Genesis 12:10-20: When Your Faith is Tested

Introduction

2020 teacher of the year: me. Reality: Hudson almost failed kindergarten because of me.

Here we are in June 2021. COVID is almost behind us. Life is getting back to normal. Now is a good time to reflect. How did you do in 2020? If you were to grade yourself as to how you walked by faith in 2020, what grade would you give yourself?

COVID-19 was unique. We ALL went through the same trial at the same time.

Book of James in 2019. James 1:1: Consider it all joy when you go through various trials… How many of us walked through COVID with joy?

Life is full of trials… Abe’s story is a reminder that our faith will constantly be tested.

Gen 12: Abe just experienced the call of God. In obedience, left Haran for the Promised Land.

Abe erected altars to God - not a tower to his greatness but an altar to God.

The triumph is immediately followed by a trial… A famine in the Promised Land.

Abe doesn’t follow God very long before his faith is tested, and Abe’s faith is going to be tested over and over again. So is yours...

Three truths you need to remember about trials if you are going to walk by faith through the trials of life.

Trials are opportunities to trust and obey.

Abe in the Land of Promise… The MAGNITUDE of the promise: in the land on which Abe trod, God was going to make his descendants into a great nation.

HOPE - Is Abe the new Adam? A promise… Will Abe accomplish what Adam could not? Faithfully bear God’s image in his world?

Abe left everything in pursuit of the promise. Gen. 12:1-10 is one of the greatest stories of faith in the Bible.

Great story of faith followed by a story of faithlessness. Reminder to all of us… It doesn’t take much to go from full of faith to faithless. You’ve been there. You’ve had moments where you’ve seen God move powerfully, and you trusted Him. You’ve also had moments where life got really challenging, and you failed to trust God in those challenging moments.

A severe famine in the land… He has a wife to think about. He has people who have traveled with him to think about. He has livestock to feed.

Only one option: leave the land to which God sent him and go to a land where there’s not a famine, Egypt… the land of the Nile... When the famine is over return to Canaan.

Not a bad plan. You would have done the same thing. But a problem: Where’s God in this decision? No indication in the text that Abe prayed about leaving the land. He just went.

Same thing that happens to you and me. Trials come - we just want to survive. We take matters into our own hands instead of looking to the God who wants us to thrive in trials.

Will you just try to survive? (react)

What happens for most of us when trials come:

You get fearful and restless.

You just want it to over with as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

All you see is the problem and not God’s providence.

You become overwhelmed instead of knowing peace that passes all understanding.

You react instead of reflect. You don’t think Bible. You don’t pray.

Will you seek to thrive?

How do you thrive? (Reflect)

Be convinced that the God who led you into the trial will lead you through the trial.

Don’t seek to get out of the problem as much as you seek the heart of God. What is He trying to teach you? To reveal to you about yourself?

Think and live Bible. Instead of moving in the direction of restlessness and fear, move in the direction of hope and peace.

You have to stop and think instead of just reacting… (Hudson and ants)

Trials are opportunities for temptation to abound.

In every trial is the temptation to take your eyes off of God and live sinfully instead of living obediently.

Abe doesn’t seek God’s plan. Instead, Abe goes to Egypt with his plan. He knows when he goes to Egypt, the men will see Sarah’s beauty. They will kill him in order to take his wife. Abe doesn’t want to die. He wants to eat...

No way the promise of God could come to fruition in Abe’s life if he’s dead, so he deceives. “Tell people you’re my sister...” A half-truth. Sarah was his half-sister.

It’s a risk, and Abe puts the promise of God in jeopardy - in order to survive willing to risk the safety of his own wife. If another man takes Sarah, how will God make a great nation through Abe and Sarah? Abe not thinking… He’s just trying to survive.

Not a bad plan… As Sarah’s brother, Abe would serve as her guardian. If a man wanted to take Sarah as his wife, he would bring gifts and negotiate with Abraham. Would give Abe food, the upper hand, and an opportunity to get rid of the suitor.

BUT… doesn’t go according to plan. When they enter Egypt, all eyes on Sarah, including the eyes of the officials of the most powerful man in Egypt: Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s officials report back to Pharaoh about Sarah’s beauty. Sarah was taken from Abraham and taken to Pharaoh.

The most powerful man in Egypt always gets what he wants - no negotiating. Pharaoh gets Sarah… Abe wasn’t counting on this. How will God fulfill His promise now? Abe stuck in Egypt away from the land and without his wife.

But… it actually turns out pretty good… Pharaoh showers Abe with riches in exchange for his sister. Eventually leaves Egypt with wealth and Sarah.

In every trial there’s temptation. Have you given into these temptations?

The temptation to scheme instead of trust. “I have a plan” vs. “God, what is your plan?” How often are your plans actually sinful? Involve deceit? Selfishness? Lying? Trials often reveal our lack of faith.

The temptation to think of self before others. Abe’s scheming jeopardizes the safety of his own wife. In the midst of trials we think of self far more than we think of others. “How do I get out?” Rather than, “How do my choices affect the lives of others?” NEVER a moment in the Christian life where you can put yourself ahead of others.

The temptation to trust earthly gain rather than God’s providence. Seems like Abe is blessed in spite of his lack of faith. Egypt stung for a while, but in Egypt Abe found comfort. Abe must have felt pretty good when he left Egypt. He left with his wife and wealth.

BUT… when he leaves Egypt, he and Lot will have to separate because of the land cannot support all they gained… Lot will end up in Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wealth. Abe acquires Hagar in Egypt. Hagar is going to be a roadblock to Abe’s faith later on.

It seems like it turned out alright for Abe, especially when he’s able to leave Egypt with his wife and wealth. But what happened in Egypt was a failure in faith, not growth in faith.

You look at all the resources you have and think, “I can make it through anything...” Yet, you don’t realize how your resources keep you from trusting God.

If you get through your trials without a greater knowledge of God’s work in your life, you missed the point of your trials.

Hurricane Katrina - defining point of ministry.

COVID-19 defining point in the life of Northwood - showed what we were made of…

BEWARE… In your trials, something will try to pull your heart away from God. BUT, you cannot forget that your trials are designed to draw you to God.

Trials are opportunities for grace to abound.

It wasn’t Abe’s scheming that got him out of the mess he made in Egypt. It was God’s grace.

God had a plan for Abe and Sarah… A plan of grace. A plan that He would protect. A plan that he wasn’t going to let Abe mess up.

vs. 17 - Abe got out of Egypt with his wife because of God. God sent plagues on Egypt. (Sound familiar?) Pharaoh would not stand in the way of God’s plan (Gen. 12:3).

Abraham schemes but God protects. When Abe comes out of Egypt, he comes out knowing God delivered him. Abe didn’t save himself. God supernaturally intervened to bring Abe and Sarah out unharmed by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. God brought Abe back to the Land of Promise.

Encouragement: You’re going to experience lots of trials, and in those trials you’re going to have some mess ups. You’re going to be faithless at times, but God is going to remain faithful to you (2 Timothy 2:13).

When going through the darkest trials remember:

God is for you (Romans 8:31-39).

God will bring to completion in you what He started (Phil. 1:6).

Since we know this to be true, what we should expect in trials is supernatural, abounding grace.

The reason why you don’t trust and obey God in your trials and instead scheme, trust your stuff, and turn on others is because you don’t expect God to work supernaturally in your trials.

Ask for wisdom and expect it (James 1:5).

Ask for deliverance and expect it (Philippians 1:19).

Ask for growth and expect it (James 1:2-3).

In your trials, what are you expecting God to do in your life? Anything?

Be honest… your life story is the story of God intervening in your life over and over again with supernatural grace. You are sitting in this room because of God’s intervening grace.

Moses wrote in wilderness. When ancient Hebrews heard story couldn’t help but think of their time in Egypt. God delivered. In the wilderness lacking faith… God would deliver. He would bring them into the Land he promised Abe.

That’s our story. God has delivered us. He delivered you from your sins at the cross. He will deliver you from this hard life and bring you home.

The cross is God’s ultimate act of intervening, supernatural grace. You were dead in sin, and God intervened by giving His Son who died in your place and rose again. Maybe you’re here this morning and God’s supernatural grace is intervening in your life right now. You know that you do not belong to Him. Today is your day to embrace grace.

Follower of Jesus - trials are coming. Will you take your eyes off of Jesus? Or, will you keep your eyes fixed on Him expecting His grace?