A Pattern for Faithful Living
Hebrews 11:8-19
Prop: Use a 2 liter bottle filled with water and oil. Shake it up. Some things in this life can never be mixed. Darkness and light, death and life; pride and humility, and faith and doubt cannot be mixed. You either have one or the other.
Today I want to build upon last week’s sermon. Last week we were reminded from the writer of Hebrews that the just shall live by faith. We read that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Those two words: sure of and certain of are very strong words. They speak of trust. When I put my life into the hands of an airplane pilot and physically walk onto a metal bird weighing thousands of pounds and expect it to be able to fly at 30,000 feet above the ground with nothing but air supporting it, moving at a speed of several hundred miles an hour – I am hoping to arrive at my destination safe and secure. I demonstrate faith.
Now it is possible for that plane to fail me. It may crash due to weather, human error or an act of terrorism. But I take my chances anyway. With God there is no gamble. He never changes and He never falls back on His Word. What He says, He does. The only problem is that God is unseen. I can see the airplane. I can witness other planes taking off and landing safely. But I must gather the empirical evidence of creation, my past experiences and the inner voice of God’s Holy Spirit, and trust that God exists and that He rewards all who seek Him. That is faith.
Abel had it when he worshipped God. Enoch had it when He walked with God. Noah had it when He worked for God. And Abraham is perhaps the Father of all who have lived a life of faith.
Today I want to study Abraham. And from him I want us to learn a pattern for faithful living. This is the kind of life that pleases God.
Read Hebrews 11:8-19
1. Faithful living begins with God’s Word.
I want you to notice the wording of verse 8. “By faith, Abraham when called . . . obeyed and went.”
- The impetus for faith was the Word of the Lord. Abraham heard from God. Faith is tied to God’s Word. The book of Romans teaches us that “Faith comes from hearing, and what we hear is the Word of the Lord.” Jesus, the Living Word of God, is the author and finisher of our faith. Abraham heard God speak.
We don’t know how this occurred. This was before there were bibles and books. We do know that Abraham grew up in a pagan world and home. Joshua 24:2-3 says that “Terah, the father of Abraham living beyond the River Euphrates and worshipped other gods.”
Somehow the family got the idea that they needed to leave their home country and set out for a new country – for the country of Canaan. No mention is made as to the motivation for this move, but the scriptures do indicate in Genesis 11:31-32 that Terah with his son Abraham and Abraham’s wife Sarai made it as far as Haran and settled there. They started out in Ur which would be southern Iraq and made it to Haran, which would be Northern Iraq and then quit moving. They settled down.
But God spoke to Abram that he was to continue on without his father and his family. Hebrews 11:8 says that Abram was “called’ by God to keep moving.
He had no details of how far to move. He was not told exactly where to go. He had no specifics as to how long the journey would be. There was no mapquest or Quality Inns.
All we are told is that God ‘called’ Abraham.
This is an important point. Please do not miss this. Faith is tied to the Word of the Lord. We cannot and we should not just go around believing whatever we want to believe. You will hear in today’s culture that if you believe hard enough, you will have it. Just believe we are told. If your dream is be the next American Idol, go for it. It is all about the power of positive thinking. And there are a lot of truly horrible singers out there who ‘believe’ they are called to be the next big thing in American Music.
Faith is not positive thinking. It is a sure hope and a solid conviction built upon what GOD HAS SAID. What has God said to you? What does He have for you to do? Where does He want you to go? What is your calling?
Most of us do not take the time to seek the Lord about these matters. We go about our business with our ears and our hearts closed to the still small voice of the Lord. We can’t hear God call our name over the blaring Televisions, headphones, and radios. We must all cultivate the habit of quieting ourselves before the Lord and seeking His Word for guidance and direction.
Now, hearing the voice of the Lord does not mean that you get the full message with all of its details. That doesn’t require any faith. And so God’s message often only comes to us in pieces and a little bit at a time.
Moses was instructed to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. He had no clue how that was going to happen. Joshua’s plan of overtaking the city of Jericho seemed crazy and it unfolded.
Abraham set out for a new home, but he had no idea where that home was going to be. He only knew God would lead Him and show Him the way. Even when Abraham arrived in Canaan, and God told Him that his descendants would one day inherit and possess the land – Abraham continued to live in tents waiting for the Lord to fulfill what He had promised. His real hope was in the city that God was preparing for him, not in some man made scheme or plan.
All too often we fail to find the fullness of what God has in store for us and we settle for a man made copy of the divine plan for our lives. What is it you really seek? For Abraham, he sought the Lord. The Lord was His heart’s desire. And when God spoke, Abraham moved and obeyed.
Do you need to rekindle that relationship with the Lord? Do you need to return to a childlike trust and response to the voice of God? Do you need to fall in love with Him all over again.
One night a house was on fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof of the home. In the smoke and blackness he was terrified, but he could hear the voice of His father crying out from the ground below. The Father pleaded with his son: “Jump, I will catch you.” The boy was terrified because he could not see the father he could only hear his reassuring voice. The boy protested: “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The Father replied: “It’s OK Son, I can see you and that is all that matters. Jump!”
- If the impetus for faith is the Word of God. Then the response of faith is obedience to the Word of God.
Faith hears the Father’s voice, and they jumps in obedience trusting that the Father sees the way. Faithful living begins with obeying God’s Word. What is God saying to you today?
2. Faithful living welcomes God’s supernatural power.
Look at Abraham in verses 11 and 12. I want you to key in on these words: “By faith, Abraham and Sarah were enabled”
All too often we are guilty of diminishing what God wants to do in our lives because of a lack of faith.
When the city fathers of New York began to plan their city they decided to number the streets from the center outward. When they began there were only six or seven streets. In their planning maps they had only a limited idea of how large the city would grow and so when they reached the 19th street they decided to name it “Boundary Street” because they were convinced that would be the extent of their city. None of them had the faith to realize that the number streets would reach up to 284th Street.
In Ephesians 3:20 Paul writes: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Abraham was near 100 years old and as good as dead. Sarah was almost 90 and had long passed menopause. But they believed that God would deliver on His promises. There faith wasn’t perfect. They laughed about the idea. Sarah tried about 13 years before to give God a little help by having her servant girl carry Araham’s baby. But deep down inside, they believed that God could do anything that He said.
You see they lived under the authority of God and His Word. If he said it, if He promised it, then He was powerful enough and faithful enough to do what He said.
It is faith in the resurrection power of God that moves mountains. Jesus had said: “Say to this mountain be moved, and it shall be moved.” What is more immovable than death itself? Certainly the people gathered outside the tomb of Lazarus did not want the stone removed after he had been dead for 4 days. But Jesus challenged Mary and Martha: “Do you believe in me? I am the resurrection and the life.” And Lazarus came forth from the grave!
Where are you limiting God’s power in your life? Is there anything He has said to you that you are refusing to believe? Are you grumbling and complaining to God about something He has promised that is as yet unfulfilled?
Faithful living welcomes God’s supernatural power.
Notice again the wording. By faith Abraham was enabled. It wasn’t his virility. It wasn’t Viagra or some test tube miracle. God gave Abraham and Sarah a power that was physically impossible. With God all things are possible! God made it happen. He had said it would, and it did.
Now remember my first point! There is a problem today with a ‘name it and claim it’ culture that says I can demand God to do something for me. We don’t control God. He’s in charge. God will do miracles, but only the one’s He has promised to do. Seek Him first. Ask Him. Search His Word for His promises to you.
Harry Houdini was a famous escape artist. He claimed he could get himself out of any locked jail cell in the country. He succeeded time after time. But one time he was locked in a jail cell that seemed impossible to break out of. He tried for more than two hours on the lock and got nowhere. Bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, he collapsed in frustration and failure. Finally, giving up, he leaned against the door he had been trying to unlock. When he fell against the door, he swung open. It had never been locked the whole time. In his mind it was a locked door and that was all it took to keep Houdini from opening it and walking out of the jail cell.
What are the locked doors in your mind? Is your God too small?
Paul wrote again in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” It is not my faith or my strength that accomplishes the works of God. It is the power of God within me.
Faith unlocks the door of the supernatural power of God.
3. Faithful living is proven over time.
How do I know if I really have the right kind of faith? How did any of these individuals make the great hall of faith in Hebrews 11? It was from a lifetime of faithfulness.
Heroes of faithfulness are seen in the thousands of days of just living life faithfully.
Look at Hebrews 11:13-16
Abraham never possessed Canaan. He continued to live in tents until the day he died. He never owned any of the land and in fact had to purchase small plot of ground to bury his beloved wife, Sarah.
Abraham’s focus wasn’t on the temporary things of this world, but on the eternal things of the kingdom of God. His eyes were set on heavenly things.
Because his focus was heavenward, he was able to live a faithful life with all of its ups and downs. He was able to patiently wait for Isaac’s birth. He was able to hold on despite the many trials and temptations he faced in his life.
Bill Porter was born with cerebral palsy. It made it hard for him to speak clearly, or walk easily. He couldn’t use his right arm. He was told that he would never hold a job. He was labeled ‘unemployable”. But Bill Porter wouldn’t listen. He applied for a job with the Watkins Company selling household products door-to-door. At first they turned him down, but he insisted on being given a chance. And so they tried him out giving him the worst section of the city as his route in an attempt to discourage him. His job was straight commission, no salary.
So Bill Porter started. He walked 10 miles a day, everyday, ringing door-bell after door-bell. He fought against his crippled body. He struggled with his slurred speech. He pushed against weakness and fatigue. When he made a sale he had the customer fill out all of the paperwork because he couldn’t hold a pen to write.
But his persistence paid off. He became the top seller in the city, then in the region, and finally in the whole country for the Watkins Company. He achieved all of this even though he couldn’t tie his own shoes or button his own collar. For more than 40 years Porter faithfully worked against all odds. He was just another salesman with a job to do, and he got up every morning and did his job.
Porter lived a faithful life that was demonstrated over time.
What about you? Have you felt like quitting? Do you want to give up and throw in the towel? Are you grumbling and complaining about the path you have been put on?
The people of the bible were just like us. They had hopes and dreams. They had fears. They faced great problems in life. But they persevered, living lives of faith based upon the unseen God who had promised His Word to them.
Faithful living is not always seen in the big miracles of life, but in the day to day grind of faithfulness and hope. This is where God is glorified. This is what pleases God. Keep going. Keep looking up. Keep rejoicing that you have been called worthy to serve the Lord in this way.
4. Faithful living will be tested.
During an earthquake some years ago the inhabitants of a small village were terrified when the earth began to shake. But they were amazed by the calm response and the joyful expression of an old woman in the town square. One of them cried out to the lady: “Mother, aren’t you afraid?”
She replied: “No. I rejoice to know that I have a God who can shake the world.”
Every life will encounter some shaking. Some of it will be very strong. Some will only be a gentle rocking that reminds us that we must depend upon the Lord. But in all of it, God is still there.
People with great faith can push through the painful parts of life. They persevere when failure hits them again and again. It took Thomas Edison around 10,000 experiments to successfully create the light bulb. For over 9,000 attempts he experienced failure after failure. But that didn’t matter. It was the 10,000 try that counted in history.
Abraham waited almost a lifetime from the time God had promised him a son until Ishmael was born. But Ishmael wasn’t God’s idea. It was the solution of men living in impatient desperation.
Abraham would have to wait another 13 years for the child of the promise, Isaac. And at 100, this child was his pride and joy. He was the physical presence of the promises of God.
Abraham grew old and feeble and Isaac delighted him. But near the end of Abraham’s life, God tested Abraham in a way that seems unbelievable to us. “Take your son, your only son, and give him to me.”
God did not sanction human sacrifice, but Abraham had grown up in a pagan culture where children were sacrificed for the sake of religious duty. Abraham did not speak. He did not challenge God. He did not waver. He believed and he obeyed.
But notice what he believed. Read verses 17-19.
God had said Isaac would grow up and have children and produce a great nation. God does not lie. I don’t understand this trial. I don’t understand this test. But I believe in God. I believe that even if I give what is most precious to me, God will fulfill his promise. Isaac will somehow live again, and my family will continue.
Isaac was Abraham’s dearest possession. But he gave it back to God. What is in your hand today? What are you hording in your grasp, not believing that God can care for you and provide for you?
You see we only can give by faith. God will test you over and over again in this matter. He will not let anything take first place in your heart above him. If it is your health, he will take your health. If it is your wealth, he will take your wealth. If it is your gifts, he will challenge those gifts. “You are to have no other god before Him.”
Faith must be tested if it is to be proven true. Life refined gold or a polished diamond, it only reflects the creators light when put through the fire.
You may be in a test right now. What you choose to do in this test will determine if you have faith or not? Will you rest in the arms of your heavenly Father.
When questioned by Isaac about the lack of a Lamb for the sacrifice, Abraham simply said: “God will provide the lamb.”
God will provide what you need. Will you trust Him?
A young preacher was walking in a garden with an older preacher one day. Feeling very insecure about the future, he decided to ask the older man “How he could know and do the will of God.” The older preacher handed the young man a closed rosebud and asked the young man to open the rose without tearing any of its petals.
The young man tried, but was unsuccessful in opening the rosebud. And so he handed the old man the rosebud and asked him what this illustration meant. The old man quoted this poem:
It is only a tiny rosebud
A flower of God’s design
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I
God opens this flower so sweetly
When in my hands they fade and die
If I cannot unfold a rosebud
This flower of God’s design
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine
So I’ll trust in Him for His leading
Each moment of every day
I will look to Him for His guidance
Each step of the pilgrim way
The pathway that lies before me
Only my heavenly Father knows
I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments
Just as He unfolds the rose.
Faithful living begins when I hear the voice of God.
Faithful living grows when I welcome the power of God.
Faithful living continues when I trust the goodness of God over time.
Faithful living succeeds when I past the test of God
Let’s Pray!
