Back to Sermon Index A story of trust and faith: Abraham and others June 8, 2008 "When Communist forces invaded Vietnam in the 1950s, Hien Pham, like many Vietnamese Christians, was arrested and jailed for his beliefs. After his release from prison, Pham made plans to escape Vietnam. He secretly began building a boat. Fifty-three fellow Vietnamese made plans to escape with him. One day, four Vietcong soldiers came to Pham's house and confronted him. They heard he was planning an escape. Was it true? Of course, Hien Pham lied to them. If he had told the truth, the Vietcong might have killed him and arrested the other fifty-three participants. But after the soldiers left, Pham felt uneasy. Had God really wanted him to lie? Didn't he trust that God would provide for him under any circumstances? Even though it made no logical sense, Pham believed that God wanted him to tell the truth, even at the risk of his own life. So Pham resolved that if the Vietcong returned, he would confess his escape plans. (1) What would you do in Pham's place? What happens when our fears collide with our faith?" Faith is defined for us in the Bible as assurance of things not yet seen. If you can see it and touch it and define it, it does not take faith or trust to believe in it...does it? Faith can best be defined as our trusting God. When the Apostle Paul thinks about that faith relationship, he thinks of Father Abraham. Abraham was the patriarch of the Old Testament, the father of the Jewish nation, and the Arab nations as well. Abraham is an early example of a person who believed God, who trusted God against all odds. It begins with Abraham's belief in God, a God that you could not see or prove existed...most people's gods were idols that lived in their homes or temples, and they believed that this statue was god...and worshipped it, brought it gifts, washed it...and there are a lot of passages in the Prophets that make fun of the idea that you had to take care of your god...isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Isaiah talks about people rescuing their gods from the approaching armies and folks tying their idols to donkeys...who literally drug them out of the city, scrapping their heads as they went along! What an image of a god! Again, isn't your god supposed to rescue you? But we make things into God's ourselves, don't we..and we find ourselves worshipping things or trusting in our own ability rather than the strength of God's promises. So, Abraham heard the voice of God and picked up everything he owned and left his home country...Ur of the Chaldees. Ur was a cosmopolitan community on the crossroads of a major trading route between Asia and the Mederitarian. The fertile valley between the Tigris and Ufratties rivers. He left family and everyone he knew...at the age of 75 years old...and went a wondering with God. He trusted God to bring him to a good land, a good place, and to be with him on the great adventure to which God called him. Trust. And Abraham believed a promise who's fulfillment was in the future. He was told that he and Sarah his wife would have a child...and that he would become the father of a great nation who's descendents would out number the stars. Abraham was old...75, and Sarah was old as well. And they had to wait. Do you get nervous when you have to wait? Does it make you edgy? When you can't control things and are dependent upon others...does it drive you crazy? Yea, me too most times! Abraham believed God...a God who asked him to leave his home and family and friends...a God who promised a great blessing of a son, but who's promise was not immediate. God is not a microwave oven...who's promises are set in minutes and seconds. The story of Abraham is the story of great faith or trust in God... It reminds me of the old joke...I am sure you have heard it but here goes anyway, just for old time's sake! There was a fellow who was exploring along the coast and slipped and fell off a cliff...with jagged rocks hundred of feet below. As he fell, by great luck the reached out and grabbed a single branch of a bush growing out of the face of the cliff. Hanging there literally between heaven and earth, he begins to cry out for help...and he finally prays. God, Help me! Yes, God answers from the sky with a thunderous voice...God, help me, save me. Let Go, God says...and I will catch you! Let go? Yes, don't be afraid, let Go and I will catch you! After a moment, our hero says meekly..."Is there anybody else up there?" So Abraham and Sarah are to have a child. And for the next 24 years...24 years! They wait upon the promise of God. God visits occasionally and reiterates the promise...but it has been so long. Sarah really does not believe it possible. When the Message of God made flesh visits Abraham one summer afternoon and says that this time next year he will come back and hear the crying of their long promised son...Sarah laughs. She laughs at God...you are crazy...Abraham is now 99 years old and Sarah is in her late 80's. A little old for painting the nursery! most people his age have trouble remembering all the names and faces of their great grand children and great-great grand children! Here is a great truth; faith is not based on the circumstances but on the character of God. Can God be trusted to keep his word...to fulfill his promise? The circumstances may look impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Do you remember the angle Gabriel's answer to Mary when she asked how she, a virgin, was to have this boy Jesus? She was not saying she did not believe, just that she did not understand. The angel says that the spirit of the Lord will come upon her and the power of the most high will overshadow you...and not to worry, for with God all things are possible. Abraham is the father of faith...of trust. He believed God and left his home in Ur, and wondered until God's time to show him a beautiful land. He waited for promised son for 24 long years..impossible years, but Abraham never doubted that God could be trusted to complete his promise. And so, later in the story of Abraham, we are told Abraham is asked to sacrifice this same child of promise, Abraham is faithful and willing...trusting that God would provide a way out or a miracle. And God did. God never intended for Isaac to perish...God had made provision for a lamb of God. In his letter to the Romans, Paul uses Abraham as an example of our faith in Christ. We are asked to follow a God we can not see or prove...although we must remind you all that you can experience a new life in Christ...you can experience God...The Reader's Digest did an experiment of faith a few years ago. They asked a group of people to pray every morning...people who were not believers...asked them to pray a pray something like this: God, I am not sure you are real, but if you are, I ask that you would make your presence known to me in some way today...to pray that prayer for a month...and the number who came to believe was something like 75%. God can be trusted to do as he promised...so never hesitate to invite people to experience Jesus for themselves! Abraham is our example as Christians...we are saved not by our actions, but by God's promise in Jesus Christ. God promised to send his Son, the Lamb of God, to take away the sins of the world. And he promises that if we trust in him...he will save us, his spirit will come and live in us, we will find rest for our souls and the joy of the abundant life... And we can trust him. We are saved by grace, by God's undeserved and unearned action of love and forgiveness...we are saved by grace through faith. Through our trusting Jesus to save us, we are saved. Through our trusting Jesus to come and be with us...we are make whole and new...the grace of God becomes real to us as we have faith, as we trust God and let go of the branch we hold onto. God can be trusted! All God's promises find their yes in Jesus the Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20a "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you was not YES and NO, but in Him it is always YES. For all the promises of God find their YES in Him." All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. Wow. And "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Faith is the assurance of things, not seen...the certainty of that which is hoped for! Trust is dependent not upon the circumstances, but upon the character of God...who can be trusted to fulfill his promises in his time. So, before quit....We never resolved the story of our friend, Hien Pham, did we? Pham finished building his boat, and his friends made the final plans for their daring escape. To their horror, the Vietcong soldiers returned and demanded to know if the escape rumors were true. Hoping against hope, Hien Pham confessed his plans to escape. Imagine Pham's surprise when the soldiers replied, "Take us with you!" That evening, Hien Pham, his fifty-three friends, and four Vietcong soldiers made a daring escape under cover of night on a homemade boat. But wait, that's not the end of the story! They sailed straight into a violent storm. Pham reports that they surely would have been lost, if not for the expert sailing skills of""you guessed it""the four Vietcong soldiers. The escapees landed safely in Thailand. Eventually, Hien Pham emigrated to the United States, where he made a new life for himself. From: Ravi Zacharias. "Deliver Us From Evil" (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997), pp. 191-194. Back to Sermon Index