Faith, Patience, & Failure

Read (Hebrews 6:11-18 ESV)

The Holy Spirit desires that you copy Abraham and others who through FAITH AND PATIENCE, long term faith, INHErIT THE PROMISES.

Not just through one time faith, but bull-dog like lock jaw faith that bites on to God and like Jacob says I am not letting you go until you bless me.

Faith and patience inherit the promises that God has spoken over our lives. Patience with time, patience with GOd, patience with ourselves.

Abraham is listed as the key biblical example of this. After the first humanity had to be destroyed, then the reboot through Noah didn't work,God looked for 1 man through whom he could come into covenant and bless his family and descendants and through them the whole world. You’d think that would take a pretty special individual, and it did, but at the same time, Abe and his family made their mistakes and failed too, if you’ve read the story.

Abraham exercised amazing faith, held on in patience, his faith was patchy at times, but God worked with it. Let's look back over his life and reflect on that. A physical bible will work best for this.

Genesis 12 - God speaks to Abram. First time? Nothing about Abraham coming to the point where he believed in the existence of God! Skip the self-evident step when an entity is talking to you, you already believe in their existence, no gold star for that one. Perhaps Abe had the perception of the benefit of obeying god from an understanding of previous lineages? Your best life now kind of theology? Here is an immature starting point but its a starting point bless god. I remember people witnessing to me and telling me that God had a plan for my life…

Challenged by an outlandish and too good to be true promise: great nation, blessed great name, a blessing to god and others, on your side, all families blessed by yours. - insane, too good to be true promise.

I wonder how much of that Abram believed, but he believed in the goodness of god at least and the benefit of obedience. He had that faith. TO THE DEGREE he was willing to pack his bags and head into the great unknown with God. - there is a starting place. As glorious and supernatural as it is, it needs to be tested in time, it needs to move on. It went from PREVENIENT TO CONVENIENT. While it was CONVENIENT abram was spiritual, he praised the lord, worshipped.

12.5 - CONVENIENT TO INCONVENIENT. - first test

When you find out that the apparent reward of your obedience is that your life seems to get worse temporarily (though it seems as if it could be for the rest of your life at the time), how are you going to react? What kind of faith are you going to have? The biggest life long promises that god wants to fulfill are obtained through faith AND patience AND failure.

Abram, the great poster child of faith, whose faith did truly go from glory to glory, had some failures sandwiched between the glories.

He left the land that God assigned to him and went down to Egypt b/c he figured he had to revert to self reliance when things didn't seem to be working out a/c2 gods plan. He had to solve this problem on his own because god was not going to show up for him even though he said he was going to be on his side, bless him bless others through him, etc etc, abe figured he had to put his worldly best foot forward, and as the discouragement and disappointment escalated, he forgot what God said to him, and the reality of the moment that god spoke to him, and he backslid. He morally compromised, and the pit of guilt and shame and discouragement spiralled into a backslidden state.

BUT GOD! God was on his side. He blessed him when he should have been cursed. God's goodness leads us to repentance.

?[Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob And mercy to Abraham, Which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old. (Micah 7:18-20 NKJV)

Abram awoke from his spiritual naps and got back on track, his faith went from glory to glory with few failures in between.

13, 14, and 15 are high. He is totally invincible in this season. It's like IU football from one season to the next!!! Angel studios want to make a movie about him!

13 - By faith Abram won't tolerate strife and disunity that displeases God, lets Lot take the best choice of land because he sees that God is the biggest factor, he builds an altar and worships.

14 - by faith he rescues Lot from a confederacy of multiple kings and their armies - mighty miracle, tithes to Melchizedek, he refuses the opportunity to get richer by the king of sodom or benefit financially in any way from gods victory. No publishing deal. No movie deal. No credit card number on the livestream when he could have raked in millions and expanded his ministry. FAITH!

15 - he shows off his jewish brass, his chchhootzpah, gutzy, hold god accountable to his promises FAITH that god loves!\ - give me my kids - oh he’s starting to believe what God told him in the first place NOW! He is starting to take God's promises seriously and hold God accountable to them, which he wants to be. You ever wonder why it took you so long to believe what God told you in its entirety in the first place? The children of Israel regretted not believing God in the first place when they found out that their shoes never wore out and the food never stopped falling from the sky until they reached the promised land.

15:6 comes THE statement which is quoted repeatedly in Romans 4, Galatians, in James

And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6 ESV)

Through Faith and Patience with God and yourself. Inherit the promises. His faith was getting more glorious.

PREVENIENT< TO CONVENIENT, THRU INCONVENIENT, TO IMPOSSIBLE

He believed God's original statement in its entirety, at least the best he could at the time. He's not done with failure yet but his faith is going from glory to glory

God makes an unconditional unilateral covenant with him. Step aside abram, go take a nap while I establish a covenant with you. If you break it , I die. I pay the price. God was getting the hang of humanity after Adam,Cain, and Noah. Did Abe break it? Did God have to die? Have we broken it? Has Jesus paid the price once and for all for all time!

After this victory season climaxing in this declaration of righteousness and the forming of a unilateral independent-of-abram covenant, what does he do?

He fails again! He makes the same mistake as Adam. He abdicates his position of covering over his wife.

He believed his wife’s undiscerning pragmatism. This isn't working, put your best foot forward! Use your common sense! God gave you a brain and expects you to use it!

Have you ever heard those? I believe that 9/10 our godly wives give good counsel, but men, the buck stops with us. Well never be able to say to God, my wife told me. Abram should have discerned that this was not God's way to achieve his goal. It is not just about the goal, it is the way that god wants to get to that goal such that he alone gets the glory.

Abram’s failure in this situation releases a freight train of consequences, a whole line of descendants that was never God's will. Sounds intense and it is. All of us in this room are pulling some degree of a train of consequences from mistakes and sins and things that were never God's perfect will. Sounds unredeemable, but it isn't. Do you know that God has called some of the seed of Ishmael to spend eternity with us in heaven. Some of this should never have existed lineage will be praising God forever with us in heaven. Figure that out. Jesus Christ redeemed the curse of all our wrong decisions even after salvation. He is the restorer of paths to walk in, the redeemer of the years the locust have eaten bless his name, he is able to conform all things to the purpose of his will.

After that failure, God shows up again in ch17. Literally appears! Do you know that God is trying to wean us off of distinct appearances at distinct junctures so that we can live all our lives in his presence? Ok Abe, Im giving you an appearance, but….

He told Abram - I am El-shaddai the all sufficient one, the God of overwhelming power and sufficiency - now that you’ve been walking with me for 24 years, I want to give you a greater revelation and faith in my nature, now do this: WALK in my presence continually and be perfect and blameless be perfectly holy, overcome your personal weaknesses. You are making progress on believing for the external miracles I have promised, but can you believe that I can change even you?

So that I can make my covenant with you.

Wait a minute, didn't we already make a covenant? So that I can save you after 24 years. Wait a minute, am I not already saved. No, I want to save you to the uttermost.

But I’m too old for that. I’m set in my ways. I’ve failed an indefinite number of times.

No you’re not. You’re not 99 are you? You’ve haven’t failed indefinitely, it's only been 47 times actually, what if you receive deliverance before the 48th time? Don't quit, never give up believing me says El Shaddai the all sufficient one to each one of us today.

Do you remember the guy who testified at the old church lives on jefferson street was a friend of wades. I think he relapsed like 18 times before he was finally clean at 40+years old and walking with god. Can you imagine relapsing 18 times? Do you think he gave up on himself after the 3rd time, what about the 10th time or the 15th time.

Abram inherited the promises through faith and patience with God and himself. Can you believe that god still wants to save you. Yes you are saved and being saved. Me too!

In the second half of 17 he fails again. I’m too old God, I'll just accept Ishmael as my promised son.

God: NO! You will have a miracle child and that's who I will establish my covenant through. There are times when we give up on God but he doesn't give up on us.

Ch 18. Out of nowhere, God shows up again. God keeps showing up in Abe's life and yours. three “men” show up. 2 angels and god himself. God tells him again.Sarah will bear at the APPOINTED time. Don't get hung up on time Abraham. I'm calling you Abraham now, a father of a multitude of nations because I call the things which are not as if they already were. Don't get hung up on time. Inheriting promises is about being a master of Kairos time, not chronos time. Perfect timing, not crude linear timing. Don't let it fade you. Like God said to habakkuk:

And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:2-4 ESV)

Abe rises up again to a glorious moment. Up and down and up and down. This was up. His intercession, his knowledge of the Holy. His knowledge of the mercy and the justice of God and the vision of His character he'd learned by repeated failure allowed him to stand in the gap and intercede. In this case Sodom was past intercession, but God found an intercessor in Abraham. And Lot was saved because of Abraham's intervention for a second time.

Getting out of breath yet? It's a long story with many ups and downs, but so is yours. Be not weary in well doing for in due season you will reap if you faint not!

Time for Abraham to fail again. You’d think he’d learned his lesson by now. You’d think he’d grown up a little by now, he is on the verge of receiving the big time life time promise of a miracle child and he is failing again.

There was an old lifetime policy he'd made in his mind. It was a policy of self protection. It was his sister half truth. Partly true but it wasn't the whole truth and nothing but the truth. How truthful are you? Abraham has this past of speaking in vague half truth euphemisms to get him out of a pickle and he might have almost forgotten he ever did that, but in a pressure situation, reverted to his old policy of self protection through half truth. The exact same mistake he made in Egypt! You ever wondered about yourself making the same mistake twice? Sometimes we don't get to the root of our old mistakes and they come back to bite us and we feel really dumb like we should have seen it coming. But the god of unilateral covenant isn't going to let that stop him from fulfilling his purposes if we just hold on. Don't give up on yourself or god. Inherit the promise through faith and patience!

Finally after holding on and not giving up on himself, God brought him to one of the final tests of his faith to mature it to perfection, the apparent sacrifice of the very son of promise.

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” (Genesis 22:1-2 ESV)

Abraham passed the test, it took this insane and apparent self contradictory dealing of god, prayed, meditation, and wrapped his now tested and unshakable faith around it and figured that God would raise the dead. He was wrong on the ultimate vehicle of deliverance but he believed God and God provided for Himself a sacrifice, hallelujah! When the knife was in the air, there was the bleating of a ram caught in a bush behind him.

God's response was to escalate once again the severity of affirmation of his promises to him, he went higher than the first or second covenants, this time, God swore by the highest power in the universe - by himself - the oath

So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:14-18 ESV)

Finally people, tested faith, seasoned faith by God, faith from glory to glory by which God is able to achieve his eternal purposes thorough us.

He’s gone from PREVENIENT, to CONVENIENT, to inconvenient, to impossible, to inconceivable!!!

Not just instantaneous miracle faith. Not faith for a season. Life long patient, tested, tried, failed a few times and got up again faith, of which Jesus himself said, but when I return, will I find this kind of faith on the earth because it may be the only kind of faith that makes it through what is coming.

DONT QUIT, NEVER GIVE UP! That's one of my life words and today I invite you to make it yours too.

Dont quit, never give up on yourself or god for..

Personal holiness

Seeking his presence.

Knowledge of his word.

Growing in prayer.

Personal assignments

Life mission.

Don't give up on yourself. God hasn’t. He is still working in your life to conform you to his image from glory to glory.

[Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob And mercy to Abraham, Which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old. (Micah 7:18-20 NKJV)