Abraham: Man of Faith (Part 1) 11-13-05
Danny Thomas
The Tiger, the Man and God
A man was being chased by a tiger. He ran as hard as he could until he was at the edge of a cliff with the tiger in hot pursuit. The man looked over the edge of the cliff and saw a branch growing out of the side of the cliff a few feet down. He jumped down and grabbed the branch just as the tiger reached the cliff. The tiger growled viciously as the man sighed a great sigh of relief.
Just then a mouse came out from a crevice and began to chew on the branch. The man looked down to what was a drop of a thousand feet and sure death and looked to the heavens and yelled out, "Dear God, if you are there, please help. I will do anything you ask but please help."
Suddenly a voice came booming down from heaven, "You will do anything I ask?" it questioned.
The man shocked to hear a reply to his plea yelled back, "I will gladly do anything you ask, but please save me."
The voice from heaven then replied, "There is one way to save you but it will take courage and faith."
The branch began to weaken from the mouse and the tiger was still growling a few feet above the man, "Please, Lord, tell me what I must do and I will do it. Your will is my will."
The voice from heaven then said, "All right then, let go of the branch."
The man looked down to a fall of a thousand feet and certain death. He looked up at the hungry tiger a few feet away and he looked at the mouse still chewing on the branch. Then he looked up at the heavens and yelled, "Is there anyone else up there?"
This story illustrates how many of us turn to God. We say to him that we want to do His will, but when things don’t look good to us, we look for something else. Today I want to talk to you what it means to have faith in God. Not some fake, hyped up faith that has been made popular today, but genuine Biblical faith.
Hebrews 11:1-2
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. [2] God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith.
Corrie ten Boom was a courageous Dutch woman who was interned in a Nazi prison camp during World War II because her family helped to hide Jewish people from the Gestapo. During her imprisonment, Corrie endured some of the worst degradation a person can experience. Her sister, Betsy, died in the camps. But through all her suffering, Corrie never lost her faith in God. She defined faith as:
F antastic
A dventuring
I n
T rusting
H im
Corrie got it right! Faith is trusting God no matter what your natural senses are telling you. It is a fantastic adventure that will never end. The main person we will concentrate on today is Abraham, who was immortalized in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews Chapter 11 and see if we can learn something about faith by observing his life.
Genesis 12:1-8
Then the Lord told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. [2] I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. [3] I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you."
[4] So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. [5] He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people who had joined his household at Haran—and finally arrived in Canaan. [6] Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
[7] Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "I am going to give this land to your offspring." And Abram built an altar there to commemorate the Lord’s visit. [8] After that, Abram traveled southward and set up camp in the hill country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar and worshiped the Lord.
Hebrews 11:8-10
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. [9] And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent. And so did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise. [10] Abraham did this because he was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
Abraham obeyed God even to the point of leaving his home and security to go to some unknown place.
1) He understood that God was in charge and obeyed Him
Matthew 6:10
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done here on earth,
just as it is in heaven.
John 14:15
"If you love me, obey my commandments.
When God calls, the only proper response is to obey and go. Do you remember those old Greyhound commercials? “Go Greyhound and leave the driving to us.” That’s not a bad motto for the life of faith. When God calls, move out and leave the driving to him.
2) He delayed his gratification for a better reward
Matthew 6:19-20
"Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. 20Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves.
3) He understood that God knew better than he did
Isaiah 55:9
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
God sees the whole picture and we see but a small part of it. It is much better to put ourselves in His hands and obey Him. For he truly does know what is best.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. [6] Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.
Proverbs 16:9
We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.
Proverbs 16:3
Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.
Timothy Smith
My Grandfather Smith used to like to tell the story of how he dated my Grandmother "to be" in a horse and buggy. He would drop Mabel Lake off at her house, then he would head the horse for home. He would lay the reigns over the front of the buggy and lay back. Most of the time he would go to sleep. As the horse came into the yard, the buggy would run over a tree root that was there and wake Grandpa up. He knew he was home. My Grandfather put implicit faith in his horse. He knew the horse knew the way home. What a wonder it is to know that by putting our implicit faith in Jesus Christ that He will get us home.
That’s always how it is in the life of faith. Many times you will be called to step out for God and you will be precisely where Abraham was—believing God but not knowing what the future holds.
When I think of that principle, my mind goes back to a conversation I had with Dan and Linda Hoeksema at Family Camp a year and a half ago. They were agonizing about whether or not they should move to Memphis. I remember having a long talk with Linda one night around the campfire. She had struggled so much with leaving the familiar surroundings of Chicago. Moving to Memphis for her was like going to a foreign country. The whole decision was made more difficult by the fact that Dan had no contacts in Memphis, no job, no promise of a job, no reason to move there at all, really.
Except one. Len and Roberta Hoppe had already moved to Memphis where Len had taken a new job. We all knew that Len and Dan were close friends and I think many of us assumed that Dan wanted to move to Memphis simply because the Hoppes were there. Frankly, it didn’t make much sense for the Hoeksemas to go to Memphis.
But that night around the campfire Linda told me that she had finally decided to go and that she was trusting God to work out the details. So they went, and it would be fair to say that the first year in Memphis proved to be quite difficult. There was the culture shock, the language difference, the impact of moving from a huge metropolitan area to a much smaller city, the challenge of making new friends, getting the kids settled in school, finding a new church, and on top of that, Dan didn’t have much work for a long time.
But life changed forever last Thanksgiving when the doctors told Len Hoppe that he had cancer. Here’s one fact that you may not know. On the Thursday before Len’s surgery here in Chicago, he and Dan had a last lunch together in Memphis. Len knew full well that there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive the surgery or the recovery period. So he asked Dan to take care of his family in case he died.
After Len’s funeral, Marlene and I flew to Memphis for the memorial service at the Central Church. When Dan drove us to the airport the next morning, we passed by the restaurant where he and Len had shared their last meal together.
“Many people wondered why Linda and I moved to Memphis,” he said. “I wondered myself many times, particularly when I didn’t have a job here. There were many times when I questioned whether we had done the right thing or not. But now I know why God sent us here. He knew beforehand that Len was going to die and he wanted us here to help take care of Roberta and the children.”
That story poignantly illustrates a central truth about the life of faith. You never see the big picture in advance. Even if you think you see it, you don’t. When God calls, he doesn’t always explain himself. He always tells you just enough to get you moving in the right direction. The rest is up to him.
It is precisely at this point that Abraham’s greatness may be clearly seen. God called and he obeyed. Hebrews 11:8 says he “obeyed and went.” He may have doubted, but he went. He may have argued, but he went. He may have wondered, but he went.
As you can see from the story of Abraham, the proof of true faith in God is obedience. You must trust Him enough to be willing to do whatever he wants you to do. It’s not about saying the right words or squeezing some “belief” muscles until something miraculous happens. It’s all about a disciplined, cross-centered life that demands we do what God says, no matter what it costs.
