BEING FAITHFUL WHEN THE BLESSING IS NOT YOURS Hebrews 11:8-10, Genesis 12:4-8
My brothers and my sisters as we study this series on faith, I’m reminded of a bit of wisdom that my friend and golf instructor has given me. He said and I quote “When you make the motion, the motion makes the shot” in other words he is letting me know that when the proper mechanics are applied, the proper shot is accomplished. Likewise, when it comes to our faith, we can change the wording a little and we can say, “When faith is applied, your faith can make the unseen a reality.” As we study this series, we should consider the types of faith presented to us in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. While we’ve seen faith’s description in the first three verses of the chapter, verse four showed us the Worshiping Faith of Abel. Verses 5&6 showed us the Walking Faith of Enoch and verse 7 showed us the Working Faith of Noah. But today, we will cover the Obedient, Hopeful Faith of Abraham.
While we saw the types of faith that Abel, Enoch and Noah had exhibited and what motivated them to do what was required, we will take a good look at Abraham’s obedient faith and witness what motivated his obedience to the Lord, first leave his homeland and kindred, then secondly to start out into a journey with God’s guidance, to seek a land that will be promised to his decedents. Now it might be true that some might not need motivation, but, for the rest of us, need something or somebody to motivate us to get the job done. But when it comes to the Father, our motivation should be toward pleasing him. So, if pleasing God means for us to be faithful, even when it is inconvenient to us, then pleasing God would mean that you are willing to deny yourselves, regardless of the out come. For Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”
So in order for us to get the full picture of this text we need to venture back again into the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 12 verses 4 through 8, there we can learn how to be faithful when the blessing is not ours. (Read Genesis 12:4-8)
As we can observe in verses 1 through 3, we can find Abraham or Abram as his name is found in the text, in the midst of a challenge that would lead him to leave his country, kinfolks, and father’ house, in pursuit of a land that God would show him. The challenge was multiple, first, he had to leave his comfort zone. And secondly, he had to go where God would show him. His major challenge was himself, because he did not have an idea of where God was sending him, so the challenge was for him to dependant on God and His Word. Even today we all have our own personal challenges. The challenge to meet strenuous work schedules. The challenge of nurturing our families according to the principals of the Bible. The challenge to please a husband or a wife. The challenge to be accepted by our peers. But whatever your challenge may be, the lesson in this text is to learn to trust God and His way of doing things and to depend on His love to guide us, even when we cannot view the direction that He is taking us.
In the study text we find Abraham following the directive of the LORD, by leaving the land of Haran in which he had been staying for the last five years. It was there in Haran that the LORD spoke to him and said “Get thee out of thy country” Now, Abraham did not leave the land alone, but with him was his nephew Lot, his wife Sarai, all his substance, and servants that he received in Haran. And they all went forth to go into the land of Canaan. Once they came to the land of Canaan they found that the land was occupied. Then something profound happened in verse 7. The LORD again appeared to Abram, and said, “unto thy seed will I give this land”; Now you like me is probably thinking, LORD if you are going to give this land to his descendants, why did you instruct him to leave his father’s house, his country, and kindred, to guide him into this land of promise, just to tell him that you are going to give this land to his seed? Now we might be thinking this but, it never crossed Abrahams’ mind, but what he did would help us to understand how to be faithful when the blessing is not ours.
First of all . . .
1. HE DID NOT LET HIS AGE GET IN THE WAY OF HIS OBEDIENCE (v.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.”
First of all we must recognize that Abraham was seventy and five years old, and was not too old to follow what most of us would consider as an unreasonable request. Instead of Abraham informing God of his age, which God already knew, Abraham packed up his things and did just what God had instructed. Now remember this is the second time in five years that he was instructed to move, and Abraham in spite of his age did exactly what the LORD had ordered. Look, what he did; He gathered up his sixty-five year old wife, Lot his nephew, his servants and all that he had, and went forth toward the land of Canaan. He packed them up not by force or against their wills, but with very little persuasion. Sarai, his wife, would be sure to go with him, because God had joined them together, and nothing would be able to separate them. And if Abraham would leave all, to follow God, Sarai would leave all to follow Abraham, though neither of them knew where they were going.
Upon arrival, Abraham had very little comfort in the land that God had promised, the reason was that he was the stranger. The Canaanite people were there in the land, and these people were not hospitable to those who would come into their land to occupy, so he could not even have ground to pitch his tent on, unless he had their permission. Thus the accursed Canaanites seemed to be in better shape than Abraham who was the father of the blessed seed of the promise. We should note that even today, people who do not attend church, seems to have more than the people of God. They appear to have better jobs, and better homes, and better communities to live in, but just because they have those things to boast about, we the people of God have a Father that is able to supply our need, according to his riches. So, if they have big jobs in government, we can have better jobs, that allow us to get paid, without the stress. If they have big houses, we can have houses that are homes and paid for, because our father has supplied our needs.
Although he was in Canaan, he was not to settle in that land. Verse 6 says that he passed through the land, and stayed in the mountains between Bethel and Hai. Now there is something interesting that we should note about where Abraham and his family stayed, and that was between Bethel and Ai. Bethel meant the House of God, and Ai meant A place of ruin. And Isn’t it amazing that Abraham, while on a mission from God stays between cities that meant “the House of God” and “the place of ruin” Even today that is where many were found before we gave our hearts to Jesus. We are found somewhere between the House of God and the place of ruin.
Secondly v.7a let’ us know that . . .
2. HE DIDN’T LET THE NEWS HE RECEIVED CHALLENGE HIS FAITH (v.7a)
“And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:”
After Abraham and those who were with him had passed through the land into Shechem, and the plain of Moreh, a land that did not know God, Abraham once more needed to hear from God. As we revisit the story of Abraham, we find that God spoke to Abraham on two different occasions. Once He spoke to Abraham in the land of Haran, there he informed him according to Genesis 12:1 to “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into a land which I shall show thee.” Then here in verse 7 it tells us that “the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:” here in this seventh verse is where Abraham received some interesting news. After all that he had done and the distance he had traveled, God did not tell him that the land that was promised would be his, but he was told by God that the land will belong to his descendants.
Now, look at the flow of the message, “unto thy seed will I give this land.” Now if Abraham doubted God for one moment, he would have argued that it was not his seed that gave up everything. And why did he have to be a stranger and a sojourner in the land that God had promised? But Abraham knew that it was not his to have, it belonged to his seed as God had instructed. So, Abraham needed to hear this disturbing news from God, in order to demonstrate his obedience to God, that would allow him to complete his mission for God.
Finally . . .
3. ABRAHAM DIDN’T POUT, HE SIMPLY WORSHIPED. (V.7b)
“and there built he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”
When Abram received this news from the LORD, he did not do what most of us would have done, and that is to POUT. After all the Canaanite people did not treat him as if he was on a mission from God. There was no ticker tape parade, no one giving him high fives, or singing Oh he’ a jolly good fellow, in fact they treated him like any other stranger passing through their land.
By right of the mission one would have expected that Abraham having had such an extraordinary call to Canaan, would have had some great event to announce his arrival there. But, little notice was taken toward him, but still God would have him to live by faith, and to only look upon Canaan, as the land of promise. Seeing that none of these things happened when Abraham had come to Canaan, Abraham in spite of his up bringing, loved and honored God. So, instead of pouting, he decided to build an altar unto the Lord that had appeared to him, not one time but on various occasions. And he did these things on what was call special occasion especially when God appeared and spoke to him, right then and right there he built an altar for worship. These altars were for communing purposes that he would return the visit to God, and everywhere Abram pitched a tent, an altar was erected, so he could keep his fellowship with God, as he viewed it, it should not be broken off due to his negligence. He always thanked God for all he had done for him.
CONCLUSION
Well, while we come to the close, we have much to learn from Abram, (1) He didn’t let his age get in the way, (2) He didn’t let the news he received, challenge his faith, (3) He didn’t pout when things didn’t go his way, but he worshiped God. I’m reminded when I used to play football, I remember the coaches telling our offensive linemen, that if they did not block for the quarterbacks and the running backs we would never win a game. When those big boys blocked we scored touchdowns, and while we got all the glory and while we got all the write ups they got nothing. And that what happened to Abram, he moved from his kindred, and he had to move from his comfort zone, he was inconvenient for the sake of the promise seed, and while they got all of the write ups, and the promised land. All Abraham got was heart aches, and a chance to see what God was about to do.
We have to learn that when God gives us instructions, even when the benefits are not ours, we need to learn to do as God instructed. You see sometimes when He give us a mission, we feel that because it is a blessing for someone else that God is not fair. But I’m here today to tell you that we are beneficiaries of whatever God promise. You see when it appears that we are not receiving a blessing after doing what we consider all the work. I need you to know that God is still blessing us. Just like it appeared that Abraham came out on the short end of the blessing. God blessed him anyway.
He was the father of faith.
His seed would bless the world.
Now, you may be wondering how did he blessed us. Well he blessed us because through Abraham’ seed it was 14 generations from Abraham to David, and 28 generations from David to Jesus, that makes forty-two generations.
Now if you have not guessed where the blessing is coming from, I want you to know that the blessing came through Jesus who is the Christ.
He came to be our sacrifice;
He came because we needed a Savior that would never let us down;
He came to set us free from sin;
He came because there is no other name under the heavens where by men can be saved.
