Abraham,
Father of the Faithful (E)
Hebrews
11:8-19
Introduction:
1. What is faith?
Contemporary theology tends to view faith
as a sort of mental/ emotional contract with God which leaves out any behavioral
change, but in order to become like Christ, people must change.
2. In the physical realm we know much about
health issues like cholesterol, smoking, and obesity, but the medical community
has no cure for these problems beyond people changing their behavior.
3. Faith is probably best understood when
we see it in the lives of great men. Bible truths become clearer when they
breathe. Abraham was called the father of the faithful because in him faith
came to life.
Abraham had faith in a God-given vision. That's
the kind of faith that is important. The vision that God gave Abraham was
so big that it challenged him for a lifetime.
God's vision for Abraham's life was the motivating
factor that made Abraham a great man. What he became by reaching for that
God-given vision was the key to his greatness.
I. How One Acquires Faith
A. Abraham's faith was acquired through his
decision to trust God.
Hebrews 11:8-10
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go
out into a place, which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in
the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
B. There was fear and trepidation in the heart
of Abraham as he faced the unknown. Yet, his decision to obey God and face
the unknown was his mark of faithfulness.
C. It is difficult to see the unseen. Many
only see the immediate. They reach out for things they can tangibly put
their hands on. They never look beyond themselves, and they never look
at what they could be.
1. The courage to look and move into the unknown
comes from trusting God. Trusting God is the beginning of faith. But merely
trusting does not develop faith. Faith involves making a decision to follow
God as we hear what He says.
Ro 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God.
2. There is a vast difference in the results
of a man who thinks different and the man who chooses to do differently.
a. The Doer will outdistance the thinker.
b. We become arrogant about the way we think.
D. Faith is developed by trusting and obeying.
Some want to move forward only when they can see their way through. But
faith is not seeing our way through, it is obeying and trusting God when
we cannot see our way through.
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Songwriter Oscar Eliason wrote, "Got any rivers
you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?"
He answered these questions by saying, "God specializes in things thought
impossible."
That's good news because every Christian faces
obstacles along life's pathway and walking in God's will doesn't guarantee
that the way will be easy. That's why we must trust God and go forward
in faith.
At the entrance to a local hospital parking
lot is an automatic gate. It is designed to go up when a car activates
a hidden sensor near the entrance. When someone drives up the ramp leading
to that gate, it remains down, firmly blocking the entrance. But as you
get close to it, the arm swings up and you proceed right through. If a
person were to park his car a few yards away from the entrance, it would
stay closed. Only as you move forward does it open.
Is there some barrier across your path just
now? Someone has said, "If God built a bridge a yard ahead, it could not
be a bridge of faith." It's that first step into the unseen that proves
we have faith.
He 11:8
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go
out into a place, which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
He was obeying God and relying on Him. His
task was to go; God's was to clear the path.
Abraham was motivated by a vision from God
that was far beyond himself.
"Some people look at things as they are and
say, why? Some people look at things as they could be and say, why not?"
"...Even though he did see his way through."
Gen 15:1
After this, the word of the LORD came to
Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very
great reward."
II. Faith Is a Life Altering Decision.
A. Most choices in life are incidental. In
fact ninety-five percent of the decisions we make are incidental, only
5% are important. In very few instances is one decision actually better
than the other is.
1. Sometimes I think that we have too many
choices to make today.
Supermarket 9,000 to 12,000 choices in the
average supermarket
Revlon 158 shades of lipstick
Crest 36 sizes and flavors
31 plus flavors Ice cream
B. Trade off in making choices keeps people
from wanting to choose.
Certain things you loose when you make any
choice. A grocery store clerk said, "It's up to you lady, you're either
old enough to get the senior citizens discount or you're not old enough."
C. The choice of faith in God is a life changing
choice.
Ge 12:4
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken
unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy-and five years old
when he departed out of Haran.
1. Choices more than condition determine our
future.
Early age -- conditions determine choices
Later age -- choices determine our condition
2. Society says people are victims of conditions
--- people not responsible for their plight. But choices determine our
condition more than anything else.
"Great people are ordinary people who make
extraordinary decisions."
Be careful which rut you choose, you will
be in it for the next twenty miles.
D. Abraham's choice of faith in God not only
changed his life but it also changed his family's life. Choices affect
others --- we make a decision without other people but once it is made
it will affect them.
1. Wrong decisions will leave scars on your
life or on the lives of others. It is true that grace heals but scars are
left.
2. It is only through making right decisions
that we can have control over our circumstances. The moment we choose not
to make a decision about something is the moment that we put ourselves
in the hands of circumstances.
III. Requirements For A Decision of Faith.
A. Abraham trusted and obeyed God when he
faced his insecurities. Abraham knew what Helen Keller stated about security.
Helen Keller: "Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience
it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
When you have nothing left but God, you begin
to learn that God is enough.
B. Abraham trusted and obeyed when he faced
the impossibilities and did not know how God's will would be accomplished.
He 11:11
Through faith also Sara herself received
strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past
age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang
there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the
sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Ro 4:18-20
Who against hope believed in hope, that he
might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken,
So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his
own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet
the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Ge 15:2
And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou
give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer
of Damascus?
C. Abraham trusted and obeyed God when he
did not know when God would fulfill His promises.
He 11:13-16
These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them,
and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek
a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence
they came out, they might have had opportunity to return. But now they
desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
C. Abraham trusted and obeyed God by faith
when he did not know why God was so working.
He 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered
up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten
son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting
that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also
he received him in a figure.
D. Abraham trusted and obeyed God when it
called for a sacrifice.
There is no success without sacrifice. If
I succeed without sacrifice, then it's because someone who went before
me made the sacrifice. If I sacrifice, and don't see success, then someone
who follows will reap success from my sacrifice.
E. Abraham trusted and obeyed God when it
required persistence and patience. Abraham's dream was so big that he couldn't
accomplish his dream in a year, or decade, or even in a lifetime.
Heb 11:9-10
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
He 11:37-38
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world
was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens
and caves of the earth.
Conclusion:
James 2:21-24
Was not Abraham our father justified by works,
when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith
wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture
was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto
him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then
how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
