This World Has a Way of Shaking Your Faith
Hold On in Organized religion and Trust God - Life is a Journey, part iv
Feeling helpless or hopeless? Concur on in faith and trust God! Like Abraham, don't lose promise in the promises of God.
Has your faith grown over the years, or have you lot grown tired of waiting for God's promises? We need a healthy fear, reverence, and belief that God tin can practise annihilation; that He'll fulfill His promises.
Let get and allow God be God. Choose today whom you will dearest and serve. Allow your faith in God to flourish. Allow your trust in God to strengthen.
Through this serial, you'll learn how to live well & enjoy God'southward promises. You are loved by God; He knows your proper name. He has a plan for your life. Get helpful advice, encouragement, and promise for a life well lived in 2021 and beyond.
Are you walking in faith and victory? Set your eyes on the promises of God. Y'all merely take 1 life journey; say yep to Jesus. Like Abraham, learn to walk in organized religion and trust God with all your heart.
Permit go and trust that God will fulfill His promises.
YOUR DECISIONS DETERMINE YOUR DESTINY.
We are continuing our series, "Life is a journey." At times, we are not sure where life's choices will take us. The decisions yous make volition determine your concrete and spiritual destiny. The decisions we make along the way have consequences, some good, some not so good. But in both cases, we can learn from them and attempt to make meliorate decisions the next time.
Abraham needed to acquire to trust God. Peradventure we all exercise.
We've been post-obit Abraham'due south journey, his skillful decisions and bad decisions; his faith and failures. By this time, Abraham has learned to trust God in his life journey. Oh, Abraham has made a few poor choices, and he will have to live with the consequences of his poor choices on life's journey. We all will. Only Abraham was learning to walk in faith and trust God fifty-fifty in difficult circumstances.
We should all recall the truth that is constitute in Lamentations:
'I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well call back them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord's swell beloved nosotros are non consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morn; dandy is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the conservancy of the Lord' (Lam iii:19-26, NIV).
When you are feeling helpless, hopeless or down spiritually, hold on in faith and trust God.
Equally I accept said, Abraham has fabricated more a few poor decisions along life's journey:
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Having Sarah lie and say that they were blood brother and sis, not simply in one case simply twice.
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Attempting to help God out by having a child with Sarah'due south handmaiden, Hagar, and thinking that Ishmael could be the child of promise.
Lies bring with them messy circumstances. Lies ofttimes cause bitterness and pain that will linger, and they tin can affect generations to come.
Abraham will soon larn to concord on in faith and to look upon the Lord. The fact is, Abraham needed to learn to expect upon the Lord, rather than try to take things into his own easily. Abraham needed to hold on in faith and trust God. Now, even in a greater way.
God Keeps His promises, fifty-fifty When information technology Seems Impossible.
Friends, at times yous may find the longer you walk with the Lord, the bigger and more challenging the tests. Each test, each conclusion, each option to trust Christ is an opportunity to stretch your faith.
We make spiritual choices each day. Some choices are more important than others and nonetheless each will build one upon the other.
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Learning from both the skilful and the poor choices is important because when you do not learn from your poor choices, you are bound to echo them until you do learn.
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God tin can turn a poor spiritual choice into a faith-building feel if you lot can recognize the poor choice and and then realize God's hand in deliverance.
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Learning from the skillful choices will reinforce and build your religion and confidence to trust God even more then you can easily brand good spiritual choices the side by side time.
For Abraham, it had been x long years from the time God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would accept a child. Sarah has a bright thought to have a child through Hagar and Abraham goes along with the idea. They decide to try and help God out and devise a scheme, a manmade shortcut. That manmade brusk-cut involved Abraham having a child with Sarah'southward handmaiden Hagar, in the endeavour to fulfill God's hope of a child.
I take said this before: man'due south shortcut to help God is never good. It always gets messy as both Abraham and Sarah volition rapidly larn.
Abraham and Sarah's big idea, to assistance God out, now entangles Hagar. Hagar has a son named Ishmael and Abraham wanted Ishmael (Hagar's son) to be the child of promise but no, God had told Abraham that Sarah volition have a son and he would be the kid of promise. Fourteen more years go by and withal no kid of hope. 20-four years have now passed from the time God chosen Abraham and promised that he would become a great nation, that his name would be great, and the promise of a child. Abraham believed his descendants would possess the land that God was to evidence him, and withal still no child of promise and however no descendants to possess the land.
Information technology took 25 years of waiting for Abraham and Sarah to receive the promise of God. They take a child and name him Isaac. What joy and rejoicing that must have occurred. Isaac was built-in and Abraham and Sarah loved Isaac. The long-awaited child of promise is at present hither! The promise of Abraham's descendants to possess the land was beginning to come up true.
"Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah equally he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ii Sarah became significant and diameter a son to Abraham in his old historic period, at the very fourth dimension God had promised him. iii Abraham gave the proper noun Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days one-time, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. five Abraham was a hundred years sometime when his son Isaac was born to him" (Genesis 21:ane-5).
Remember by the fourth dimension Isaac is born, Abraham is about 100 and Sarah is 90 years old. Information technology had been a long time waiting, only information technology was worth it, Isaac is born. God is faithful regarding His promises. Things are skillful.
God Tested Abraham.
Some years have passed, and God is going to test Abraham.
'Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, whom yous honey—Isaac—and get to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him at that place as a burnt offering on a mount I volition show you." three Early the side by side morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut plenty woods for the burnt offering, he ready out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third twenty-four hour period Abraham looked upwardly and saw the place in the distance. v He said to his servants, "Stay hither with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We volition worship and then we will come dorsum to you."
6 Abraham took the woods for the burnt offering and placed information technology on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the pocketknife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke upwards and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yep, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offer?" 8 Abraham answered, "God himself volition provide the lamb for the burnt offer, my son." And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar at that place and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the chantry, on peak of the wood. 10 So he reached out his mitt and took the pocketknife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a mitt on the male child," he said. "Practice not do anything to him. At present I know that you fearfulness God, considering y'all have non withheld from me your son, your only son." (Genesis 22:1-12).
Ishmael and his female parent, Hagar, accept been sent away long before Abraham experiences this spiritual exam.
Isaac is at present in his late boyhood years. He understands about worshiping God and building an altar to offer a sacrifice. Isaac would have been able to stop his male parent from tying him and placing him upon the wood and altar. But he did not. Isaac trusted his father and he trusted God. The journey to where God told Abraham to offering upwards Isaac as a sacrifice is some 45-50 miles away and volition accept about iii days. Isaac does not know all the details virtually the cede and up to this indicate Abraham only knows what God told him. Each pace towards the region of Moriah must take been gut wrenching for Abraham. Each pace Abraham took, he must have wondered how this was going to work, and however Abraham believed and trusted God. By the terminate of the 3-day journey, Abraham was fully convinced in his eye that he and Isaac would render together from sacrificing to the Lord.
'Early on the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him 2 of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set up out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third mean solar day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. five He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. Nosotros volition worship and and then we will come back to yous."' (Genesis 22:3-5).
Abraham wasted no fourth dimension in obeying once God told him what to do. The next day, they departed for the identify God would testify him. Abraham must have had accented faith in God. Abraham displayed a reverence and dedication to God that must have grown over the years. Abraham had a healthy fear, reverence, and belief that God could practice anything.
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The religion he spoke out when he told his servants, "we will worship and and then we will come dorsum to you."
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The faith that Abraham spoke to his son when he told Isaac, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering."
Abraham believed God; he believed in the promises of God, even if he was unsure how the hope would be fulfilled. Abraham did not know all the details at the fourth dimension; even so, Abraham was walking, speaking, and interim in faith, still in his center in that location must accept been pain. The pain of offer up his son as a sacrifice.
When God tests you, will y'all Trust Him for the Outcome?
Like Abraham, nosotros practice non always see all the details in life. But we can believe God knows what He is doing, and that God knows all the details.
Do y'all take faith in the promises of God? Practice you trust God enough to pace out in religion fifty-fifty if all the details are non filled in all the same?
That is what Abraham did. Abraham was fix to trust God with his son. I believe Abraham believed with all his heart that he and Isaac, alive and well, would return to the place where his ii servants were waiting. This test was a exam of faith, simply it very well could be said to exist a test of Abraham's dear for God. Did Abraham dear his son Isaac more than he reverenced, trusted and loved God?
The Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee once wrote that Isaac "represents many gifts of God'due south grace. Before God gives them, our easily are empty. Later they are full. Sometimes God reaches out his hand to take ours in fellowship. We need an empty hand to put into his. But when we take received his gifts and are nursing them to ourselves, our hands are full, and when God puts out his paw, we accept no empty hand for him." When that happens, we demand to permit go of the gift and have hold of God himself. Nee adds, "Isaac can be washed without, just God is eternal."
Abraham needed to be willing to let get and let God be God and in doing so to take hold of ahold of God's manus in faith, and trust God for the event. Information technology seems that Abraham believed God could raise his son from the expressionless, fifty-fifty if Abraham did not know how God would do it. Abraham believed in his centre that the descendants that God promised, who would 1 twenty-four hours number like the dust of the earth, would come up from Isaac, but Isaac had no children yet.
Abraham believed the promise of God was true, which would hateful Isaac would need to be live.
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God would need to heighten Isaac from the dead, or
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God Himself, would provide a cede.
When God himself provided a substitute sacrifice, Abraham received his son back alive, every bit from the dead.
God Provides What We Demand Most
Faith is more than than words. Faith is seen in actions and is from the heart. Over time Abraham's faith had grown to the bespeak that he believed God could enhance his son Isaac dorsum to life. Abraham's religion is seen in what he said to his servants:
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The male child and I will get.
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We will worship.
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We volition come up dorsum to you.
Abraham's faith is seen in his actions:
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Abraham journeyed 3 days to the place of sacrifice.
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Abraham bound his son and placed him on the altar.
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Abraham was set up to offer his son as a sacrifice, but God had him end.
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God provided a ram, a substitute sacrifice in identify of Isaac.
It is here we learn ane of God'southward names: Jehovah-Jireh, meaning the Lord volition provide. God provided a ram, a substitute cede for Isaac.
God likewise provided a substitute for the states on the cross. We were once dead in our sins, merely by religion we are made alive in Christ Jesus. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth. Jesus is the cede that God Himself provided.
Abraham held on to his faith in God and trusted God regarding his son Isaac and all the promises of God withal to come. The promise of God himself to provide the Lamb of God to sacrifice the commutation, for Isaac and for us.
Agree on in Faith and Trust God
Has your religion grown over the years? Do you have faith to trust God with the most precious person yous dearest? God desires your center, not your money, talents, or ability.
The pain that Abraham must have felt, with being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac is merely a fraction of the pain that God the male parent must accept experienced when Jesus was about to be tried and placed upon a cross and physically crucified.
God stepped in and stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac; all the same, God did not finish the sacrifice of His i and only Son, Jesus. For the believer in Christ, God Himself provided the sacrifice, Jesus—His one and just Son.
Jesus took our place. Nosotros were once expressionless in our sins, and because of Jesus we are made live in Christ. All we need do is believe and place our faith in Christ. Jesus took our identify and paid the debt of sin that nosotros could never pay. Every believer, being spiritually dead in sin, is made live in Christ by religion in Christ. Recall, Abrahams faith was credited to him equally righteousness, and because of your faith in Christ, God will credit Christ'south righteousness upon y'all. You, like Isaac, volition exist spiritually raised to life.
Like Abraham, concord on to organized religion in Christ and trust him with all your eye. Let go of the lies and empty promises of the world and take the hand of God. Place your faith in Christ and confess your sins. He is faithful and simply to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
We, like Abraham, demand to larn to wait upon the Lord, rather than endeavor to take things into our own easily. We, like Abraham, demand to learn to walk in faith and trust God with all our heart.
Like Isaac, Jesus trusted God his father. The anguish Jesus must have felt in the garden, where drops of blood vicious. Notwithstanding, Jesus willingly went to the cross. The pain must have been great, knowing what was near to happen and nonetheless God allowed Jesus to exist crucified and die.
But, praise God, Jesus rose from the dead and is alive forever.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and just Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish only have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the earth to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, merely whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God'southward one and only Son" (John three:16-18).
Choose today whom you will love and serve. Permit your religion in God to flourish. Allow your trust in God to strengthen. Hold on in faith and trust the Lord with all your middle, every twenty-four hour period of Life'south journeying.
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Other Sermons in This Series
Other Sermons on Genesis
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Source: https://agfaithchapel.org/sermons-messages/hold-on-in-faith-and-trust-god-life-is-a-journey-part-4
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