Title: Faith is obedience.
Contents
[Faith is obedience: Abraham] Hebrews 11:8-10 Genesis 12:1-9 2006.12.10. Sunday evening worship
1) I heard from a bee breeder that they travel across the country carrying beehives along the flowering season to feed the bees with nectar. It is said that the flowers bloom on different days, so you can only get enough honey by taking a nationwide tour. Hearing these words, I thought of the life of a nomadic herding sheep in the desert. Nomads drive their sheep, their property, to and fro in search of grass. So, every day we set up a tent and walk, carry the household chores on our backs, and ride a camel. The nomadic life is therefore not confined to one place. What you can't have much. You are always ready to move and you are exposed to multiple risks. The dream of these nomads is to take their land, settle there, and live comfortably without raising their tents again. Getting land So for the nomads, it's a dream.
2) Missionary Lee Yong-gyu, who is missionary to nomads in Mongolia, explained that our believers are like these nomads in the book “Letting go.” It would be nice if there was plenty of grass, but there is no grass in the desert and it is a difficult and difficult life. It is called a school where you experience grace. That's right. For nomads, the wilderness is a school. It's because you get God's unchanging eternal blessings in your wandering life.
3) This is what Abraham did in today's text. Called from the Chaldeans, he wandered wherever God led him, saying, “On earth, he is a sojourner and a passerby,” but he was a man who looked to the eternal city, the inheritance of God’s blessing. The word of God we read today teaches us that it can be the source of Abraham's blessing.
1. Abraham obeyed God's call and set out.
1) Hebrews 11:9. “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a land he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” say you did And he says that following his God like this is faith, that is, works done out of faith.
2) It's great to make a decision at the age of 75 when you don't know what the situation will be like. As people get older, they tend to be more conservative than trying new things. At the age of 75, Abraham decided to be a pioneer for the new promise of God. Moreover, the land of Chaldeau, where Abraham lived, is a fertile land for human habitation. There are two great rivers in the Middle East: the Euphrates and the Tigris. If you look at the map, along this river stretches out like a crescent of fertile agricultural land. And there is a large population of Arabs who live here. Its central city is the Chaldaeur. He settled there and lived there. Only the people there worshiped idols and the moon and worshiped idols. However, the place Abraham went to is a place where there is no farmland and no land to settle in through a desolate desert.
3) But God tells Abraham about the place and asks if he will follow me to this desert. When asked if he would give up all the good conditions of the Chaldean and live in the desert by trusting in God and receiving his blessing, he answered “yes” and followed.
2. He went out into the wilderness under the guidance of God and accepted the camp life with joy.
1) Hebrews 11:9 says, “By faith he sojourned in the promised land, as if in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who had also inherited the same promise.” First of all, the word “sojourn” here means to stay for a while without settling down. It means that we live as if a stranger drifting through the world like wind and clouds. Abraham, who seems to be wandering in a tent in the middle of the desert with his family after leaving the fertile and abundant land of Ur of the Chaldeans, can complain, “Why is this so hard?”
2) However, here we see not only Abraham's obedience, but also the beautiful appearance of his whole family obeying God together. Today's text says that they lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who had received the same promise. Abraham was a successful father in faith in his family, especially his children, before he was a successful believer before God in that respect. We see the beautiful image of a father passing on the faith of a father to his children and a father's hope becoming a hope for the children together in the book of Hebrews in the Bible and the tabernacle of Abraham in Genesis.
3) Abraham was like that. Now, although we have abandoned the good house and comfortable dwelling in the old days, we live here under a tent like this, and buy a house without any theft, but this is a good thing. Because we believe that God will surely give us blessings and grace. And I taught my children according to that belief.
3. Abraham looked to the ground of blessing that God would give him.
1) Hebrews 11:10. “Because they were expecting a city with a foundation, which God had planned and built.” At that time, the place where Abraham camped was not his own land, but a temporary sojourn in the middle of the desert and wilderness. But while he was pitching his tent there, Abraham did not see the land, but looked at a more perfect and permanent place than that land, not temporary, but permanent. “The Eternal Tent Site” This is always a dream come true for nomadic and migrating people. Even today, when you wake up in the morning, you have to diligently pack your bags, gather your tent, and find a pool as you move. In the evening, we have to unpack the luggage and pitch the tent again. But how happy would it be to find a place with plenty of grass and plenty of water to feed and raise sheep and livestock in one place without having to move? You don't have to pack every day, and you don't have to travel long distances. Do we not need such blessings of God in our lives as well?
2) Before my sister bought an old house, she moved 13 times from four to ten. He lives in someone else's house, not mine, so he's tired of moving. We have even moved twice a year. How good is it to have your own home, which you don't have to move? In the midst of the wilderness, Abraham looked at the eternal tent site God had given him, the inheritance of that promise. Don't we need such a house too? This world is a tent house. However, it may be an inn where you stay overnight, or it may be a rental house that you move to after living for 2-3 years. But that's not all, we are God's children looking for an eternal home in this world.
3) If this is a place to stay for a while and we are the eternal tent in the presence of God, let us not have many regrets here. For soon the eternal house will come to us. Romans 8:18. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Aren't we the ones who wear that glory?
in conclusion
1) It was the faith that was the source of Abraham's blessing. In the Genesis Bible, God calls Abraham and says, “I will bless you, and you will be a blessing. All the peoples of the earth will be blessed in you.” It is said that not only will he receive blessings from Abraham, who completely relied on and trusted God, but he also makes him a channel of blessings so that he becomes a person who distributes blessings to all the people of the world.
2) With this blessing, God fills all the obedient people. We pray in the name of the Lord that we, like them, will become a blessed people as we have the obedience of our forefathers of faith, following Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham.