The Life of Faith 02

Faith and Failure

Genesis 12:6-20 Just dont ever let it happen again! How many times have I said that to my boys. They do something wrong. I discipline. Then that last warning. But is that the way of the Lord. Sometimes we think it is. Gods grace comes into our lives at salvation and we are forgiven. Now what? Just dont let it happen again. Bad news. It will happen again. And again. And again. You will fail. You will sin. Being a Christian doesnt make you sinless. And we must understand that the same Grace that covered our sins, will cover our sin. And when I pick up this book I read about men and women who failed. Abraham failed. Even after he was invited to join the covenant. What I love about the Bible is the way it gives us our heroes in living color. We see them warts and all. No polished refined personalities. No perfect sinless saints. We see here people of true greatness who at times failed miserably. And that gives me hope. See I couldnt relate to someone who never failed because Im so prone to it myself. I need to know, not only how to live and be challenged to righteousness, I also need to know what to do when I fail. Abraham was a man of faith, but he wasnt perfect. Tonight we see faith and failure. Before we get to his mistake lets do our best to slide into his sandals. What was it like to live the?. What pressures? Bethel. Verses 6-8. God showed up in verse 7 to reiterate the promise. Almost always did that right before or after bad news. Just when he couldnt stand it any more. Verse 8. Notice two trademarks of Abraham. I learned this from the great Bible teacher Ray Stedman. He was a man who lived in a tent and built an altar. Stedman said, We can identify pilgrims by two invariable symbols: a tent and an altar. Not that such people actually live in tents, but their whole outlook is that of one who lives in a tent. They hold material things loosely, and are conscious of the fleeting, ephemeral values of what the

world thinks important. There is a discontent with what the earth offers and a hunger for something more. This is the tent. The second characteristic is the altar, the place of self-judgment where true worship is found. It means having a low opinion of ones own abilities and a high opinion of Gods. It is an awareness of the constant need of cleansing and a dependence upon a power greater than self. The story of Abraham is the story of the tent and the altar. The life of a pilgrim of faith. What he wasnt was perfect. Came to Bethel. House of god. Granted the landscape has changed. Centuries of warfare and neglect. Climate differences. Hard to tell what it was like. But today it isnt much. Certainly not as lush as Haran. In fact none of the land is. Bethel in particular. Got the name from Abrams grandson Jacob. At the time of Abram the place was Luz. Moses writing after used the name the readers would know. Bethel. House of God. 12 miles north of Jerusalem. One writer said this of Bethel. A dreary place described as a bleak moorland with large, bare rocks exposed. . . 1200 feet above sea level. Pictures look like the deserts of New Mexico or California. Called upon the name of the lord. Not prayer but preaching. Luther used the German word for preach. Abram became an evangelist. Verse 9. Went on to the Negev. This is even more desertous. What do you think Sarah was thinking? This area is much worse than Haran. Haran was lush by comparison. Then notice verse 10. There was a famine. We gloss over that. God led his man right into the teeth of a famine. Tough lick. But it says something about the nature of God. Sometimes he leads us down difficult pathways to test our faith. Gods way seems to be wilderness then promise. And in the wilderness we tend to fail.

I.

Factors for Failing Faith.

Lets examine some of the factors that produced Abrahams lack of faith.

A. Unexpected Difficulties.
Abraham is a pilgrim with a tent and an altar. Powerful picture of the Christian life. And Canaan is the Biblical equivalent of the life in the

spirit. Come into the promised land, figuratively speaking when we come into the relationship with Christ. But notice, and I think this is so important, there was a famine, even in the promised land. Imagine. Famine in the promised land. Sounds like an oxymoron. Cant be. A promised land and famine. We want the promised land to be only blessing. Never testing. Has that happened in your life. God Ill follow and then it turns out harder than you expected. Ill. . . Going to Autumn Creek. Looking for a pastorate. Full year after they visit. What a wonderful thing. Then the news. Church is broke. OK we will go and close it down. Then the ice storm of 1989. the day before Christmas eve. Saturday night December 23. Sunday was Christmas eve. We lost half the church. I was so discouraged. Ready to quit. Amy and I were living in a rent house and right across the street they had a drug raid. I was in my bathrobe. Amy locked the door. God why are you doing this. The church grew in fact it doubled. But it didnt do what I expected. And as we limped along I learned the power of God and more importantly, I learned my own limitations. In the same way there will be times of spiritual famine in your new life in the spirit. Expect it.

practice in Redondo Beach, CA. Told a colleague, If you could only see the need, you wouldnt be able to swallow your sandwich. He left his practice and moved to the Congo. Salary dropped to $3,230 a year. Money no longer mattered. Two years later, a bloody battle broke out between rival revolutionary factions. Dr. Carlson was caught in the middle. Held captive. Opportunity to escape by scaling a wall and dropping to the ground on the other side. Dr. Carlson reached the top and was a split second from freedom when he was hit. Fell back into the courtyard and died. Senseless. Time Magazine: Dr. Carlsons murder, along with the massacre of perhaps another hundred whites and thousands of blacks, had a special, tragic meaning. (He) symbolized all the white men and there are manywho want nothing from Africa but a chance to help. He was no saint and no deliberate martyr. He was a highly skilled physician who, out of a strong Christians faith and sense of common humanity, had 1 gone to the Congo to treat the sick. Dobson said, And we are left to ask, Why, Lord? Why couldnt you have distracted the gunner for another instance? Even a butterfly in front of his nose or some sweat in his eyes could have changed the tragic outcome. No such distraction occurred. And so ended the earthly 2 days of a good man who left a loving wife and two children behind. The agony of dealing with Dr. Carlson is the senselessness of it. Why? We thought certain things would happen and they havent and now we want to know why. Dobson showed me something in Job that I hadnt seen. He said Jobs basic struggle was at the point of unmet expectations. Abrahams failure was the same. He had expectations about living in the promised land that were not met because of a famine. To add to the frustration of famine he probably felt forsaken. How many times had he prayed for relief before he decided to leave? When heaven is silent and expectations are unmet your faith will be challenged.

B. Unrealized Expectations
God promised that he would take care of him. Now there is a famine. How can this be. Abraham expected better. Dobson says that difficulties and even death are more easily accepted when they make sense. For example. Jim Elliot was one of five missionaries who died serving the Lord in the Ecuadorian jungle. Jim wrote in his journal, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That basic understanding turned his death into a victory. But what about Dr. Carlson? Dobson tells another story about Dr. Paul Carlson. 1961 joined a relief agency to serve as a medical missionary in the Belgian Congo. Only six months but he was changed forever. Came back to a thriving medical

II.

The Fallout of Failing Faith.

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James Dobson, When God Doesnt Make Sense. 30. Ibid.

Abraham left the promised land and there were immediate repercussions. Fallout that came with losing his faith.

Abram was trying to survive without God. Just like we do. And God let him sweat. I love it.

A. He was out of Gods Will.

Verse 10 goes to Egypt. Never read that God told him to do that. Why would anyone leave the promised land. Realize this is metaphorical of the spiritual life. Fleeing the promised land. That is so odd. Notice, nowhere do we read that God led him there.

D. He Endangered Others.
We do not exist in a vacuum. Your failure effects your family. Out of the will of God. Out of his care. Fortunately for Sarai, God stepped in. Verse 17. God took charge. Verse 18 great danger. Verse 20 kicked out of Egypt.

B. He Lost his Courage. Grace Covered His Failure

Ray Stedman said, When Abraham lost his faith he also lost his courage. Verse 11. Must get a hold of this. Vast difference between the Bedouin peoples of Semitic origin and the great Egyptians. Opulent Egypt. By the time Abram arrived the pyramids were 400 years old. Sphinx it is debated. Some say 9000 years old. Conservative 700 - 1000 before Abram. These were cultured people. Intimidating. And Sarai was knock-down gorgeous. How can we feel his anxiety? Put yourself in a contemporary equivalent. Ever been to New York? Tell of the time Billy and I went to New York. The fear on the train in from Trenton. All the horror stories. We looked completely conspicuous. I tried not to read the maps too long. Got on a subway and started to worry. Got off to read a map. Swooosh the thing left. Me and Billy on the subway platform deep beneath New York. White tile walls. And a few drunks. Mortified. Abram was in the ancient equivalent of a Bridgeport boy on Broadway in Manhattan. Immediately he was filled with fear. Fear is the inevitable fallout of failing faith. Grace will cover your failure. 13:4. He went back to what he knew before. Thats where God wants to lead you. Broken by failure. God doesnt say, dont let it happen again. He doesnt want us to fail. But his grace covers it. He simply wants us to return to the tent and the altar.

C. He Compromised His Convictions.

Verse 12. This led Abrams faith to compromise. Verse 13. Say you are my sister. Half truth. All lie. Verse 14 so beautiful they brought her to Pharaoh. Verse 15. Then the plot thickens. Treated Abram well. With every gift came obligation.