Abraham - An Obedient Faith

Introduction

I don't think we understand how truly amazing the faith of Abraham was.

Tonight's message is simple. I want us to examine this man's faith, and the obedience that resulted from it, and ultimately how obedience is connected to faith.

Tonight I want us to take some moments too and just ponder. Just think on what these things might be like if you were to experience them.

I think sometimes it's very easy for the preacher to continue to speak and fill any voids of silence but I want us to try to take a few moments and just consider. It's the same practice that I do and I encourage you to do as well when we're reading the scriptures.

I. Obedience to Go

Great Faith has Humble Beginnings (Gen. 11:27-32; Act. 7:3-4)

One thing to point out is that while we consider Abraham's faith to be so great, beyond our reach, it is to know that his faith, like anything, had to grow.

What we learn by comparing Gen. 11:27-12:3 with Act. 7:3-4 is that God called Abraham while he was still in Ur of the Chaldees. He began the trip with compromised obedience, in that he left, but he took his father with him. Then before he got to the Promised Land, his father died in Haran where they ‘dwelt’.

Then as we know, when Abraham got to the promised land. He continued on south into Egypt because of the famine and it caused him problems there.

The point I'm trying to make is that Abraham's faith had to grow but he kept practicing it. He got to the point in his walk with God where we see this triumphant obedience in Genesis 22 that we'll speak about here shortly.

Church, you'll never have great faith unless you begin to practice small acts of obedience by faith.

Great faith has humble beginnings.

From the Familiar, Into the Unknown (v8)

When Abram was in Ur, he had extended family. He had his home. He knew where the water well was. He knew where he could get supplies and such. Everything was familiar.

(Ill.) Just like here. We live here. We know where the grocery store's at. We know where the hardware store's at. We know where we can get flowers. We know what time the restaurants close. We know where we can fuel up. We know where the cheapest gas is.

With familiarity comes comfort. (Ill.) It’s why we often eat the same foods when we dine out.

What does it feel like to you when you are in a strange town or city and you don't know anyone?

(Ill.) Back when I used to travel, I would be in a new town about every night or I didn't know anyone. I didn't know where I could really get good food at. I knew where my hotel was and I knew the hotel room that I was staying in. Do you know where I spent my time? My hotel room, because I was at least familiar with that place.

Now picture yourself moving to a new area, one in which you've never been before. Can you imagine how daunting that would be? (Ill.) When my family moved here, we gave up the familiar, we gave up comfort but what we did know was that we had met many of you before. We knew kind of what to expect as far as the town was concerned so we had some idea before we moved. Abraham had none of that. Everything Abraham was familiar with, he left behind, save his wife, and then his nephew followed him. (That wasn’t Abram’s doing, that was Lot’s - and it caused nothing but trouble for Abraham)

But God said, "Go" and Abraham trusted God so he went. He left the familiar for the unknown out of faith.

From Stability, to Nomadic (v9)

(Ill.) About a year and a half ago the Lord blessed us with Hebron and it is such a blessing to have what feels like permanence. And for those of you that were born and raised here, understand that when people move here they are seen by many as outsiders. I didn't come in that way. My view was this is my new hometown. And by many I've been accepted as part of the community. (For others I'll always be an outsider.)

My point is that I have stability. Abraham had stability in Ur and even in Haran. But all of that changed when he went to Canaan's land.

The Bible says he Sojourned (def) dwell; reside as a stranger

He went from a home to a tent.

Interesting facts: (Ill.) The U.S. RV industry has an estimated $140 billion annual economic impact on the American economy. It supports nearly 680,000 jobs, generates more than $48 billion in wages, and contributes over $13 billion in taxes.

Do you know why? Because few people dwell in tents when they have other options!

Would you by faith and obedience give up your house and live in a tent? Abraham did!

He went from stability to nomadic.

With Family, through Famine, For Years

With Family: He (being the man) was responsible for his wife. To provide & protect her. Then afterwards, his children. They lived the nomadic life because that’s what God commanded.

Through famine: He may have went to Egypt, but he didn’t go back to Haran

For Years: Abraham spent 25 years before receiving the promise of Isaac. Then many more years afterwards.

Can you imagine year after year waiting?

Through this we gather:

Abraham’s obedience unto God’s Call was more important than the comfort of his family

Abraham’s obedience unto God was not a momentary hiccup, but was a thought out, settled decision that lasted through all the ups & downs of life!

Abraham had the Faith Go - it began humble, but grew through the years, especially after his faith was rewarded in the birth of Isaac!

Abraham had Faithful Obedience to Go

Obedience to go

II. Obedience to Give

Here we deal with the second section, speaking specifically about Abraham's faith.

To Obey Included Giving Up:

To obey included sacrifice.

His Son (v17a)

Abraham had to give up his son. Wow. In order to be obedient he had to sacrifice his own child. This is what obedience demanded.

Some of you know what it's like to lose a child. I don't know what that's like and I hope I never do.

Unfortunately in our society we have some women that sacrifice their children on the altar of abortion and we have some demonically possessed mentally ill parents that have murdered their children for various reasons.

But I don't know that any of us know what it's like to willingly sacrifice the child that we love, nurture and care for.

But obedience demanded he give up his son. (Read Gen. 22:1-2) This was the choice. Either he would Sacrifice his son, or his relationship with his Father & his God.

To Obey, included giving up His Son

His Promise (v17b)

Genesis 12:1–3 “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Afterwards, Abraham would ‘take matters into his own hands’, listen to his wife’s council instead of God’s, and bear a child by Hagar. God would restate His Covenant with Abraham, change his name and give him the token of circumcision, change Sarah’s name, then we see: Genesis 17:17–19 “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”

So God specifically had stated that this covenant was going through Isaac. What that means is if Isaac is dead, so is God's promise unto him.

I don’t know about you, but I’m thankful for the promises of God!

To never leave or forsake us? (Heb. 13:5)

To bear our burdens? (Mat. 11:28-30)

To forgive all our sins? (1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” )

Imagine if you had to willingly give up just these promises of God!

What would that look like?

What hope would you lose?

What sorrow would you feel?

To obet would be to willingly sacrifice the promises that God had given unto him

He Chose to Give that which He Received

I think something tremendously important to point out is this truth.

Acts 20:35 “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

A few points of note:

Consider that Abraham recieved the promises of land, and a son and a heritage - what a blessing! Yet, even still, he was blessed even greater in that he was willing to give that up!

Secondly, remember: Abraham received these things from the LORD. All he was doing was giving up what was first given to him.

In many aspects of life, God may give us things FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF US GIVING THEM BACK TO HIM!

He chose to Give that which he received

Trusted God to Raise the Dead (v19)

You and I have the blessing of hindsight.

We know that two thousand years ago there was a man by the name of Jesus who raised from the dead.

We know of Jairus's daughter.

We know of the widow woman's son.

So someone rising from the dead is not a foreign concept to you and me but let me ask you: how many of you would believe that God would raise someone from the dead even today?

How many people were raised from the dead before Abraham's day?

Yet he still trusted that God would raise his son from the dead!

So he was willing to give these things up but he also trusted in God's promises so much that he knew God would make a way to fulfill them!

He trusted God to raise the dead.

We see Obedience to go; Obedience to give

III. Obedience is a Given (where there is Faith)

Now this is the point I want you to get from all this: obedience is a given, meaning that it will happen where there is faith.

I'm going to share with you in closing an easy pattern: A leads to B leads to C.

The first thing is we need to define exactly what faith is.

Faith = Belief - Sight (v1)

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Substance (def) “setting under” i.e. support; assurance; confidence

Hoped (for) (def) to expect / expectations

Evidence (def) proof; conviction

Conviction (def) The act of convincing, or compelling one to admit the truth of a charge

Faith = the confidence we have in our expectations, and our conviction we have of truths in those things not seen by either eye nor time. (i.e. either it is invisible in the physical realm, has transpired [previously] out of sight, or it has yet to come to pass)

All that being said faith is simply believing in the truth of something, though you have not seen it.

These are a lot of words for a very simple concept.

Belief → Action

When we believe something, no matter what it is, it dictates our actions. We act on what we believe.

(Ill.) I have a chainsaw in my building. It's an old chainsaw. It's a long story behind it but I have not attempted whatsoever to try to get it to run. Do you know why? I have absolutely no faith that it will start without some mechanical work beforehand.

(Ill.) If children believe that they can get away with certain behavior, they will be far more apt to act a fool.

(Ill.) The majority of people today believe that they are "good people" because they believe that they see no value in the God of the Bible.

(Ill.) Many Christians today don't believe that either Jesus was serious when He gave the Great Commission, or that they’ll be held accountable for it.

(Ill.) Then there are those Christians. People like Job that fear God and eschew evil. They serve God with all their heart. They so win. They live upright and godly in this ungodly world. They do this because they believe the Bible. They have faith in the fact that God said what he meant and he meant what he said.

So you see whatever we believe, will dictate our actions. If you want to know where your faith is, just look at what you do.

Action → Results

Those children that are led to believe there are no consequences to their actions?

They graduate from being spoiled brats to unproductive leaches in society, and oftentimes in jail or dead.

Those people that believe that they are good people and have no need of Christ's sacrifice to pay for their sins?

The result is they reject God and lift their eyes to hell.

Christians that don’t believe the Great Commission was important to Jesus?

They will stand before the God of Creation with tears and empty hands.

Lastly those Christians who believe the Bible, fear God and evil, live upright, and tell others about Jesus…

Those are the Christians that receive crowns and hear the words "Well done thou good and faithful servant."

Conclusion

So ultimately the question is, what do you believe?