Epic Faith Even When You Have Questions | Epic Faith - #5 | John Lindell

[Music] this morning i want us to look at the epic faith of abraham in a message entitled epic faith even when you have questions abraham is the classic example of faith in the new testament whenever the writers of scripture want to talk about faith want to illustrate faith invariably they point to abraham in galatians chapter 3 paul says understand then that those who believe are children of abraham you're a child of abraham father abraham had many say you all know it don't care some of you do so you are a child of avery so those who have faith are blessed along with abraham watch this the man of faith you demand abraham i mean he is the man of faith right he is the epitome of faith why because there's a lot of people who walk by faith in an amazing dimension but abraham consistently through his life walked by faith without having all of his questions answered abraham is the man of faith let's look at it hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 by faith abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going the details of that story are recounted for us along with his entire life in genesis first book of the bible chapters 12 through 25. let's look at genesis chapter 12 and verse 1. the lord had said to abram leave your country your people your father's household and go to the land i will show you i want you to notice the lord had said it's instructive for us because what this is referencing is at this point abraham is living in a city called iran he starts out where the call of god comes to him where the lord reveals himself to abraham acts chapter 7 stephen and speaking this powerful message to the jewish supreme court the sanhedrin says the god of glory appeared to our father abraham while he was living in ur of the chaldees that is that is a city on the northern shore of the persian gulf kind of where iran and iraq meet the southern tip there it was a very advanced city if you've studied world history you know that's in the fertile crescent that's the cradle of civilization and it was there in this city earth called of the caldees a pagan city joshua says in joshua 24 in his farewell address to the nation he says our father abraham served pagan gods beyond the river so here is abraham he is a pagan he doesn't know the true god but the god of glory appears to him and the god of glory says abraham i want you to leave where you're at and go to the land i'll show you what happens is that happens uh probably around the time abraham is 65 years old he goes north to the city of haran which is all the way up in modern day turkey eastern turkey northern syria he's there for 10 years and in 10 years there's no new word from god there's no additional revelation and in 10 years god appears again and says i want you to go to the land i will show you the reason why i point that out is because there are a number of followers of christ where god has spoken to you he spoke to you years ago he put a call on your life he gave direction to your life and now 10 years later nothing has happened and can i just say this nothing there will be no new additional words from god no new additional directions until you go back and do the initial direction and you obey what god first told you to do a lot of people are waiting for an additional revelation but they haven't been obey obedient to the initial revelation that's abraham he's waiting around in haran that's not the place god was sending him why he's waiting we could speculate there's a lot of reasons why that may have happened but the fact of the matter is until he is obedient to god nothing new nothing powerful nothing supernatural is going to happen in his life but once he's obedient to god all of a sudden the story begins to unfold and miracles happen and abraham begins to experience the blessing of god on his life like he has never known it before and there are some here today and when you get back to obeying god when you get back on track when you say god i'm going to give attention to that thing you've revealed to me you will see the hand of god on your life in a way like you haven't seen in years you will see god bless you and lead you and guide you and do what you could not begin to imagine [Applause] now the lord had said to abram leave your country your people and your father's household and go to the land i will show you i will make you into a great nation and i will bless you i will make your name great and you will be a blessing i will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you i will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you so abram he's called abram because god hasn't yet changed his name god is going to meet with him and touch him and make him the father of many nations that's what abraham means so he changes his name to that but right now he's abram so abram left as the lord had told him and lot went with him abram lot is his nephew which is a whole another story abram was 75 years old when he set out from heron he took his wife sarai his nephew lot all the possessions they'd accumulated and the people they had acquired in haran and they set out for the land of canaan and they arrived there now as you're thinking of abram you've got to think of him as a what would be a wealthy chic in middle eastern terms this is not just like five or ten tents with a few camels and a company of people moving along this is a rather large group of people we know in in 2 chapters chapter 14 that he has a standing army of 318 men so if he's got that you figure that along with everything else he's got you might have 2 000 to 3 000 people moving in this company that are now on the move headed to the land of canaan he is at this time very very wealthy abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of moray at shechem at that time the canaanites were in the land the lord appeared to abram see 20 years have passed god appears says go then god 10 years later says go that's the deal now god is speaking to him and beginning to unfold things because abram has taken that step of faith the lord appeared to abram and said to your offspring i'll give this land this is the land you've arrived abram here it is so he built an altar there to the lord who had appeared to him now so look at this what i want to do is i want to give you four principles on faith on epic faith that follows when there are no answers the first one is this when god wants to do something in your life he says leave if you're going to walk by faith you cannot stay where you're at you have to be willing to go you have to be willing to leave where you're at you can't live in the realm of where you're comfortable your comfort zone what you've gotten used to you can't hang on to old habits that need to go you can't think like you used to think the life of faith is a life of leaving genesis 12 1 look at it again the lord had said to abram leave now notice as you walk through this and just a few things to point out leave your country your people and your father's household and go to the land i'll show you first of all it's very very interesting he was told to leave his father's household but we know when he went to heron he took his family with him i don't know maybe that's why he stayed 10 years in heron maybe he is there because his father who he brought with him has decided he likes hearing and he doesn't want to travel any longer you know it's a mistake when you and i hear from god and god tells us this is what i want you to do and then we modify god's plan because we think somehow god will understand we think somehow we maybe know a little bit more than god or that that god will be okay with it but whenever you modify the plan of god you risk encountering delays to the will of god in your life and you risk encountering all kinds of problems in your life he not only brings his father but he brings a nephew lot and you can read the story it is a problematic relationship all because he didn't do originally what god told him to do god said leave your father's family leave your house the your father's household and go now here's something else that i notice in this it says leave your country your people and your father's household if you think about it that's completely backwards typically i mean if you're going to go on a trip you're going to leave your house first right then you're going to leave like your neighborhood the the people you hang out with then you're going to leave your city then you're going to leave your country if you're going overseas right in rabbinic thinking whenever you have an order that is reversed like that what it's telling you is this is first and foremost not a physical journey it is a spiritual journey and what's happening here is god is working spiritually in abraham's heart in abraham's life and it will lead to physical activity but always the work of god the call of god the will of god following god begins in your heart it's a matter of the heart first and the circumstances second abraham's called to go on this spiritual journey when god wants to do something in your life he always tells you to leave for some today god is speaking to your heart and he wants you to leave where you're at oh let's not quickly go to geographical relocation so it could lead to that but oftentimes it's much simpler than that in terms of what he's asking you to do for some he's asking you to leave a habit behind that is hindering you from hearing from him and walking with him for some he might be asking you to let go of a relationship that isn't doing you good or the person good god is saying i want you to trust me enough to leave him to leave her i'm not talking about if you're married i'm talking you're living together you're sleeping together you're hanging out together you're partying together it could be leaving a group of friends god may be calling you to make an adjustment that way he may be asking you to leave where you're at emotionally you've been so caught up in the past so caught up in the hurt so caught up in the in the bitterness or the self-defeating cycle and god is coming to you and he's saying i want you to leave i want to do something in your life but in order for me to do that you're gonna have to leave where you're at and that's going to require a journey of faith he might be asking you to leave where you're at financially in other words you've been relying on things you've been trusting in things maybe the reason why you've not been growing in the lord and hearing from the lord is is maybe you got delayed inherent where you're making a lot of money and the money has captured your attention and god is waiting for you to once again open your ear and hear his voice and he's calling you to leave herron to leave that place where you've accumulated a lot and to get on with the spiritual journey to which he has called you the life of faith is a life of leaving god says to abraham abraham i want to do something big in your life i want to do something amazing in your life but if i'm going to do that abraham you're going to have to leave where you're at number two when god tells you to leave he doesn't always tell you where you're going hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 by faith abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going for most of us it takes a lot of faith just to go where we know we are going let alone where we know we're not going right but god called abraham from a place or called him to a place he did not know where he would bless him he knew nothing about the land god was calling him to all he got was a calling from god you say what's a calling let me define it for you this way because every christian has a calling you were called by god you were set apart by god every christian has that a calling is a divinely ordained reason for being that god gives to every believer so that you can be blessed to be a blessing whatever god's calling is on your life it's a divinely ordained reason for being a purpose and that purpose isn't just so you can say well i've got a purpose in my life but that purpose is always in the eyes of god and the work of god through us that you and i might not just consume his blessing on ourselves but we are blessed to be a blessing all christians have a calling your calling is not my calling my calling is not your calling but you have a divine reason for being he has blessed you so you can be a blessing in ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10 for we are god's masterpiece he has created us anew in christ jesus so we can do good things he planned for us long ago how long ago before time began you're you're a masterpiece you're the mona lisa unless you're a guy then you're somebody else okay your masterpiece he's created us anew in christ jesus to do good things back to genesis chapter 12 the lord had said to abram leave your country your people your father's household and go to the land i will show you he doesn't know where that is [Music] he doesn't have any idea god didn't say listen here's a travel brochure take a look i mean wait till you see the beaches there you think they're great in her i mean they are awesome in israel he doesn't know where it is he doesn't know how long the journey is he's going to take a circuitous route to get there it's going to take him years to get there it's a faith journey but god calls him to go he doesn't know where and god says i'll make you into a great nation i will bless you and you will be a blessing god's calling him from a place where he was to a place of blessing that he knows nothing about and all of that simply highlights what we've been seeing all along and that is faith is okay with ambiguity that's right you know as long as as you have to have every question answered as long as you have to have a sense of how it's going to work out as long as you have to understand what god's doing in your life it will be impossible for you to walk by faith abraham doesn't have answers to any question look at it hebrews 11 8 by faith abraham when called obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going in the original in the greek it uses the present participle so it literally reads like this abraham wiped while being called obeyed and went god's talking and he's going god's talking and he's like sir i pack it up we're leaving i mean it's instant he's not having to think about it he's not having to process it he's not having to say you know what i'm just gonna have to sit on that for a little bit and think about that no and here's what happens to a lot of people the longer you wait to obey the voice of god in your life the less likely you are to act on it and the more you forfeit the urgency and i would suggest the empowerment of the holy spirit because what happens is one one author put it this way delay dulls the sword of the spirit you lose something of the conviction that that it's god you begin to talk you begin to say oh that just must have been me that's not really god i don't think god really asked me to do that you begin to talk yourself out of the will of god and with it the blessing of god i mean here's abraham and what he does is he obeys instantly and immediately does he have questions absolutely does he have answers only one god is prompting him to go on a journey to a place he did not know where it was at in a day when there's no such thing as google maps or voice activated gps god said go and since god is the one who said go where he's going is immaterial let me just let me just say that to you again only personalize it to you if god is the one who tells you to go where you are going doesn't matter because you will find peace wholeness and fulfillment in the center of god's will no matter if you thought you would have liked it there i think in terms of being in bible college and we were in here in springfield and i remember and i was from colorado and and i would drive across kansas and so i told i remember praying this to the lord lord there's three places i do not want to pastor springfield missouri it's number one western kansas and the panhandle of oklahoma i've been to two other three i don't know western oklahoma i will be there someday soon do you know what's interesting the two places i did not want to go were places i had the time of my life western kansas was my first church and there's nothing like your first church i fell in love with those people when i when we left and went to kansas city to start a church it took me a year and a half to get over them and then we came here and i mean it has been joy upon joy upon joy could i have understood that if god would have told me that i would have fought it i would have struggled i would have said what in the world but here's the fact of the matter god knows what he has for you and what he has for you is better than what you have for yourself and this is where the life of faith is lived it's you saying it's not about me it's about you and i don't trust me as much as i trust you and wherever you leave that's where i want to be because wherever you leave that's where your hand of blessing will rest on me god tell me where to go some of you have talked yourself right out of the blessing of god because you thought you knew better and you thought you could make yourself happier and you thought that you'd be a lot better off doing your thing instead of god saying wrong wrong and wrong and god is a good god who's created you for the place for the time for the purpose to accomplish things you could never imagine in your wildest dreams i'm sure abraham's neighbors thought he was crazy i mean you can imagine he's out there loading the u-haul and they're saying where are you going abraham uh i don't know well who told you to go god which one the true god what's his name uh he hasn't told me that yet you mean you don't know where you're going you don't know the name of the god who told you to go and you're going anywhere anyway and abraham's like yes you and i know so much more about the god who calls us we know so much more about his goodness we know so much more about about how he can be trusted and how faithful he is than abraham but abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going when god tells you to leave he doesn't always tell you where you're going but he does tell you enough to take the first step every single one of us knows enough to do the next step if you don't know jesus christ as your savior the first step is to find him as your savior if you're away from god right now and you and you're doing whatever and you've gotten off track the first step rededicate your heart to cry everybody and then from there on whatever else it is you know the next step if you're not being baptized as water the next step for you today is to get i mean it's not that simple people want to make it way more complicated than it is you say well do you do you always know a lot of times you you come you you got questions you don't know you're moving you're going without knowing but because god is the one who is calling you you know that it's going to be good number three when god calls us to step out in faith he gives us promises to encourage us what gives enthusiasm to our faith are the promises of god that's right and when god calls you to go i venture to say that there are many here and god has spoken to your heart at one time or another and with that he gave a promise and you forgot about the promise somewhere you quit talking about the promise you quit reciting the promise you quit quoting that verse you stop thinking about that verse but the fact of the matter is god incentivizes you and i he encourages you and i with promises as we go you look at this in abraham's life and we won't reread all of the verses but god says leave your country your people and your father's household and go to the land i will show you one command followed by are you ready for this eight promises what does that say about our god the kind of god who who wants to encourage wants to incentivize he's called the god of all encouragement the god of all comfort same word in ii corinthians god is encouraging you god is right now there are some of you right now and god is speaking to your heart i know that to be true god is challenging you to take the next step in in your epic faith journey god is saying i've got this i'm going to help you i'm going to go before you all you have to do is trust him believe the promise accept the promise look at it i'm gonna give you the promises promise number one i'll make you into a great nation he doesn't have an heir he doesn't have a descendant he and his wife keep trying to get pregnant and it is not happening and god says guess what i'm going to take care of that for you later god will say if you can count the stars in the sand you'll be able to count your descendant or as stars in the sky you'll be able to count your descendants promise number two i'll bless you promise number three i will make your name great you are going to be one famous dude promise number four you will be a blessing promise number five i will bless those who bless you i'm gonna set it up where people are gonna recognize if they're good to you i'm gonna be good to them they're gonna see that it pays to be good to abraham promise number six whoever curses you i will curse in other words that's god's way of saying listen you don't have to be afraid in the place where you're going because if anybody comes against you i'm going to be against them they're not just coming against you they're coming against me they'll have to deal with me i'll protect you i'll stand up for you promise number seven all people on earth will be blessed through you abraham i'm going to bless you so much that there will be enough blessing to bless everybody on earth right that's right and that's true through jesus christ the seed of abraham who's brought blessing to everybody on planet earth if they'll reach out and take it promise number eight to your offspring i will give this land and there's something about the promises of god that that warm your heart that encourage your heart that strengthen your faith and today if you're struggling to take that face step listen closely because god's given you a promise and maybe as you're reading the bible this is why it pays to read the bible you open the bible and there it is a verse sleeps off the page maybe you've never read the bible but suddenly it's alive to you or maybe you've read it a thousand times and a verse you've never noticed or you passed over many times instantly becomes your verse it's your manna it speaks to you it feeds you it encourages you it's god's word to you his encouragement to take that step of faith number four when god is worshiped our faith is strengthened you know here's the thing about abraham how does he stay strong how does he make this journey what you find with abraham is he constantly is building altars he's constantly having moments where he calls on god in fact paul points that out in romans chapter 4 he talks about faith and how abraham's a model of faith and he talks about one of the great faith challenges in abraham's life which some listening today have the the challenge of infertility and god said abraham i'm going to give you a child and abraham was a 100 years old and his wife was was in her 90s and both of their bodies the bible says good is dead when it came to reproduction but it says this romans chapter 4 and verse 20. he did not waver in his faith concerning the promises of god but gave glory to god being strengthened in his faith [Music] that as you and i give glory to god there's something that happens in our faith it changes us when we begin to think of who he is how awesome he is when we begin to say god you are above you are high and lifted up god there's nothing that's impossible for you when we begin to worship god like that it gives us faith to believe for impossible things you see that in genesis 12 watch it so abram left as the lord had told him and lot went with him and abraham was 75 years old when he set out from iran he took his wife sarai his nephew lot all the possessions they'd accumulated and the people they'd acquired in iran and they set out for the land of canaan and they arrived there so it comes to modern day israel it's called the land of canaan and abram traveled through the land as far as the side of the great tree of moray echecom and at that time the canaanites were in the land that's that's a very ominous statement see what happens is abram's coming into this land and he's got maybe 2 000 most 3 000 people with him 300 soldiers so he doesn't have he doesn't have a large army enough for some basic self-defense essentially against bandits but he comes into the land of canaan if you fast forward 400 years [Music] as joshua is taking over from moses and they're on the banks of the jordan getting ready to go into the land of canaan do you know what god says i'm sending you into the land of canaan where there are seven nations stronger and more powerful than you are seven of them each of them stronger more powerful the nation of israel at that point has six hundred thousand armed soldiers here's abram he comes into the land the reason why i say that is he comes into the land the canaanites they're there the seven nations are there there is nothing physically to his eyes or mentally to his mind that says he can possess the land the lord appeared to abram and said to your offspring i'll give this land abram i don't care what you see in the way of canaanite armies and canaanite nations this land is yours and i'm giving it to you and your descendants forever and what's abraham do he builds an altar he says god i don't understand how that can be possible but you're the god who does impossible things and i worship you and i'm thanking you right now for this land that is mine even though physically i can't see how you'll do it mentally i can't see how you'll do it because it's you who said it i believe it and i thank you for it and i declare it to be so this passage has tremendous meaning to me you know there's some passages some stories that god burns in your heart through a moment this is one of i'm going to get emotional but i'm standing on a place where that passage came to life 1997 we were at the evangelical free church and it was our building and church was growing and the county had said we couldn't expand at that location we'd have to we'd have to do something else and so we found this piece of land and and we put a lease option to buy on it so we leased it with the option to purchase it for a certain price it would be two million dollars to buy it it was 40 acres of ground and so you know we we hadn't yet executed the lease to purchase we were still in the deciding phase and we were putting together you know the building and the cost of the building was coming in at at you know 13 to 16 million and so you had the land on top of it and you're you're in the 18 million dollar range and and um you know i'm looking at the church it's 3 000 people and and the annual income is not huge at all at that time it's i mean it's okay but it's not what you're going to need to do this so we you know we don't know a lot about fundraising we bring in consultants who are going to tell us what to do and they're like oh pastor you need to you need to stop worrying about it there's money in that church you don't even know about and i said well great that's awesome and so they do the consulting they work all their metrics talk to people and they come back this is literally what they said pastor we're so sorry that church is just what you said there's no money there so now we've got that we've got y2k looming and people are threatening the collapse of western civilization or the civilized world as all computers melt down because they can't do 2000 in the dateline and so i mean and people are stockpiling food and i mean it's just a crazy time and we're at a place in the fall of 97 where it's you either got to put up or shut up because it's time to either you're going to build you're going to make the jump or you're not and i'm just i'm seeking counsel talking to people but you know interest rates then are are eight and a half percent i mean they're not like the cheap interest now and and so you're realizing that you're thinking of all that money and and the church has 700 000 saved up against 18 million and fundraisers who tell you you don't have the money to do this kind of project [Music] so debbie and i went away to new york i spoke at brooklyn tabernacle that morning and that evening we stayed in town because i wanted to i just wanted to be in the service and um so as we're there they have an alter time an invitation at the altar and people come forward to seek the lord and debbie and i go up because i mean i'm just all i can think about is this decision because i can't really ask the board to jump in if i'm if i don't feel it's the right thing and and you know in the 80s a lot of guys that led churches into building campaigns and the churches collapsed and it was shameful and it brought a black eye i mean there's just all these things you're thinking about and so i'm seeking the lord looking for an answer and and we go home to we go back to our hotel room that night and we talk about it and i say you know i'm so disappointed i went forward and i'm in the altar and i've been seeking god and i don't feel anything at all and uh man i i just don't know what to do and and i feel no direction from the lord and so we went to sleep next morning we'd get up early jump on the plane that's back when twa is still flying and we're we're there at laguardia getting ready to take off and i'm sitting in the plane and buckled my seat belt i get my bible out because it was early it hadn't had a chance to have my devotion so i'm open my bible up [Music] and instantly it hits me i'm different something has happened between the time at the altar and monday morning i'm a different person the anxiety is gone the doubt's gone everything is gone i'm at perfect peace about moving forward i can't explain it i don't other than i know the lord and i'm reading genesis chapter 12 i'm reading this story and i felt the lord speak to my speak to my heart when you get home [Music] tomorrow morning which would have been a tuesday i want you to go out on that land and write where the platform's going to be right where the word's going to be preached and people are going to be saved i want you to build an altar like abraham and i want you to praise me for the church i'm going to build tuesday morning came drove out my little ford ranger onto the property got out kind of we kind of knew where the auditorium was going to be it's kind of a little spring here a little muddy and i remember just turning my back to the highway cars going behind 65 highway and saying lord you're the god who takes things that are not and calls them as though they are and i can't physically see or mentally understand how we could ever build a church on this property but you say there will be a church and so i lift my hands in praise and i thank you because you're the god who does the impossible and i thank you lord that there will be a church here and in this altar thousands of people will come to know you as lord and savior for the next 20 minutes i just praised god got in my truck and drove to work i'm just telling you you're sitting in a miracle [Applause] you're sitting in a place where god said i'm gonna do the impossible and i don't know what you need this morning i don't know where you're at but i know there's a god who does impossible things for some of you that walk of faith will begin that when you receive jesus as your lord and savior or you rededicate your heart for others you're you you've somewhere along the line you've heard from the lord but but you're in here on you got sidetracked you had family you had job you had this you had that and somewhere along the line you stopped following that word from the lord that you know was him and his plan hasn't changed though years have passed his call his word to you is the same as it's always been some of you you're in the you're in the fight for your life and you need a promise from god you need a word from the lord and others of you you just need to worship the lord and just to say god i can't understand how it's going to happen but if you say it i believe it and i'm going to keep on walking by faith and thank you all along the way that's what epic faith is all about it was the faith of abraham that went without question and it's the epic faith god wants you and i to live by in our life amen hey everybody thank you so much for joining james river church on our youtube channel our prayer is that you were encouraged and your faith was strengthened today and we want to let you know that we want to connect with all our online family you can just click the link next to me to connect to us we'd love to meet you and connect with you as well we'd love if you subscribe to the channel and press the bell for notifications i'll tell you what it's a great thing to do because we're always putting out great sermons new worship content and that helps you stay up to date with everything that's happening we hope you have a great day today and we'd love for you to join us live for our services every sunday and wednesday thank you again for watching and god bless

Channel: James River Church

Views: 2,735

Rating: 4.8285713 out of 5

Keywords: james river church sermons, james river church, pastor john lindell, john lindell, faith, sermon on faith, epic faith, epic, questions, abraham, abraham in the bible, church online, online church, best sermons, sermon, sermons, preaching, preacher, pastor, lindell, questioning god, god, jesus, hebrews, hebrews 11, church livestream service, church live stream, best sermon 2021, 2021, faith over fear, sermons on faith in hard times, faith in god, faithfulness, church, live church, service, jrc

Id: szMCvPqDLbQ

Length: 42min 5sec (2525 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021