Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
God's Wonderful Faithfulness to the Seeking Heart
In Genesis 12, we see God begin to speak to a man named Abram who is living in a land totally estranged from God, a land totally given over to idolatry, that has absolutely no comprehension of the one true God. God begins to speak to this man, and He opens up his heart to hear the word of the Lord. I never knew how amazing this was until I saw this so plainly one time on a missions trip to Kosovo.
Kosovo is a little piece of land considered to be on the back side of the world, and it is a place that I would have never heard of if not for the crisis this small country found itself back in 1998. After stability was brought to this country, I had a chance to go to Kosovo on a missions trip. I remember sitting in a small church the first Sunday morning I was there. At the beginning of the service, one of the ladies of the congregation stood up and began to testify, telling the congregation about what prayer meant to her. She explained that prayer was the place of searching God’s heart. She explained how the heart is where you harbor your most private thoughts and intimate secrets, and it is to those who go into the secret place of prayer that God shares the most intimate secrets and thoughts of His heart. She brought out Psalm 139:17 where God says that His thoughts are precious toward us; that if I should count them they are more in number than the sand. She explained how God has so many wonderful thoughts towards each one of His children, and that it is in that wonderful secret place that God reveals these thoughts. I remember as I was sitting in this small congregation of people, I was so amazed how God could come to someone in such a remote place in the world and open up her heart and reveal such precious truths.
In Genesis 12, God came to Abram and began to open His heart to hear the Word of God, and He told Abram to leave His country and kindred and to go to a land that God would show him.
It was on God’s heart at this time to take a man who did not know anything about the one true God and make him into a great man of faith; one whose testimony was that he was learning to trust fully in the Lord. Hebrew 11:6 says that only faith pleases God, and so God’s heart is to raise up His people to be a people of great faith. Abraham is the testimony that God sets before us that He is faithful to work that faith into our hearts as we trust Him one day at a time in every situation that comes into our life.
In Genesis 12:1-8, the Lord first appeared to Abram, and He called Abram to leave his land because it was steeped in idolatry. God told Abram to go with Him to a land that He would show him, and then God started making wonderful promises to Abram. God promised to make him a great nation, to give him a great name, and that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He filled Abram’s heart with great and wonderful promises. Then Genesis 12:8 says that Abram built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. In other words, Abram began to seek God with all of his heart.
Genesis 12:1-8 reminds me so much of the salvation experience. When we first give our hearts to Christ, God begins to speak to our heart wonderful promises. For example, He has a plan for our life, He desires to bless our life, and He desires to use our life for His glory. Many of us come to Christ with our lives in a mess, and God promises to bring order and make something beautiful out of our lives. Many come to Christ wounded and hurt, and He promises to bind up our broken hearts and restore our joy. Because of this awesome revelation of His goodness, it stirs within our hearts a desire to seek Him. It is not because of all the things He promises to do for us, but just because we see in His promises that He is so good, and we just want to seek Him because we want to know this God who is so good.
IN GENESIS 12:10, WE SEE SOMETHING HAPPEN IN THE LIFE OF ABRAM.
Genesis 12:10 “And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. ”
What just happened here? Trial number one! The land that God brought Him to was plagued with famine. This is what we have to understand: it is impossible to grow in our faith without trials. If we are going to grow in our faith, we have to know trials are coming. George Mueller, a wonderful man of faith, wrote: “If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried. The more I am in a position to be tried in faith, the more I will have the opportunity of seeing God’s deliverance.” Beloved, it is in our trials that we see the faithfulness of God, and it causes our faith to grow.
Let us see how Abram responded in this trial: Genesis 12:11-12 “And it came to pass when he was come near to enter Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, 'Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, 'This is his wife': and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.'”
It is very plain to see that Abram’s faith failed and he gave into fear; in other words, he flunked his first trial and test.
HERE IS THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD: GOD KNEW ABRAM WAS GOING TO FAIL SOME TESTS ALONG THE WAY, BUT GOD ALSO KNEW THE GREAT MAN OF FAITH HE WOULD BECOME.
On this faith walk we are going to fail some tests along the way, and God knows this, but God still sees that we have a heart towards Him, and because we have a heart towards Him, He sees what He can make out of our lives. He does not give up and quit on us, but He lovingly encourages us.
ABRAM FAILED HIS FIRST TEST, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING THAT WE NEED TO SEE.
Genesis 13:1-4 “And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai; unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.”
Here we see that, although Abram flunked his first test, he still had a heart to seek the Lord. We know he had this heart because God would not let him get discouraged, give up and quit. The deep places of God’s heart were continually drawing this man to that place of intimate prayer and communion with God.
Genesis 13:18-14:2 and 14:14-16 “Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre which is Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel King of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; that these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar…And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued after them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.” Looking at these scriptures, what do we see? In chapter 13:18, we see Abram is a man who is still seeking the Lord. In chapter 14, we see that he is a man whose faith has grown, and that he is a man who trusts God to give him victory over his enemies that were absolutely impossible for him to conquer in the strength of the flesh.
IN GENESIS 14, WE SEE FOUR KINGS THAT GOD GAVE ABRAM VICTORY OVER.
These four kings represent spiritual strongholds that captivate so many people’s lives.
The first king we see is named Amraphel. The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon says his name comes from a word from a foreign origin and it means “speaker of darkness”. Ultimately, who is the speaker of darkness? Who is it that fills the hearts and minds of people with lies that torment and torture? Satan! However, God in His wonderful faithfulness is a revealer of truth. Jesus said in John 8:31, “If you continue in my word then ye are my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The key word in this verse is “continue”. Jesus is saying that if His people have a relationship with Him in His word, then His anointed truth will fill their hearts and break the lies of the enemy that captivate their hearts and minds. Again, the key word is “continue”. We have got to have a relationship with Christ in our Bibles. Why are so many Christians so bound and tormented in their hearts and minds by the same lies of the enemy year after year? They do not read their Bibles. Other things seem more important or necessary than spending time with God in His Word. The result of this is that God’s wonderful truth is not able to set us free, and we continue to live bound and captivated by our bondages and fears. Beloved, just going to church and hearing sermons is not enough to walk in the liberty of Christ. Daily we need to spend time with Him in His Word! God’s wonderful faithfulness to the seeking heart is that He reveals wonderful and precious truths to our hearts that destroy the lies of the “speaker of darkness”.
The second king is named Arioch, which means “lion-like”. He symbolizes one who is very powerful and strong, or in other words, he symbolizes strongholds on people’s lives that are absolutely impossible to break. Here is the wonderful news: in Christ there is no stronghold too strong! Psalm 18:17 “He delivered me from my enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.”
God’s wonderful faithfulness to the seeking heart is that He will break those impossible strongholds over our lives as we continue to seek and trust Him!
Isaiah 10:27 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” In this verse the word “anointing” means fatness. In this verse, God is portraying a picture of a small, young ox wearing a yoke around his neck. This ox is in a field grazing, and as he is feeding and growing his neck is becoming more and more beefy and the tension on the yoke is increasing. One day that neck becomes so beefy and powerful that the yoke cannot withstand the tension and it snaps off. God is telling us by this picture that the devil might have some yokes around our necks, yokes of different fears and bondages, but if we stay in that secret place, feasting on Christ, our spiritual man is going to grow and those yokes are going to break as we grow in Christ. This is God’s wonderful faithfulness to the seeking heart!
The third king’s name is Elam, and his name means “to veil from sight; to conceal”.
Since the fall of man in the garden one of the greatest enemies of God’s people is the spiritual darkness and deception that warps the image of God. Since the fall of man, the devil has masterfully misrepresented God to the world. Today, in the world in which we live, so many people have no idea who God is, and the proof of it is all the world religions that portray God in so many tragic ways. However, God destroyed the devil’s lies about Himself when He sent Christ into the world. John 1:18 “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” Jesus came to declare the Father, to reveal to us the Father. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). In other words Jesus is saying, “Everything I am on earth, the Father is in heaven. If you want to know who He is and what He is like, then look at Me and learn, because I and the Father are One.” The wonderful faithfulness of God to His people is that when we open up our Bibles, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit reveals the Father, destroying every misconception that we have about Him. He also takes the Word of God and sanctifies our hearts and conforms us into His image. Praise the Lord!
The fourth king’s name is Tidel, which means “fearfulness”. I truly believe the devil’s worst stronghold is fear because fear has torment. If we are fearful, the enemy torments our hearts and minds. God in His wonderful faithfulness has a remedy for the fears that torment!
1 John 4:18 - “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” What is God’s wonderful remedy for fear? The love of God! The scriptures say, “ Perfect love casts out fear. ”
Beloved, the opposite of fear is not bravery, it is love! As we seek God and grow more and more in the revelation of the love of God, that revelation of love destroys those deep rooted fears that grip and captivate our hearts. Beloved, God is so faithful to the seeking heart!
2 Peter 1:2 “ Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” Here is a wonderful truth that is so often overlooked. Here Peter tells us that as our knowledge of God is increasing, our peace is increasing. Why? Because God is love and as we are growing in the knowledge of the love of God, peace is being multiplied to our hearts. The peace of God is like the love of God, it is fathomless. We will never reach the bottom of its depths. There is always more of His peace to be had. As we seek Him and grow in the intimate knowledge of God, we grow in His peace.
LET US END BY LOOKING AT ABRAM’S GREATEST TEST.
Genesis 21:33 “And Abram planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.” This scripture tells us that Abram planted a grove and there called on the name of the Lord; so this grove was Abram’s secret place of prayer, his prayer closet-the place he would go to seek the heart of God. Beloved, I think the most wonderful thing in this world God has blessed His people with is a prayer closet, the place where we can get alone with God and commune with His heart. It is true that prayer is not always easy, because the flesh gets tired and there is warfare because the enemy hates a praying people. Think about it: what is truly more wonderful than being able to go into a secret place knowing that God is going to be there to meet you? This is a priceless gift that God has given us.
Genesis 21:33 and 22:1-2 “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, 'Abraham'; and he said, 'Behold, here I am'. And he said, 'Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.'” By now Abraham is a man who has walked with God many years and he knows God’s heart very intimately. In chapter 22, we see that Abraham’s faith goes into its greatest trial. I was talking to a friend not long ago and he said to me, “As we walk with God it seems the trials get more and more difficult. No matter how much you know God, the trials do not seem to get easier, but sometimes more difficult.”
This is true because the Lord is continually putting our faith in the fire to purify our faith, because our faith is precious to Him. My friend also went on to say, “Though the trials seem to get more difficult, the rewards of those trials are greater and greater.” This is wonderfully true.
In every trial we experience God’s unfailing faithfulness, and He becomes more and more precious to our hearts. We walk with God just a little more closely as we come out of our trials.
THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE I WANT US TO SEE: I CALL GENESIS 22 “ABRAHAM’S CROWNING DAY”.
This is the day God showed the world that He was faithful to complete His work in Abraham’s life, that Abraham truly became a great man of faith. When Abraham bound and placed Isaac on the altar and then lifted the knife to slay his son in obedience to God’s word, it was then God revealed to the world the great faith and trust Abraham had in God. Up until this point no one had ever been resurrected from the dead, but Abraham said in his heart that “even if God has to raise him from the dead, He will fulfill His promises to me.” Hebrews 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac thy seed shall be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead.” When Abraham, by faith and obedience passed this test, it was as if at that moment God placed the crown of faith upon his head and proclaimed to the world, “Here is a great and mighty man of faith.”
Let us end with a question: what is the purpose of trials? Trials purify our faith, but trials also reveal to our own hearts the good work that God has done in us. When going through a trial we could say in our hearts, “There would have been a time that this trial would have moved me and shaken my faith, but now my heart is anchored in God and I am not moved by it. God has been faithful to do His work in my heart. In this trial I really see how much I have grown, how much my faith has grown and how faithful God has been to work in my heart.”
It is in our trials that we see God’s wonderful faithfulness to the seeking heart, because it is in our trials we see the good work God has done in our hearts. Beloved, God is so marvelously faithful to the seeking heart.