The Journey of Faith: Obedience
Notes
Transcript
Bible Passage: Hebrews 11:8-12
Bible Passage: Hebrews 11:8-12
Our first “big move” occurred in 2012, AK was 3, and Parker 18 months. I was in Romania on a mission trip and my father-in-law packed up a U-haul rental and we divided our possessions into two loads, one for a rental house and one for our future house…it was a whirl wind.
Said good-bye to our church family
sold a house
secured a rental house
New jobs
Find a school
And we knew we were going, and I believe we were obedient to the call. I can now, as I reflect see where God’s hand was the entire time. But faith is more than belief in something
Big Idea: Faith is not merely belief; it is an active trust in God’s promises that compels us to step out in obedience, exemplified in the life of Abraham.
1. Responding to the Call
1. Responding to the Call
The author of Hebrews reflects on Genesis 12:1
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.
Yet Genesis 12:1 is lived in the action of Genesis 12:4
There is a gap between hearing God’s voice, and obeying God’s voice. Often the conversations we have is with ourselves when we make a decision. Paul Tripp has said that the number one person who gives you advice is yourself. What kind of conversations are you having right now…they are important.
Later in the video sessions I talk about in my conversation with Diana, Michael, and Kevin about how to make decesions. I make decesions with three different points of reference
What is God saying in His word
What are my circumstances
What do other say
Just because you are called, doesn’t mean that you will respond. Just because you have the opportunity doesn’t mean that you will execute
Faith doesn’t see the end at the beginning (route to the beach, the way Kristina views a GPS)
Nor does it need to even when it looks like it will not happen (the promise of Issac)
yet, look at the reward of responding to the call!
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
How did he come to his belief, remember the main idea “Faith is not merely belief; it is an active trust in God’s promises that compels us to step out in obedience, exemplified in the life of Abraham.” so how did he get there
Did he hear a voice, get a feeling…
We are not unlike Abraham in our faith walk, we too have to risk, we too have to heed the voice of God, we too do not see the end from the beginning.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (you may not know where to go, but the darkness can’t overcome the light”
So of us will jut stop if we don’t know where to go…what we say to kids when they are lost, yet this can delay obedience…God knows where you are, s
Hebrews Exposition
The man who waits until he shall find it easier to bear the yoke of obedience is like the woodman who found his bundle of wood too heavy for his idle shoulder. Placing it upon the ground, he gathered more wood and added to the bundle, then tried it. But finding it still an unpleasant load, he repeated the experiment of heaping on more, in the vain hope that by-and-by it might be of a shape more suitable for his shoulder.
Indecesion can lead us to a place of doing insane things just to try to bend the will of the stiuation to fit our shoulder, there is a better way and the life of Abraham shows us
2. Residing in God's Promise
2. Residing in God's Promise
what happens when you walk in faith, but the answer you want doesn’t take the shape you want, the circumstances do not bend to your will…this happens to Abraham
Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.
Part of Abraham’s story is being a sojourner, living in a place of tents and not foundations.
he doesn’t build a house, he lays no foundations…that is a part of his story, yet he clings to the promise of a sure and steady foundation that will come
He doesn’t build a house, but had the posture of a person living in a tent, but the mindset of a secure dwelling
He had this incredible promise, but his circumstances do not align with the promise
All this land would be his and his future decendents as an inheritance…what does inheritance and the promise look like for Christian’s
What did Jesus say about those who would inherit the earth?
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
What does that mean for Abraham and what does that mean for us as we reside in God’s promises
Abraham means he was a stranger in his community
For us it means we often do not fit in with a world view of most
He never lost his faith even through his struggles and we must continue to me “meek” and “light” and “salt” in this present age/ The grumpy will not inherit the earth, the worn out will not inherit the earth, but the meek, those with someone sort of restraint, who do not impose their will but look to a bigger promise, to be faithful you have to be reassured
3. Reassured by God’s Eternal Reward
3. Reassured by God’s Eternal Reward
Often in any relationship you have to reassured. A lot of people can cause me to doubt, but one word from Kristina, and I am ready to take up arms
Our best reassurance comes from those we trust and those we know love us and know us
Abraham’s reassurance of the promise probably didn’t come from those around him
How did he remain confident, living in a tent, and moving around?
He looked for something with better foundations
Actually he looked to something that was better than Cananna
You can’t build the best life on this physical plain than the one God has for you. Why? Because it God is there and he maintains it (show pics) this city lasts as long as God does
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
4. Receiving the Impossible
4. Receiving the Impossible
How do you receive the impossible…when I was growing up Publisher’s Clearing house was hte thing
I never thought we would win, but some did. Do you know they are bankrupt and the new owners are thinking through are we going to pay out
can you imagine receiving the impossible and then thinking the impossible can’ pay out?
Abraham heard from God. (amazing!)
Who is the subject? is it Sarah or Abraham…its Sarah. How many disappoints, wanting a baby, until she takes matters in her own hands, watch how this happens in the human experiance
And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
We often do not know what we want…yet she still considered God faithful…that means you can have a rotten attitude, ;laugh at the impossible, your circumstances are not right and you can still exercise faith
So that’s Sarah
What about Abraham…he thought he knew what God was doing, he would receive the impossible not thouht the gift of God but what he saw in front of him
And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
What is your Ishamel, what are you trying to convince God to bless, just be obedient with what is in front of you
God;s plan is so much better. Let what God grows be more important than what you can grow
Speak to Global workers…you answered the call, many are living as sojorns, but you are doubting because you don’t see anything growing in front…Abraham didn’t see it either, but Jesus said it was in his heart to see it!
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.
it’s not what you bring, its how God blesses
You are on a journey of faith, we are on a journey of faith
