BACKGROUND:Abraham is the next Old Testament example of faith. Genesis records his faith in Genesis 15:6. Two other notable New Testament passages speak of Abraham: Paul used Abraham as an example of justification by faith (Romans 4); James used Abraham as an example of faith that results in works (James 2:20-24). Hebrews explains that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed, and it describes three actions resulting from Abraham’s faith: (1) he moved to a new home; (2) he became a father in his old age; (3) he was willing to obey God’s command to sacrifice his only son. Abraham demonstrated his faith through his actions. His faith made him right with God.
Abraham’s faith is first seen in his obedience to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. Abraham left on the basis of God’s promise, without knowing where he was going (Genesis 12:1-9). Abraham trusted in God’s promises of even greater blessings in the future. Abraham’s life was filled with faith.
Believers can take heart from Abraham’s example of faith. God may ask us to give up secure, familiar surroundings in order to carry out his will; he may ask us to do some difficult tasks. But we can be sure that the outcome always will be for our best, drawing us closer to him.
Abraham lived by faith throughout the rest of his life, continuing to trust God as he lived in the land God promised him. This land was to be his “as his inheritance”, yet Abraham never possessed the land. Instead, he lived in “his” land like a foreigner, living in a tent. He didn’t build cities and take over the land, and neither did his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. That job would be left to their descendants, hundreds of years later. But Abraham believed God’s promise that eventually the whole country would belong to him and his descendants (Acts 7:5). Yet even all that time, they understood that the land was not their final destination. Their real home was in heaven. Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise, also remembered that promise and lived by faith.
Abraham lived by faith because he was confidently looking forward to a city . . . designed and built by God. The verb “looking forward” connotes intensely looking forward to and waiting for that city. This was not an earthly city, but a city with eternal foundations. This contrasts with the tents in which Abraham lived. This city, though as yet unseen, stretches to eternity; thus, it is permanent and secure. Having God as builder means that everything will be perfect. As Abraham was confident, so can we be.
It took faith for both Abraham and Sarah to trust in God’s divine intervention in their physical bodies that were both too old to produce children. In addition, Sarah was barren (unable to have children) in her childbearing years. God promised Abraham a son, but Sarah at first doubted that she could become pregnant in her old age. Abraham was one hundred and Sarah was ninety when Isaac was conceived (Genesis 17:1, 15-16; 21:1-7). But Abraham believed that God would keep his promise.
Promises from God (no matter how unlikely or even impossible they may seem as we look around at our circumstances) can be trusted because we can trust God’s character. God cannot lie, and he will not make a promise that he does not intend to keep.
Abraham and Sarah became parents because of their faith. It didn’t matter to them that they seemed to be too old to have any children. Because they believed God, he rewarded their faith with a child whose descendants became a nation with so many people that, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. This had been part of God’s covenant with Abraham. The contrast is being made between Abraham (one man) and his countless descendants (the Jews, and eventually all Christians), all because of that one man’s faith. God had indeed been faithful to his promise.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Continuing from yesterday - Number five. Faith is thanking God before I receive it. Now, a good example of this is Joshua. You know this story. Hebrews 11:30says, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days". Now, you remember this story out of Exodus. How Charlton Heston led them out across the wilderness, out of Egypt, over, through the Jell-O of the Jordan river, or whatever, and they get into the promised land. (Laughter) What's the first thing that happens?
They come up to the most fortified city in the world: Jericho. Enormous walls. Now here are people who've been slaves for four hundred years. They're not a trained army. They have no weapons. And here is the most fortified city in the world. And God says, "Okay, guys. Here's my plan: I want you to walk around this city, once a day, for six days. Just march around it in silence. And then, on the seventh day, I want you to march around it seven times. And I want you to be thanking Me in advance, all during this time. Trust in Me. This is going to be a statement of faith, by your marching around, because you expect Me to work."
I'm sure they must have felt pretty silly. Here's this seventh time they're marching around, they're singing a song and they're marching around, you know, just like the old black spiritual says, the walls came tumbling down. And they had victory.
What were they doing? They were thanking God in advance. That's what faith is. You see, faith is not believing God can do it. You got a problem in your life and you think God can solve it, that's not faith. Faith isn't believing God can do it. God can do it whether you believe it or not. His ability is not dependent upon your faith. Faith isn't even believing he will do it. That's hope. "I hope He will. I hope He'll answer my prayer. I hope He'll save my marriage. I hope He'll get me a job. I hope He'll find me a marriage partner. I hope I'll get well." That's hope. Faith is thanking God in advance. It's believing that God is already doing it. In the present. That the answer is already on its way.
Look at this verse, Mark 11:24, "When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given what you ask for." Notice the past tense, "...believe that you have received it..." That's what faith is. Notice, it does not say here, "when you pray and ask for something, beg and beg and beg and cry and pout and then, maybe God will think about it." (Laughter) No, it says believe you've already received it. If you waited until you received the answer, to thank God, is that faith? No. That's just gratitude. "Thanks, God."
It's thanking God in advance. For instance, if I were to give you a check for $1,000. I said, "You know, I want you to have this gift." Would you wait until you cashed it in order to thank me? No! You'd go ahead and thank him because you knew you could cash it and it was on its way. The Bible's full of stories that show this principle that faith is thanking God in advance.
In 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, there's a great story where the Israelites were going to go out and fight three enemy armies. They were outnumbered three to one. And God says, "Here's the battle plan. I want you to build a choir and put the choir in front of the Israeli army as you march into battle." They said, "HUH?" Yeah, put these guys up here with tambourines and stuff. No weapons. Well, it says that as they did that, this so confused the enemy, the enemies started fighting among themselves and gave the Israelites a tremendous victory. What was the point? There was a principle there. The choir before the army: You praise God before it happens. That was the point. Thanking God in advance. I'm simply saying that if God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, you'd better take along the tartar sauce. Get it? Good! Thank Him in advance. You'd better prepare.
Number six, faith is trusting if I don't get it. Now, let me give you two facts about prayer. Number one, God always hears every prayer and answers every prayer. Always. God always hears and answers every prayer. Fact number two, He does not answer always, the way I want Him to answer. Have you found that to be true? Sometimes His answer is, "You've got to be kidding!" or "No way!" or "Uh-uh." or "Not yet" or "Later" or "Wait a while". God answers in many, many different ways. And, sometimes, God says NO. Why? Because He doesn't love you? N0, because he does love you. God is not a vending machine you put in a prayer and get out whatever you want. Because a vending machine will give you stuff that will kill you. But God will only give you what's for your benefit.
Now, verse 35 to 40 in Hebrews 11 -- and I would encourage you to read this whole chapter today and everyday this week -- there are a list of people who suffered for their faith. Some of them got their heads cut off, and some of them were burned at the stake and some of them got their eyes poked out and some of them were drowned, and all kinds of gruesome stuff happened to these people and yet, it says they were heroes of the faith. What is He saying here? The point is that living by faith does not exempt you from problems.
It's thanking God in advance. For instance, if I were to give you a check for $1,000. I said, "You know, I want you to have this gift." Would you wait until you cashed it in order to thank me? No! You'd go ahead and thank him because you knew you could cash it and it was on its way. The Bible's full of stories that show this principle that faith is thanking God in advance.
In 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, there's a great story where the Israelites were going to go out and fight three enemy armies. They were outnumbered three to one. And God says, "Here's the battle plan. I want you to build a choir and put the choir in front of the Israeli army as you march into battle." They said, "HUH?" Yeah, put these guys up here with tambourines and stuff. No weapons. Well, it says that as they did that, this so confused the enemy, the enemies started fighting among themselves and gave the Israelites a tremendous victory. What was the point? There was a principle there. The choir before the army: You praise God before it happens. That was the point. Thanking God in advance. I'm simply saying that if God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, you'd better take along the tartar sauce. Get it? Good! Thank Him in advance. You'd better prepare.
Number six, faith is trusting if I don't get it. Now, let me give you two facts about prayer. Number one, God always hears every prayer and answers every prayer. Always. God always hears and answers every prayer. Fact number two, He does not answer always, the way I want Him to answer. Have you found that to be true? Sometimes His answer is, "You've got to be kidding!" or "No way!" or "Uh-uh." or "Not yet" or "Later" or "Wait a while". God answers in many, many different ways. And, sometimes, God says NO. Why? Because He doesn't love you? N0, because he does love you. God is not a vending machine you put in a prayer and get out whatever you want. Because a vending machine will give you stuff that will kill you. But God will only give you what's for your benefit.
Now, verse 35 to 40 in Hebrews 11 -- and I would encourage you to read this whole chapter today and everyday this week -- there are a list of people who suffered for their faith. Some of them got their heads cut off, and some of them were burned at the stake and some of them got their eyes poked out and some of them were drowned, and all kinds of gruesome stuff happened to these people and yet, it says they were heroes of the faith. What is He saying here? The point is that living by faith does not exempt you from problems.
Did you know that by experience, that as a Christian, you still have the same problems you had before you became a believer. A Christian has the exact problems a non-believer has, it's just that now you have a new power to help you with them. Something to help you cope and handle the stress and deal with it. God doesn't say you won't have any problems. Faith doesn't exempt you from problems. Just ask the believers in China. See, only in America do you have this health and wealth gospel thing that says if I become a believer, God wants me to become a millionaire and always be healthy and no problems. That's just not true. You know it's not true. And God never made that promise. And sometimes we pray for relief and relief doesn't come.
In fact, sometimes, we pray for God to remove a difficulty, or a problem, and instead of taking it away, He gives you the strength to go through it. Now, why does He do that? I've said it many times. God is more interested in your character than He is in your comfort. God didn't say, "I've come that you might have comfort." God wants to build character. He wants to make you a person of integrity and stability and values. And somebody who has sturdy essence in your life. Character. Christ-likeness. And the only way you get character is by going through tough times. And if you didn't have problems, how would you know God could bail you out? You wouldn't know how to trust God. As I said a few weeks ago, you don't know God is all you need until He's all you've got. And then you have to depend on Him.
Look Hebrews 11:35-40 - "They were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better..." Now hold on here. He's talking about heroes of the faith. He said these people had promises and dreams and they didn't come true and they're still heroes of the faith? Yes. Because they trusted even if they didn't get it. Anybody can trust God when things are going great. But real faith develops in the valleys of life when the dream is delayed.
Martin Luther King had a dream for racial equality. He didn't see it happen in his lifetime. We still hope and pray for it today. But that didn't mean he didn't have faith. Moses had a dream of going into the promised land. But he died in the desert. He never did get to go into the promised land. But he's still a great man of faith. In fact, the bible says later he did get to see it because God, on the Mount of Transfiguration, brought him, with Elijah, to Jesus Christ and they talked. He did get to see it, eventually. What am I saying? I'm saying that faith is trusting God even when you don't get the answer that you want.
You know what I've discovered. I've found that if you could understand everything about God, and understand why He does answer the way He does, when it doesn't make sense to you, if He were small enough for you to understand, He wouldn't be big enough for your problems. If you could understand everything about God, He wouldn't be God. He'd just be human. I'd have to say in my own life, that the very hurts and pains that I have prayed for relief from over the years that were not removed, were the very hurts and pains that caused the eventual greatest blessing in my life. Made me what I am. Built character in my life. Gave me the ministry God wanted me to have. The very things that I wanted most desperately to be removed, so I'd be comfortable, were the very things that shaped me to be who He wanted me to be. And He wants to do that in your life too.
Now, the Bible says, that without faith, it is impossible to please God. So I hope you're going to stick with me for the rest of this week, because we're going to look at this in detail. Faith is not just intellectual assent. You know, "I believe in God." Big deal. The Bible says the devil believes in God too. Demons tremble, but you're not going to find them in heaven. Why? because it's more than intellectual assent. Faith, get this, is a lifestyle. What is it? It's a lifestyle that believes when I don't see it, obeys when I don't understand it, gives when I don't have it, persists when I don't feel like it, thanks God before I receive it, and trusts God if I don't get it. That's what it means to live by faith.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
In fact, sometimes, we pray for God to remove a difficulty, or a problem, and instead of taking it away, He gives you the strength to go through it. Now, why does He do that? I've said it many times. God is more interested in your character than He is in your comfort. God didn't say, "I've come that you might have comfort." God wants to build character. He wants to make you a person of integrity and stability and values. And somebody who has sturdy essence in your life. Character. Christ-likeness. And the only way you get character is by going through tough times. And if you didn't have problems, how would you know God could bail you out? You wouldn't know how to trust God. As I said a few weeks ago, you don't know God is all you need until He's all you've got. And then you have to depend on Him.
Look Hebrews 11:35-40 - "They were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better..." Now hold on here. He's talking about heroes of the faith. He said these people had promises and dreams and they didn't come true and they're still heroes of the faith? Yes. Because they trusted even if they didn't get it. Anybody can trust God when things are going great. But real faith develops in the valleys of life when the dream is delayed.
Martin Luther King had a dream for racial equality. He didn't see it happen in his lifetime. We still hope and pray for it today. But that didn't mean he didn't have faith. Moses had a dream of going into the promised land. But he died in the desert. He never did get to go into the promised land. But he's still a great man of faith. In fact, the bible says later he did get to see it because God, on the Mount of Transfiguration, brought him, with Elijah, to Jesus Christ and they talked. He did get to see it, eventually. What am I saying? I'm saying that faith is trusting God even when you don't get the answer that you want.
You know what I've discovered. I've found that if you could understand everything about God, and understand why He does answer the way He does, when it doesn't make sense to you, if He were small enough for you to understand, He wouldn't be big enough for your problems. If you could understand everything about God, He wouldn't be God. He'd just be human. I'd have to say in my own life, that the very hurts and pains that I have prayed for relief from over the years that were not removed, were the very hurts and pains that caused the eventual greatest blessing in my life. Made me what I am. Built character in my life. Gave me the ministry God wanted me to have. The very things that I wanted most desperately to be removed, so I'd be comfortable, were the very things that shaped me to be who He wanted me to be. And He wants to do that in your life too.
Now, the Bible says, that without faith, it is impossible to please God. So I hope you're going to stick with me for the rest of this week, because we're going to look at this in detail. Faith is not just intellectual assent. You know, "I believe in God." Big deal. The Bible says the devil believes in God too. Demons tremble, but you're not going to find them in heaven. Why? because it's more than intellectual assent. Faith, get this, is a lifestyle. What is it? It's a lifestyle that believes when I don't see it, obeys when I don't understand it, gives when I don't have it, persists when I don't feel like it, thanks God before I receive it, and trusts God if I don't get it. That's what it means to live by faith.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
I just want to say wow. thank you for this post. I ran across your blog after googling a doubt/frustration. I am a christian but am struggling with faith and doubt and confusion. Your words have really ignited a fire in me and has given me a renewed FAITH. Thank you for allowing God to use you as a vessel to help people like me.
ReplyDeleteOne love and God Bless