"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:18-21
Tonight we're going to talk about a guy in the Bible named Abraham. His name is a little confusing because he was originally called Abram and then God changed his name to Abraham, so the earlier verses refer to him as Abram and the later ones as Abraham, I'm just going to use Abraham throughout this message because it's easier.
In order for us to really understand Abraham's story, we need to time travel a little, well, actually a lot - like 4,000 years. We need to go back to see what the world Abraham lived in was like.
The first thing we need to know about Abraham's world is that the people, for the most part (the men at least) lived in a clan or "nation" with their families. One man might break off and start a new clan, but it's not like our world where we grow up and move wherever your job or career takes you. You stayed with your family group. You lived together, moved together, supported each other with your resources and and grew in numbers in order to protect your people from warring clans.
The second thing you need to know is that, in this time and culture, each clan had a male leader and then after this male leader's death, his firstborn son, also known as the HEIR, would take over that role as leader. Having a "firstborn son" was an extremely important thing!
We're going to pick up with Abraham's story in Genesis 12.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3
So, this was one of those man-leaves-family-group-to-start-another-clan times. And it was not a small deal. Not like, "Hey, Mom and Dad, I'm gonna move out now and go start a family of my own." He was leaving all those things that we talked about - the land he had known, the support of his people, the resources and wealth they had attained, the protection and power they had in numbers. God told him to leave it all and go start over again and that was a really big deal. A really scary big deal.
But God didn't just tell him to go without making a promise to him first: "I WILL make you into a GREAT nation."
There was a slight problem with this promise, though. And we read more about it a couple chapters later.
Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.” But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith." Genesis 15:1-6
The promise of God to Abraham was that his family would become a great nation and that his descendants would be as many as the stars. But in order to become a nation or even have descendants at all, Abraham needed to have children! Specifically, he needed to have a first born son to be his heir.
The problem, as we read, was that Sarah, Abraham's wife was not able to have children. Ten years had passed after God had revealed this promise to Abraham for the first time. In TEN years nothing had happened. And they were getting old. Like your grandparents or even your great-grandparents kind of old. Like 85ish years old.
Another thing you need to know about the culture of Abraham's time was that having an heir and having children to grow your clan was SO important that if a wife could not bear a child for her husband, it was completely acceptable and normal for her to find someone else who could do the job for her. And then this child would be considered hers and become the heir.
So, Genesis 16:1-2 tells us how this goes down:
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, 'The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.' And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.
It just made sense. God had made this promise, but after ten years some doubt had started to sneak in. They still believed God's promise to them, but since it wasn't happening, they thought that maybe THEY were doing something wrong. Maybe God was just waiting for them to do what was normal and accepted at the time. So they did it. But all they ended up doing was putting a world-sized border around an out-of-this-world God.
When God made His promise to Abraham, He made him look up at the sky - at the millions of stars he could see (because he didn't live in a world of city and suburban smog and street lights!). He made Abraham look outside the earth - outside of this world - because His promises are not of this world. But when God didn't seem to be coming through, Abraham and Sarah turned their eyes back to this world for a solution.
It might have been a good, common sense, culturally normal idea, but God didn't honor it. That son, Ishmael, was not the heir, because God had a much bigger plan and He didn't need worldly common sense to make it happen!
For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about doubt and the struggle that it sometimes is to believe that God even exists. But tonight I'm talking about an even bigger struggle. If you are a follower of Jesus in this room tonight, this is actually the biggest way we doubt God.
Most of us are pretty well sold on the fact that God exists and Jesus is alive. But there is a big difference between believing IN God and BELIEVING God.
Last weekend a few of us went on the first Breakaway Retreat and on Saturday night, we got the chance to ride the Giant Swing. How many of you were around and went on Breakaway in your middle school years? How many of you rode the Giant Swing? I have stood at the bottom of that swing for hours of my life taking pictures and video of people screaming their heads off. But this time I was the one doing it. And I screamed. A LOT. You can ask Tim and Josh because they were on either side of me.
Here's the deal: I could stand there and look at that swing and say I believe IN it. I can believe that it exists. I can believe that it looks like this fun, amazing free-falling thrill. I can believe that it's safe and that I'm not going to die or be seriously injured doing it.
But until I actually step up on that platform, get buckled in, and do it, do I really BELIEVE those things?
I can stand around and look at God and think He's pretty awesome and hear from other people who also believe that He's awesome, but if I'm not actually doing what He says, do I really BELIEVE Him?
Back in Genesis 15:6, right after God promised Abraham that his descendants were going to be as numerous as the stars, it says this, "And Abram BELIEVED the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith."
Just like Abraham, we all have these high moments where it's easy to say that we BELIEVE God. It all seems so real in that moment. We really do trust Him and believe that He's going to do amazing things in our lives!
But when time passes and the doubts start creeping in, our trust starts to fade. And we start looking around at the common sense the world is offering us, which all really does seem to "make sense". And so we do what we think or what the world thinks is best. Like Abraham and Sarah, we end up putting a world-sized border on an out-of-this-world God.
For example...
"Having sex outside of marriage is fine as long as you're being safe, God can't expect people in this day and age to wait until they are married!" BORDER.
"I know I shouldn't be dating this guy because he's not a believer, but if I break up with him then he'll feel rejected and then he might never meet Jesus!" BORDER.
"She is way too far gone to ever become a Christian. There's no point in inviting her to come." BORDER.
"I can't forgive that person - what they did to me can't be forgiven" BORDER.
"My family is a lost cause. Things will never get better." BORDER.
"I know I should find an older Christian to mentor me, but I'm not sure I really need one. And what if I pick somebody and then I don't like them?" BORDER.
"I would love to be in a small group, but I can't be in one with THAT person." BORDER.
"I don't need to go to church on Sunday mornings because I really don't get anything out of it anyway." BORDER.
"I can't talk to that person about Jesus because I don't know enough - they will think I'm weird and start hating me". BORDER.
"You can't truly worship God with a song like that!" BORDER.
"You can't stand up there and give a message to high schoolers and just start reading from the Bible without a powerful opening story!" BORDER.
That last one was your clue - Don't think I'm standing up here judging you, what I just read was a list of things that have came out of my mouth at one point or another, some more recent than others. In every single one of those situations, I put a world-sized border on a God who CANNOT be contained by the ways of this world. God's power is not limited to the ways that things work here on earth.
Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Genesis 18:13-14
Is ANYTHING too hard for The Lord? The answer is NO.
One of the biggest ways we can learn to truly believe God is not by figuring out a list of rules and then trying to do, do, do. We learn to believe God by understanding and then living a life based on the PROMISES of God.
Galatians 3:29 says, "And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you." God's promise to Abraham belongs to YOU. If you have received Christ into your life and made a decision to follow Him, God has promises for YOU.
This book is filled with promises from God for His people. I'm going to try to sum a few of them up for you, but know right now that I can't even begin to do justice to what God has for you when you trust in Him.
The ways of God are not of this world and neither are the promises of God, so they can't be explained in human logic and when you hear them they will probably automatically cause you to doubt. But that's why they are the promises of GOD and not the promises of this world!
So here they are, some of the promises of God for YOU:
Peace with God for now and eternity
Romans 5:1 "We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us."
Isaiah 53:5 "But he was pierced for our transgressions,he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."
Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Presence
Matthew 28:20 "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God."
Plan and a purpose
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Provision to meet our needs
Philippians 4:19 "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."
Power through the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 1:18-20 "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms."
Protection
2 Thessalonians 3:3 "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one."
Psalm 121:7-8 "The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
If you have received Jesus into your life, all of those things are for YOU. They are not just pretty, happy, nice things Christians say, they are real raw truth, 100% guaranteed from the very mouth of of a very big, very powerful, very real God.
"Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him." Genesis 21:2
13 years later, Sarah did have a son. The promise WAS fulfilled EXACTLY the way God had intended.
Abraham's family did become a great nation - the Israelites - who we read about through the entire first part of the Bible. And then from them, another descendant of Abraham was born into this world - Jesus. The true fulfillment of the promise that all nations - all of us would be BLESSED through him - was that they would be blessed with a way to be saved and have a relationship with God and an eternity in Heaven through Him.
Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to him who is ABLE to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"
God is not just able to do what we ask, He is able to do MORE than we ask.
He is not just able to do more than we ask, He is able to do more than ALL we ask.
He is not just able to do more than all we ask, He is able to do more than all we ask or IMAGINE.
He is not just able to do more than all we ask or imagine, He is able to do IMMEASURABLY more than all we ask or imagine!
We believe in a BIG God who can literally do ANYTHING. And every time we choose not to trust, every time we choose the "common sense", every time we choose the borders, we make a very big God that much smaller in our hearts and minds. But every time we do trust and we do obey, even if it doesn't make sense or seems ridiculous, our God-image grows exponentially. And the bigger you see God to be, the more your eyes will be opened to what He can and what He IS doing!
I'm going to end exactly the way I started. Because just as important as the fact that God is ABLE is the fact that God is GOOD. Even though Abraham and Sarah allowed the ways of this world to cause them to put borders on their trust, in the end, it didn't matter because God is GOOD. Their failures could never overcome His power and His goodness. And even in our greatest weakness, and our greatest doubt, He is still SO good to us. Abraham is remembered 2,000 years later in the New Testament like this:
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:18-21
Make It Real For You
1) List three "There's no way..." situations or people in your life.
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2) What “common sense” world-based solution are you or are you tempted to take in your life right now?
3) Circle the promise of God that you want to really “LIVE” in your life right now. Underline the one that seems the hardest to believe.
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