Abraham: The Pilgrimage of Faith | Sermon by Tony Evans

[Music] hello everyone this is dr tony evans with the urban alternative and i'm excited to welcome you to join us on a journey a journey through hebrews 11 it's known as the hall of faith where men and women discovered what god can do when god's people learn to live walk and act by faith the beautiful thing is it's not just about them it's about us as the author of hebrews writes to new testament believers that's who we are about how the lives of old testament saints who learn to live by faith should challenge and affect our lives as we live by faith so we're excited to welcome you on this journey it's going to be an exciting trip we're going to learn a lot most importantly we're going to be transformed by the truth what it means to be a kingdom hero who lives by faith [Music] today we're going to talk about the leading candidate of faith in the bible if i were to use football language you would call this guy a beast because when it came to faith he is the creme de la creme he is the he is the superstar he is the most valuable faith person in fact when the bible wants to talk about faith he is a constant illustration of it hebrews chapter 4 and the book of galatians chapter 3 keeps talking about this guy in fact this guy is such a beast he is such an illustration of faith and his name is abraham abraham is called the father of the faith in galatians chapter 3 verses 6 to 9 it says and when you learn to live by faith you become one of his children you become an heir to abraham who was the superstar of faith and if you learn what we go over these next three weeks for this one personality and his wife you will enter into a realm that perhaps will be brand new to you and to an experience with god that will uh be fresh not stale because you have learned to live like abraham lived in hebrews chapter 11 we read in verse 8 by faith abraham when he was called obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he lived in an alien as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with isaac and jacob fellow heirs of the same promise for he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is god we're going to learn three things about abraham today and his walk of faith that if you want to experience god at a whole new level by faith it will involve a leaving a living and a looking if you want to experience god as you've never experienced him before as you move by faith it will involve a leaving a living and a looking let's start with believing because verse 8 tells us by faith when he was called he obeyed by going out to a place now this is described for us in genesis chapter 12 chapter 13 when god told abraham i want you to leave your city your community your house and even your people and i want you to go to a place that i'm not going to tell you about yet said he didn't know where he was going all he knew is god told him to leave without knowing where god was taking him why is god telling him to leave er of the chaldees why is god telling him to to move away from family and friends and the things he grew up with well to understand that you have to understand chapter 11 the chapter that precedes god calling him in chapter 11 the whole world has rebelled against god a man named nimrod uh an african that you shouldn't be proud of led the whole world in rebellion against god the tower of babel established the religion of humanism man-centered religion it says that they gather together as one people to build a civilization and right in the center of the city they built a tower that is a ziggurat that is a worship steeple and they said we will build our tower to the heavens we don't need god we've got intelligence brains reason science technology we can build this thing ourselves we don't need god we don't need god to help us in fact we're going to build this thing so high we're going to show god we can get to him of course genesis 11 says and when god looked down and saw what men were doing he came down so i don't care how high you get how much money you make how much notoriety you a mass god's got to come down because you ain't getting but so high god came down and said now look look at them fools look look at what they're trying to do it says they are seeking god said to build a name for themselves why because they don't want to carry my name god says i have a i have something for you to do i've got a plan for you abraham but in order for me to fill my plan you've got to leave here in other words stay with me if you want to see where i want you to go i'm not going to show you where i'm taking you till you leave where you are you cannot stay here and have me you cannot stay around paganism and have me you cannot stay around humanism and have me so you've got to leave and you got to trust me that i know where i'm taking you even though i'm not telling you see a lot of us are like this okay god show me where you've taken me and then i'll let you know if i'm going god says in first john 2 and john 15 he says if you are friends with the world you are an enemy of god and he tells that to his disciples if you if you hang out with the world you can't have me god has called every christian to leave worldliness he's not called us to leave the world that is to to not live in society not work in society not not not have responsibility in society no but worldliness is different worldliness are attitudes and actions that leave god out you're worldly when there are attitudes and actions where god is dismissed from god has saved us out of this world the world is not as we've said many times a place the world is a philosophy it's like the world of finance the world of fashion the world of politics the world of sports while they involve places they're really an orientation centered around a certain thing world of finance is about money well worthiness is about the exclusion of god the enemy wants you to exclude god and god says leave there that is your life and my life cannot be defined by leaving god out or just putting him in piecemeal when we like it as a spare tire taking him out the trunk when life goes flat putting him back when we can roll on her by ourselves again you will never know where god is taking you unless you leave where you are the world you will never find out he will he will never show you what motivated him to leave god said i have an inheritance for you says he left to get his inheritance and inheritance is like a will it's something bequeathed to you god has something for every believer here if you are a christian he has a purpose that he wants you to fulfill but he will not show you your destiny if he can't leave get you to leave the world as long as you're hanging on to the world you're at enmity against god god cannot communicate with you so you won't hear heaven talk you won't get answered prayers you won't get direction you'll be aimless because your affections are not with him they are elsewhere you visit him on occasion but you live with affections and actions that leave him out in fact one of the ways you know you're growing as a christian is when your passion for the world is dying and your passion for him is growing if you're loving the world more than him that's because the world has your affections it has your passions it has grabbed you so he says you must leave this paganism that doesn't include me without me giving you all the details you have to walk by faith and believe i know where i'm taking you the problem was or is that that's where he was born that's where he grew up that's where all his people are that's where his businesses were bible says he was a filthy rich guy that's where all of it his activities were so it's hard to leave something you've grown up in because that's that informs your frame of thinking but it says when he heard the voice of god he obeyed and left because his inheritance was more important than his current location so here's the decision we have to make that is if you really want to experience god is what god has for you more important than where you are do you love the world so much you're willing to lose your destiny because god knows where he wants to take you but you must be willing to leave say goodbye because god knows where he wants to take you but you must be willing to leave say goodbye some of you are going to battle because you're going to have to say goodbye to that worldly relationship that's keeping you from your destiny you may have to say goodbye to that that worldly scenario where the guys are going out after work and they they talk in smut you find yourself comfortable there and you don't want to lose a friendship and we're not talking about being anti-social we are talking about saying that that does not fit where i'm trying to go and so because that doesn't fit where i'm trying to go and i want to get to where god's taking me i'm willing to make i'm willing to leave it's going to be hard to leave but but i'm willing to leave because you can keep yourself from ever hearing the voice of god if you stay in the world there that system that leaves god out hebrews 13 13 says you must go outside of the camp where jesus is jesus died outside of jerusalem jerusalem was where judaism was he went outside the camp and died it says you can't stay in just a religious environment and not be willing to be identified with jesus christ and bear his reproach and expect to hear from god you have to go outside the camp that is you you you can't be just part of the system he based his life on a promise unless you leave the old you will never discover what god has for you in the new so the question is what do you want do you want him or you want to hang out where you are and not have him because he will never coalesce with the world james 4. he won't do that so the first thing you need to know is that your life of faith will require a leaving of worldliness desires and actions that are in conflict with god secondly your life of faith from the superstar of faith will involve a living a leaving and then a living notice this verse nine by faith he lived see that by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with isaac and jacob fellow heirs of the same promise wow he left and then he lived now watch this it says he lived in the land of promise as a foreigner and an alien wait a minute now wait a minute watch this that he left he left earl the chaldee's paganism he is now in the land god is promising him okay god promised him a land but in the land that he's now in and living in he's living as an alien and a foreigner in the middle of a promise some of us are in god's waiting room and there's probably no greater discipline in the christian life no harder discipline than waiting god how long is this going to take when you're going to come through for me how come i take two steps forward three steps back how come every time i look like you're getting ready to do something you flip on me and the thing doesn't work out god is always doing two things at one time related to your life and mine here are the two things he's preparing the promise for you and he's preparing you for the promise okay he whatever your inheritance is whatever your destiny is in time and eternity but but this is time whatever he has planned for you in time is being made ready but he's also got to get you ready so that when the promise and the plan and the destiny is realized you don't mess it up cause you weren't ready now watch this you have no control over the promised part over the part that that's not you god is doing that over here you can't control that you have a control over the person part so on my side and your side we could be delaying the promise while waiting for the promise and that's exactly what happened with abraham watch this john says chapter 12 chapter 13. abraham is 75 years old 75 years old his breakthrough doesn't come for 25 years it's going to take him 25 years for god to break this thing through that's when isaac appears so one of your major reasons to want to leave er the counties the world and want to live in god's presence and move quickly in obedience is so you can get what he has as soon as he can give it because you're ready for it god why is that such a big deal because god doesn't want to give you a destiny that will cause you to forget him he says as a foreigner as an alien the bible says that you and i are foreigners and aliens here so watch this now god does not want you to be too attached a foreigner somebody that they they're there they're not fully attached say he was in the tent that's not a permanent location god is moving him from this place to this place to this place or this place or this place god says if i'm going to take you to your inheritance i've got to develop you for your inheritance and when i develop you for your inheritance keep your shoes on light because i'm going to send you through some stuff i'm going to take you through some things they're going to be some mountains they're going to be some valleys but they're all divine designed to develop you i got my piece out here i'm gonna take care of i just gotta get you right some of us are working on 50 years of things that should have been solved in three years but god but but we've been pitch that tent and built us up a house that we ain't gonna move out of and so god does not have flexibility with our lives and so he can't grow us like he wants to grow us because we're not available for him to do his thing but it says by faith abraham was willing to live as an alien to live as a as a foreigner not become too attached looking for god to change his scenario and then the third one is the looking verse 10. for he was looking it says he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is god wow if if you if you miss everything else don't miss this because it will change everything for the rest of your life he left the world he no longer associated with that which leaves god which left god out he lived in the arena of the promise but stayed fluid because he had to grow in that situation because before god gives you destiny he always deals with development after having provided deliverance so it's deliverance development destiny and then it says the way he survived and the way you and i survived was where he looked while he was living on earth while he was waiting for the promise that was going to come on earth namely a son born out of his old age while he waiting for this and it says he kept his eyes on heaven he looked for a city whose builder and architect was god that's that's the heavenly city okay watch this he wasn't going to heaven yet he still had a lot of years to live on earth but even though he wasn't going to heaven he was looking at heaven because here's the secret if you learn to look at heaven you'll live better on earth if you stop looking at heaven and only look at earth you will be looking through bad glasses because you'll be living like this is all there is and this is not all there is in fact this is so small a piece of the pie god wants you and me to have an eternal perspective he says i want you to look to heaven while living on earth there are two extremes as a christian one is to be so heavenly minded you're no earthly good the other is to be so earthly minded you're no heavenly good like santana holmes in super bowl 43 when he won the super bowl for the uh pittsburgh steelers and he went to the edge of the end zone and he leaned up and he caught the ball in the air with his feet firmly planted on the ground the winning touchdown if he would have missed the ball with his feet planted incomplete if he would have caught the ball but his feet not planted in bounds incomplete he had to reach high and touch low god wants you to look up while touching down your feet firmly planted on the ground but you're looking up to heaven as you make your move so that heaven is informing earth and when heaven informs earth you can make it on earth because now you're getting supercharged you're getting from up there joining you down here so you can make it from 10 to 10. until your change comes until god brings the breakthrough until god shifts the situation that's why the bible says in first john 2 this world is passing away watch this now don't hang on to this world too tight see that's why things get boring because this world is passing away that's why the drug addict has got to get more that's why satan offers more he always ups the dosage because he knows this thing is passing away so he got up the dosage to keep you going and craving it god says this world is passing away so don't hinge your whole life onto this wagon because it's passing away and guess what we're passing away so since this world is temporary look eternally and it'll change your temporary movement when you lose sight of heaven your perspective will be ruined on earth if your mind leaves heaven and you only live for earth earth is all you'll get but if you are heavenly minded colossians chapter 3 seeking the things that are above if you have a heavenly perspective driving you you'll be ready for heaven and you'll be okay till you get there because he kept looking eternally although he was living physically it has to do with your perspective there needs to be a shift in your perspective there's got to be a shift in our perspective that you wake up in the morning thinking eternally that is thinking god's perspective that a spiritual worldview this has got to be how you live this is how he lived by faith thinking heaven while functioning in history genesis chapter 12 and 13 guess what you find over and over and over again when it tells the story of abraham in genesis 12 and 13 it says everywhere he went he built an altar a altar is a worship place he just go to church he carried an altar with him so every time he was in a new situation he built himself a worship place so he could keep his eyes on heaven in the middle of earth while waiting for promise as he was trying to develop he said god is you and me now he can't pick up his altar go to another place hey worship he picked him his altar so if the only time you worship is on sunday you leaving your altar at church the idea is to keep a spiritual perspective until god joins you in destiny having left her of the chaldees god says if you will leave where you are if you will move and you will move toward me keeping your eyes on king jesus the author and finisher of your faith he will know how to get you home and take you to where you ought to be if you will leave the world live under me and look toward me i will deliver you home so the question is you want to keep hanging out in the world or do you want to discover your destiny but the only way to get there is by faith [Music] life is not an event it's a journey it doesn't start and end in a day it's experienced over days months and years we call a lifetime in this journey of life a lot of decisions have to be made and a lot of them have to be made by faith because we don't know where things will result we don't know in advance how everything's going to work out abraham made a pilgrimage of faith he was looking for a city whose builder and maker was god since we have to go on this journey anyway we need to make the pilgrimage of our life and our life's journey one of trusting god because he alone knows where things are going to wind up [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 50,675

Rating: 4.8946776 out of 5

Keywords: sermons, faith sermon, Tony Evans sermons, Abraham sermon, Abraham, powerful sermons

Id: xxA9dCDhD0s

Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021