Learning the Hard Way - Walking by Faith & not by Sight

Introduction

Good morning Church. It’s good to see each of you who were able to make it out today and I want to say good morning to all those watching online as well.

I know we have some that are still mainly staying in because of Covid and also some this morning that are under the weather. With that being said I am thankful that God has given us the ability to offer our services online for these simple reasons.

I also want to thank Ryan and Byron for the hard work they put into making these services available each and every Sunday. I’m not sure if you guys have seen one our online services lately but they have figured out how to get these slides on there as well and it looks really neat!

I am truly thankful for them and all they do!

Before we get into the message today we’ll cover our announcements real quick.

Sunday Night D-Groups

Men’s Conference — OBC — January 21st - Meal @ 6 pm - Worship @ 7

Johnny Hunt Men’s Conference — February 5-6

Alright, I believe that is all the announcements we have this morning so I would ask you at this time, if you have your Bibles with you, to take your copy of God’s word and turn with me to the Book of Hebrews and we will be looking today at Chapter 11 Verses 8-12.

Now some of you are probably thinking…I thought you said you were going to preach through the Bible on what we were studying each week in our D-Groups?

Well actually that is exactly what we’re going to be looking at this morning just here in the Book of Hebrews.

The Verses we will be looking at this morning are actually part of your memory verses for this week so after today’s service you should know these few a lot better and be more prepared for tonight!

The title I have given to today’s message is Learning the Hard Way — Walking by Faith & not by Sight!

Hebrews 11:8 if you have it would you say, Amen.

Prayer

How many of you this morning have are like me and have to learn the hard way?

I don’t know what it is, if it’s my OCD or if it’s my “got to be in control all the time mentality” or “my inability to trust others with things” or what it is but there have been many times in my life when I had to learn the hard way because I wanted to do it my way.

Anyone else here this morning like that?

Someone told you to do something one way but you decided to do it your way and it actually made things harder on yourself?

Well, this morning we are going to be looking at Abraham and Sarah. The Patriarchs of Judaism. The beginning of God’s chosen people. And we are going to look at how they made a few decisions along the way that caused them to learn the hard way when if they’d of simply followed God’s instructions, they could have saved themselves and those around them a lot of heartache, trouble and strife!

We are going to look at how we, also God’s chosen people, those who have put their faith in Christ and been born again, are to walk by faith and not by sight.

And my prayer is this morning, that someone here or watching online will hear or learn something that will in turn save you some heartache, trouble and strife by trusting in God and not in yourselves.

Four things I want to point out to you today beginning with...

The Obedience of Faith — (Vs. 8)

The Bible says here in Verse 8 “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

First off, before we get ahead of ourselves, if we plan on learning anything today, we need to understand what faith is.

The Bible tells us the very definition of “faith” here in Verse 1 of this very chapter.

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

Substance — Greek (hypostasis) — nature, essence

It’s made up of two words the first being (sub or hypo) meaning under or beneath and then the word (stance or histemi) which means to support, or to stand.

Substance is what gives faith legs, Amen! The word in it’s fullest form can mean something of concrete essence! Substance tells me that there is something there, something under me strong enough and stout enough to hold me up! Something I can stand in full assurance on!

So faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

What do I hope for? For the Christian this morning, we hope of Heaven, don’t we?

Aw come on now preacher Heaven isn’t real. No one has ever seen heaven!

Well I beg to differ with you. My Bible tells me that John seen Heaven in the Book of Revelation and also Paul even refers to being caught up to the 3rd Heaven I believe it was.

You see faith is believing that something exists when you can’t see it!

And the word of God has given us glimpses into Heaven throughout the scripture and therefore I believe, I put my faith in God that heaven does exist and that one day I am going to get to go there and see the substance of my faith realized, Amen!

Faith is simply believing without seeing!

And the Bible tells us here that “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

God told Abraham in Genesis 12:1–4 — 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: 2 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: 3 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. 4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

God tells Abraham, “look I want you to leave everything you’ve ever known and go where I tell you to go and if you do so, I will bless you, I will make of you a great nation and I will make your name great!”

And boy did He! Thousands of years later we are still talking about Abraham, aren’t we?

He even has a little song about him!

Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord!

So God called Abraham to have faith and to go and Abraham put his faith into action and he went!

But…there was one little problem with Abraham’s obedience to God.

It was a partial obedience.

Look back with me at the fine details of what God told Abraham to do.

He said, Genesis 12:1 “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:”

He obeyed the first part and the last part but it was the middle part where he didn’t fully obey God.

God said, “leave thy kindred and thy father’s house.”

What did Abraham do?

He took Lot, his brother’s son with them.

Now the Bible doesn’t tell us how old Lot is at this time or why Abraham took him…could he have felt an obligation to his deceased brother Haran to raise him…could he have promised Haran or his father Terah that he would always look after him…the answer we will never know on this side of eternity but what we do know is that Abraham took Lot when God told him not to.

Well preacher that’s no big deal. He was just doing what he thought was right!

Exactly!

What Abraham thought was right and not what God told him to do!

And because of that, later on in chapter 13 & 14 we find that it ended up causing trouble for Abraham.

Genesis 13:5–9 — 5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. 6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. 7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. 8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. 9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

Here the Bible tells us they ended up having some trouble because of Abraham’s partial obedience. If he had of followed God’s advice from the beginning, he would have never ended up in this situation.

And then in Chapter 14 the Bible tells us that there was a battle that ended up taking place and somehow Lot got caught in the middle of it and taken by the enemy and Abraham and his servants had to go, fight the enemy and save him!

All because of a partial obedience on the part of Abraham!

Now think through this with me for a second. If Abraham had of left Lot with the rest of his family in Haran do you think he would have had to move because the land wasn’t enough for the both of them?

If Abraham had of left Lot with the rest of his family do you think Lot would have gotten taken hostage?

The answer is no. But Abraham’s partial obedience not only put his relationship with Lot into disarray but also put his life in danger!

By doing undoubtedly what he thought was right it almost ended up harming Lot more than helping and more than likely in the end did hurt more than help!

Lot ended up after splitting from Abraham in Sodom and Gomorrah and we all know the story there…God saved Lot because of Abraham’s pleading and ended up destroying the whole city!

And then Lot ended up even losing his wife because she looked back! And if that weren’t enough, later Lot’s own daughters got him drunk and slept with him to continue their lineage!

Do you see the downward spiral of events caused by one man’s partial disobedience?

And if all of this weren’t enough let me show you something else very significant that jumped out at me while studying this.

Not only did Abraham’s partial obedience bring heartache and strife to himself and Lot but I believe it put a strain on his relationship with God!

When you read through Chapters 12 & 13 multiple times did Abraham build an altar call upon the name of the Lord but only one time did the Lord appear to Abraham and that was right after leaving Haran until…Verse 14 of Chapter 13 which reads...

Genesis 13:14 — And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

God had withheld speaking to Abraham until Abraham decided to start obeying God completely!

The blessings that God had in store for Abraham were being withheld until he did what God had asked him to do!

Man I was reading through that and got thinking, how many blessings are we missing out on this morning because we are only being partially obedient to God’s will for our lives!

He can do immeasurably more than we could ever think or imagine with our lives but because many of us only partially obey, he withholds those blessings until we get in line with His will!

Isn’t that something?

And then to think that our partial obedience could cause not only ourselves but those around us harm makes it even worse!

Partial obedience harms us, those around us, and our relationship with God!

We need to be make sure we are doing everything within our power to be completely obedient this morning and not just partially obedient!

So, we’ve looked at The Obedience of Faith. Now let’s look at The Optimism of Faith.

The Optimism of Faith — (Vs. 9-10)

Now, I know that last section kind of put a black eye on Abraham but it doesn’t diminish the fact that he is still one of the great Fathers of Faith and ultimately did what God asked him to do.

And what I want you to see here is Abraham’s faith in action. His Optimism of Faith.

Notice what the Bible actually says here. God had promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation and also told him that he would give him much land for him and his seed after him.

And then it says some things very specific I want you to hone in on.

It says that Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles. For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God!

You see, Abraham lived physically in the land that God had given him but praise God he was looking forward to the city that he would one day inherit which was made by God!

And to make this even better…when you go back and read you will find that everywhere Abraham went, he pitched his tent but built an altar for the Lord!

He had his priorities in check, Amen!

He was just a man traveling through looking forward to being at home with God, Amen!

How many of you are just traveling through this morning looking forward to being at home with God, Amen?!

And I love how the Bible says it’s a city with foundations!

Praise be to God, one day this ole world is gonna pass away and the way things are looking right now it’s gonna be sooner than later but when it’s gone praise be to God, we got another home on high that will never perish, Amen!

My heavenly home is bright and fair, I feel like traveling on! No pain nor death can enter there I feel like traveling on! It’s glittering towers the sun outshine I feel like traveling on, That heavenly mansion shall be mine I feel like traveling on!

Praise God, Abraham felt like traveling on! Abraham was optimistic that what God had promised, He was able to provide!

Are you optimistic about the promises given to us by God this morning? If not, you should be, Amen!

Because if God says it, He means it, and it will come to fruition!

So we have the Obedience of Faith: are you being partially obedient to God or completely obedient. Then, we have the Optimism of Faith: are you optimistic, are you looking forward to what lies beyond?

And next, we have the Operation of Faith that I want us to look at in Verse 11.

The Operation of Faith — (Vs. 11)

Now, we’re going to give ole Abraham a break here and look at his wife Sarah for a moment.

The Bible says in...Hebrews 11:11 — Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

The Operation of Faith can do mighty things, Amen!

Here we have Sarah, she’s 90 years old, and we haven’t gotten to this yet in our reading plan but God sends some messengers to tell Abraham that He’s going to give them a son and that Sarah is to be the one who births the child and that they shall call his name Isaac.

Now Sarah is hiding out in the tent when the men tell Abraham this but I can only imagine she had her ear next to the cloth of that tent listening to every word!

And you can imagine her thoughts upon hearing this news… hear I am 90 years and going to have a child..yeah right!

The Bible even says she laughs inside herself when she hears the news…and the Lord said unto Abraham why did Sarah laugh? And in the background through the tent you hear Sarah say…I didn’t laugh…to which the Lord replied, “but you did laugh!”

And then He says something we’d all do well to remember…Is anything to hard for the Lord?

Listen this morning friend....nothing is too hard for the Lord!

If he can take a lady who was 90 years old and never been able to have children before and a man who was 100 years old and cause them to produce a child then it doesn’t matter what obstacle you’re facing this morning, He can overcome it too!

You just have to have faith and when you begin to allow that seed of faith, instilled within each of us to grow and flourish, when you allow the Operation of Faith to take control, there is no limit to what God can do in you and through you, Amen!

Some of you sitting here this morning need an operation! And I’m not talking about the kind you get at the local hospital!

Some of you this morning, need an operation of a divine origination, Amen!

Some of you are sitting here and you’re like Sarah, spiritually speaking, and God has told you that He wants to do something in you and through you and you’re laughing at God!

Well guess what, He hears you laughing and His reply to you is this…nothing is too hard for me to do!

You just have to let Him, Amen!

Let God operate on you this morning and you will experience the same Outcome of Faith that Abraham and Sarah did!

Which is our last point this morning!

The Outcome of Faith — (Vs. 12)

From one man and one woman who were well past the age of conception, sprang forth a multitude of people, as innumerable as the stars in the sky!

All because they put their faith in a God who can, Amen!

Now, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some bumps and bruises along the way.

It doesn’t mean that there weren’t many ups and downs along the way.

It doesn’t mean that they didn’t have to learn some lessons the hard way because they were more worried about going their own way and not God’s way.

But what it does mean is they persevered, the pressed on, they put their faith in God and trusted that He would fulfill His end of covenant and that He did!

An entire race set aside for God Himself because two people walked by faith and not by sight!

Closing

As we come to a close this morning, who among you have been walking by sight and not by faith?

Who among you have been trying to accomplish God’s will your way and not His way?

Who among you have been learning life’s lessons the hard way for far too long?

Whoever you are, as we give an invitation this morning I want to encourage you to come and get humble and honest before the Lord.

Turn your troubles, your cares, your headaches over to Him because He’s a God who can and there is nothing to hard for Him!