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A FALTERING FAITH
*Genesis 12:10-20*
Charles Swindoll has written a book about the Christian life that has this captivating title, */"Three Steps Forward Two Steps Back/*.
That is such an important concept for us to understand.
Satan would have us believe that if we fall, we're finished; if we doubt, we're done.
Or he would lull us into the opposite extreme and get us to believe that sin doesn't matter at all. /You can just live as you please and God's grace will be sufficient/.
But the Bible makes it clear that the Christian life is both a gift and a growth.
Salvation is a gift given to us absolutely free.
God does not require that we live a flawless life and earn salvation on an installment plan.
But God does expect us as Christians to grow to maturity.
Sometimes, however, that growth is three steps forward and two steps back.
But our prayer as Christians ought to be the same as the response of the disciples of Jesus in Luke 17:5,* "Lord, increase our faith."*
Now, I'd like for us, through the study of the life of Abraham over the next several weeks, to increase our faith.
Abraham is the father of the three major religions of the world.
He is the father of Judaism through his son Isaac.
He is the father of Islam through his son Ishmael.
And he is the father of Christianity through his descendant Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 11 praises Abraham as a man who demonstrates faith in action.
Abraham found out that he could trust God to plan his life and to lead him step by step.
Abraham found out that even his mistakes could be used by God if he had a repentant and teachable spirit.
The first paragraph in the biography of Abraham is a great demonstration of faith.
God promised Abraham that he would have many descendants.
And Abraham believed that promise even though he was old and his wife had been barren.
By faith Abraham left his home in Ur of the Chaldees, not knowing where he was going, but he was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
But in this next section of Genesis 12, we read that Abraham experienced a relapse of his faith.
A brave pioneer of God became a cowardly prototype of doubt.
Abraham had taken three steps forward, and now it appears that he takes a giant step back.
Let's examine the story and then apply some lessons about what we ought to do whenever our faith falters.
*I.
ABRAM'S DECISION*
Once Abraham had settled in the land of Caanan, he experienced a serious difficulty.
Verse 10 says, *"now there was a famine in the land."*
Once again we are reminded that walking by faith does not eliminate adversity.
The bible nowhere says that if you trust God you will always be healthy and wealthy and your children will grow up to be academic all-Americans.
On the contrary we are informed,* "in the world, you will have tribulation"*, *"The rain falls on the just and the unjust."*,
*"each day has enough trouble of its own."*.
The bible couldn't make it any clearer.
Faith does not exempt us from trouble.
Abraham had done exactly what God had required, he had gone to Caanan.
Yet, immediately, it seems, he experienced a severe famine.
The rain didn't fall, the grass didn't grow, the sheep were getting thin, and Abraham couldn't see any relief in sight.
Charles Stanley said, /"When God is silent, there is only one reasonable option, Hang in there and trust Him.
He may be quiet but he has not quit on you."/
I think Abraham grew restless.
Because verse 10 adds, *"Abram went down to Egypt to live there for awhile because the famine was severe."*
Notice there's no indication that God instructed Abram to go to Egypt.
I think Abram began to doubt at this point.
Had he been mistaken about God's call?
Had God brought him here to Caanan only to die? His faith was tainted to doubt.
And he followed the trail to Egypt.
Everyone was going there; that's where the Nile river was, that's where the water was.
J.
Vernon McGee pointed out that /Egypt/ almost always pictures the world in the bible.
The world draws the Christian away promising a better, easier life.
And one other thought, did you notice how the Bible describes Abram's journey to Egypt.
*"Abram went /down/ to Egypt."*
Now, I know that's a geographical description of the direction he took.
But I think it's also a fitting description of the spiritual direction any of us take when we begin to stray from God's will for our lives.
We go */down/*.
*II.
ABRAM'S DILEMMA*
But just as he arrived in Egypt, Abram faced a difficult dilemma.
Verse 1 reads, *"As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are.
When the Egyptians see you they will say, 'This is his wife.'
Then they will kill me but will let you live.'" * Sarah was attractive and Abraham was perceptive.
He could perceive what would happen.
He said, */"The Egyptian leaders are going to be so captivated by Sarah's beauty that one of the leaders will want Sarah as part of his harem."/*
And that made Abraham's life cheap.
You know, when a believer gets involved in the world, he's always in a slippery place.
J.
Oswald Sanders said, /"Disobedience always brings complications.”/
What looked like a simple temporary solution -- this trip to Egypt -- became very complex.
The bible talks about getting */entangled/* in sin.
And Abraham intended to go to Egypt just for some pasture land for his cattle, but he wound up entangled in Egypt.
*III.
ABRAHAM'S DECEPTION*
God's Word often exhorts us to be "filled" with various godly virtues.
But what does that mean?
How do we know if we are full of those qualities God desires in our lives?
Just use your imagination for a moment this morning.
Picture in your mind a water-saturated sponge.
Now in your mind's eye push down on that sponge with your finger, and you know what's going to happen.
Water is going to pour out onto the counter.
We immediately see evidence of what fills the interior pockets of that sponge.
The same is true of us.
We can tell what fills us on the inside by what comes out of us under pressure.
And Abraham did what many would do in a similar situation, he practiced deception.
Look what he tells his wife to do in verse 13, *"Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you." *
In 1991, two researchers, James Patterson and Peter Kim set out to take the moral pulse of America.
Using state-of-the-art research techniques, they conducted the largest survey of private morals ever undertaken in any country.
The results were published in their book, */The Day America Told the Truth/*.
One of the things they discovered is that just about everyone lies.
91% of us lie regularly.
One paragraph said, /"The majority of us find it hard to get through a week without lying.
One in five can't make it through a single day-- and we're talking about conscious, premeditated lies.
In fact, the way some people talk about trying to do without lies, you'd think they were smokers trying to get through a day without a cigarette."
/ They discovered in their research that we lie to just about everyone, and the better we know someone, the likelier we are to have told them a serious lie.
When asked to define what a */serious lie/* was most peoples' answers fell into four categories: serious lies, they said, are those that hurt other people.
Serious lies violate a trust.
Serious lies involve crime or legal consequences.
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