The Life of Faith Genesis 12:1-20

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Faith, Example Of

Faith is central to all of life. For example, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce and whose degrees you have never verified. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before. He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand. Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle. All in trusting, sincere faith!454

-The life of faith is an obedient response to God’s invitation!

The life of faith requires...

I. An Invitation vv. 1-3

Over the next several months, we will be looking at the lives of the men we call the Patriarchs, the fathers of our faith.

At the head of this group is a man called Abram and today we will see how his life of faith begins

Abram’s faith does not begin with Abram’s pursuit of the Lord

It begins with the Lord’s pursuit of Abram

The Lord issues a command to Abram: “Go”

Abram’s invitation is to leave a place of comfort and familiarity to go to a place that is unknown

While we may not understand why God calls us to “make a move” in faith, we can completely trust that He has a purpose in it

The Lord’s command to Abram carries a blessing

Answering God’s invitation is worthwhile, because it carries a blessing with it

First, there is a blessing for obedience; the Lord will reward those who listen to His voice and obey it

Second, there is a blessing from obedience; the Lord will work through the faithfulness of His people to bless others

The invitation today sounds a little different, but God is issuing an invitation to us today through Jesus:

Rather than telling us to go, He invites us to “follow me”

The life of faith does not begin with you, it is not about setting your own course or plan. It is not about fulfilling your own wishes or desires; the life of faith is the life that God intends for you.

It is life God’s way, marked by a trust in Him

Revelation 3:20

[20] Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (ESV)

II. A Response vv. 4-9

Necessarily, every invitation from God requires a response and the stakes are high

Abram has an opportunity to obey God here, because no invitation from God is a request, but a command

To fulfill obedience, Abram must go and he does along with his family and servants

He cannot stay in his own country and obey God

Many of us want a faith without movement, but this is impossible

The life of faith requires a reordering of my priorities to align me with the Lord’s

Abram acts on the promise of God, even though he cannot see the evidence of it himself

On the one hand, God promises the land to Abram’s descendants

On the other, land is in the hands of the Canaanites

We see again that faith is an act of trust in the character of God, believing that He will keep His Word

The life of faith is incredibly relational in its nature, we see this as Abram worships God

Abram’s faith moves him to worship God as an act of thanksgiving to God for His blessings

Abram’s worship and experience with God motivates him to continue forward in faith

The two go together, worship and faith

If I do not see worship and faith working together in my own life, I probably need to pause and examine my life!

There’s an old saying, a gallon’s 8 lbs the world around, because one gallon of water weighs right at 8 lbs. Imagine my surprise when I found out that a gallon’s not always 8 lbs though. When it comes to oysters, you can buy a 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 lb gallon of oysters. The volume is the same, the number of oysters is different. This measurement was a reaction to dishonest oyster shuckers who would fill their gallon with water and deceive buyers into thinking that they were getting more oysters than they actually would receive. Some of us are living with a similar kind of deception about our own spiritual lives!

III. An Object vv. 10-20

At this point, I’m afraid that I have to offer words of warning: faith in faith is not helpful, nor is the life of faith a call to believe in yourself. This will only lead to disappointment!

Abram falls well short of any measure of faithfulness in the immediate wake of his obedience to the Lord

Entering Egypt during a time of famine, he grows afraid; his actions will not reflect an abiding trust in the Lord, but a sense of self-reliance

As his sense of self-reliance grows, his actions are out of touch with the character of God; He is not only faithless, but he becomes a liar! His partial truths are whole lies.

As such, the man called by God becomes a poor reflection of the character of God

Abram’s failure here is not intended to excuse bad behavior or to make obedience seem pointless. It’s a reminder to all of us that our faith needs an object that is more trustworthy than ourselves!

Faith is not just a belief in something, but someone. We see that God is...

Faithful: even when Abram falls short of the mark, God does not reject or abandon him

Protective: while the Lord does not always spare us from every consequence of our sins, the frequent pattern that we see on display here is of His ongoing care in spite of Abram’s disobedience

Gracious: Rather than giving Abram the justice that he deserves, the Lord gives Abram grace

Today, there is an invitation that is out there to each of us that requires a response; an invitation from someone who is worthy of our trust and if we follow Him in faith, we can experience the life that God intends for us.

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 221: Follow-Up

Mountain goats live in a precarious environment. One wrong move and they can fall to their deaths. Young mountain goats can be in special danger because of their playfulness.

Douglas Chadwick in National Geographic writes that the kids of mountain goats are “born to romp—and leap, twist, skip, prance.… High spirits and wandering attention can be fatal for young goats. Fortunately, nannies dote on their offspring, tending them from the downhill side to block falls …”

What a beautiful image for how mature Christians should care for new believers. New Christians will stumble and fall on occasion—that is certain—so we must tend them from the downhill side, ready to block them when they fall. Tending from the downhill side means staying in regular communication.

-Will you follow Him?

-Are you following Him?

-Are you ready for more of His people?

-Are you ready for more of His purpose?