Walking With God By Faith Pt. 31

[Music] I love will make away yes you will come on say rep you Lena yes you here I wish I had a witness yes he will and I told my what somebody told me no you are trying for myself will make away yes he will sometimes I'm like some time and roll spear I'm hoping God will make me strong will make away come on let's go at this time of intercession and prayer if you need the law to make a way come on right now yes he will God still hears and answers prayer yes he will somebody here needs him in a real way oh yes you will I try him in annoy will will make away [Music] he'll make a way for menu God will see you say free food [Applause] [Music] got off father this morning our testimony is you'll make away somebody here needs a way to be made we've been struggling all last weekend just couldn't wait to make it here this morning to hear the testimony of the saints then when a door needs to be open when a chair needs to be dried when when the prayer needs to be answered we have someplace to hide we have someplace to run and we have shelter in our storm because we know God will make a way become this morning our Father to give you our best hallelujah aye loudest praise our humble thanks for all that you've already done thank you for goodness and mercy that keeps on chasing us and following us all the days of our lives become our Father because we remember when we didn't have a God on our side who still helped us you were still strength for us when we didn't even know you you were still blessing us and we want to give you praise and faints right now thank you for keeping us through divorce and keeping us through sickness keeping us through trials and misunderstandings keeping us through death and sorrow keeping us through loss of jobs and keeping us when our income was low keeping us when our friends were few keeping us with mom and dad it was gone keeping us when it looked like night would never end God you just kept a fence around us we praise your name this morning because we never would have made it had it not been for your grace then our Father we come to confess that we have sinned and come short of your glory we send in Word and indeed we thank you O God that you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness have mercy on us according to your loving-kindness according to the multitude of your tender mercy pull out out all our transgressions we need your God because we have hurt somebody's feelings we've walked contrary to your way we've been misunderstood and somebody might have fallen out with the church because of our bad example when we pray O God that you forgive us restore us refresh us that we might worship you in a manner that is worthy of who you are become pray for our brothers and sisters whose hand we hold we don't know what that struggle is we don't know what their doctors report has said we don't know what strong struggle is going on in their lives but we know that you're able to fix it you're able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can even ask on faith to become a little God because your word says there's no good thing but you will withhold from them who woke up right there so we come to commit our ways to commit our problems to commit our situations all of it we put it in your hand bless the word preached this morning lifter word this morning that somebody who's stumbling in sin now somebody who's looking for a save you're looking for a church home would come running crying what must I do then oh God one day soon warfare will be over some of us here are getting old and our steps are getting short soon we will be done with the troubles of this world when that morning comes when that evening comes we want to hear your voice saying servant well done you've been faithful over a few things I'll make you ruler over many you know what we need even before we ask you know even better than we know ourselves so here I pray incline your ear to us and grant us your peace in the strong name he who loves our souls even Jesus Christ even when your Bibles with me to chapter 25 of the book of Genesis this is the last in our series of sermons on Abraham's life I'm a Miss Abraham we've been talking about him now for some 17 weeks or more and I want to look at chapter 25 commencing in verse 5 through verse number 11 and Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son while he yet lived eastward unto the east country and these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived a hundred threescore and fifteen years or 175 years then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the Cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephraim the son of Zohar the Hittite which is before Mamre the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth there was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife and it came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son isaac and isaac dwelt by the well lee hi Roy thank you you may be seated the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God shall stand forever walking with God by faith walking with God by faith over these weeks we have looked at Abraham being called from the land of ur of the Chaldees he was called out from among his his kinsfolk and his acquaintances and he was called to go to a land that he knew nothing of he was taken away from everything that was familiar to him his father his land is his his culture everything that that made him who he was God called him from that to bring him to another land and the scripture says that God blessed Abraham and he chose that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed God blessed Abraham to marry a beautiful woman by the name of Sarah but Sarah as you know was barren and could not bear him children and Abraham and Sarah go to Egypt and he sins there in Egypt because he has Sarah to lie and say that she is his sister rather than his wife because he does not want to killed by the Egyptians and Sarah tickin from him it's in that moment of weakness and failure that he lies and sins but God still keeps them because God has made a promise that all the nations of the earth through Abraham would be blessed success and failure ups and downs trials and tribulations sunshine and rain good days and bad days life is filled with all of them life is a mixture of success and failure up and down good and bad sunshine and rain and if you're not careful you'll put too much trust in one and not left trust in the other or you will believe that you will be successful all the time if you're succeeding or you will believe that you will fail all the time if you're failing but I need you to hear me this morning brothers and sisters success and failure are both imposters because you can get caught up in one and think that you're going to be one of them all your life but sometimes God has to let us fail to make us recognize that you've got to totally trust in God I wish I had a witness here I need somebody here who knows something about success and failure up and down good and bad right and wrong you've had all of them in your life but through it all God's kept you God's been faithful God has showed up when you needed him God has been the God that he said he would be in your success and you'll fail yet here is Abraham God has finally delivered on his promise he's given him a son after his mistake with Hagar God has given him a son Isaac and then God tells him take your only son you're uniquely born son your son of your old age and sacrifice him on a mountain that I will show you Abraham saddles his ass and gets all of his servants together and they head up to Mount Moriah and he says to the servants wait here while me and the boy go yonder to worship he's on his way to take Isaac's life but he calls it an act of worship and until you are willing to lay your Isaac down you're not willing to give God the worship he deserves unless God has first placed in your life unless God is your priority unless what you love you put on the altar of sacrifice for God you're not really willing to worship God in the manner that he deserves to be worship he's on his way to lay Isaac down and while he's on his way but one side of the mountain with questions God is coming up the other side of the mountain with the answer they own their way and Isaac says daddy I'll see the wood I'll see the fire but where is the lamb for the burnt offering and Abraham says my son God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering and when they get up there he's ready to come down with his knife and God says Abraham now I know that you fear God look behind you there's a ram caught in the thicket and he sacrificed as that RAM and the RAM becomes of an intercessor the RAM becomes a type of Christ he sacrifices him and on that mountain he calls God by a new name Jehovah Jireh the God who will and somebody here has had your own personal mount moriah somebody here has had to walk up to God with some questions but while you were coming to God with questions God was coming to you with the answer God will provide I wish I had a witness here whatever you are in need of God will provide whatever you don't understand God will provide and God will not always provide an answer God wants to be the answer stop looking always for an answer God wants to be the answer because what you need is not a new car you need God you don't need new friends you need God you don't need a new job you need God because if you have God everything you need God will provide Abraham knows that God is able to provide he Bear is Sarah in Chapter number 24 Sarah is Barrett she's old and full of years and she dies at 127 years old he bearers of the Bible says he weeps and he mourns for Sarah and when the time of weeping and mourning is over he stands up and sacrifices and gives thanks under God but all that God has brought him through all the ways that God is made from God that God has made him rich God has made him prosperous God has given him military might God has given him wealth and in livestock and camels and health and long life everything he has ever needed God has been faithful to provide and now Abraham comes to the end of his life 175 years old and the Bible says he's getting ready to die and although skipped over this part until the Holy Spirit brought it back to my remembrance he gave Isaac what he wanted him to have while he was alive he gave Isaac what he wanted him to have while he was alive because he had some other children with a wife after Sarah died and then he had that boy with Hagar Ishmael he had some outside children [Music] look like him if you feed him long enough they start looking like they were his he had him but Isaac was the promise to Isaac all the nations of the earth would be blessed and Abraham in dying did not want any confusion because if you want to see a mess Gustad you die with no directives no real structure in place no last will and testament and brothers and sisters stop speaking to each other someone help me talking family members will hate each other over a bedspread mama wanted me to tear that they will quit speaking to each other over $800 [Music] because papa was a rolling stone wherever he laid his hat was his home and when he died all he left you was alone LAN help me preach it you know how black folk do get all of that straight while you are alive so don't be no captain when you're dead and people at the funeral glare listen you might think I'm making this up but there have been funerals Lily grow well I have had to have security inside the funeral because brothers and sisters don't want to sit with each other and they promise they're gonna fight at the funeral I said and I've had to go in the back Vesta me just actually when the beacons who hang around here I've had to go in the back vestibule and see my listen family we gonna have this funeral for one hour now after the funeral is over you can fight in the parking lot after we dismissed this body and put it in the hearse you can rumble on the street but long as we in this sanctuary it ain't gonna be no drama everybody gonna love everybody everybody's gonna speak to everybody and and and I'm not making enough ribbon watching it it helped me testify after the funeral is over we are in the vestibule and they gotta separate them sometimes because they're fighting over who didn't do what and who didn't get what and and really most of the time it ain't that much to leave or the fight over because sometimes the family don't get here until they they know that all the funeral arrangements been made so we don't have to pay nothing I wish I was talking to a black church this morning listen beloved that there needs to be some some kind of way that we get all that straight like Abraham did while he lived he gave Isaac everything he had but he looked out for his other children and gave them gifts and I'm sure it wasn't $18 I'm sure because Abraham was rich and so he wanted to make sure that his death would be no confusion now when someone dies even today when someone dies two or three things are usually usually come up at the time of someone's death whenever somebody dies we want to know how to be live their life and then we want to know some of the events surrounding their death how did they die what would happen what are the circumstances of their death and then we usually want to know where they stood with the Lord where what was their relationship with the Lord as we consider the waning moments of the life of the father of the faithful these are four mentioned characteristics need to be found in our lives as we will soon be gathered to our people brothers and sisters hear me soon the places that know us will know us no more I want to give you a rubber arresting statistic if the Lord Jesus delays is coming one out of every one of us is going to die and the questions raised this morning in Abraham's life is the questions that is raised in our lives this morning did you live your life what were the circumstances surrounding your death and what is your relationship with God Robert Ingersoll nicknamed the Greek agnostic standing over the grave of his brother said life is a narrow veil lived between the cold and barren peaks of to Eternity births and death the philosopher Schopenhauer said that life is an endless pain with a painful end Shakespeare said that life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing Paul Laurence Dunbar said of life it's a crust of bread and a corner to sleep in a minute to smile in an hour to weep in a pint of joy to a pic of trouble and nevertheless but the moles come double in Betty's life but to the children of faith the Bible says there are remaineth arrests for the people of God and when life's fitful fever is ended and when we drop this medal of flesh and step out of the narrow circumscription of time into the illimitable expanses of eternity and we go home to gather with our people we ought to look behind us to see what kind of life you live what will be events surrounding your death but more importantly what was your relationship with the Lord let's look at how Abraham lived his life brothers and sisters his life was a life of faith 12 of the 40 verses of Hebrews chapter 11 about about Abraham's faith really when you get home Hebrews chapter 11 says by faith Abraham by faith Abraham by faith Abraham in 12 of 40 verses are dedicated to Abraham's faith his was a life of faith his entire life was marked and characterized by strong faith what kind of life are you leading is your life and life of faith and then his life was not only a life of faith it was a life of following wherever God said to go he went wherever God said to stop he stopped wherever God said to build an altar he built an altar wherever God said to worship he worshiped whatever God said to do he did because faith is about following and it's following even when you can't see what's up ahead I wish I had helped to preach right here it's following when you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring it's doing right when you don't know what that's going to lead to because right may need to you're being ostracized you're being criticized you're being talked about you're being looked askance said right may need to you falling out with your friends psalm 37 and verse 23 says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way commit your ways unto the Lord they like yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart it's following God when you don't know how that's gonna turn out many of us have no problem following when we know what the results are going to be but I need some people here who gonna follow God no matter where it leads you because where he leads me I will follow and in following God I may end up in some situations that I hadn't planned for some circumstances that that I may not be able to get myself out of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego ended up in the fiery furnace not because they were disobeying God they ended up in the fiery furnace because they were following God and following God got them in a fiery furnace but in the fiery furnace God did not love the temperature because the men who threw him in got killed God just made sure that the fire wouldn't burn and to doubly make sure that the fire wouldn't burn him God got in there with him and if following God leads you to your fiery furnace don't worry God will fall in there too and when you come out the bible says their clothes didn't even smell like fire because God was in there with him Daniel didn't go to the lion's den because he was a liar or murderer or doing anything wrong he went in the lion's den because he was following God but in following God he ended up in the lion's den and while there God took the lion's appetite for Daniel you missed that part God took the lion's appetite for Daniel I'm gonna say that one more time to make it make sense God took the lion's appetite for Daniel because the ones who wanted Daniel thrown in when they presume in the lion's den piedo the God took his appetite for Daniel shut not yourself which ahead one or two witnesses because of evildoers now be envious against the workers of iniquity God will take the lion's appetite for you but the folk who tried to throw you in go get eaten he'll destroy the works of the enemy God will fire the devil and his attempts to destroy you if you follow God faithfully the kind of life Abraham led was a life of faith was a life of following it was a life of faith ax Ephesians chapter one and verse three says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Psalm 84 and brace eleven says no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly favor favor people who are not Christian can understand favor the favor of God is as low down as you've been he won't take his hands off you all the mistakes you've made you still looking good in your 70 all the stuff that went on in your life that are narrowly would have took other people out you still standing he'll keep you tell your hair turns gray he'll carry you when it looks like you can't go another step he'll provide for you and give you what you need right when you mean it that's cold favor you're not doing good on your job because you're such a good employee [Music] that's divine favor cuz some folks are smarter than you who don't have a job God just decided to show you favor I know I'm favored because there's nothing in my history there's nothing in my background this is all to be where I am right now I don't know what the favor of God this light because you're looking at God's favor right now somebody sitting next to you ought to go on and testify you are looking at the favor of God when you look at me you looking at somebody God has favored you can tell that you've been favored they don't mind giving their pleas for favor he walks with me he talks with me he told me I'm his own faith faith I'm trying to leave that alone but favor its folk lookin at you wondering how you still shouting favor all the lies they've turned about you and you still going on favor you had cancer but you look like you ain't been sick a day favor you are without a job for a whole year and never missed a meal your enemies but you will finish after Yuma divorce but here you are better than ever you did not divorce you were delivered [Applause] [Music] he looked behind my folks and so money's somebody who should have been dead but the favor of God that's a steal looking good stay arrived in good still living good is not because you've been here it is because God's been good not because I've been so faithful not because I've always obeyed not because I've trusted him to be with me all of the way but because he loves me so dearly I wish I had a witness here I need somebody who know you've been favored and your life is a life of favor you are living in the sunshine of God's favor and you're not embarrassed and let somebody know God favored me here it is here it is it's just this simple I wish I had something more profound I wish I had something deeper but it's just this simple jesus loves me this unknown because the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong they are weak but he is strong yes jesus loves me somebody ought to help me shot over that when I'm unlovable Jesus loves me when I wonder why there jesus loves me when I'm not good enough jesus loves me when I'll sinned Jesus loves me [Applause] [Music] that's how he lived his life but now I want to move on to how he died his death he lived his life in in faith and following and favor but let's look at the events surrounding his death not only is Abraham an excellent example of how we ought to live our lives but even in his dying there are some precious truths that are seen in him that ought to be seen in us let's look at the readiness of his death no struggle not not trying to hold on to stuff not hating that he got to go he's lived 175 years God's been good to him everything life had to offer god blessed him with and so when it came time to die he gave up the ghost he breathed his last no no no struggle not trying to not trying to grab a refrigerator not not trying to hold on to a car not not not putting his money under the mattress not not making sure that he got his bankbook in his hand because if your heartstrings are tied to your checkbook you don't have a hard time leaving here if what you have and what you own is who you are you're gonna struggle to die you ought to hold everything with a loose grip because one day God will take you from it or it from you don't don't don't don't don't don't hold these things well well moths can corrupt them thieves can break through and steal them build treasures in heaven where moth cannot corrupt and thieves cannot break through and steal these these things that we have these these things that God gives us is for us to use use your things they'll fall in love with your things don't get caught up in your things don't identify with those things because when it's time to die I just want to breathe my last I thank the Lord that I was in the room when my father breathed his last I watched him take his last breath I was there when my mother took her last breath I was there to watch three of my brothers take their last breath no strain no no fighting no struggling no tryna stay here listen when it's time to go go and maybe there's something wrong with me maybe it may be I'm messed up in my thinking and and it could very well be me but I don't understand people who who are want to hold on to people and keep them here we can sell ravaging their bodies they can't control their bodily functions they no longer know who they are where they are you want them to stay here like that forever no you ought to pray for them to go because this world is not a home we are pilgrims and strangers and when it's time for us to leave this world you think I want to stay here old forever can't see can't walk can't dress myself I want to go people howling at you telling you open your mouth your ring will be howling at me I'm gone I'm not I'm not staying here wetting myself and people pointing at you I want to go because missing brothers and sisters I am not in love with this world Abraham said I'm looking for a city I wish I had a Bible reader whose builder and maker is God I'm a pilgrim I'm a stranger I'm leaving this world I'm going to trade the temporary for the eternal I'm gonna trade the land of the dying for the land of the living I'm going to trade time for eternity departure for entrance because when this life is over is over Paul said I'm now ready to be offered the time of my departure is at hand I thought a good fight I finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there's a waiting on man not only me but all those also who love his appearing brothers the readiness of his death helps us to see the reassurance of his dance I want you to get this I want you to get this because I worked on this a while you have to pay me for this because I worked on this a long time Abraham is looking for a city whose builder and maker is God Abraham dies and he's buried along with Sarah in a field that he brought that he bought from the Hittites but when Abraham dies he dies looking for what he has faith in he has not seen it but he died in faith trusting in it looking for it and when he dies he does not go immediately to what he's been promised he goes to a place called Gehenna or paradise and he's in paradise believing that the promise is coming someone help me preacher he has not seen it yet but he's trusting that the promise will be fulfilled so he dies and he goes to paradise waiting on God to make real the promise there with one Friday Jesus dies on the cross and they bury his body and put him in joseph of arimathea new - but Jesus is still ministering in the grave because first Peter tells us that he went to Paradise to preach to the spirits that had been chained in darkness they had been looking for Messiah but they never saw him but they died believing so Jesus when he dies goes to where we are in paradise to give them something to look forward to but we Christians don't have something to look forward to we got something to look back without [Music] because what Abraham was looking forward to you and I are looking backwards and what Abraham was looking for you and I are looking backwards at the moment that makes sense the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was good news forward for those who were in paradise but for those of us who are in lily Grove this morning we are not looking for salvation we are shouting from Salvage we are not looking for eternal life we already started I see Rebecca got that over to you we are not looking for heaven and the presence of God we already have it in the presence of a Holy Spirit and if you can't enjoy God now you're gonna have a hard time when you get to help if you can shout and praise God now I feel sorry for you when it's really time to start shouting and praising God if you can't make Nora's right now or don't like to be around people who make knowledge I don't know where you going because if you go to hell it's going to be noisy because in Hell the Bible says there's weeping and gnashing of teeth the learn never dies and the screams are always heard but if you go to heaven is so not gonna be noisy because four and twenty elders around the throne day and night shouting his praises and if God says they should hush I wish I had a witness here thousands and ten thousands of angels shouting blessings and glory wisdom and power and if by chance they should hush thousands and ten thousands of others angels will join in the number and their watch as they should hush some of us or don't be there lifting up antiphonal praise to God forever where is the lamb hallelujah the law of God omnipotent reigneth thank you I think you ought to remind somebody that the carrying on we do over here is a dress rehearsal you get in practice here forgiving God praise and the only way you can die right is to live right and and and when you live right the circumstances of your death no matter what they are has everything to do with your relationship with the Lord his his relationship with the Lord I don't want to leave this out his love was on display listen beloved genuine love for God genuine love for God manifests itself in obedience genuine love for God manifests itself in obedience I don't care how much you say you love God if you don't obey God you like him but you don't love him somehow to help me close him I don't care how much of a Christian you call yourself jesus said why call me master and don't do the things that I say genuine love for God is is fleshed out in obedience if you love God you retire though if you love God you're an encourage you if you love God you don't walk around with a chip on your shoulder waiting for somebody to see something you don't like so you can give them a piece of your mind love is patient love is kind it's not puffed up it's not easily provoked it does not seek its own way it does not rejoice in iniquity it rejoices in the truth it bears all things it hopes all things it endures all things love never fails the closest love we can come to of the love of God is the love that a parent has for his child particularly a mother's love that mama might agree with that daddy that that boy ain't no good we got to put him out mama will agree and say I are you going your daddy say you out you out and he'll call his mama and say mama I'm hungry and she will not sneak food out the house she'll go cook it she ain't gonna sneak no money out there account she gonna go take it out cuz that's my child he'll call and saying mama I'm in jail the daddy say that's where you ought to stay but mama say we get nothing gonna get that boy out of jail because love never gives up that's what that word fails in the text means and he never gives up I know you ain't no good but he's mine I know he doesn't deserve another chance but he's mine I wish I had a witness here cuz when you look at it like that take it up ten billion times God looks at us when we are no good and say I'm always wrong that he's mine I know he doesn't deserve another chance but I died for him on the cross his love it's genuine mistakes warts Falls failure but he has a genuine love for God and then brothers and sisters come finally not only was his love displayed but his love was declared but I want you to hear me Abraham is held in esteem by the three great monotheistic faiths of the world Judaism Christianity and Islam each of these religions major religions of the world hold Abraham in the highest esteem as the father of the faithful he is so revered in Judaism that he's almost in the place of God he is revered by the Muslim faith he's revered by the Christian faith Abraham is known as the father of the faithful but read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and Abraham himself never mentions a word about his faith he never calls himself faithful Jehoshaphat said it God Himself said it jesus said it 12 verses of Bru's 11 is dedicated to it but Abraham never said it himself because when you are truly genuinely authentically faithful other people see it but more than that God sees it it's not in your talk it's in your walk he walked by faith he didn't talk by faith because ah many of us talked a good day but when darkness comes you got to walk by faith when sweetness comes you gotta walk by faith when trouble comes you gotta walk by faith when trials grip your family you gotta walk by faith we walk by faith and not by sight we cannot see in the future we cannot see through dark clouds we cannot see through sorrow and teardrops but we walk on by faith each day a Monday by faith even on Tuesday my face let Jesus be your guide because he's able to carry the Lord for he can see way down the road walk on by faith each day I don't know how long I'm gonna live but I do know I'm gonna live by my faith my next step may be my last but if it's my last step it'll be the last step I'll take my faith I trust God with my future I trust God with my finances I trust God with my family I chose God foundationally to carry me through

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Id: anQX2Wj3Rag

Length: 58min 42sec (3522 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 09 2020