Read Hebrews 11:8-12
Each week, we have a group of ministers that meet over lunch to encourage each other and sometimes we plan sermon series together. This month we’re focusing on obstacles to healthy relationships. Last week, Jeff spoke about only giving the leftovers, today I want to discuss leaving God out.
Some of you may be thinking- Wait a minute, Scott, you just read about Abraham’s faith, how does this fit? After all, God called Abraham at the age of 75 to move to a place that he didn’t know, promised him he’d have a son, and Paul even tells the Romans Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. How could this possibly fit in with a discussion about leaving out God?
Here’s the thing- we often take the men and women of the Bible and put them on pedestals. I often here Hebrews 11 referred to as the Hall of Faith. However, God not only revealed these people’s strengths, He worked through their weaknesses. When Abraham packed up his bags and left, he didn’t travel a straight line from A to B. His journey looked more like this picture here, doing well for a while, faltering here or there (I showed a graphic with a straight line from A to B on the left, and a line with loops and curves going from A to B on the right).
It seems like a no brainer- why would a believer ever try to leave out the God of the omnis (meaning all)? We serve a God who is omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (everywhere), and omniscient (all knowing), why would we leave Him out? As I was considering this, I began getting text messages from someone I know if St. Louis. They were bummed out because they had figured out they needed to stop pursuing a relationship with a professed atheist. We messaged back and forth for a bit about what had happened, and then something she said gave me a light bulb moment. I told her this conversation fits right in with Sunday’s message, got her permission to share and asked her, “Why would you consider pursuing a relationship with an atheist at this stage of your life?”
It was interesting to watch how her answers lined up with what I was preparing in this message. She mentioned things like personal desires, not wanting to wait any longer, concerns she wasn’t good enough, fear of being alone, and worry that things will never work out. As we look deeper into the lives of Abraham and Sarah, we’ll see these excuses come into play as they develop into these heroes of faith.
The first excuse we use to leave God out is fear. In Genesis 12:10-20 (I gave the references for people to look for themselves, but told the stories instead of reading each one), God made His promise and Abraham packed his bags and moved. Shortly after, a famine strikes the land so Abraham takes Sarah and his entourage down to Egypt. On the way, Abraham asks Sarah to tell the people that she’s his sister (turns out they’re half-brother and sister AND married, but that was allowed back then). She agrees. When the Egyptian princes see Sarah, they tell Pharaoh about this beautiful woman and he takes her in to become one of his wives. God strikes the Egyptians with plagues and Pharaoh figures out what happened. He returns Sarah to Abraham and sends them packing along with several parting gifts.
I’d love to say that I’m a person who lives without fear. Many people look at my size and hear about my past ministry in the inner city and assume there’s no way I would fear anything, but it’s simply not true. There are times that I’m frightened at the idea of evangelism. We had one time when we set out our basketball hoop in the alley for the boys to come shoot around before Bible study, there was a guy about my height with a big afro and ornery look that would stand a house or two down and just watch. He made me nervous because I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. One day the ball bounced off the rim and rolled to his feet. I thought, “Here goes nothing,” and walked down to retrieve the ball, inviting him to join us in the process. We got to talking and he found out about our Bible studies and the next morning drug a whole group of teens out of bed to be at Bible study with us.
The second excuse we use to leave God out is impatience. In Genesis 16:1-6, we see that ten years have gone by since God promised Abraham a son at the age of 75. Sarah gets impatient, figures there’s no way she’s having a child, and offers Abraham her Egyptian maidservant Hagar. Of course, Hagar gets pregnant, causing strife in the house. She becomes haughty towards Elizabeth and Elizabeth eventually kicks her out. That strife continues today as the descendants of Ishmael are the Arab peoples.
How often do we pray expecting immediate results? God give me this and give it to me now. The Chicago Mass Choir sang a black gospel song back in the 90s that addressed this very issue. The words go like this:
You can't hurry God
You just have to wait
Trust and give Him time
No matter how long it takes
He’s a God that you can't hurry
You don't have to worry
He may not come when you want Him
But He's right on time, right on time.
The third excuse we use to leave out God is doubt. We find two episodes revealing this in Genesis 17:15 21 and 18:9-15. Another 14 years have passed, Abraham is now 99 years old, Sarah is 90, and the only child on the scene remains to be Ishmael. God returns to Abraham and repeats His promise, revealing that Ishmael was not the fulfillment of that promise. We often focus on how Sarah got caught laughing in her tent and God calling her out on it, but have you ever noticed that Abraham laughed first? When God told him he was going to have a son with Sarah, he didn’t just give a quick chuckle, yeah right, kind of laugh. No, he fell on his face, rolled around on the ground (someone would have been texting ROFL), then suddenly stopped to look at God with that oh you’re serious expression.
Have you ever doubted? Maybe you sent up a prayer that didn’t get answered the way you expected or you had a bad experience at church and it’s left you questioning things. For now, rest assured knowing that God is big enough to handle your doubt.
The fourth excuse we use when leaving God out is worry. In Genesis 18:22-33, God reveals to Abraham that He’s going to destroy Sodom for their wicked ways. Knowing this is where his nephew Lot is living, I believe Abraham became worried about what might happen and, can you believe it, began to negotiate with God. “What if there are 50 righteous people? 45? 40? 30? 20? 10?” At one point, even Abraham recognized how crazy he must be sounding, yet persisted. Each time, God assured him that if there were that many righteous to be found, He would spare the city. Such a sad state of affairs, when we see that not even 10 people could be found righteous.
I know of a man who because of his faith in God and knowing that the Bible tells us not to worry about tomorrow, was determined that he wouldn’t worry about things. But he had a lot of “concerns”. Often those concerns involved how the church was changing musical styles to become more welcoming to a younger audience. But he never worried.
The fifth excuse we often use when we leave out God is self-centeredness. In Genesis 20:1-18, Abraham takes his family among the Philistines and once again becomes concerned with preserving his own life. He thinks back to how things worked out before- he’d been given sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels and servants in addition to surviving and keeping his wife. He has Sarah lie again, telling the people she is Abraham’s sister. King Abimelech likes what he sees and has her brought in to become his wife. God comes to Abimelech in a dream and reveals the truth of the situation. Once again, Abimelech returns Sarah along with a bunch of wonderful parting gifts.
We still do this today, don’t we? We convince ourselves it’s just easier to do it on our own. Sometimes we even claim the credit that is due to God. There’s a story about a carpenter who was working on a steep roof laying new shingles. A gust of wind threw him off balance and he began to slide off the roof. Realizing the three story drop would hurt when he reached bottom, he called out to God for help. Just then, a nail snagged his pants and his momentum came to a halt. He called out again, “Never mind, God, I’ve got this one!”
Despite all these failures, God remains faithful. We see in Genesis 21:1-7 that Abraham and Sarah finally have a son and name him Isaac. When Abraham was operating in fear and self-centeredness, God provided through gifts from both Pharaoh and Abimelech. These men acted like they were the ones in the wrong when they had been deceived by Abraham. In times of impatience and doubt, God continued to point Abraham toward His promises. On at least three occasions, God returned and reminded Abraham of what was yet to come. When Abraham was caught up in worry, God saved his nephew Lot and his family from the destruction that took place in Sodom.
The promise that God will be faithful remains for us today. We all have times of fear, impatience, doubt, worry, and self-centeredness, but God remains true to His word through it all. In those times that we make excuses and try to leave God out, He continues to have the answers for us. Someone compiled this list of excuses we often give and God’s response already given in scripture.
We say, “It’s impossible.”
God says, “All things are possible with Me.”
We say, “I can’t do it.”
God says, “You can do all things through Christ.”
We say, “I’m too tired.”
God says, “Come to Me, I will give you rest.”
We say, “I’m always worried and frustrated.”
God says, “Cast all your cares on Me.”
We say, “I can’t go on.”
God says, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
We say, “I can’t figure things out.”
God says, “I will direct your steps.”
We say, “I’m not able.”
God says, “I am able.”
We say, “It’s not worth it.”
God says, “It will be worth it.”
We say, “I can’t manage.”
God says, “I will supply all your needs.”
We say, “I’m afraid.”
God says, “I have not given you a spirit of fear but of power and
love and self-control.”
We say, “I don’t have enough faith.”
God says, “I’ve given everyone a measure of faith.”
We say, “I’m not smart enough.”
God says, “I give you wisdom.”
We say, “I feel all alone.”
God says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
At the beginning of this message, I shared a series of text messages in which my friend resolved she was no longer going to leave God out of her relationships. I got another text from her last night. She met someone for coffee and began getting to know him by asking about his faith. He seems to be solidly in a relationship with Jesus and was impressed that she asked about that first. He’s asked her out on a date. Now, I’m not going to tell you that our answers will always come this quickly, but I do want to encourage you that good things come to those who not only stop leaving God out, but put Him first. This begins by submitting our lives to Him through baptism, so we want to give you the opportunity to respond to Him today. Invitation.
