<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Muskegon SDA Church

Lessons from the Book of Genesis

Kameron DeVasher

The Eden Family

The Fallen Family

The Flood

From Babel to Abram

The Faith of Abraham

Isaac & Rebekah

Jacob’s Troubles

The Children of Israel

Of Joseph and Jesus

This quarter we've been studying from the book of Genesis, looking for the lessons that can apply it in our lives today from that beginning of all books of the scripture.

We've looked at the creation story itself.

We've seen the the flood after the result of that fall as the evil in the world culminated with universal destruction, and then shortly thereafter we saw the Tower of Babel and the experience once again of the unleashing of wickedness in the world.

But always God has a faithful line of people.

And now we've come to the point of seeing that great paragon of faith, that great tower of faithfulness, Abraham.

In fact, Abraham is known as the father of the faithful.

In fact, Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 7 that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.

Jesus of course encountered plenty of people who thought they were going to be going to heaven because they were genetically related to Abraham, but the genuine lesson from Abraham is his lesson of faithfulness that we need to lead to understand.

So, the burden of our message today entitled The Faith of Abraham and to study, how did that faith come about?

Was this was something that he was born with or did it have to develop?

Was it something that he just came with or did it have to be grown through life experience?

And I believe we're going to see very clearly that the latter is the case.

That only through suffering and trial was Abraham, did Abraham become this great man of faith that we regard him with with that now.

But before we do any study of course let's start with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to study your word and promising that you would give us wisdom if we would humbly seek it from you.

So Lord, now we ask that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher this morning, and through the pages of inspired writings, Lord, let us see the truth as it is in Jesus.

Go back to the book of Genesis if you would.

Genesis chapter 12 records the call of Abraham that he received while he was living in Ur of the Chaldees with his father's household.

We read in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 1.

By the way, I'll just tell you right now, we're going to be looking at a lot of passages in Scripture.

I'm going to do my best to speak clearly and slowly, yet efficiently, as we march on through our message today.

Genesis chapter 12 begins, of course, with verse 1.

Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land I will show you.

I will bless you and make your name great.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed." This was Abram's first test of faith, to get up and go as the Lord instructed.

He just said, I will show you, but your job is to go.

And thus we read in the very next verse in verse 4, so Abram, what?

He didn't ask where he was going or what the land was like, or would there be opportunity for career advancement or anything like that.

He departed as the Lord had spoken to him.

He didn't ask where he was going or what the land was like or would there be opportunity for career advancement or anything like that.

He departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him.

Lot's going to end up being a whole lot of trouble as we see later on.

And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

Now you would think earlier in the book of Genesis, 75 is really not that big of a deal.

But now, this is after the flood, lifespans have significantly shortened basically to very close to what we have today.

This was a fully grown, aged man headed off as the Lord directs.

But he's promised to be a great nation and to go where God goes, and that's what he does.

Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem as far as the Teberenth tree of Moreh and Canaanites were then in the land.

Well he's been taken to this place, he's been promised he's going to go to this land of Canaan, as he was about to be told here, And he discovers that lo and behold in the land of Canaan are Canaanites.

That it is not just an open land, an open field where God's just gonna magically take him from 1 place to the next and it's all ready to go.

The place where he's supposed to go is full of people.

Verse 7, And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land.

And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

I will trust you even though there are people in the land right now.

Abram's been called out of his family's household and at first not even told where he was going, but he goes.

Then he gets to the place where God says, this is your land, but it was full of people and he can't go in yet.

And while he's waiting for the Lord to lead him, a famine comes along and the place where he's staying dries out.

And Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Abram's faith is tested a third time here, when he has to face this famine, and what do you do about it?

Now, going down into Egypt, he had been told to go to Canaan, to go out of Ur of the Chaldees and into Canaan, and here he is in a middle ground, and that middle ground dries up.

You can't really go forward, because there's still the Canaanites there, and you're not supposed to go backwards.

Commenting on this we read in his Patriarchs and Prophets page 129.

Abraham could not explain the leadings of Providence.

So apparently in Abram's mind, the Lord says, go and I'll go to a land, it will be open, it will be fertile, it will be pleasant, I'll start making children right away, and he had this picture in his mind of what was going to happen.

But as we've seen already, that's not what happened.

He's yet to have any children, and now he's driven to think of what to do.

It says here, but he held fast the promise, I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

With earnest prayer, he considered how to preserve the life of his people and his flocks.

This seems to be a template that Abraham does.

Of course he's still Abram at this point.

He'll say, yes Lord, I'll go where you want me to go, and as he goes, he runs into difficulty, and Abram reasons, How can I continue to fulfill God's purpose, yet at the same time get through this tough spot?

And sometimes that gets him into trouble.

His heart's in the right place, but sometimes his head is...

Series

Lessons from the Book of Genesis

The Faith of Abraham

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Whole Truth

Faith or Works?

1h 4m

When Life Doesn’t Go Your Way

1h

Great Characters of the Bible

Great Characters of the Bible: Abraham

28m

Father Abraham

54m

Righteousness By Faith: The Rest of the Story

02 Righteousness by Faith and Justification

1h 3m

Plenaries with Norman McNulty

Abraham - Father of the Three Angels’ Messages

50m

Practical Christianity

01 Practical Christianity

45m

The Experience of the Peace of Justification

48m

Business & Management

Race For the Crown

1h 10m

Cory Reeves Weekend

Our Response

55m

The Everlasting Gospel

5. Righteousness by Faith

48m

Morning Devotional

The Faithfulness of God

23m

Sound Doctrine