Passing the Trials of Life
From the Beginning • Sermon • Submitted
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· 46 viewsGod sends us through the trials of life to sometimes test our faith in Him and draw us closer to Him as he proves out his love and provision for us. In Genesis 22 God puts Abraham to the test of trusting God with his promised son and through this we learn 5 things that we must do to pass the trials in our own lives.
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Introduction:
Eighty-nine years ago, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She was the headlines of every news paper on June 18, 1928. The flight took 21 hours and as they were over the Atlantic there was an 8 hour span of time they were flying completely blind because of fog. When they landed off the cost of Whales they had no idea where they were because of the dense fog.
It’s in moments like these you have to trust the plane your flying in. You have to be certain that the gauges of the plane are working properly so you don’t get off course or run the plane in the ground.
It made me think of our lives sometimes. Do you ever feel like you’re flying blind? You can’t see in front of you. You don’t really know what is happening and you just have to trust that the one guiding you knows what is going on.
This morning I want to talk to you about how we navigate a world full of trials and testings we we have so little information to go on that we might as well be flying blind.
We have been going through the Bible “From the Beginning” looking at the relationship between God and Man.
For the past several weeks we have focused in on Abraham and all that God has called him to do. Abraham and Sara have truly been on a walk of faith.
God called them to leave all their family and go to a foreign land that he would show them.
God promised this old man and barren woman would birth a great nation and bless the entire world.
Everything that God told them required a leap of faith.
So God comes through. He gives them the promised land and He gives them a son in their old age just as He said he would.
Now after all the time and faithfulness of waiting to receive the promise of their son, God gives a command to Abraham that doesn’t make any since.
Let’s take a moment and read the story in
1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
What? What kind of insane request is this. The child that he has been waiting for now for 15 years, God wants him to sacrifice. What would you do?
Genesis
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
What an insane request.
James 1:3
5 Things to Pass the Testing of Life.
5 Things to Pass the Testing of Life.
1. Be fully convinced of who God is.
1. Be fully convinced of who God is.
Abraham didn’t hesitate because he had full confidence in God.
19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
rom 4:19-
We have a lack of faith because we are not fully convinced in the promise and power of God.
Many people that claim to be Christians, born again believers, are not fully convinced of the to most basic tenants of our faith.
Jesus is God in the flesh.
Jesus was resurrected from the dead by the power of God.
If you are not convinced of these two things, then you are not yet a Christian. You are still deciding what you believe.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
This is why people are uncommitted to Christ. Because, they are not fully convinced.
This is why some struggle to walk by faith. They are not convinced.
This is why God takes a back seat in your life.
This is why people struggle with the simple commandments of God.
The faith that we have in Christ is not like Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny.
The miracles of Christ are documented facts with eye witness. Proving that He is God.
The resurrection of Christ from the dead is not a bedtime story but changed the course of history.
We live in 2017 A.D. Which is Latin for “The year of our Lord.”
I don’t serve a dead Christ, but a risen Savior.
2. Trust & Obey without Question
2. Trust & Obey without Question
There is no way to understand the answer until you obey.
When you obey most of the questions will be answered.
Obey first then ask why.
Following God many times doesn’t make since in the moment.
The journey with God is always a journey of faith.
Jesus spent a lot of time teaching his disciples to walk by faith.
Core Value: God Pleasers. By faith we will please God as we trust him with our lives.
3. Know that God can do the Impossible
3. Know that God can do the Impossible
4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
You don’t need to know how God will do it, just that He can.
Abraham was convinced that God you raise Issac from the dead if necessary.
Abraham took nothing off the table.
4. God will Provide
4. God will Provide
Genesis 22:
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
When God calls God provides.
When a lamb was needed God provided.
Just like Issac we need a lamb
The Lamb that God provided to talk our place was his son.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
5. Be Faithful to Follow Through.
5. Be Faithful to Follow Through.
10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Genesis 22:10
Let the trials draw you closer to God.
Through the trials God builds your faith.