Monday, December 4, 2006
By Faith... Abraham - Part II, Part 65 of 79
TEXT: "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac" (Hebrews 11:17).
IDEA: Our faith in God often grows through our experiences of testing by God.
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that hard times can be good times for our growth in faith.
How would you evaluate the statements, "The problems we face come either from an inadequate view of God or from an inaccurate view of ourselves"?
Do you think your faith in God can grow and develop? How?
I. Abraham's understanding of God grew through the years.
God's titles tell the story of a developing faith.
Titles tell us a great deal about how we relate to someone and how that person relates to us.
Titles of the president of the United States do that:
Commander-in-chief
Mr. President
Chief Executive Officer
Darling
Daddy
II. Abraham's view of God became stronger as the years passed.
Abraham knew God as "the LORD" (Yahweh) from the first days in Ur of Chaldees.
What does that title LORD mean? Yahweh is the God who relates to His people personally.
Abraham worshiped the LORD and built altars to worship Him every time he moved his tents to a different part of Canaan (Genesis 12:8; 13:8).
He could believe the LORD for the land.
When we say that Jesus is LORD, what are we confessing?
When Abraham was 99, God revealed Himself to Abraham by another name: Almighty God (El Shaddai, Genesis 17:1).
El Shaddai, God Almighty, the one who can perform what He has promised against all odds.
The meaning of Shaddai is obscure, but its use stresses God's power in contrast to human weakness. El Shaddai appeared most powerful when people were weakest.
Genesis 17:1 is the first appearance of this name for God in the Bible. God reveals Himself as the one in control of history, but also the one who can give Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age.
Have you ever actually experienced God as El Shaddai?
On the mountain in Moriah Abraham came to know God as Jehovah Jirah -- the God who will provide in the most desperate moment of Abraham's life (Genesis 22:14).
Abraham marked out Moriah as the place where God provides.
Mark out in your life the place where you know Jehovah Jirah personally.
III. Do you agree with the statement that the problems we face come from an inadequate view of God or an inaccurate view of ourselves?
We won't know God in His power and kindness until we know ourselves in our weakness, sinfulness, and lack of faith.
We handle many of the "tests" that come into our lives when we have an adequate knowledge of God and an accurate knowledge of ourselves.
