By Faith - Part 2

You don’t do great things because you work hard. You do great things because of faith.

School has started back.

Footballers probably never stopped training, but they are for sure back on the field now.

It’s almost time to rekindle my annual disdain for Alabama and Florida.

I hope that Georgia Tech will be good but never as good as the University of Georgia.

I want UGA to go all the way.

College football has given us some great stories.

Ya’ll remember Stetson Bennett.

He led Georgia to two national championships.

In the last one, Georgia set all time championship scoring records.

Bennett was a walk on at Georgia.

Realized he wasn’t going to play any time soon, he transferred to Jones College.

Where’s that?

But he played well there and transfered back to UGA with a scholarship.

When the starting quarterback got injured, Bennett stepped in and the rest is history.

Everyone hailed Stetson’s work ethic.

The boy never gave up, nobody worked harder, no body did as much.

The question is, did he get to be a championship quarterback because he worked hard?

Or did he work hard because he had faith that one day he would be a championship quarterback?

Our Pastor who wrote the book of Hebrews would say, “You don’t do great things because you work hard. You do great things because of faith.”

Go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. We’ll be looking at verses 8 - 12.

Kids, instead of three words on your worship guide, there is only one - Jesus.

I got to thinking that it might be a good thing for you to listen to how many times we mention Jesus in our sermons.

So that’s the word you are listening for - do you best to pay attention.

If you don’t know it already, one day you’re going to learn that Jesus will change your life for the best, forever.

Now, let me remind everyone of what the Pastor is hoping we’ll be looking for.

Remember he started the chapter with these words:

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

And then throughout the rest of the chapter, he says, “By faith” 19 times.

Do you remember what we said we learned in elementary school two weeks ago?

That if your teacher repeats something 3 times, you can count on it being on the test?

If your teacher says it 19 times, it might be the whole test.

And actually, it is the whole test.

Remember:

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God…”

You can work yourself to death doing good, religious, altruistic, generous things

But without faith, God doesn’t care.

Listen to me, without faith, God. Doesn’t. Care.

Nothing gets us anywhere with God if it doesn’t come from faith.

So the Pastor works very hard to give us examples so we know exactly what faith looks like.

Last week was Noah.

This week is Abraham and Sarah.

Please follow along in your Bible as we hear now the Word of the Lord from Hebrews 11:8-12

Hebrews 11:8–12 ESV

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

You kids who just graduated out of Kids Worship - You know this story.

It’s the story of Abraham and Sarah - and their faith.

This scripture is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s pray:

Dear Holy Spirit,

Speak Jesus into our hearts today.

Show us what faith is, and then grow that faith in us.

We believe Lord, please help our unbelief.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Play biblestock video

So let me refresh you on Abraham and Sarah.

And to start with, when you start reading their story in Genesis chapter 11, you find their names were Abram and Sarai.

Their story starts in a place called Ur of the Chaldees which is located in modern day Iraq.

The video you are watching is to help us with perspective.

Ur is a long way from where Abram will end up.

Abram’s dad is called Terah - he has three sons, one of which dies sometime after having a son he named Lot.

You’ve heard the name - it looks like Abram, being the oldest, took Lot to raise.

Abram and his brother took wives and one of the first things the bible says about Sarai is she is barren.

Sarai cannot have children.

Terah decides he wants the family to move to Canaan which is the area around southern Israel.

So they set off.

But when they got to Haran, I guess Terah got tired of traveling so they stopped there.

That’s modern day Turkey - all on foot - camels and donkeys.

And it was there that Abram’s father died.

That’s when this happened.

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram does pack everyone and everything up, and he heads off south, until he ends up in Shechem.

The city you see on the video is modern Nablus - or the ancient city of Shechem.

It’s changed.

There are lots of buildings with foundations, right?

I suspect Abraham had something like this - made out of rock of course, but he had something like this in mind when the Lord said a city with foundations.

By the way, if you ever want to walk as far as Abraham did, start right here from the church and walk to Denver, Colorado.

That’s about the same distance.

So, we’re all good with the “Go…to the land I will show you,” if you’ve been in the church for a while, you’ve heard the story and it’s almost rote.

And that’s the problem, because that causes us to miss things.

Did you catch the implications of the rest of what God said to Abram?

I will make of you a great nation - has to be a kid involved somehow.

But there is another implication here too - if God is going to make Abram a great nation, then Abram can’t be killed.

Like the original Iron Man, right?

Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

The Lord is promising Abram divine protection, divine provision, divine blessing and that he will leave an unparalleled legacy.

That’s not a national championship.

The entire world will be changed because of you.

Now I can hear you say, as I would say, if the Lord said that to me like He did to Abram, I’d be the greatest Christian of all time.

No you wouldn’t.

Neither would I.

Because we live ‘by faith’ and faith is hard.

That’s why the Pastor is talking about Abraham.

He wants us to know what faith really looks like.

What did Abraham’s day to day faith look like?

We’ve got to let our imaginations work just a little bit here.

If you have ever bumped up against backpacking you know there are a couple of types.

There is trail hiking - like hiking up the Appalachian Trail.

And then there is cross country hiking - and that’s kind of what most of us picture Abraham’s trek as.

No path, no streets - just take off through the trees headed east.

But that’s not how it was - he and his family leave Ur and travel up the Fertile Crescent trade route.

And then in Haran, they pick up the Via Maris - the Way of the Sea.

The Via Maris travels very close to Galilee as it heads south.

Jesus walked on the Via Maris hundreds of years after Abraham.

There would have been other people on these roads.

Talking and asking questions.

“Where are you going ?”

“Somewhere, I don’t know.”

“Why are you going then if you don’t know where you are going?”

“Because the Lord told me to.”

“Really. Maybe we’ll catch up with you later” as they ease away quietly.

God only spoke to Abraham.

I’m certain there were a lot of folks questioning his sanity to his face.

That wears on you after a while.

It makes you question, wonder, doubt.

It makes you wonder what your part is and how God would want you to handle things.

Twice, not once but twice, Abraham passed Sarah off as his sister.

She was obviously drop dead gorgeous because Abraham was convinced foreign kings would kill him to get her.

So they hedged the truth.

Sarah really was his half sister - different times, don’t freak.

And twice, the Lord saved Sarah by intervening against the kings before anything could happen.

Abram didn’t handle that very well - seems his faith was missing something - or so we’d think.

They had a custom back then that if the wife couldn’t bear children, then a servant girl could act as a surrogate and the baby would be considered Abraham and Sarah’s.

Sarah was so desperate for a kid, she badgered Abraham into it.

Now, we want to condemn them for that, but before we do, think about what they are doing.

They do just like us - the Lord wants such and so - we need to make it happen.

And we rush off and, we make it happen, and, we make a mess.

There are so many scriptures telling us to wait on the Lord.

It’s strange that the Lord has no emergencies.

And they made a mess.

Their family dynamic went haywire - of course.

And the child born - well, God said He would bless Abraham’s children

So this one is blessed to multiply - only Genesis 16:12

Genesis 16:12 ESV

He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

This is where all of the conflicts in the middle east come from today - right here.

But wait, there’s more.

When the angels come and tell Abraham the baby is about to come.

Abraham asks how that can happen.

Sarah scoffs and then lies about scoffing.

But a year later, Issac is born.

If faith is what we think it is, the way they acted HAS to make us wonder about their faith.

How did Abraham’s earthly life end?

Genesis 25:8 “Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.”

Did Abraham ever live in a city that had buildings with foundations?

No - he lived in tents all of his life wandering from place to place.

He practically helped his wife get kidnapped twice.

He watched as his nephew Lot chose the best land for himself and relegated the scruffy land to Abraham.

Then, he had to go to war to rescue his nephew Lot since Lot liked to play in the city.

He listened to his wife, contrary to what God said, and he paid a price with her and his family.

And when he died, he had lived his entire life always living in a tent.

No city with foundations.

Just a tent.

His life doesn’t sound that different from ours, does it?

Family issues

Financial concerns

Fights with family, friends and neighbors

Unrealized dreams

Life didn’t turn out like he expected

Children issues

Health issues

Losing loved one.

Getting old and frail.

And he didn’t handle a lot of those well at all.

In fact, he did some things that, if God could have been surprised, He would have scratched His head and said, “What IS my boy up to?”

And yet, right here, in Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, the Pastor is saying, “Be like Abraham and Sarah.”

So what is it about Abraham’s faith?

Look at Hebrews 11:8

Hebrews 11:8 ESV

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Obeyed is an interesting word.

In our world, it’s linked with punishment.

If you don’t obey the traffic laws, you get a ticket.

If you don’t obey your parents, you could get your hide tanned.

If you don’t obey your company’s rules, you get fired.

It you don’t obey, you get in trouble.

But what is obeying?

This word obey is a combination of two words that mean - “under” and “hearing”

Under hearing - hear something and submit to what you’ve heard.

Abraham heard and submitted to the Lord’s direction to go

But now listen, to go for a purpose.

He wasn’t just going.

He was going to receive his inheritance - his legal portion of what God the Father wanted him to have.

He was submitting himself to the Lord in order to receive what the Lord had promised.

Not knowing where he was going

Not understanding what the end is going to look like.

And this is where we start seeing the kind of faith the Pastor wants us to imitate.

Abraham did not understand, he had no way to understand what his going meant.

He knew he was going to get an inheritance promised by God., what does that look like?

Look at verse 10 Hebrews 11:10 “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

He knew it was a city with foundations - so it wasn’t going to be tents.

He probably thought foundations like modern Nablus that we saw on the video.

He had no clue that what was a big dream to him was small potatoes to God.

The Lord wasn’t promising him that city.

He was promising him this one.

Revelation 21:10–14 ESV

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

It’s the same inheritance promised to us.

We are called to go to the same place.

Having no clue - having no understanding at all of what that trip is going to look like.

Just going knowing - knowing - that you’ll get there.

Because the foundation has the names of the twelve apostles.

And the only thing that made the apostles special was their message.

Jesus is alive.

Abraham’s faith preaches the gospel.

Jesus died and was resurrected to make our faith - our inheritance possible.

Jesus is there.

He said I could go to if I’d follow Him.

So we submit and we follow.

Now listen to me - Abraham followed and just made a mess of things in his life a bunch of times.

He did some good stuff.

He was also a dorkfish.

But he made it.

So, that must mean that the things we do are not as important as the destination we choose.

And that makes sense.

Because what defines our faith is the destination we choose.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Follow Him where.

Follow Him - eventually to the very throne of God.

If we are convinced of where we are going, it will change what we do.

I’m not asking you if you are going to heaven when you die.

I’m asking you, are you committed in your heart to follow Jesus to the very throne of God?

Not that you are going to get your mansion just over the hilltop.

But that you are committed that, no matter what life throws at me, I will not be deterred.

I’m convinced I have an inheritance with Jesus.

I’m following Him - nothing, nothing can stop me.

Listen to me.

Abraham lived as a homeless man, but look what his faith left behind.

The modern city of Nablus - Shechem - became a place.

The modern nation of Israel - became a place.

When you read Matthew 1:1–2 “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob,” and it goes on and on until you get to Jesus.

Abraham’s faith paved the way for Jesus’ birth.

What is your faith going to leave behind?

Hard question isn’t it?

What is your legacy going to be?

Notice something, Abraham didn’t set out to create a legacy.

He set out to follow what God said.

He didn’t live his life for what the history books would say about him.

He simply lived his life as best he could

Doing a good job sometimes

And a lousy job others

Only, he had one single focus

God gave me a destination.

I’ll do whatever I have to do to get there.

Moms and dads, grandparents, are your children seeing that kind of resolve in you?

Are you more concerned with following your neighbors than you are in your destination?

Can anyone look at you or listen to you and know that you are resolved to follow Jesus to the bitter end, no matter what?

We say we want a revival.

We’ll have one when we make up our minds about our destination.

Let us pray.