Do You Trust Him?

Introduction

Welcome to Celebration. If you are joining us via the podcast, our prayer is you are encouraged and if you are in the Orlando area, you will come join us. Today I am excited to kick off a new series, From Here to There, surrounding the life of Abraham. Over the next 3 weeks we will identify 3 important things you need to bring with you when you are going from where you are to where God is leading you. We are introduced to this mountain of a man in and we follow his journey through . Roughly 13 chapters but his life shapes the entire Bible. Why? Was he perfect? No. Did he perform massive miracles? No. He was a man that endeavored to believe God. He trusted God. He had faith.

What is faith?

(NKJV) — 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith has substance, it is something you can feel even if you can’t see it. I am trusting even when I can’t see it, but you can see it when I am trusting.

(ESV) — 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. 2 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. 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.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

A few things we landed last week:

Guarantees vs promises

Guarantees weaken faith, promises build faith

By faith, you have everything you need to take your next step

Growth requires sacrifice

Worship is the vehicle that drives the enemy away

FAITH TAKES YOU FROM HERE TO THERE

This week, we want to continue on this journey exploring trust…biblical trust. TRUST TAKES YOU FROM HERE TO THERE. Let’s look at our text for today.

Scripture

(ESV) — 1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

Observations

Abram and Sarai are old. Quite old and have been told that they are going to be the catalyst for God’s people. They spend about 10 years in Canaan so it seems the promise of possessing the land is beginning to come true but there still is a critical piece missing, no kids. What do you do when you only get part of the promise? Have you ever gone through the drive through and they forgot something? It literally ruins the meal. Burger with no fries, doesn’t work. Fries but no burger, is boring. They are meant to be together. This is where Abram and Sarai find themselves. Land but no kids. So the idea is, they will MAKE it happen. Who can blame them. It’s good to be ambitious. However, ambition without permission creates unnecessary friction.

Trust:

Ultimately, they had faith, but lost trust. To trust means to have firm belief in the reliability of someone or something. The biblical definition is to be confident, secure, and dependent. You can have faith in an idea but not trust the process. Trust is, most of us have faith in God, but we struggle with trusting His plan. In order for us to truly go from here to there, we have to Trust God. There are there areas we need to trust God:

Trust God’s Timing

Trust God’s Ways

Trust God’s Grace

How do you develop trust?

Spending time with God

Additional Scriptures:

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