"The Power of Believing"
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Genesis 15:1-6

Introduction: (Illus.) Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, who was then lord chancellor, and he was wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and called out, "Neil!" Not daring to question or disobey the "command," the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees!

            This is a humorous reminder of obedience. When they heard Lord Hailsham yell out his friends name “Neil,” they thought he was giving a command, and so they kneeled. This is indicative of where we should be in our life with the Lord. There are times when we need to kneel before the Lord physically, but in all of life we should be humble; we should have a willingness to mentally kneel before the Lord and be guided by Him. This morning I want us to understand that when we say we believe in Jesus Christ, it is a statement that should lead us to true obedience!

I.                   The Price to be paid- (Genesis 14:22-23, 15:1-6)

a.      The demand- In our life there is usually a pattern of what is known

as obedience checks. These obedience checks are usually the demand made on our lives to be obedient to God. In this demand there is always a price to be paid, and something that we have to give up.

            EX. “Remember the Titans”  is a movie of a true story of a high school that is changing. The school is becoming integrated, and for the first time African-American students will be attending the school. The school board decides to replace the very successful and very popular white football coach (Bill Yoast) with an African-American coach (Herman Boone). They believe that Boone will be able to integrate the team better. They do give Yoast and his coaches a chance to stay on as assistant coaches if they desire. For what he believes will be best for the white students, Yoast decides to stay on. This puts a lot of pressure on Boone to succeed. Boone basically has to win the state championship to keep his job. It is a struggle, but in the end Boone (with Yoast’s help) is able to unify the team, and they do go to the state championship game. But at this game, it becomes apparent that the referees are calling the game for the other team by calling excessive penalties against Boone’s team, because it has been worked out that if Boone’s team loses, Yoast will be hired on as coach again. Yoast realizes what is going on, calls a time out, and reprimands the head official for what is going on. In the end, Boone and his team win./  After the game, one of the main school board members, and father of one of the star white players says to Yoast: “You just cost yourself the hall of fame.”

            Yoast believed that what was happening was wrong, even if it would have gotten him his job back. The demand for him was whether or not he was going to stand back and watch this “wrong” take place, and allow it to happen. In the end he passed his “obedience check” by doing the right thing.

b.      Abraham- In our scripture reading we also saw the demand for an

obedience check in the life of Abraham, who in this part of the story is known as Abram. In Genesis 15 we read about how God calls out to Abram. This was a result of an earlier statement of faith from Abram, in Genesis 14:22-23, where Abram says to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say ‘I have made Abram rich.’” In this statement, Abram is telling the king of Sodom that he has a strong faith to follow God and do what God leads him to do. Abram is saying that he trusts God to provide for him.

            Abram is then tested in this, when God comes to make a covenant with Abram. The Lord appears to Abram in a vision, and begins to speak to Abram. The demand is then made to trust God that He will give Abram an heir. Here we have Abram, who has left his country and shown obedience to the Lord, but now Abram is not so sure if he can still trust God. Many years have gone by, God had promised that Abram would be the father of many nations, and Abram wasn’t even the father of one child yet./  Abram’s plan was to try and have a son with one of his slaves.

            The challenge here is that God is calling for Abram to believe in spite of contradicting evidence. The evidence in front of Abram was that Sarai was not getting pregnant; it did not appear that he would have an heir by Sarai. Abram believed that time was running out for him. Abram was indeed at an obedience check. Was he going to stay faithful and do the right thing?

II.                The Commitment shown- (Genesis 15:6-11, 16:1-15)

a.      The test- So the call to commitment for Abram is to trust the Lord,

and trust that he and Sarai will have a child, an heir. And in verse 6 it seems as if Abram passes the test, for we are told: “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” It says that Abram believed the Lord./  Abram showed a commitment to the Lord that the Lord would do what He said.

            Often times when we are asked to show our commitment to the Lord this commitment is seen in how we use our resources: ….how we use our possessions or finances, how we right a wrong, how we surrender our vision to God’s vision…/   SO, how did Abram show commitment?/  In chapter 14 we saw him show his commitment by not taking anything from the king of Sodom that would make him rich. And then later in chapter 15 we see Abram sacrifice a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon.

Going back to the movie, “Remember the Titans,” we saw how Coach Bill Yoast sacrificed his reputation and his pride to move from head coach to assistant coach. He sacrificed his position by going from one who made the decisions, to one who followed the decisions of another. But ultimately he sacrificed his place in the hall of fame by not allowing an injustice to occur. As he saw the wrong being committed, he made the decision to step out and speak against it. He used his good standing in the community and with the referees/   to challenge them to do what is right. He used his resources to show that he was committed to the overall good.

            This is the commitment we are asked to show to the Lord as well. How are we using our possessions and finances; for selfish purposes or for the Lord? How are we standing up for injustices around us? How are we surrendering to God’s vision?

b.      The result- It is easy to think that the people in the Bible always got it

right. And as I said, it seems that Abram got it right again. But the truth is, at this point in his life, Abram doesn’t get it right. And in fact, there are many times in his life that he doesn’t get it right. If you were to continue the story, you would see that in chapter 16, there is more frustration from Abram, because Sarai is giving him no children. The frustration becomes so great that he goes back to his original plan of having an heir by one of Sarai’s servants. Only this time it is suggested to him by Sarai. (I guess this makes it right in Abram’s eyes)

And Abram has relations with Sarai’s servant Hagar, and she bears a son named Ishmael. Abram thinks that his problems are solved; he has now done what the Lord could not do, give himself an heir./   Oh how we fool ourselves into thinking that our plans can supercede God’s plans, and we can do what we think God isn’t doing.

The result doesn’t work out the way Abram hopes. And it never will for us either. When we seek to fulfill God’s results by our doing, it will never work out that way. We just mess up the situation./ And Abram did mess up the situation./ Abram messes it up for himself, for Sarai, for Hagar, and for Ishmael. Sarai gets upset at Abram and Hagar. Hagar feels betrayed when Abram and Sarai do have a son, Isaac. Hagar and Ismael are ultimately exiled./    You see how the problems come about, and don’t really ever end. All because of Abram’s disobedience.

Why do we think that disobedience will ever gain us anything? I wonder this in my children when they misbehave. They get in trouble, often times losing something of value for a time. And I ask them: do you ever get what you want when you argue and misbehave? “NO,” comes their answer./  And then I ask: then why do you do it. “I don’t know,” is usually the answer. I DON’T KNOW!/    WHY DO WE DO IT?/ Most of the time we don’t know, except to say’ “But God, you weren’t doing it, so I thought I had to!”

III.             How are we following?-

a.      Reality checks- Now I don’t want to give Abram too bad a rap, for in

the end he showed his commitment to the Lord by following him time and time again, even being willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac. But as I said before, these reality checks come into our lives to challenge us to follow the Lord more faithfully.

Example- In the book “The Gospel According to Peanuts,” (p. 84)- Linus and Lucy are walking along, and Lucy says: “Trees have many uses, Linus… They prevent erosion; their wood is used to build beautiful houses; they provide shade from the sun; protection from the rain.”/ And in the last frame they come upon Charlie Brown leaning his head against a tree, and Linus says to Lucy: “And when life gets too hard, they are very good to lean against.”

            The problem is, all too often we try and wait until life is too hard until we seek out God; until we think that maybe following God is what we should do. We have to get to that place where we seek to follow God before life gets too hard. That is what obedience checks are all about; they either lead us to follow God more securely, or if we fail/   we are reminded of how we need to follow God all the more faithfully.

            I encourage you to look at your life. How are you doing at following God? How are you doing at being committed to the Lord?/  And then I also want to challenge you to take time, whenever you are going through a struggle, and write this struggle down. And as you write it down, look at it and ask this question: “Where is the obedience check in this struggle? Because chances are that either the struggle has come about because you haven’t followed God closely enough, or it has come about to help you follow God more strongly.

b.      Learning from our mistakes- Even though Abram failed obedience

checks along the way, it woke him up to how he had failed to trust God. And then when the next obedience check came along, Abram was more prepared and more committed to follow faithfully. Abram didn’t allow his failures to lead him away from God, but rather used them to teach him how to follow God all the more. These failures actually strengthened his faith.

            It all goes back to verse 6 where God says to Abram, “And Abram believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Being righteous in this world is not about knowing everything. It isn’t even about doing everything right. It is about believing. Abram was not righteous because of his works, but because of his faith. You and I are not righteous because of our works, but because of our faith. This faith will be tested and tried, but if we keep our focus on Jesus, we will stay strong!

     Ex. Let’s say that I had a hundred dollars that I was going to give away. But before I gave it away I proceeded to crumple it up. Would you still want it? I think so. Let’s say I then dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with my shoe. Would you want it then? Of course you would. The lesson is that no matter what I did to the money, you still would want it because it did not decrease in value. It is still worth $100. Many times in our lives, we feel like we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt  by the decisions we make, the circumstances that come our way, and the way we are unfaithful to God. This does not change our value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to God. The worth of our lives comes, not in what we do, what we have or who we know, but by...WHO WE ARE; children of God. And as children we are called to be faithful; to believe!
 

Conclusion: It seems to me that people are willing to believe in Jesus, willing to say that Jesus is the Lord of their life, but they don’t live like this is true. I know that this happens because of many issues: busyness, doubt, fear, alternative teachings, and on and on the list could go. The great news is that God doesn’t want us to go too far astray, before He calls us back to Himself./  EX. In another Peanuts Comic strip, Schroeder is playing Beethoven on his piano, and Lucy is lying next to the piano listening. In frustration she asks: “Schroeder, why is it you like Beethoven better than you like me?” To which Schroeder says: “Beethoven was Beethoven and YOU ARE… YOU!” Lucy thinks about this for a moment and then says: “That doesn’t even leave room for discussion.” I hope that as you leave here today, you would have the sense that I haven’t left you with any room for discussion. Meaning that the power in our life comes from believing. There is power in believing which comes from our faith, and this faith in God is the only thing that will lead us to live our lives in productive, fulfilling and purposeful ways. Don’t think that you know more than God. You don’t. Don’t think that your way is better than God’s way. It isn’t. Don’t let others lead you astray into thinking that the way of the world is better than God’s way. This is not true. Receive the power of God into your life by believing the truth of God this day. Amen.