.
Genesis 12:6-7 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
He had a new vision, gained a renewed promise, and came to know God more deeply!
∙ Where is God leading you?
∙ Have you heard Him speaking to you but you’ve yet to respond because you’re afraid of the unknown?
Following God is not based on fantasy. This isn’t a 1 in 52 million chance at winning the lottery. This is taking hold of a promise and living it out. It is making a commitment... “God, we’ll do it YOUR way because we see the evidence of how You worked in the lives of those who trusted and obeyed You and we know You are the One who keeps His promises.” It is tough, my friend, to set aside what seems to be a sure thing... to follow God into a new place in your life.
I’m not talking just about re-locating to a different town, or just about taking a new job. I’m talking about the faith adventures of our daily lives. God wants to lead us into new places in our spirituality, in our financial world, in our marriage, in our personal development, etc. BUT He waits for us to respond in obedience; an obedience only possible when we have a faith perspective. Abraham had to look over the present into eternity to see the city of God. So will you! AND if you will... you, too, will have a new vision for life, gain a renewed promise from God, and come to know Him more deeply!
In the summer of 1977, I picked up a copy of Time magazine and found an article about a small town in
NE Wyoming that was booming with growth. It grew from 3,000 to about 30,000 in 2 years time as a result of coal mining and oil drilling. You will recall that in 1977 we had just come through the gasoline rationing and energy crisis. The average age in the town was 21 and bars outnumbered churches 2or 3 to 1. As I read that article, I believed God was speaking to me to leave the ministry position I had in NJ and to take my little family to that town. When I shared this with Bev, she agreed to go. In August we resigned our position, bought an old school bus, packed our belonging and set off for a 2000 mile journey with about $500 in our pocket.
I’d like to tell you that when we got to Gillette that God immediately opened wide the doors of opportunity for that’s the way that many of us think faith works. Not so, friends. I ran into petty protective preachers who were afraid I’d steal their flocks. One preacher showed me the door of his church when I went to see him to set what I could for the Lord with him. I didn’t want a position or a salary, just a place to be used.
To support my family I started working in construction and as my hands grew raw and my back ached, I wondered if I had heard from the Lord. In time we found a place of rich ministry, but most of all the experience proved much more beneficial to Bev and to me in terms of developing our faith and our understanding of the Lord. To this day, we see that time as one when God did some amazing things for us and showed us His Faithfulness.
Some would have called us fools. Indeed, we were young and ready to take risks that we would probably find more difficult to take today, yet I know that God was in those decisions – leading us, guiding us, teaching us. HOWEVER – we had to cooperate, to move with Him in order to enjoy the benefits of His guidance.
ARE YOU ready to move with God? Again, don’t limit this to a new geographic location.
ARE YOU ready to move in your life... into a NEW relationship with the LORD when He calls you?
There is another part of Abraham’s story that I want us to take a brief look at this morning. (Re-read Heb. 11:11-12) “By faith, Abraham, tho’ past age... was enabled to become a father.”
Once again the fuller story is told in Genesis. God promised this man he would become the father of a nation. He hung onto the promise even as he reached age 98 and his wife was 89! When he was in his mid-80’s he took charge of God’s promise and took another wife, Hagar, at Sarah’s urging. Sarah knew that she was well past child-bearing and so she thought God needed some help keeping his word. Hagar, the young servant of Sarah, became a surrogate mother for Sarah, but that wasn’t God’s plan or promise. The son that resulted was named Ishmael and he brought only sorrow and difficulty into the life of Abraham. But that’s another sermon....
When Abraham was 98, the 18th chapter of Genesis tells us that three visitors showed up at his tent. One of them is called, the Lord. The Second Person of the Trinity comes to appear in Abraham’s tent and renew the promise.... an improbable promise that Sarah would yet have the son promised. Listen to the narrative...
READ Genesis 18:1-13
Note again that line that the Lord uttered when Sarah laughed... “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Let me put that question to you....“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
What has God promised to you? Are you still waiting? Does the promise seem so improbable as to be nearly impossible? “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Ray Stedman writes:
“What a beautiful lesson this is on the nature of faith. Faith looks beyond all the contrary circumstances to rest upon the character of the one who promised. Do not be misled by the popular delusion that faith stands by itself, that it is simply believing -- anything! Faith must have a promise to rest upon. Anything else is presumption, gullibility, folly. But when God has given a word, it is the Word of God, and it can be trusted despite circumstance, feelings, or anything else. For is anything too hard for the Lord? Sarah rested upon that and believed God.
∙ Does it seem hard to you to be what God wants you to be? Is it hard to keep your evil nature in the place of death? Hard to cast down evil imaginings and bring every thought into captivity to Christ? It is not too hard for the Lord!
∙ Does it seem hard to you to be made sweet and gracious and forgiving and loving when down inside you know how nasty and devious and unpleasant and perverse you can be? It is hard for you, but it is not too hard for the Lord!
∙ Does it seem hard that the friend for whom you are praying should ever be converted or the one that is now rebelling against grace can ever be changed? Is anything too hard for the Lord?
∙ Does some task which God is now asking of you seem impossible to perform? Some situation in which you are living -- is it too hard and demanding for you? Well, it may be hard for you, but it is not too hard for the Lord.
As faith learns to rest, not on its own resources which are never adequate, but upon the unfailing resources of God in response to a definite promise he gives, nothing is impossible.
Abraham and Sarah became the parents of Isaac and from Isaac was born Jacob, also called Israel, who fathered the nation of Israel. Yes, the Lord does what He promises... in His time and in His way. Why does He often make us wait? Why does He often work in ways beyond our manipulation?
So we know it’s God and not ourselves. We struggle enough with proud self-will. We love to boast about things we accomplish and even things we imagine we accomplish. God cuts us down to size by making some things in life so improbable that only HE could have done them.
_______________________
“By faith, Abraham, when called... obeyed and went” and
“By faith, Abraham, tho’ past age... was enabled to become a father.”
How’s your faith today?
∙ Strong and life shaping? Great! Keep walking with God.
∙ Kind of shaky? Is it closer to a fantasy than real faith? Here’s what you can do. . .
Take some time to listen again for the voice of God.
Read through His Word and understand what He saying to you.
When you know that you’re hearing from Heaven, then obey!
Like Abraham, our prototype of faith, you will be blessed with new vision, renewed promise, and deeper
intimacy with God. Amen.
