LET GOD FIGURE IT OUT; JUST WALK BY FAITH

Hebrews 11:17-19 (NIV) (also read Genesis 22;14-18)

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. A lot of good Christian adults like to begin their weekend with a good hot cup of coffee or tea – especially if it’s a cold winter weekend where you are. So, imagine this scene for a minute. It’s still real early, but the light’s on the back of the tent. Abraham’s brewing up a fresh pot, saying to himself: “I’ve got to sacrifice Isaac today because God told me to. But God also told me He was going to make me a great nation through Isaac.” The man should have an insurmountable problem. But he says, “The HOW of all of this is God’s problem. If I could answer that, I would be God. I’ll just obey and see what God does. I’m confident that both Isaac and I are coming back, because I KNOW God’s going to keep His promise. But I also know I’ve got to kill my son. HOW God is going to figure all this out isn’t up to me. I’ll let Him do it His way.” You know why so many of us don’t get anywhere with God? Because we are still trying to figure it all our. (Think of our current election process!) “Now Lord, if You let ME KNNOW how you are going to do this, if you’ll just show me Your timetable, I’ll trust you.” But that’s not faith. Faith is confidence in God, PERIOD. Tell you what. While you’re enjoying that first cup of brew, bow your head and ask God to give you the kind of confident faith that can’t be shaken when the wind starts to blow alittle heavy. That’s a prayer he’s love to answer. The life of faith elevates the power of god over your circumstances. That’s a theological statement, by the way. Your ability to have CONFIDENCE during the trials of your life is wrapped up in your theology, which is simply what you believe about God. Faith is asking you to take a risk. You are being asked to step out there on stuff you don’t know about or haven’t seen simply because someone told you to do it. So you are taking a risk. What determines whether you take the risk of faith – or any risk? Answer: The level of confidence you have in the person asking you to take the risk. So the higher your view of God, the stronger your theology, the more risks you will be willing to take. Abraham was willing to take the ultimate risk because he was confident of God’s power. What power? Well, Abraham believed in god’s power to create life out of death. God all the way back to Hebrews 11:3 and you will recall that faith says that the things we see around us were created by an invisible God, NOT out of the visible stuff. Faith says, “I wasn’t there when it happened, but I stake my claim on God and His word REGARDLESS of what I see or don’t see, because of my understanding of who God is.” Can we see, it’s NOT how much faith you or I have. When you hear people telling you you need more faith, that’s an incorrect analysis. You don’t need A LOT of faith. You don’t need a “blessed handkerchief” or a “bottle of water from the Jordan River” to give you more faith. The issue of faith is NOT THE AMOUNT but the OBJECT OF YOUR FAITH. If you trust a rowboat to get you across the Pacific Ocean, we will have a good time at your memorial service, because I don’t care how confident your faith is, you are going to die in the ocean. The issue is the object you put your faith in. Abraham was confident because he KNEW WHOM HE TRUSTED. We may sometimes think Abraham’s faith wasn’t tested to the ultimate because he never killed Isaac. Forget it. God Himself said Isaac was as good as dead. (Gen. 22:16)