STRUGGLING WITH FAITH

HEBREWS 11:8-13

STRUGGLING WITH FAITH

We live in a country today where most people state that they are “born again,” yet our nation does not reflect a nation where this is true. Why? It is because American believers struggle with living our faith in our everyday world.

Today we are talking about this struggle with faith, especially in the lives of our seniors as they go off to college. We will study the man who was God’s first true man of faith-Abraham, to see how faith takes us where we need to go. He will teach us that we can do so much more with our lives when we look beyond what can be seen and believe in the things of God. When we live in this manner, then we are never alone but overcome the world because God is always with us.

I. WHAT KIND OF LIFE DO YOU WANT?

Seniors, your parents don’t want to hear it, but if you are moving off to college then you are about to choose what kind of life you will live. What are your goals in life? What are your desires in life? In 1998 George Barna conducted a survey asking American teenagers what were their desires for their future:

·a college degree (88%)

·a comfortable lifestyle (83%)

·one marriage partner for life (82%)

·close personal friendships (84%)

·good physical health (87%)

·a clear purpose for living (77%)

·living with a high degree of integrity (71%)

·a close relationship with God (66%)

·influencing other people's lives (56%)

·making a difference in the world (56%)

·a satisfying sex life with their marriage partner (55%)

·working in a high paying job (55%)

·children (54%)

·being deeply committed to the Christian faith (50%)

·living close to family and relatives (49%)

·being personally active in a church (43%)

·owning a large home (28%)

·owning the latest household technology and electronic equipment (27%)

·achieving fame or public recognition (18%)

Most of us probably want these things, even if our order of priority is different. Do you want the very best life has to offer? How are you going to determine the directions you take in life to attain the best? Let’s look to the life of Abraham to teach how to attain it.

II. HOW WILL WE LIVE OUR LIFE?

There are two ways one can live life. You can live by sight. In other words you will believe it when you see it. Usually this means that you follow others who lead the way for you saying they can show you what is real.

It’s like a story about a lady who was driving through a snow storm in the mountains west of Denver . The further she went the worse it got. Finally she saw a snowplow and decided to keep as close to the machine as possible. She faithfully followed the snowplow for a while until the driver stopped and came to talk to her, “Lady, where are you going?” She replied, “ Denver .” “Well, you’ll never get there following me. I’m going to be plowing this parking lot for a while.”

Be careful who you follow. Many people who claim to know the way will keep you going in circles in the parking lot of life and you will never get out! They will lead you around the parking lot of addiction to drugs or alcohol or greed or selfishness or sexual degradation and you will never get out of the parking lot.

Your other option is to live by faith in God. Now this will get you somewhere you want to go! Warning: You will have to believe in things you cannot see. You will believe it and then see it. Abraham chose the latter and God blessed him with the desires of His heart. God will do the same for you.

What is faith in God and what does it involve? Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: “the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” Rick Warren states it well, “It is the confident assurance that God is in control of the future and that He plans what is best for my life because He loves me.”

Faith doesn't just look back to what God did in the past, but mainly looks forward to what God promises to do in the future. It gains a lot of its confidence from God's past faithfulness, but what it believes is mainly future promises. That is not only true in super-Christian faith, but is true in ordinary Christian faith. God only works in one way: by faith. He promises. We believe. The promises happen.

God promised Abraham a wonderful new place to live that would be better than all other lands. God promised Abraham descendants that would number as many as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore that would make his own great nation. God promised Abraham that He would make him important and famous because of this nation of his. God promised Abraham that he would be blessed with all that he needed and with enough that he would be able to bless others. God promised Abraham that he would stand against his enemies and stand for his friends. God promised Abraham that the whole earth would be blessed because of the greatness of his nation.

When Abraham had to decide whether to follow the way of faith all he had was a bunch of promises from God. That was it. We can look back and know that all of these and much more happened to Abraham, but there was no seeing it and then he would believe it. He believed it and then saw it. That’s how God works. Abraham was just like us! He wasn’t a super saint! He believed and God worked!

Graduating seniors, I warn you that one of the biggest battles you will ever fight is to continue to believe that faith is the way to achieve the best in life. Many of you are going into universities where God is laughed at. Your faith is going to be torn down and not built up. You will no longer be able to rely on your parent’s faith. You must decide today. Are you going to walk by sight or by faith?

III. THE KEY TOFAITH IS TO KNOW GOD GOES WITH YOU.

The God calls us to a life adventure and purpose. Abraham didn’t know where he was going or what he would be doing. He went on a march without a map. He didn’t know how God was going to fulfill any of His promises. Yet, he believed the promises and knew two things: He knew who would walk by his side to take him where he needed to go-God Almighty. As he and God walked through life, God would be fulfilling some of the promises made to Abraham. All of them wouldn’t be fulfilled in Abraham’s lifetime ( 11:13 ) But God continued to fulfill the promises until they all were done. We see Him telling the descendents of Abraham that He would fulfill every promise. In Genesis 28:15 listen to what He told one of Abraham’s descendents, Jacob.

The other thing that kept Abraham going during the hard times was that he knew he was headed to a “city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.” He saw some of the promises of God come to pass during his lifetime and knew the others would come after he was gone. It didn’t matter because He was headed to His home in Heaven to be with the father!

Young people, as you go off to college I can tell you that you are going to a land that you do not know! In the next few years you will make the most important decisions of life next to your personal salvation decision. You will be choosing your vocation, your mate, and what type of person you will be. Up until this point others have helped you with this, but now your life is in your hands.

God has a life of adventure and purpose for you, but it can only be found in a life of faith. You must be obedient to the call of God on your life. You must live your life by faith knowing that God goes with you and live your life walking in the His direction. What does this faith involve? Faith believes that God can bring something good out of even the worst of circumstances. Faith believes that God can use you to make a difference in the world. Faith takes advantage of the fresh starts that God makes available to us throughout our life. Faith has the courage to step out and take risks for God’s sake. Faith resists discouragement in order to accomplish the tasks that God lays before us. Faith trusts that God will provide for you needs, and then responding in generosity to the needs of others. Faith chooses to obey God immediately, completely, joyfully and continually-even when we don’t understand what He is doing. Faith rejoices when God delivers another one of His promises to us. Faith is powerful. Faith sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, touches the intangible and accomplishes the impossible. Without it in the life of Abraham there would be no Isaac, no descendents, no Israel and a lot less believers in the world! What will NOT happen if you refuse to have faith?

CONCLUSION

Years ago when we used to go on ski trips in our church buses I was driving into Amarillo , Texas to spend the night with a group. When we were about 30 miles outside of town a blizzard blew in! The wind was blowing about 50 miles per hour and the snow started covering everything in sight. It was snowing so hard that I couldn’t tell where the road was. A tractor trailer passed me so I decided to pull in behind him. This worked well for a while, but I fell too far behind him and couldn’t see his taillights. It’s scary when you don’t know where the road is!

I immediately slowed down and then could make out the white stripe on the side of the road. We followed that stripe for the last 20 miles into town. It took us an hour to go that distance! I later told someone that if the guy who laid down that stripe had been drunk and went off into the woods that I would have followed his stripe right into the woods! Thank goodness, I could trust the stripe!

When it comes to life, the only stripe you can count on in life is Jesus Christ. This is what the writer was speaking about when he wrote Hebrews 12:2. Let these words be your marching orders throughout your college days and into your journey of life. There will be many people who claim they know they way to what’s best for you, but Jesus is the only one who can be trusted to carry you there. Young people, don’t leave God at home when you go to college. Take God with you so that you may the very best that He has for you.

Ridgecrest Baptist Church | 7469 Old Canton Rd. | Madison, MS 39110 phone: 601.853.1090 fax: 601.853.1092