I will begin this morning’s sermon by asking you a question, have you been tempted to suspect God’s kindness? Have you also been tempted to suspect His plan or His word that said “My plan is to provide peace and prosperous as well as hopeful future”? Have you also been tempted to suspect God’s word that said “God works in everything to bring kindness for those people who love Him”? You may be asking “What kindness? I cannot see any kindness that is currently taking place in my life”? Today we will be looking on how Abraham struggled although he never suspects God’s kindness but what he has experienced is not in accordance with God’s will. Bu sometimes in our lives, through our struggles, that we have been tempted to suspect God’s kindness. This was Satan’s strategy from the beginning (Genesis 3). We want to learn on the difficulties Abraham faced, he struggled and came to God when he did not understand.
Before we can enter the part where God answered Abraham’s suspicion, we need to understand on what would become an issue for Abraham – his anxiety, his struggles are God’s promises to Abraham that he would become the big nation, that God would provide big fertile soil that is the promised land. On the other hand, that should there be no God’s promise, in humanly way, that Abraham has already succeed in his life and lives in his comfort. But Abraham’s struggle, difficulty and his dissatisfaction were because of God’s promise to Abraham. In other words, Abraham dissatisfied with the comfortable life provided in the world that he was living in at that time. His heart’s longing is so that God’s plan and promises can be fulfilled in his life. What will be our hearts’ longing? Are you satisfied with the material sufficiency and comfortable life and good health in this world? Or do you miss things that are in God’s heart? Or do you want to see God’s will revealed and God’s name glorified in our lives? Do you not only survive in this world but want to see God’s kingdom getting expanded and many more people becoming God’s students? Or do we already feel satisfied on what we have in our lives living in one of the world’s most livable city? Or do we keep continue our mission to find out what becoming God’s will to our lives? Do you yearn of God’s name being glorified not only in my life, my family life, and those people around us? Do they encourage our hearts as if they encourage Abraham’s heart?
This reminds me of an illustration that John Piper once illustrated, he compared our lives that could not be described like a microscope but our lives must be described as a telescope. Both magnified things that too small to be seen by our naked eyes. When we magnifying / glorifying God is not like a microscope, but magnifying God is like a telescope. Telescope magnified small things far away to be seen with our naked eyes, such as stars in the sky. John Piper said that our lives must be like a telescope, as to magnify God that is so great, so glorified, so holy but considered small, meaningless, underestimated, and non-existent. Do we in our lives being called to live like Abraham who wants to obey God, glorify His name, and want to describe how do we arrange our daily lives that we want to say that God is great, God is glory? We must learn from Abraham who has attained comfortable life but he continues to strive and struggle and wants to do God’s will. As long as we live in this world that there will be anxieties in our hearts, because we have not finished. However, as long as we live in this world that we will continue to experience word of Jesus, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), that we will continue to feel poor and powerless and to plead help from God. As long as we live in this world that we will not finish to run, like Apostle Paul said in the book of Acts 20:24 “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
Abraham also realised when he performs God’s will, obeys God’s plan, that he will not be possibly like when Paul realised in fulfilling God’s plan with his own power – this was also Abraham’s anxiety. Therefore, God provides two signs that strengthen Abraham that God’s promise can be accomplished. The first sign, as referenced in verse 4, “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir”, and verse 5, “Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.” This was what Abraham saw that this means that later there will many heirs of his. Verse 6 then stated “Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” This is an important verse that explained by Paul in Roman 4, Galatians 3, as well as Philippians talk about the truth because of faith, not because of act. The second sign, as referenced in verse 9 and 10, “So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” Abraham brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.” There are few conclusions and important implications in this sermon:
- 1. Through the life of Abraham, in his obedience to the God, can make us realise that God wants us to live fulfilling His plan. God does not want us to live just for survival and to only seek comfort in this world. God wants us to struggle and advance to fulfill God’s plan.
- 2. We must realise that we can work God’s plan and to obey to His will, not by our own strength but only because of our leaning to God, because of the strength God provides, because of God’s grace. May these realised in our lives, that we are called to do God’s works in every aspect of our lives. But the question is how much efforts we put to succeed should God bless us to do so? Also, how often we pray for the success of our efforts?
- 3. Should you have never truly believed in Christ and still assume that God will still receive you through your doing, by going to church, by giving our offering, by serving in church ministry, and trying to live right. May you realise that it is not possible for you to be saved by your every doing because they are like dirty cloth in the presence of God. There can be nothing to reach the standard of God so that they can be corrected, even Abraham whom he was not corrected because of his obedience to God, but he was corrected because of He believed.
Should you have never truly believed in Christ, come to Christ today and to believe in Him and to have faith in Him so that we can be corrected by Christ. The Christ who does not know sin but made sin by us so that we whom believed in Christ can be corrected by God.
