3.2.21 4.18.2021 Hebrews 11.8-10 Genesis 12.1-4, Genesis 15.1-6 Abraham: Determined Faith

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Entice: For the last year we have been challenged. Going forward we can respond with desperation, depression, defeat, or determination. I don't think that most of us are quitters. There is hope in determination. We need the hope so we must respond with determination.

We need to choose living role models and departed heroes who exemplify the determination we need. Abraham, in a sense, started it all. The kind of faith God uses. The kind of faith challenged by difficult circumstances. the kind of faith which is determined enough to give us hope in hard times. Yes, Abraham, is one of the prime OT examples of that kind of determined faith.

His story stretches from Genesis 12-25. We know many if not all of the details.

Engage: There are two passages which come to define Abrahams faithful, determined response to God.

Genesis 12:1–4 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.

Abraham receives a word from God and responds.

Genesis 15:1–6 ESV

1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Abraham struggles with the unseen nature of future promises.

Expand: We can discern parallels between Abraham's time of pilgrimage and our time of pandemic. There are lessons to be learned. There are attitudes to cultivate and habits to develop.

Excite: Obedient faith does not give you a more clear glimpse of the future. Obedient faith means making determined progress when you don't know where you are going but are certain you are led by God. Obedient faith means determination. Dedication. Development.

Explore:

Determined faith is dynamic.

Explain: Abraham shows us that dynamic, determined faith is found in a few focused decisions. The Hebrew Author summarizes this decisive, dynamic faith.

Hebrews 11:8–10 ESV

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. 9 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. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

1. Leaving the Past.

1.1 Obedience to the call.

1.2 Clarity instead of certainty?!

(distinction without a difference? NO. Certainty means no doubt. You can have clarity and be unable to see the outcome.)

2. Learning in the present.

2.1 Promise

2.2 Process

(Genesis 12-25 tell a story which is not always smooth. Describe a faith that waxes and wanes. Envisions a man of strengths and weaknesses. Life is a process only complete when we in faith, return our spirit to God.

2.3 Pilgrimage.

3. Looking toward the future.

3.1 Direction.

Forward facing.

3.2 Duty.

God-centered.

Shut Down:

For Abraham the journey was the issue. The categories which allow you and I to even think about faith were being defined by his life. He followed. He listened. He planned and imagined the outcomes of God's work in his life. He imagined and and reacted to God's word defining—in his own life what faith driven living would come to mean. Yet...he never arrived at his ultimate destination.

Hebrews 11:13 ESV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Hope is not a mere wish. It is our active response to God's Word. You and I today in this place can have that hope when we act with dynamic, determined faith. Abraham never really arrived at the destination to which he was called. We can. We do not imagine the future as Abraham did. We occupy it. If his faith could get him as far as it did just think of what a dynamic faith can do today in our post-pandemic after-Easter reality.