back to index2020-11-15 Abraham, the father of faith
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to be 00:00:13.920 |
I had a two-point message thinking that I'm going to be able to get it through, but I 00:00:18.560 |
So we're going to stick with the first one today. 00:00:24.480 |
I know I'm going at a slow pace through chapter 11, but I think it's important enough for 00:00:29.060 |
us to really be grounded in this chapter, just knowing the importance of what he's trying 00:00:35.760 |
to say here, because this is kind of a transition chapter from chapter 1 through 10 to chapter 00:00:44.200 |
So he's trying to connect right theology with right living. 00:00:49.000 |
And so if you miss either side, then it's not either saving faith or it's the wrong 00:00:55.200 |
So we want to make sure that the point that he's trying to get in chapter 11 is that right 00:01:04.480 |
And so he's really going through person by person to do that. 00:01:08.600 |
So even though if we go a little bit slower, I think it'll be beneficial for us either 00:01:14.920 |
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8 through 10, reading out of the NISV, "By faith Abraham, when 00:01:21.120 |
he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, 00:01:26.240 |
and he went out not knowing where he was going. 00:01:29.360 |
By faith he lived as an alien in the land of the promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling 00:01:33.520 |
in its tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. 00:01:38.520 |
For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is 00:01:48.080 |
I pray that you will protect this pulpit, that only your word would go forth, and that 00:01:54.840 |
your children will hear the voice of Christ and follow him and him alone. 00:01:58.840 |
So we ask, Lord God, that you would hide us in your glory and that we may see Christ's 00:02:04.800 |
glory and love him and worship him and follow him. 00:02:11.600 |
So again, the importance of each one of these characters that we're studying, we studied 00:02:17.160 |
about Enoch, about Noah, and then now about the life of Abraham. 00:02:22.680 |
Abraham, if you have read through the New Testament, know that he's a very, very significant 00:02:30.040 |
In fact, we said that the life of Noah, there's about five chapters in the book of Genesis 00:02:35.080 |
that covers his life, but for Abraham in his life, there's about 14 chapters in Genesis 00:02:41.280 |
Not only that, the text that we're looking at, starting from verse 8 all the way up to 00:02:45.560 |
verse 19, really has Abraham involved in some way or form or other. 00:02:51.440 |
In fact, they said that 308 separate times Abraham's name is mentioned in the Bible. 00:02:57.840 |
And sometimes when you say something like that, you can say, "Well, he's mentioned in 00:03:00.560 |
three books 400 times or 300 times," but his name is actually mentioned in 27 separate 00:03:06.880 |
books in the Bible, 16 in the Old Testament and 11 in the New Testament. 00:03:12.680 |
All of this to say that Abraham in redemptive history is a central figure. 00:03:19.600 |
His name and his life story is mentioned and is highlighted to help us to better understand 00:03:28.580 |
And so he is called the father of righteousness for two reasons. 00:03:32.680 |
One, God begins the nation of Israel through him and his descendants. 00:03:38.560 |
And so God is making it very clear how the salvation is going to happen by faith through 00:03:45.000 |
And how the descendant that's going to come from this line is going to be the one who's 00:03:49.040 |
going to come and crush the head of the serpent and bring us salvation. 00:03:55.240 |
God makes a covenant with him that by blessing him, he's going to bless all the other nations, 00:03:59.960 |
meaning that salvation is going to come to the world through him. 00:04:05.620 |
He is also the father of faith because there's no greater example that we find in the Bible 00:04:14.220 |
And so here's a man that's called and lived all of his life simply because God told him 00:04:21.060 |
And we'll see that at the end, Abraham and his life in every part of his life, his descendants, 00:04:27.420 |
how he lived, what he pursued, all of it is an example of what it means to be a follower 00:04:32.960 |
And so this morning, I had two points from this text, but I'm just going to just give 00:04:38.220 |
my main focus on verse one or on the first part, and then we'll get to the second part 00:04:44.680 |
So the first thing that we see about his life of faith is that God calls him out of his 00:04:53.320 |
When we meet God, the first thing that he does is that God has not added to their life, 00:04:58.120 |
that he had a good life and then said, well, you want to make it even better, you follow 00:05:06.640 |
Second thing that we see about his life, and again, these are all very simple points, but 00:05:11.960 |
when we look at it into his life, it's very profound. 00:05:14.000 |
Like, what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? 00:05:16.360 |
And why was he credited as the father of faith? 00:05:20.640 |
And what is it about his life that we are to emulate? 00:05:23.160 |
So the second point is he lived all of his life by faith and not by sight. 00:05:29.040 |
He was pursuing the promise that God made to him. 00:05:32.240 |
And so whether he saw signs or not, his whole life, everything that he had, he went all 00:05:38.640 |
in in following God's command and his promise. 00:05:42.520 |
So he didn't dabble in it, he didn't simply, you know, spend a part of his life or his 00:05:48.200 |
Everything that he had was poured into the promise that God has made with him, that if 00:05:52.480 |
you follow me, that I will fulfill this covenant that I'm making with you in Genesis chapter 00:05:58.480 |
So we're going to look at the first part of it. 00:06:02.620 |
When he encounters God, the first thing God tells him to do is to come out. 00:06:09.200 |
By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out. 00:06:14.840 |
In Genesis chapter 12, 1, it tells us, "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth.'" 00:06:19.640 |
Abram is the name that he had before God changed it to Abraham. 00:06:24.040 |
He said to Abram, "Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's 00:06:33.400 |
If you read chapter 11, right, before you came or read some part of chapter 12, you'll 00:06:42.120 |
He didn't leave everything because he had nothing to lose, right? 00:06:45.360 |
Well, you know, nothing else that I did work, so let me follow Christ and maybe my life 00:06:52.200 |
In fact, we know that Abraham was already a very wealthy man. 00:06:59.280 |
He left with his family and God called him out from where he was. 00:07:02.800 |
Now, first question we need to ask is why did he have to leave? 00:07:07.720 |
Couldn't God keep him where he was and blessed him and let his nation, let this nation multiply? 00:07:15.600 |
Why did he have to put that aside and walk out into the desert? 00:07:19.580 |
It wasn't like God showed him that if you sacrifice this, here's a greater city waiting 00:07:23.920 |
for you, so if you're willing to go, trust me, and I'll take you out of all of this and 00:07:35.600 |
Well, it's consistent with everything else that we see in Scripture. 00:07:40.560 |
When we first encounter God, what does it mean to repent? 00:07:46.760 |
Our sins were not justified because we did righteous things or you basically acknowledged 00:07:56.200 |
And that's why the message, the very first message that Jesus gives is repent for the 00:08:02.920 |
Repent basically means you acknowledge that whatever it was that you are pursuing, whatever 00:08:07.000 |
that you value, that you're saying that all of that was wrong. 00:08:13.620 |
So when we repent, we're not just simply saying, you know, I lied when I was three years old 00:08:18.080 |
and I cheated and I took a candy from the store when I shouldn't and remembering all 00:08:21.840 |
these little sins and so I'm not going to do that, so I repent because I've done some 00:08:29.140 |
Justification isn't simply acknowledging there are some things that I did that was wrong. 00:08:34.360 |
Repentance that leads to justification is recognizing that my being was corrupted by 00:08:42.200 |
So every thought that I had, everything that I considered to be good, everything that I 00:08:46.880 |
hoped for, everything that I pursued was wrong because it was outside of the will of God. 00:08:53.000 |
I was pursuing my comfort, my safety, my glory, my family, and all of that I surrendered to 00:09:04.680 |
So whether it is in the old covenant or new covenant, the very first thing that God calls 00:09:08.080 |
us is to call us out, but here's the problem that you and I have in our generation. 00:09:14.240 |
So many people have only just added Christ to their life. 00:09:19.000 |
They've never genuinely repented of whatever it was that they were pursuing. 00:09:22.080 |
They say, you know what, I'm going to do this and I'm going to work hard and I'm going to 00:09:25.440 |
get to the next level, but I'm going to do it in Jesus' name. 00:09:29.600 |
So a good Christian goes to church, they serve, they may give, but their life, nothing in 00:09:35.400 |
They never left behind the world until all they did was just add Christ and pray to Him 00:09:47.120 |
The very first step in meeting Christ is to recognize that all of this is under judgment 00:09:55.680 |
of God and to repent of that and to follow Him. 00:10:00.480 |
Galatians 1.4 says, "He who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from 00:10:05.360 |
the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." 00:10:10.760 |
The age that he's referring to is the culture, what this world values. 00:10:18.160 |
You know, as soon as we are born, right, we're in this competition, this rat race, right? 00:10:24.960 |
You don't know it, but your parents were competing with you when you were a kid. 00:10:36.600 |
So when you have young children, young parents get together and they compare. 00:10:40.120 |
They don't tell you they're comparing, but they're comparing. 00:10:43.140 |
So if you walked before the other kids, like, "Oh, my kid walked 10 months." 00:10:52.960 |
So from the moment that we're born, there's this competition, seen and unseen. 00:10:57.640 |
You get a little bit older, like, "What kind of grades did you get? 00:11:02.040 |
And then you go to college, like, "What kind of job did you get?" 00:11:05.240 |
And you get a job, it's like, "Well, who did you marry?" 00:11:08.200 |
And after you get that, then you have your own kids. 00:11:14.360 |
And then you retire, and it's like, "What are your kids doing for you?" 00:11:20.280 |
This rat race, from the moment that we are born until the day that we die, we're in this 00:11:33.680 |
See, the cultural Christianity has never abandoned that. 00:11:40.000 |
Cultural Christianity embraces that, and then want the security and the fellowship and the 00:11:47.040 |
hope that we have in Christ while we're still pursuing. 00:11:51.160 |
Nothing about the pursuit of this world has ever changed. 00:11:54.560 |
But the primary thing that God says He is saving us from, and the reason why the world 00:11:58.800 |
is under this condemnation, is because everything that the world is doing is in rebellion against 00:12:06.840 |
In Colossians 1, verse 13, it says, "He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred 00:12:18.400 |
Everything that we knew from the previous kingdom, He said, He delivered us from it. 00:12:22.800 |
And that's why He says in James chapter 4, "You adulterous, you do not know, do you not 00:12:28.040 |
know that the friendship with the world is hostility toward God?" 00:12:31.520 |
Do you notice here, He doesn't say an outright pursuit, a covenant that you made with the 00:12:38.160 |
Simply a friendship, a friendly term with the world is hostility toward God. 00:12:44.180 |
He goes even further, He says, "Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world 00:12:50.520 |
He just wishes, a man who just desires, desires to be friendly with the world. 00:12:58.200 |
Why can't I be cool in the eyes of the world and still love Jesus? 00:13:07.440 |
You know, oftentimes the excuses that we make is, "Well, God didn't call everybody to mission, 00:13:11.520 |
God didn't call everybody to ministry, God didn't call everybody to do this, God doesn't 00:13:15.560 |
want Christians to be poor, God doesn't want people to be this way." 00:13:18.720 |
And so we rationalize in our head, all the while compromised, chasing after the same 00:13:23.720 |
thing before we met Christ, and we never left behind the world. 00:13:28.080 |
And we're trying so hard to reconcile living in the world and having the world and pursuing 00:13:37.360 |
Because in the pursuit of the world, there are holes. 00:13:41.240 |
No matter how much you pursue it, you still feel lonely. 00:13:44.400 |
No matter how much you pursue the world, there's still fear, like, "After I die, what's going 00:13:48.960 |
No matter how much I pursue the world, you don't have the kind of friendship that you 00:13:53.600 |
You don't get the morality that you pass on to your children. 00:13:57.880 |
And so there's a lot of secular, worldly benefits of being a cultural Christian. 00:14:07.240 |
And that's why he says, "He who wants to be friends with the world, he who desires to 00:14:13.280 |
be near to the world, makes himself an enemy of God." 00:14:17.160 |
If you take that literally, which we ought to, it basically means that there's a lot 00:14:22.960 |
of people in the church who are living friendly with God, and God considers you hostile to 00:14:30.440 |
The Bible tells us that you are an adulterer, John 15, 19. 00:14:34.280 |
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. 00:14:36.960 |
But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, 00:14:45.080 |
Part of the reason why in our world, where you and I live, why the persecution doesn't 00:14:51.640 |
seem to be, at least for the moment, in our face, is because we probably don't look like 00:14:58.920 |
When persecution comes, and when I say persecution, I'm not talking about just not fitting in. 00:15:05.680 |
I'm not talking about not going where they go. 00:15:08.160 |
We're talking about possibly losing your jobs. 00:15:11.560 |
The Bible says that they hate me, so they will hate you. 00:15:16.160 |
So the more we look like Christ, the more the world is going to remind us that they 00:15:26.040 |
You don't value the things that we value, so therefore we're no longer going to tolerate 00:15:31.680 |
Up to this point, because we lived in this free country with religious freedom, the world 00:15:36.080 |
always hated genuine Christianity, but they tolerated it up to this point. 00:15:42.680 |
They never loved it, but they tolerated it because of the law, because it was acceptable. 00:15:50.600 |
But we are entering into a phase in at least United States history that the rest of the 00:15:56.920 |
world is already in, that it's no longer going to be tolerated. 00:16:01.120 |
They say they're going to be hostile toward Christian faith. 00:16:04.780 |
So those of us who have been trying so hard, holding on to the world, yet holding on to 00:16:11.080 |
God, the world is no longer going to allow that. 00:16:15.040 |
Either you embrace Christ or you embrace the world. 00:16:17.880 |
But the thing is, that's exactly what God has been telling us from the beginning. 00:16:22.640 |
The world kingdom and God's kingdom has always been in conflict. 00:16:27.800 |
And it is to our own deception that we fooled ourselves that somehow we're going to be Switzerland 00:16:36.320 |
That's exactly the problem that the author of Hebrews is writing to. 00:16:41.800 |
These guys are persevering for a while and they started drifting back into the old world. 00:16:45.400 |
If you notice, if you've been with us for 10 chapters of study, the author does not 00:16:53.880 |
He doesn't say that there's a question to Jesus' identity. 00:16:58.640 |
The primary problem was they were just simply drifting back so that they can have some of 00:17:05.000 |
the world and take some of the pressure off of the consequence of following Christ and 00:17:11.440 |
And basically, he's shutting the door on them. 00:17:14.200 |
You may fool yourself to think that you're saved. 00:17:17.240 |
He said, no, either you're a follower of Christ or you're still in the world. 00:17:24.560 |
Jesus said that very clearly, if you want to follow me, you must what? 00:17:33.080 |
Somehow, in our generation, for whatever the reason, we have sanitized that, cut off the 00:17:44.880 |
That he didn't actually mean what he said to the disciples. 00:17:48.480 |
When he said he's going to the cross, he actually went to the cross. 00:17:57.780 |
He actually physically went and he told his disciples, where I'm going, you're going to 00:18:05.000 |
Show me where in the Bible did that ever change. 00:18:08.560 |
Show me where in the Bible that after saying that, a generation passed, 100 years, 200, 00:18:13.880 |
1,000 years passed, that we have a new revelation and saying, now that's not required. 00:18:19.600 |
That God's calling for his church has changed. 00:18:23.080 |
Clearly he doesn't mean that for Christians in this generation living in America. 00:18:29.120 |
Possibly the reason why the American church is so impotent is because we are trying to 00:18:34.520 |
hold on to both and we are miserably failing. 00:18:39.160 |
From the get-go, an encounter with God demands that we leave behind our comfort. 00:18:47.760 |
He called Abraham out in his reaches, out in the desert. 00:18:52.200 |
He didn't come from one place and took him to another place of safety. 00:18:56.040 |
He didn't abandon his riches and then gave him even more wealth. 00:19:04.920 |
A wealthy man who already had his family and walked out into the desert, not knowing, not 00:19:12.200 |
knowing the enemies he was going to face, not knowing if he was going to be able to 00:19:20.000 |
There was nothing that he could tangibly see that if he followed God that this was going 00:19:30.400 |
That his whole life trajectory was he believed. 00:19:39.080 |
See in the scriptures, the second in the book of Leviticus, it says, if something is unclean, 00:19:50.560 |
And to be taken outside the camp basically means that you're forsaken from the community. 00:19:55.140 |
So if they have to have capital punishment or somebody had certain kind of disease, they 00:20:03.320 |
By the time Christ came, in order for John the Baptist to do his ministry, he went outside 00:20:11.200 |
And that's why they didn't know what to do with him. 00:20:13.640 |
Because when he should clearly, it seems like God's anointing is upon this man. 00:20:22.600 |
He was the new prophet that everybody acknowledged, but it didn't fit their paradigm because he 00:20:29.840 |
He didn't go into Jerusalem and pick up Pharisees. 00:20:33.200 |
He didn't go to the Sanhedrin and influential people. 00:20:36.520 |
He went outside the camp and he had the poor people, he had the prostitute tax collectors 00:20:43.320 |
So even the Pharisees would come just curious, what's going on? 00:20:48.080 |
Clearly something is going on, but why are you doing it out here? 00:20:52.960 |
I mean, if he was bad, Jesus came and he took it even further out. 00:21:03.120 |
If John the Baptist clearly had God's anointing, Jesus literally had the doves fall on him 00:21:08.960 |
and God say, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. 00:21:12.360 |
But the very first thing that he says is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 00:21:16.700 |
Because whatever system that you built, whatever righteousness that you are holding on to as 00:21:21.560 |
a security blanket, he says you must repent of that. 00:21:25.600 |
Put that beyond and then come outside the camp. 00:21:30.980 |
In the time of Christ, in order to meet Christ, instead of saying inside the camp, you actually 00:21:38.000 |
Hebrews chapter 13, 11 through 14, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought 00:21:42.920 |
into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the 00:21:48.160 |
Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered 00:21:53.660 |
So let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. 00:21:58.120 |
For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. 00:22:04.280 |
In order to follow Christ, the very first thing that he commands us, he was crucified 00:22:09.460 |
And so therefore, if we want to meet him, we are called to go outside the camp. 00:22:14.680 |
Outside the camp at that time basically means whatever religious system that they set up, 00:22:26.840 |
So when Jesus came to the temple and he was angry, he was looking not only because here 00:22:32.320 |
these people were taking advantage of the outer court and wouldn't allow the women and 00:22:36.360 |
the Gentiles to come in and worship, that represented their whole attitude toward worship. 00:22:45.000 |
And he wasn't simply turning the tables over of the merchants. 00:22:49.640 |
He was condemning the whole religious system. 00:22:56.280 |
They were just going through religious motions. 00:23:01.720 |
And they could care less whether genuine worship was happening or not. 00:23:05.920 |
And that's why these disciples remembered that the love for his house, love for his 00:23:22.280 |
When he says that there's going to come a time that he is looking for people who will 00:23:26.440 |
worship him in spirit and in truth, and that desire and his looking is going to consume 00:23:34.360 |
him, meaning this religious system, this jumping through the hoops, becoming a member, finding 00:23:41.680 |
the right church, having a good family, raising godly children, none of this in and of itself 00:23:49.320 |
But so much of all that we do within the religious system is to maintain the cultural Christianity 00:23:59.240 |
And he's calling us outside the camp to abandon our comfort zone and to literally start over 00:24:07.280 |
with life, to repent of whatever it is that we were pursuing. 00:24:13.160 |
In Psalm 118 verse 22, it says, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the 00:24:21.080 |
In other words, they looked at Jesus and clearly there was something, there was something about 00:24:27.800 |
him and people were amazed that he was speaking with authority. 00:24:31.960 |
He was speaking as if God was speaking because God himself was speaking through him. 00:24:41.400 |
So they ended up rejecting him, crucifying him, and trying to discard him. 00:24:45.640 |
But he says, "The very stone the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone." 00:24:52.480 |
Meaning without that cornerstone, you couldn't build anything. 00:24:59.760 |
That whatever that you and I have built outside of Christ, in time it's going to crumble. 00:25:08.080 |
Not realizing it is this rat race, keeping up with the Joneses or the Lees or the Chains, 00:25:14.040 |
whoever it is that we're trying to keep up with. 00:25:17.400 |
I grieve when I see young couples who are perfectly fine and living a great life and 00:25:23.640 |
all of a sudden they visit somebody's house and it's like, "Oh shoot, we're behind." 00:25:28.760 |
The children are happy, they're doing fine, and all of a sudden, "Oh, my kids have kids 00:25:35.200 |
Or their kids are doing this but we don't have it. 00:25:37.920 |
Or their kids are able to send their kids to do this and learn this and learn that but 00:25:42.160 |
And then we get slowly sucked up into that and we live the rest of our lives just like 00:25:47.800 |
With this carrot dangling in front of us, not realizing it's that carrot, it's what's 00:25:55.680 |
That's what's causing the contentions in marriage oftentimes. 00:26:02.000 |
It causes contention that even when God blesses you, you're not thankful because it's 00:26:10.800 |
And so the whole worldly system is based upon us wanting to elevate ourselves. 00:26:16.360 |
So we try hard and then we, you know, when we fail, we're upset and then we don't make 00:26:23.000 |
it, then we pour our hopes into our children so that they may have it. 00:26:30.040 |
You and I know how to recognize the health and wealth gospel. 00:26:36.520 |
I mean, if you are a health and wealth gospel person and you happen to be at Bering Community 00:26:41.640 |
Church, I'm guessing you're frustrated, right? 00:26:48.000 |
My guess is most of you are very keen, no matter how long you've been here, that you 00:26:53.240 |
can recognize health and wealth gospel because if it comes off of this pulpit, you're going 00:26:57.760 |
And you can point to verses that Jesus speaks. 00:27:04.760 |
The health and wealth gospel is so deeply embedded in all of us that we may automatically 00:27:15.640 |
But in life, in every part of our life, we practice. 00:27:29.040 |
How much of our prayer when we get sick is to be healthy? 00:27:37.040 |
So automatically, even though we reject it theologically, but in life we practice it 00:27:46.640 |
First and foremost, God calls us out, recognizing, to leave behind the temptations of this world 00:27:56.280 |
and to look at Christ, that if He is not better than whatever is tempting you, it's just a 00:28:06.640 |
If He's not better, if you didn't gaze upon the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and 00:28:11.160 |
then you said, "Jesus is better than whatever it is that I'm tempted, whatever it is that 00:28:17.080 |
I'm comparing my life to, He's better than anything else that is around me," then at 00:28:27.760 |
God calls us out, first and foremost, to recognize that all that we pursue in this world, even 00:28:37.520 |
if your wildest dreams come true, all it does is lead to greater judgment. 00:28:51.680 |
And He's not simply telling us this to come out because He wants us to live a hard life. 00:29:00.640 |
It is the only way that He can lead us to the promised land if we leave our old house. 00:29:07.880 |
Only way for us to follow Him and to experience this life that He promises, we have to let 00:29:16.640 |
Living in between, thinking like, "I'm going to somehow have a little bit of this, a little 00:29:19.920 |
bit of that," and then being frustrated the rest of your Christian life wondering why 00:29:28.520 |
And so we have a generation filled with people who can recite quotes from other godly men 00:29:37.320 |
Missionary books that we've read, testimonies that we've heard, sermons that we've heard, 00:29:52.440 |
And so we have a generation filled with people who have all these great sayings in our head, 00:29:57.080 |
Bible verses memorized, text that we've studied, and the application of that is, "I like it. 00:30:18.800 |
I can tell you godly men that I admire from a distance, but it's never my testimony. 00:30:25.080 |
I'm just feeding off of the crumbs falling off the table. 00:30:29.400 |
And we always wonder why I don't experience this intimacy with God. 00:30:35.120 |
If you're going to a banquet and you know that the best food is waiting for you, you 00:30:39.360 |
don't go there and pick up cup ramen right before you go. 00:30:45.880 |
You might even skip breakfast because you don't want to spoil the meal. 00:30:52.880 |
You want to make sure that you're going to enjoy and you're going to be able to taste 00:30:56.000 |
every part of this meal because you're anticipating and preparing yourself. 00:31:01.760 |
How much of the dissatisfaction do we have in our relationship with God because we have 00:31:06.440 |
nibbled on the crumbs of this world and we've lost our appetite for God? 00:31:12.960 |
And we come to worship God and we say, I don't feel anything. 00:31:21.080 |
That he somehow, if we got to figure it out, if we adjust this and do this, that somehow 00:31:25.560 |
we can figure this out, that maybe we're already full. 00:31:30.720 |
Maybe we've given our hearts and our lives to the things that don't matter and then now 00:31:33.880 |
we come to Christ and there's no room for him. 00:31:39.560 |
If you read the Old Testament history, if you remember Jonah, Jonah refused to go to 00:31:47.920 |
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and you have to understand, Assyria, these guys were 00:31:53.640 |
You know, they would be equivalent to the modern terrorists. 00:31:56.900 |
In order to bring fear, they would behead people and they went even further than that 00:32:00.880 |
because the terrorists targeted certain people. 00:32:03.040 |
I mean, they would conquer nations and anybody that they would consider a threat, they would 00:32:07.840 |
literally behead them, crucify them and then hang them up so that their children and their 00:32:17.120 |
They would skin people alive to bring fear upon Israel. 00:32:24.840 |
Assyria, after they do their damage, is not mentioned. 00:32:29.920 |
They come in, they brutalize Israel and then the Babylonians come. 00:32:36.000 |
And then Babylonians kind of take them into captivity. 00:32:38.880 |
They take in the best of Israel and then they've actually gave them opportunity to grow. 00:32:45.600 |
In fact, many of the Jews who got captive and was taken into Babylonia ended up becoming 00:32:57.480 |
So they went there and they assimilated, learned their language, their culture. 00:33:00.700 |
They started to adopt their idols into their life and so we have stories of Shadrach, Meshach, 00:33:07.600 |
But for the most part, nation of Israel just assimilated. 00:33:12.040 |
But God's plan was always to bring them back. 00:33:15.840 |
After the judgment of 70 years, God was going to raise up Cyrus and then the Persians were 00:33:22.760 |
And Cyrus was so generous, he actually did a fundraiser to support them. 00:33:27.440 |
You guys can go back and reestablish the nation of Israel, reestablish the temple, but by 00:33:31.720 |
the time he lets them go, nobody wanted to go. 00:33:36.760 |
A very few remnant volunteered and went back. 00:33:48.720 |
Why would they go back to that when they're comfortable where they are? 00:33:53.280 |
And so the way that nation of Israel scattered was not because of Assyria. 00:33:57.400 |
It was because of Babylon, because they were tempted and they assimilated and they wanted 00:34:07.360 |
That's why if you look at the book of Revelation, when the kingdom of Satan is described, it 00:34:19.040 |
Most people who know anything about Babylon, they weren't brutal. 00:34:24.760 |
They gave opportunity for the Jews to assimilate and even take high positions. 00:34:30.440 |
Our greatest temptation in our generation is not the Assyrians. 00:34:35.240 |
You know, we're afraid that persecution is going to come and it's going to make it impossible 00:34:44.880 |
You know what the genuine response of a genuine Christian should be? 00:34:55.600 |
Because what we are not, we weren't willing to let go. 00:34:59.400 |
The force, the earth is going to, the world is going to force us to let go. 00:35:04.680 |
Because they're not going to tolerate nominal Christianity. 00:35:15.160 |
It's where the world has saturated into our thinking, our being, our affection, where 00:35:22.800 |
we voluntarily are drifting away from Christ. 00:35:28.520 |
We're not drifting away from Christ kicking and screaming. 00:35:32.480 |
We're not drifting away from Christ yelling out and crying out in prayer meetings. 00:35:38.240 |
We're volunteering joyfully, drifting from Christ, knowing that that's where we're going 00:35:50.040 |
First thing that God calls us to do if we're going to be a man and woman of faith, a church 00:35:54.760 |
of faith, that we need to repent of all that has seeped into us from this world and to 00:36:07.000 |
It is the rat race that causes the contention between husband and wife. 00:36:12.600 |
It is the rat race that the children that we are raising, that we didn't do it on purpose, 00:36:21.680 |
that we've kind of brought them through, now they're struggling with it. 00:36:26.800 |
And everything that we think, oh, we want to make an easier life, we want to make it 00:36:29.720 |
easy, we want to take care of our children, in the name of being good parents, we've made 00:36:40.560 |
First and foremost, as I've been warning and encouraging, that period of tolerating biblical 00:36:56.960 |
And I think it's going to come pretty quickly. 00:37:01.520 |
I don't say this to get you to be uncomfortable. 00:37:07.960 |
And I think most pastors will agree that that's where we're headed into. 00:37:12.160 |
And to be honest, I'm not worried about my generation. 00:37:20.880 |
Not anytime soon, but it's closer than the beginning. 00:37:27.400 |
I'm worried about your children who are in Sunday school. 00:37:32.520 |
That in the next five to ten years, when they're in junior high school and high school and 00:37:37.360 |
college, what will Christianity look like for them? 00:37:41.920 |
The Catholic Church drifted so far away from God that by the time biblical Christians began 00:37:49.680 |
to quote scripture, they were beheaded and burned at the stake. 00:37:54.800 |
You and I come from a tradition of protestors. 00:38:00.840 |
Because men and women who had the courage to open up the Bible and say, "What you're 00:38:08.600 |
What you're doing doesn't fit the Christianity that I know. 00:38:10.760 |
The Jesus that you're worshiping is not the Jesus that I'm reading in scripture." 00:38:16.360 |
And it is the protest that led us to where we're at. 00:38:22.660 |
Now the Christianity that you and I participate in oftentimes doesn't look anything like what 00:38:29.760 |
And so we can easily just go along or we can open up the scriptures for ourselves. 00:38:35.800 |
And this is why we're trying to get you into the Bible because you can dismiss me and say, 00:38:42.800 |
But I want you to look at the scripture yourself with your own eyes and see if what you see 00:38:48.440 |
in our culture looks anything like the Bible that you and I are reading. 00:38:55.000 |
And if it is different, we need another reformation. 00:39:03.600 |
We need to come before God and repent that we have drifted. 00:39:12.840 |
That when we pray to God, that we're not just praying for God to give us a job, make our 00:39:20.760 |
families better, that if I'm sick so that I can be healthy, so that my children could 00:39:26.200 |
be raised in a comfortable place, so that my work would not persecute me. 00:39:30.360 |
We're not simply praying for these small things. 00:39:33.200 |
And again, I'm not saying that these things are not important. 00:39:36.680 |
But I believe what you and I need to pray for is much bigger than that. 00:39:42.040 |
We've drifted so far from God as our generation that what's happening in the Middle East looks 00:39:52.360 |
What's happening in India is like, "Oh my gosh, it must be so hard for these Christians 00:39:59.480 |
And they're risking their lives and their well-being to share the gospel. 00:40:08.000 |
Not realizing what you and I experience here is weird. 00:40:13.160 |
What you and I have accepted to be normal is inconsistent with Scripture. 00:40:19.960 |
What we see over there is exactly what we see here. 00:40:23.560 |
So as we continue to study Abraham and these men and women of faith, I pray that it would 00:40:31.640 |
not simply be an academic study, a theological study and say, "I don't believe in health 00:40:48.640 |
That we would as individuals look at the life of Abraham as the example of saving faith 00:41:01.080 |
It is a miserable place to be, to be religious without Christ. 00:41:14.960 |
Because religiousness without Christ is sacrifice without reward. 00:41:22.800 |
Life is hard enough as it is living in this fallen world. 00:41:28.080 |
Raising children in this fallen world is hard enough as it is. 00:41:30.840 |
Resisting temptation is hard enough as it is. 00:41:35.240 |
And then to not have the joy in Christ, and then to not have the hope in Christ, and the 00:41:42.520 |
intimacy of Christ, and then the love of Christ. 00:41:47.720 |
The most miserable people are religious people who do not know Christ. 00:41:55.080 |
The only way that you and I would be willfully, joyfully leaving these things behind is if 00:42:02.480 |
we genuinely see that in comparison to surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, it looks 00:42:14.280 |
I'm saving myself for the banquet that He promised. 00:42:19.160 |
So I pray that that would be our passion, that would be our pursuit.