Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

“The Faith that Gives You a Limp!”

Hebrews 11:21 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ.

This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God we cannot bear any good fruit (John 15:5)! Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Today, I have the privilege of telling you the story of Jacob, but to tell his story I also must tell you about his twin brother, the older twin brother Esau. Their story is found in between last week’s teaching on verse 20 and today’s Scripture lesson found in verse 21. Everyone loves a good back story to fill in the gaps, so let’s read both, Hebrews 11:20-21, which says, “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.”

Jacob’s story happened between the blessing he received from his father and the blessings he gave to Joseph’s sons, as if they were his own sons. Essentially, his whole adult life (between being a young adult and becoming elderly) is missing in Hebrews 11. His full story is behind the scenes of Hebrews 11 but aren’t the truest and most important parts of our stories often happening behind the scenes, in the gaps of our public lives. Jacob’s story is an encounter with God, which forever changed his story from selfish pride and self-sufficient scheming to graceful humility and faith.

Is this your story too? This is the story of what God’s grace can do in a person’s life, but you must be willing to leave today with a limp for it to become true in your life. Are you willing to learn how to lean on God, just like Jacob had to lean on the top of his staff when he blessed his grandchildren? Are you willing to pray that Proverbs 3:5-6 becomes a reality in your story, just like it did in Jacob’s story, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” You can’t lean on God if you are still leaning on yourself! Let’s pray for God’s grace to prevail over us today, cultivating the soil of our hearts and minds so that his good seed of grace can be planted deep in us, just like when God wrestled with Jacob, humbling him so that he would live a life for someone more than himself.

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

Last week, I contrasted Jacob and Esau by how they valued the promises of God in their own lives. Jacob highly valued and prioritized the promise of God that was passed through his father’s blessing. The birthright and blessing were rightfully Esau’s (the first born), but through Jacob’s trickery and scheming, Esau sold his birthright for a single meal and then despised it. Last week, we read this story from Genesis 25:27-34 and highlighted its implications from Hebrews 12:15-17. This would not have been possible if it weren’t for Esau’s complete disregard for spiritual things; his focus was on the temporary pleasures and opportunities of the world.

Selling his birthright flowed out of Esau’s calloused heart, just as tricking his brother for his birthright flowed out of Jacob’s desperate heart! Esau and Jacob are three-dimensional people – warts and all. If you thought Esau was an easy target, you don’t have to look hard to find the character flaw that threads throughout Jacob’s story and eventually this flaw in his personhood becomes the point of why Jacob is such an important biblical character to whom we all can honestly relate. Then, by God’s grace for God’s glory, Jacob’s story can become our story, and all our stories can tell a better story – the story of God’s grace and faithfulness! Through Jacob, we learn how to live strong in God’s grace today!

Jacob was a self-centered sinner to the core of who he was from birth! In fact, this was so obvious in Jacob that it’s why he was named Jacob. His name means “heal-grabber” and carries with it the implied meaning of being a cheater or deceiver. From the womb, Jacob wanted what he believed to be his: the blessing and birthright of the first-born son (Genesis 25:23-26). You know Jacob’s type – everything is about them, their preferences, and how it impacts them. I know the type because I am a recovering self-centered sinner too. To be redeemed, I had to have an encounter with the God of grace, learning from faith to walk with a limp!

Jacob was a self-sufficient schemer! Jacob was so desperate for what he thought should be his (and not his brother’s!) that he took matters into his own hands. He worked hard! He was stronger! He was more than capable of making his own way in the world! You know Jacob’s type – they don’t want help or even admit that they need help. This is the self-made person that thinks they are better than others because they’ve worked for everything they have. I know the type because I am a recovering workaholic. To be redeemed, I had to have an encounter with the God of grace, learning from faith to walk with a limp! The mystery of God’s grace is that until we have an encounter with God that causes us to trust Him, rather than trust ourselves, we will never get off the ground. There must be a seed planted, for there to be a fruit-bearing tree!

Jacob’s story is all about the faithfulness of God: God unrelentingly pursued Jacob! By God’s grace, God spoke over Jacob’s life from his mother’s womb in Genesis 25:23, “The Lord said to [Rebekah], ‘Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.’”

In the same way, God knew us before we were born. All of us have been born self-centered, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God knows the truth about us and that we deserve eternal separation from Him, yet He still loves us and chose to bless us through His Son – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). I know this is true about me! You can’t move on to the next step until you believe this truth – the seed of faith through God’s grace must be planted if you are going to be transformed into a fruit-bearing tree! Do you believe it is true about you?

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

By God’s grace, when God should have struck Jacob dead for his scheming and trickery, he met him in the wilderness as he ran for his life the first time. When Jacob’s self-centered, self-sufficient scheming finally caught with him and what he deserved was death, God met him and showed him grace in Genesis 28:10-22:

Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

In the same way, God meets us in our circumstances with His grace, as Romans 5:8 states, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” I know this is true for me! Do you believe it is true for you?

By God’s grace, twenty years after God met Jacob in his escape from Esau, he was running again, this time from his father-in-law Laban. He had not repented of his ways, but continued in his own self-sufficiencies and pride, finding Laban to be his equal in self-focused snobbery and self-consumed scheming, lying, and deceiving. Yet, God did not forsake nor leave Jacob! God met Jacob, so desperate, so fearful, so lost in himself, that it took God Himself to show up on the scene to intervene for Jacob. This story is found in Genesis 28-32.

Sound familiar? God has shown up once for all to intervene! As Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” What does it take for a person to realize that they are so lost they can’t save themselves? There was Jacob on the run again for his life, from Laban going back to Esau, from whom God had rescued the first time. Jacob was uncertain of his own future, and in his anxiety and fear, can you guess what he did, yet again. He schemed, still not trusting anyone but himself, still not believing the very promises of God that he had stolen from Esau, because all this time he still didn’t get it. Jacob still thought it was all about him. He had gone so far, but still had so far to go. What would it take to get through to this man?  That brings us to the last action step because every farmer expects to experience a harvest of praise from all that hard work of cultivating the soil, planting good seed, and caring for the maturing plant!

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

It all changed in one night, the night before he was to be confronted by Esau. Jacob was rightfully scared, fearful for his own life as his brother had pledged to kill him all those years ago. Esau was coming out to greet him with an army of 400 armed men. Jacob devised one of his brilliant plans, his scheming was found in about every detail of it, figured for everything, but, once again, He left out one main factor: God’s transformative power over Esau’s heart! Little did Jacob know, in the same way that he would be greeted with love and acceptance the next day by his brother, that very night God was going to give him a limp that would forever transform his story. Genesis 32:22-32 captures this life transforming moment in Jacob’s life:

Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had. Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

Jacob was never the same after encountering God! God does for Jacob that which Jacob could not do for himself: God touched him with His grace, a power that overwhelmed him and broke him of his scheming and self-sufficiency. God’s grace changed Jacob’s name to Israel. A person’s character is found in his or her name. When God asks Jacob his name, it is not because God did not know his name, it is because God was asking Jacob to confess his true nature as a self-centered, scheming man. But it took the severe mercy of God’s touch on Jacob’s hip to bring him to the end of his own self-sufficiencies. And at the confession of his own name, Jacob acknowledged his own character and his own desperate need for God, becoming Israel, which means, “He who strives/wrestles with God.” Jacob was no longer defined by his sin, but by his relationship with God! As Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

God’s grace restored Jacob’s relationship with his brother Esau (Genesis 33:1-11). In the light of having experienced the grace of God through personally wrestling with God, Jacob now saw the face of God in the very man he had once treated as an obstacle to the promises of God! Don’t miss the miracle: Jacob had a new outlook on life! His story was transformed by grace!

In the same way, God changes your worldview when you have been saved from self by God’s grace; people are no longer obstacles to your plans and schemes, but now they are the objects of our affections and actions. You are now a minister of reconciliation; Paul taught us of our new purposes in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19:

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

God’s grace healed Jacob’s desperate heart. We see this at the very end of his life, when Jacob passed on the blessing to the next generation with peace in his heart because he had learned that day to trust in God and not in himself, “By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21). It’s amazing to me that the Bible highlights his limp by emphasizing his need to lean on top of his staff. We watch Israel limp across the river and into the unknown future, not perfectly but by God’s perfect grace to tell a different story, no longer his own, but God’s story of grace.

In the same way, we are commanded to proclaim the story of our limp in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” We each are touched by grace to give us a limp so that wherever we go, we will be reminded that God’s grace is our only sufficiency. According to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul had a thorn in his flesh and through his limp, found true life in God’s grace:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me – to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh given to him by God. Jacob had a limp also given to him by God. What’s your limp and how does it remind you to lean on God’s grace as your sufficiency?

You can watch this video by clicking HERE.

Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Blesses!

Hebrews 11:20 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ.

This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit! Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Today, we are telling the story of Isaac, based on Hebrews 11:20, which says, “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.”[1] From Isaac’s story, we are going to learn the faith that blesses.

How did you come into the faith? What is the starting point of your transforming story? Kimberly and I both came to know Jesus through outreach ministries to the military; we were both young adults out of high school and in the beginning of our military service. Maybe you were blessed to come from a home filled with godliness and faith, and you have been a Christian as long as you can remember. What a privilege and joy! That is our prayer for our three children and for all the children of our congregation. Regardless of how or when your story began, in Christ we each have the power to bless another generation. Though the story of Isaac and his twin sons, Jacob and Esau, we are going to learn the power and choice of blessing people by planting the good seed of God’s grace in their lives through faith.

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

The context of this whole Hebrews 11 passage is that one word: faith! Hebrews 11:1 teaches us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It means to put your whole trust in someone or something. In this case, and throughout the Bible the object of our faith is in God, who is trustworthy and true. In fact, the purpose of highlighting the people and their stories is to teach us more about who God is and that He is faithful. God is worthy to put all our weight on Him, just as we learned last week through the Abraham-Isaac story. The stories bring to life these doctrinal truths through illustration, illumination, and inspiration!

We have been learning about the faith and obedience of Isaac’s parents, Abraham and Sarah. Though far from perfect as a man and woman, above all they modeled a real relationship with God. Truly, they imperfectly put their full trust in God and God’s grace perfectly sustained them. They believed and they acted upon this belief because they are people of the promise, and Isaac’s very life was the fulfillment of God’s promise to them. We learned of God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness through the very existence of Isaac. Isaac was a miracle baby!

Here is what we know about Isaac: his birth was foretold, longed for, and miraculous (Genesis 21:1-3). He was circumcised by the very hand of his father Abraham on the eighth day as a sign of the covenant that God had personally made with Abraham (Genesis 21:4). Isaac’s mom died at 127 years old, when he was approximately thirty-seven years old, since he was born when she was 90 (Genesis 23:1). She died approximately twenty years after the climactic event of Genesis 22, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son as an act of worship (check out last week’s teaching). I can only imagine how for thirty-seven years Sarah loved Isaac and spoke of why he was named, “Laughter.” With a smile on her face, she would recount her own lack of faith in God’s plan to give her a baby at 90, and how Isaac shouldn’t make the same mistake: God had proven time and time again, through Isaac’s birth, his experience with her crazy husband on the mount in Moriah as a teenager, that God is a great provider and worthy of all his trust. This would have been a mother on a mission to make sure her son knew he was a miracle, chosen by God, and blessed by his parents, for a purpose.

What is amazing about Isaac is his rich faith heritage. When many focus on the speculation of his psychological damage caused by being a teenage boy who was almost slaughtered at the hands of his father Abraham, their musings miss out on the one thing that is the point of this ongoing story of the people of God’s promise; that is the powerful influence of one generation’s faith on the next generation. Isaac’s family blessed him to be a blessing to others! That is the promise of Genesis 12:2-3, given to Abraham, passed on to Isaac, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing… in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

How can your home be a place of faith where the next generation is not indulged, but rather blessed so that they will be a blessing to others? When I serve my children, I tell them that I do it  so that they will learn to serve others. I bless them so that they will learn to be a blessing to others! That takes us to our next action step.

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

Isaac may have been a second-generation follower of God, but he believed in God’s promises for himself. His father’s God was His God. His mother’s God was His God. His faith was His own! Isaac was blessed to live in a family with faith, but even as a member of that community, he had to know God for himself. The promise of Genesis 12 had to become his own, just as all the promises of God through Jesus Christ must become our own. The faith of the previous generation is passed on to us so that we can make it our own, passing it on to the next generation.

God provided a faithful wife to Isaac in Rebekah (see Genesis 24). Isaac was 40 when he was married and 60 when Abraham died. Before his death, God blessed Isaac with great abundance; Genesis 25:5 says, “Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.” Interestingly, the Bible makes it clear in Genesis 25:11 who was really doing the blessing, “It came about after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac.” After Abraham died, God adopted Isaac as his own son; He did not leave Isaac as an orphan! Jesus said in John 14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans.” God tends to the maturing plant through the presence and power of His Spirit!

So, like Abraham before him, Isaac was blessed with everything, except the one thing that was necessary to keep passing on the legacy – a child! For twenty years they had tried to conceive a child (Genesis 25:26), then when Isaac was 60, God blessed them as Genesis 25:21 records, “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.” Isaac had a faith that blessed! He learned this from his mom and dad, but he had to make it his own!

Every generation must embrace faith as their own because God does not have grandchildren; He has children! In the same way that Abraham and Sarah wandered through the nothingness of infertility, so did Isaac and Rebekah. For twenty years, they had to wrestle with their own faith and trust in God; to believe God to keep His promises. To learn that God is good! Faith becomes your own when you have personally had to put your full weight into God. You see, you can’t bless someone with a future promise that you yourself don’t believe in. Sure, you can give them a family name and maybe some money and stuff in an estate, but you can’t pass on to the next generation what you don’t have yourself! Brothers and sisters, what matters is that you pass on the name of Jesus! The name that you have learned through life’s hardest circumstances is trustworthy and true! It is only by the name of Jesus you will have an eternal legacy.

Do you believe? One day, when each of us must stand before God to give an account for our lives, it will be just you and Him. No pastors, no parents, no excuses, no ATMs, just God and you… Do you know Him? Do you trust Him? Are you reaping the good fruit of a life of faith by having plenty of seed-rich fruit to hand to those in your life? That brings us to our last action step in the hard-working farmer’s strategy.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

Jacob and Esau are real people in real history; they are the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah, the grandchildren of Abraham and Sarah. These miracle babies, a set of twins that Jacob blessed according to Hebrews 11:20, represent so much more than who they are. We cannot spend as much time with these brothers as I would like, and prefer as a Bible teacher, but for today’s purposes allow me to draw an important contrast between them. Genesis 25:27-34 says a lot in a short space:

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” And Jacob said, “First swear to me”; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Here is the contrast: Jacob highly valued the birthright of the promise of God and Esau despised his because of his own foolish decisions. Jacob and Esau both have some glaring character flaws, but what matters is that they both made a choice: Jacob for the promise of God and Esau for the pleasures of the world.

You have a choice: every generation must choose whether they will be a Jacob or Esau.

Esau violated the covenant of God, married many foreign wives (Hittites and an Ishmaelite) representing his compromises away from the promises of God and yoking with the world, and he fathered nations who war against God’s people, just like Ishmael fathered great nations who still war against God’s people. Listen to the summary of Esau’s bitterness at rejecting his own birthright and choosing foreign wives, from Genesis 26:35, “They made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah” (ESV). “Esau” passes on bitterness and grief (NASB), generation after generation.

Bitterness begets bitterness! What are some examples in our everyday lives of how we choose Esau: the bitterness of the world? To put it plainly; it happens when we choose to be doomsdayers! When you choose to be negative and nitpicky, as if you are always looking for what is wrong rather than choosing to see what is right, on the verge of anger most of the time, ready to go on the defensive and build a case for your own point of view, living in blame and accusation, critical of others instead of looking for ways to build up and edify, never satisfied rather than living in contentment, never trusting another, but putting yourself first because your worldview as a doomsdayer demands that you protect the glass house you have constructed.

There is a way out of bitterness and the consequences of choosing the mindset and lifestyle of a doomsdayer. Jesus sets the prisoners free; He heals the brokenhearted; and He uproots bitter roots! In short, Jesus is our living hope and transforms us from being doomsdayers to being hope-bearers! Church, we are the hope of the world! We are to reap a harvest of praise – declaring the hope of the blessing of God, given to us through Jesus Christ!

Jacob’s legacy is the twelve tribes of Israel through whom the Savior – Jesus Christ – was born to carry the promise of Genesis 12 to all the nations. Jacob passed on to us blessings and peace. Genesis 28:3-4 records Isaac’s blessing to Jacob when he sends him back to Rebekah’s people to find a wife and to protect him from his enraged brother Esau, “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”

Blessing begets blessing! What are some examples in our everyday lives of how we can choose Jacob: the blessings of God? This is where you declare, right now, out loud for everyone to hear you: I AM A HOPE-BEARER! God has called you to be a person of faith, hope, and love! God has given you the sufficiency of His grace so that you can live strong in God’s grace! God has given you forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ so that you can forgive others as God first forgave you. God has given you the Holy Spirit, so that you may reap the fruit of the Spirit for all taste and seed that God is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). A hope-bearer endures to the end, show resiliency when knocked down, is faithful to God and His mission, and is humble – reaping a harvest of praise to the glory of God!

It’s a choice! I present to you today a choice between generational blessings and generational curses. Jacob and Esau’s sibling rivalry has become regional and national conflict today, millennia later, continuing to breed bitterness and grief. But they also represent the choice each person must make to receive between the blessings of God and the bitterness of the world. Hebrews 12:15-17 confronts us with this choice of bitterness or blessing:

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Do you want to have a transforming story? It’s a choice between blessing and bitterness. The time ran out for Esau; it was too late to get back what he had rejected for the world! But you are here today, there is breath in your lungs, and there is still time for repentance: REJECT BITTERNESS! Don’t be a doomsdayer! Grow strong in God’s grace and live your life as a hope-bearer! God’s grace is available to you today personally. Until the Lord Jesus returns or you take your last breath on this earth, you can receive the promises of God as yours through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus came into the world as the light of God to show the way to God’s blessings. The gospel invites you today to accept Jesus Christ and to receive the promises of God, as John 1:11-13 promises:

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

You cannot rest on your parents’ faith, your faith heritage, or you church affiliation. The most important decision of your life is what you do with Jesus Christ. This is a holy moment of decision. Today can be the first day of your eternal legacy… Today, you are being invited to receive the faith that blesses. It will bless you, then it will bless through you!

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTE:

Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Passes the Test!

Hebrews 11:17-19 (NASB)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a hard-working farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ.

This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit! Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, found in Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1-2, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men [and women] of old gained approval.” Today’s transforming story confronts us in our belief in this definition of faith: What happens in life when all we have left is faith?  

A woman finds a lump and finds herself with more doctor visits in the coming months than she has had in the last decade. She prays and prays, has her family, friends, and church pray, only to hear the ‘C’ word. Her mind goes blank as she finds herself walking out of the doctor’s office not remembering anything said to her after she heard the word “cancer.” Her vision clouds over as the tears start falling… Only God knows what’s ahead of her!

A man has just lost his job. He is in his late-forties and has been at the same company since his twenties, and now he’s left with no job, nothing to show for over twenty years of loyalty. His kids are still in college. His 30-year mortgage, twice refinanced, heavy on his shoulders. His mind races out of control as he carries a cardboard box filled with family pictures and worthless tokens out the side door for the last time, heading to the parking lot, heading to his car as he fights back the tears… Only God knows his next steps!

A teenager’s parents are fighting more than ever; the word divorce being thrown around more and more. His grades are suffering, his friends are inviting him to go to parties, he is having a hard time focusing as his world seems to be crumbling around him. Is there really a God, and if so, how could He possibly be good, and does God even care about people like him? He heads out the front door confused, angry, with hopes of ending up somewhere better than here… Only God knows where!

A young couple, recently married, is so excited to have become pregnant in hopes of starting a family together. Three months later, with a nursey under construction, a baby registry filled out, names being discussed, and invitations in the mail, the wife calls the husband from work crying as something terrible is happening, as the EMTs are putting her in the ambulance. She needs him to meet her at the hospital as she won’t stop bleeding. His world starts narrowing and the next breath is too hard to take as he races out the door… Only God knows why!

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

We learn and apply Scripture by watching how the people in His story respond to their situations based on what they believed about God. Faith is a good seed designed by its architect to bear the good fruit of the Spirit in your life. Truth about God leads to life application, which is why we are to plant it like a good seed and tend to it like a maturing plant, so that we may reap a harvest of praise to the One who chose our hearts and minds as His harvest fields.  

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

Hebrews 11:17-19 highlights the greatest test of Abraham and Sarah’s faith. They were able to obey God because they trusted Him to keep His promises. The seed of faith was planted deep into their hearts and minds! Turn with me to the book of Genesis and let’s read their story is from Genesis 22. To focus our time, I will read verses 1-2, 7-8, 10-12, and 15-18:

Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” … Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. … Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” … Then 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 thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

This very well could have been one of the last things Sarah experienced in her life, as her death was soon after recorded in Genesis 23:1-2. She had walked with God, and her husband, on a very long journey, passing the greatest test of all at the end of their lives together. She trusted God for His promises and from her barren womb, opened through the power of God’s Spirit, came the promises of God to the nations. She has received the reward of her faith even though she did not live to see God’s promise fulfilled through her son Isaac, as described in Hebrews 11:13-16:

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

What do we learn from this dramatic story of faith? We learn that God is trustworthy and true, worthy of our trust! God keeps His promises and provides for that which He promises! God is consistent to His own character and will never violate the integrity of His character, as revealed to us in His Word and through His Son Jesus Christ. If we had time, I could share with you literally dozens of other Bible stories that testify to these truths about God. If we had all day, we could have testimony after testimony that this is true about God. Instead, let’s move to the next action step so we can learn how to live our lives according to this truth.

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

This next step, the step of life application, is the hard one! If you believe that God is trustworthy, then what do you do when all you have left is your faith in a trustworthy God? This is the climax of Abraham and Sarah’s transforming story with God. They have been on amazing journey, chasing after God’s promise and the fulfillment of that which caused them to leave their homeland in search of God’s Promised Land, found in Genesis 12:1-3:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

For forty-five years, Abraham and Sarah spent time with God causing them to know His attributes and character (read Genesis 12:4-21:34). When God asked them to return to Him the precious gift, which He had given them (Isaac), they trusted God for who they knew Him to be – trustworthy in character and true to His promises!

The Bible doesn’t say it was easy for them; it just records them doing it! At the heart of this story is a man and woman who had a personal relationship with God. This elderly couple said “yes” to a painful offering: they offered their teenage son to God because He asked it of them; they did not understand His command or know if they would ever get him back. They trusted God, which allowed them to make a painful offering!

Have you ever made a painful offering to God? Maybe God wants you to give your kidney to someone else who needs it. Maybe God wants you to donate blood on a regular basis. Maybe God wants you to give your extra car to someone who needs a car. Maybe God wants you to give your time to visit lonely people or help those who can’t do what you can. Maybe God wants you to move, sell your house, quit your job, use your talents more, be generous with what He has provided for you. Maybe God wants you to help someone in need. God asks of you because He knows more than you do. He knows what you need, and He knows what is for your good!

King David said, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). Obedience is an outflow of trust! The good seed of faith begets faithfulness and putting your faith into practice causes you to know God more and trust Him for who He is and not for who you wish Him to be. Christianity is not about your choosing when to obey, calculating when to make sacrifices, or doing religious activities like putting coins in a vending machine, hoping God will give you what you want. That is self-serving. We must live with a constant willingness to obey, ready to respond when God asks. It is about trust!

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:24-27, making this specific point:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell – and great was its fall.

CHAIR ILLUSTRATION Speaking of falling, allow me to share one of my favorite evangelistic illustrations in hopes of bringing this together: SHOULD I PUT MY FULL WEIGHT IN THIS CHAIR?

John Paton (1824–1907), a Scot, had travelled to the New Hebrides (a group of islands in the south-west Pacific) determined to tell the tribal people about Jesus. The islanders were cannibals. Nobody trusted anybody else. His life was in constant danger. He had come to tell them the good news about Jesus. He wanted to translate John’s Gospel into their language, but he discovered that there was no word in their language for ‘faith’, ‘belief’ or ‘trust’. One day, when his indigenous servant came in, Paton raised both feet off the floor, sat back in his chair and asked, ‘What am I doing now?’ In reply, the servant used a word that means, ‘to lean your whole weight upon’. This became the expression that Paton used. Faith is leaning our whole weight upon Jesus.[1]

You don’t trust God until you have had to put your full weight upon Jesus! You can’t proclaim the faith that “God is good all the time” until you have found Him good in your own life and circumstances! Otherwise, it is truth divorced of reality. Your life of putting your full weight upon Jesus gives meaning to words such as faith, belief, or trust, which have lost meaning in today’s cancel culture. Your trust in God proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ! This takes us to our last action step.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

God did for Abraham and Sarah what they could not learn on their own; He gave them an opportunity to put their full weight onto Him! We know God for how He has revealed Himself to be to us – His character, His attributes, His actions, and His judgments. But the only way we can discover that God is who He says He is, trustworthy and true in all that He says and does, is by putting our trust in all that we know about Him as being true! This is what we learn by watching Abraham and Sarah as the people of the promise. As Genesis 22:8 quotes Abraham responding to Isaac, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Here is where our text from Hebrews 11:19 helps us understand the depth of Abraham and Sarah’s faith: “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type [it foreshadowed the resurrection of Jesus Christ].”   

Their faith allowed them to trust God in the worst of circumstances! With Isaac being taken from them, trust in God was all they had left… Not trust that God would give them what they wanted or fix their circumstances; but trust that no matter what may come, God was with them. Did you know that Willow is our fourth child? When my wife and I went through the miscarriage of our third child, Skyler, it was heart wrenching, but God was true to His promise: Immanuel – “God is with us!” His presence comforted us and assured us. He still does today!

I am inviting you to join with me in trusting God! I am asking you to believe and putting your faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is scandalous in today’s world; just as trusting another person is risky business, but that ends up being the point: you must risk trust to learn how to trust! You don’t really know what you think you know until you live it! You must pass the test of faith to experience the promises of God, then you reap the harvest of praise!

CHAIR ILLUSTRATION: Can you really know what a chair is unless you have put your full weight into a chair? It’s just an abstract concept until it is tested! Just like faith, which is exactly why James says, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26). That’s like saying there can be a plant without a seed being planted! As Paul said in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

Do you know God as trustworthy and true? Jesus gave it all on the cross so that whosoever puts their full weight onto Him “shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Will you trust Him with your life and circumstances? Will your faith pass the test of trust?

Only God knows the next step:

Bring chair down to response area: I invite you to symbolically come down and take a moment to put all your weight in this chair. Jesus invites you today from Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Let’s pray and ask God, “Lord, help me to respond to Your gracious invitation so that I can put my full weight onto You today. I come to You today and confess, ‘I trust You. Help me with my mistrust.’ In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTE:

Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Bears Fruit! (Cont.)

Hebrews 11:11-12 (NASB)

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

Sarah was a real woman, with real faith, in real history, and her story began with a faith that pleased God. Her transforming story is recorded in Hebrews 11:11-12:

By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

To experience the promises of God we must learn how to care for the maturing plant of our faith through the storms and tribulations of this life. Genesis 21:1-8 tells us how long Abraham and Sarah had to wait to experience God’s promise in their lives:

Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

If you read more about Abraham and Sarah’s transforming story of faith in Genesis, you will see that they went through many trials and tribulations. While they blessed the nations through their faith, they had to live by faith to bear the good fruit of the promises of God to them. We are now going to turn to the New Testament, learning from the biblical pattern of Paul’s life so that we can learn how to live strong in God’s grace as an heir of the promise of Abraham. Let us learn from the fruit of Sarah’s womb how we are to live as those who have inherited the promise of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul said in Galatians 4:28, to those who believe in Jesus Christ, “And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.” This is how Paul saw himself and this is how we should see ourselves.

There are four practical steps we can learn from Paul about how to live as children of promise. First, Paul started by claiming the promises of God in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” As we have previously learned in my Live like a Champion Today sermon series, the Bible is filled with the promises of God that will lead you to living the victorious life of Jesus Christ. For example, you may think, “If I am not successful in this situation, then my life will fall apart.” The natural result of such catastrophic, slippery-slope thinking is anxiety and doubt. Replace that faulty logic with the promise of God, “Even if I am not successful in every situation, God, who began a good work in me, will bring me through this tribulation and bring me to completion.” This promise will decrease the anxiety-inducing, self-focused thinking, and keep your mind focused on the power of God to fulfill the promises of God, in and through you! 

Second, Paul taught us to pray the promises of God in Philippians 1:9-11:

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

The Bible is filled with prayers that are effective and in accordance with God’s will: pray these prayers! The Psalms were Jesus’ prayer book; the Bible has example after example of prayers God has already declared as prayers He will answer. Memorize them, cultivate them into your heart and mind, plant them as seeds of grace, so that in your 9-1-1 moments your communion with God will be unbreakable by neither of the normal fleshly responses caused by your autonomic nervous system: adrenaline rush (fight) or detached retreat (flight). To illustrate this form my life experience, Psalm 23 is my personal go-to prayer. I have memorized it and I walk through my days with it for three reasons:

1. It relaxes me – rest for my soul in His green pastures and beside quiet waters
2. It reminds me of who God is – the Good Shepherd of my soul, in whom I shall not want
3. It focuses me on God’s promises for my life and eternity – He walks with me all the days of my life and I will dwell with Him always

Paul then gives us the right perspective on our circumstances in Philippians 1:12-14:

Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.

Our circumstances overwhelm us so often that we lose perspective on what is true and real in life from God’s reality. Yes, it is true that our perception shapes how we view what is real to us, but it is not true that my perception is true reality. Paul claimed God’s promises, he then prayed them, and then he gained an accurate assessment of reality. God gave Paul his perspective: what has happened to me, though difficult, has served a greater purpose. In life, we are going to suffer, but will our suffering have meaning, purpose, and hope attached to it. It is a right perspective of life that shapes our contentment and ability to rejoice in all circumstances. It is how we walk through these circumstances that often shapes our witness to those around us and proclaims the transforming power of faith to all who are watching us. This is the good fruit of God’s grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ – live strong in God’s grace today!

That brings us to the last thing we are going to learn from Paul in how to care for the maturing plant so that it grows strong enough to bear good fruit. Paul teaches us to seize the moment and execute God’s plan for our lives in Philippians 1:21-24:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Paul’s life was built on the promises of God, he prayed effective prayers from the Word of God, and he kept a right perspective on his circumstance, so that he could seize the moment for the plan of God in his daily life. God used Paul’s life as a descendent of Sarah’s womb, an heir of Abraham’s promise – Paul was a blessing to the nations as the Apostle to the Gentiles! We are to do the same in our lives as children of the promise – we are called to bless the nations as ambassadors of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). Just as Sarah’s faith bore good fruit, so should our lives reap a harvest of praise. That brings us to the last action step.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

Living strong in God’s grace leads to a harvest of praise because it is the empowered life of the Holy Spirit! In a life that reaps a harvest of praise, all four of the elements we learned from Paul’s life are important: a promise to claim; a prayer to pray; the right perspective on circumstances; and a plan to execute. Without one of these you may find yourself overridden with an anxious or fearful heart, aimless in your life, and buried in your circumstances. If you were to examine the life of Abraham and Sarah, you will see the damaging effects of not trusting God for the promises of God (Genesis 16). Whereas the flesh produced Ishmael, the Spirit of God birthed the good fruit of Isaac (Galatians 4:21-31). Paul emphasized this part of the Abraham-Sarah story in Galatians 4:31-5:1, to illustrate why we, as followers of Jesus Christ, are to walk by the Spirit, “So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman [Hagar who gave birth to Ishmael], but of the free woman [Sarah who gave birth to Isaac]. It was for freedom [from sin] that Christ set us free [to live for God through faith]; therefore keep standing firm [by faith through the Spirit] and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [the flesh].”

It is my desire to help you choose the better way, the way of living by the power of the Holy Spirit, who promises to reap a harvest of praise in and through your life, learning to trust God’s promises and obeying Him in all that you do. This is the life of faith – live strong in God’s grace! Jesus taught about the empowered life of the Holy Spirit in John 14:15-21:

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

To keep Jesus’ commandments is to obey the God you worship. True worship is not empty praise from unbelieving lips; it is a life whose actions and attitudes flow out of what you believe about God. This is what Jesus intended when He said in John 4:23-24, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Are you worshipping in spirit and truth?

 What do you believe about God?  Faith is reckoned to you as righteousness! What does your life say you believe about God? Faith in God leads to a life that proclaims the very character of God through the fruit bearing of the Holy Spirit, as promised in Galatians 5:22-23, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” This is the harvest of praise that will spread the seed of Abraham, the fruit of Sarah’s barren womb, to all the nations because you obeyed God’s voice in your life. This is the miracle of God’s grace as it grows in you – from Sarah’ barren womb came the child of promise, Isaac, just as from the seed of faith, God grows the fruit of the good news of Jesus Christ – God’s righteousness for all the nations. Be fruitful for the kingdom of God!

Abraham and Sarah’s transforming story of faith strengthens our faith, gives us hope, and gives us the courage to tell a better story with our stories. To make visible that which is invisible – the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven! May we reap a harvest of praise as our stories are transformed through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Trusts God’s Promises!

Hebrews 11:8-10 (NAS95)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Let’s follow the four-step strategy of a faith farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ. Never forget, this strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit because apart from God’s grace through His Son Jesus Christ you cannot bear God’s good fruit (John 15:5). Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace to reap a harvest of praise to the glory of God. Let’s turn to Hebrews 11 and learn from the next transforming story in the Hall of Faith.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1-2, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men [and women] of old gained approval.” Today’s passage from Hebrews 11:8-10 illustrates the life of faith with the fourth transforming story in the Hall of Faith, from which we are going to learn how to grow strong in God’s grace:

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Just like you and me, today, Abraham was a real man, with real faith, in real history, and his story began with a faith that pleased God. His story is told in Genesis 11:27-25:8. It all started when his name was still Abram, as he responded to the invitation of God in Genesis 12:1-5:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.

Abraham’s faith in God’s promises led him to obey God, leaving for the Promised Land even though he did not know where he was going. Has God ever asked you to take the next step of faith in your life even though you didn’t know where it was taking you? While my story is not nearly as dramatic as that of Abraham, I remember, in October 2009, when we answered God’s call to transition from being the Associate Pastor of Crosswalk Community Church in Sunnyvale, California to become the Senior Pastor here at First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana. By faith, and on a handshake, Kimberly and I packed up our baby boy, Beorn, and we drove thousands of miles to come to God’s promised land for our family – the place God called us to serve His kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. While it started as a place we had to look up on a map because we had no idea where it was, I can attest to you over 13 ½ years later, since we obeyed God by saying yes to leaving everything to come to New Castle, Indiana, that God has brought great joy to our lives because we obeyed His call, to include both Alana and Willow being born here. If obedience were easy, everyone would be doing it, so let’s learn from the transforming story of Abraham how we, too, can live lives of faith that trust God’s promises.

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

Hebrews 11:8-10 emphasizes Abraham’s faith. It was his faith in God that caused him to go to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance even though he did not know where he was going. It was faith in God that caused him to take his wife and all that he had to a place where he would be an alien in a foreign land. It took faith for Abraham to trust God and move to the Promised Land.

What is the land of promise for us today? While there is still the literal Promised Land, known as Israel, as a biblical principle it goes beyond the geographical land itself. It represents God’s grace at work in the world – His providential provision and divine protection for His people, both for this life and in the life to come. God’s grace is at work in and through His people to bring about a multigenerational eternal promise which has implications for you today! This is why we are learning how to grow strong in God’s grace, so that we can be the people of God – men and women who believe God for His promises!

The Bible makes it clear that the promises of God are dependent on only one thing: the blood line of faith! What started as the blood line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then David, was eternally sealed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28; Hebrews 9:11-28). Therefore, you are the people of the promise through the blood of Jesus Christ! The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:20-22:

For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

You are called to be a person of God’s promises! That requires faith, so let’s examine the work of God’s grace to plant the seeds of faith into our hearts and minds through the story of Abraham in Genesis. After a great military victory to rescue his nephew Lot, and having received a blessing from Melchizedek king of Salem (Jerusalem), Genesis 15:1-6 conclude with one of the most important statements made in the Bible, and it was first used about Abraham:

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. [emphasis added]

In two places, Paul quoted this statement, “[God] reckoned it to him as righteousness.” The first is in Romans 4, specifically verses 1-5 and 16-22:

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, … For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.

The second place Paul quotes this truth about Abraham’s life is in Galatians 3:6-9, 29:

Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. … And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Like Abraham, through God’s grace, you are called to be a person who believes God for His promises, and as a person of faith you become a son of Abraham – an heir according to the promise! Obedience flowed from God’s grace through Abraham to Jesus to you today! God made a way through faith – that is God’s grace at work through Jesus Christ! When your story is transformed by faith, through the power of God’s grace, then you will be a blessing to all the nations, just as God choose Abraham and Sarah to do. This is your birth rite as a Christian, as well as the harvest God has called you to reap. Jesus’s Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 is the work of fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

When you have a faith that trust God’s promises, you will answer the call upon your life to be like a hard-working farmer for God’s Harvest. In doing so, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will mature in Christ and bear the good fruit of the Spirit. Let’s now turn to Sarah’s story and learn from her the faith that bears fruit.  

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Gives Substance to your Life

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created. God has entrusted His creation to His people to work as His Harvest workers – “All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers!” Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by following the four-step strategy of a faith farmer: 1) cultivate people with faith; 2) sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds; 3) care for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants; and 4) reap a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ.

This strategy must be empowered by the Holy Spirit! Therefore, harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace. Let’s take the first step by walking through the Hall of Faith, learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1-2, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men [and women] of old gained approval.” Today’s passage from Hebrews 11:7 illustrates the life of faith with the third transforming story in the Hall of Faith, from which we are going to learn how to grow strong in God’s grace:

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Just like you and me, today, Noah was a real man, with real faith, in real history, and his story began with a faith that pleased God. Noah’s faith brought substance through things not yet seen! His story is told in Genesis 5:28-9:29. Listen to what Noah’s father prophesied over him at his birth in Genesis 5:29, “Now he called his name Noah, saying, ‘This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.’” Noah was born for such a time at this! In Genesis 6:5-8, after hearing that the Nephilim were upon the Earth at this time, we learn God’s verdict:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Today, we are going to learn what it was that gave Noah favor in God’s eyes. In those evil days, Noah had faith, and when God called upon him to act, Noah’s obedience put substance on his faith. Here’s the principle I want you to learn today: If your faith has no substance, it will not provide your life with sustenance!

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

We use words like faith, grace, and good works a lot in the church. One of my favorite passages that combines all three is from Ephesians 2:8-10:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

These words give your life value, meaning, and purpose, but what happens when those words become empty to you? What happens when the promises of God ring hollow in your heart and mind? Has faith become an empty word to you? Have good works become an exhausting tread mill of fleshly striving to you?

Allow me to illustrate with this empty jar: this empty jar is our cruise fund and I hope that if I put enough change into it, we will be able to go on a cruise. Let’s be honest, this empty jar has as much potential to get us on a cruise, as an empty word can lead us to live a life that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). The comparison is obviously not perfect, but I think you get the point: we use the word faith all the time, but the word must have substance to transform anything. As James said in James 2:26, “faith without works is dead.”  

Today, God is going to put some substance in our potentially empty jars through the story of Noah, the man of God, through whom God judged the world for sin, but preserved a righteous root through faith. Listen to God call Noah to substantiate his faith in Genesis 6:17-21:

Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.

Faith gives substance to that which is not yet visible! Noah responded to the Word of God in Genesis 6:22, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” In building the ark, God preserved humanity through Noah’s seed of faith – through his three sons and their wives, whom God commanded to be put on the ark with all the animals and birds of His beloved creation. God made a way through faith – that is God’s grace at work through a person of faith!

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

Whether it took Noah 55-75 years[1] or over a century to build the Ark, the reality is that Noah was called by God to build an ark at a time when God’s command would not have made sense to either Noah, anyone in his family, and definitely not anyone in his community.

What motivated Noah to persevere in the building of the ark? The answer is found in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household.” The key concept is “in reverence,” or as it is translated in the NIV, “holy fear,” in the ESV, “reverent fear,” and in the CSB, “godly fear.” Eugene Peterson described it this way in The Message, “His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world.”

The same Greek root word translated “reverence” is applied to Jesus in Hebrews 5:7-8, “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” [emphasis added] Jesus was heard by the Father because of “His piety” – His reverence or holy fear!

We must have the same “reverence” or “piety” if we want to be like Noah; if we want to be like Jesus; if we want to have the same kind of faith that would compel a man to be seen as crazy for his God in a world that does not accept faith as adequate reasoning for doing anything, nevertheless counter-cultural things. Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Is your life bearing the good fruit of faith? Jesus taught in Matthew 7:16-20:

“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Noah’s faith is proven true by the substance of the fruit of his obedience when the flood came in Genesis 7. The conclusion of the matter is found in Genesis 7:23, “Thus [God] blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.”

The proof was in the pudding! Noah’s faith was substantiated because for 55-75 years, Noah was ridiculed for acting upon the promise of God and nurturing the faith of his wife and three sons, and their wives. Noah and his family acted out their faith by building an ark, every day for 55-75 years (a lifetime of faith for us by today’s adult life spans), and through their faith God preserved the righteous root of humanity. That is why Hebrews 11:7 stated of Noah, he “became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

In the same way, God has planted a good seed of faith into your life so that you will mature into a life that bears fruit, testifying to who you are (a disciple) – a witness of God’s grace bestowed upon you by Jesus Christ. In the same way that Noah’s faith brought substance to the way of salvation, so can yours. That takes us to the last action step.

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

The life of growing strong in God’s grace leads to a harvest of praise! Jesus said in John 15:8, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” The author of Hebrews concluded that Noah became “an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” Noah’s life reaped a harvest of praise! Watch Noah’s first activity after he and his family got off the ark in Genesis 8:20-22:

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Noah’s life reaped a harvest a praise – He offered God a right sacrifice of praise! Then, in Genesis 9:1, 12-13 God restored onto Noah and his sons the Genesis Commission He had originally given Adam, and then God gave a sign of His covenant with humanity through Noah:

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” … God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.”

What next steps of faith will allow you to be like Noah – an heir of righteousness?

Noah’s transforming story teaches us to live with a reverence that seizes the moment.[2] The faith that brings substance to your life is your belief in an unchanging holy and sovereign God, which allows you to live by faith day by day, situation by situation, moment by moment. John described such belief in 1 John 5:4-5, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Hold up the empty jar: The first step to having substance in your faith is to know God and what He has already put inside of you – the victory of His faith through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit! Inside of you is the priceless treasure of God’s presence. God willingly and lovingly has put into your jar of clay the gift of eternal life through which you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, according to Ephesians 1:13-14:

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

When God Himself is the substance of your faith, your faith will give you the sustenance necessary to face your everyday life circumstances like Noah.

As you grow strong in God’s grace, you will embrace the Noah moments of your life and seize the moment. The pressure is not on you to perform or add substance to your own faith; this substance is the work of God in you – it is the sustenance of God’s grace at work in you through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit! 

Allow me to pray over you a disciple’s holy ambition, from the testimony of Paul in Philippians 3:7-11:

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Noah’s transforming story of faith strengthens our faith, gives us hope, and gives us the courage to tell a better story with our stories. To make visible that which is invisible – the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven! May we reap a harvest of praise as our stories are transformed through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Bodie Hodge, “How Long Did It Take for Noah to Build the Ark?” Answers in Genesis https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/how-long-did-it-take-for-noah-to-build-the-ark/ (Accessed April 28, 2023).

Grow Strong in God’s Grace: Learning How to be a Faithful Farmer for God’s Harvest!

The Faith that Pleases God

Hebrews 11:4-6 (NAS95)

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created and entrusted us to work in as His Harvest workers! All the world’s a field, and all the disciples of Jesus Christ merely farmers. Therefore, let’s be faithful farmers by cultivating people with faith, sowing the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds, caring for them as their stories are transformed into fruit-bearing plants, and reaping a harvest of praise as the church of Jesus Christ. This is the strategy of a faithful farmer for God’s harvest, powered by the Holy Spirit!

Harvest workers of God’s kingdom are called to grow strong in God’s grace by walking through these four steps of this strategy. Let’s take the first step by walking through the Hall of Faith, learning from the transforming stories of the Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11.

STEP #1 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1-2, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men [and women] of old gained approval.” Today’s passage from Hebrews 11:4-6 builds upon this definition, while illustrating it with the first two transforming stories from which we are going to learn how to grow strong in God’s grace:

By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Just like you and me, today, the “men [and women] of old” were real people – Abel and Enoch were real men, with real faith, in real history, and even their stories began with faith. But just like with them, we can’t remain at the starting point of our story, we must take the next step of faith. Faith is what made these men’s great; they are not great in and of themselves! The Bible never exalts men and women; rather, the Bible glorifies the God who uplifts men and women through the gift of faith to be used for His divine purposes. Today, you are invited to have faith like Abel and Enoch, so that you, too, can take the next steps in your faith life “to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is rewarder of those who seek Him.”

STEP #2 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

Faith gives substance to that which is not yet visible – the kingdom of Heaven on Earth! God’s grace at work in our lives sows the assurance that God can and will do that which God promises to do! Let’s see how that worked with Abel. Hebrews 11:4 teaches, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” I love this testimony: “Through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” Wow! Abel’s transforming story continues to proclaim the importance of offering God right sacrifices, as seen in Genesis 4:1-8:

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.” Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Both his life and testimony were cut short, literally, by his older brother Cain. Abel did nothing to deserve death. Cain became jealous because Abel’s offering was accepted by God, and his was not. From the beginning of the human saga, we see the curse of sin deeply rooted in the human condition, but we also find the seed of faith to choose a different path – God’s grace illuminates the way of faith that is counted to us as righteousness. Abel set apart the first fruits of his life for God and God accepted his sacrifice. We are called to be living sacrifices, as Paul urges us in Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

Abel’s story calls you to live differently – to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). While it appears that Abel was rewarded for his faith by being murdered, there is more to the story, much more! The story of those with faith lives on and continues to tell the better story of God, well beyond what appears to be the end of our stories here on earth. Just as Hebrews 12:1 communicates of these people from the Hall of Faith, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The same will be true for our lives, as we grow strong in God’s grace.

You are invited to be like Abel, a living sacrifice to God’s glory that allows your story to speak even when you feel like your story is being cut short by injury, injustice, heartache, hardship, disease, or death. When we sow with the good seed of God’s grace, then our stories tell a better story! Never forget that God loves to create something from nothing – trust Him to do so with your life. Faith gives substance to that which is not yet visible – the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. We will now turn to the third action step of a farmer’s strategy and learn from the transforming story of Enoch.

STEP #3 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

God has planted a good seed of faith into your life so that you will mature and bear fruit, testifying to what you are (a disciple) and to whom you belong – to be a witness of God’s grace bestowed upon you by Jesus Christ. When you first believe and put your trust in Jesus your life is forever changed because you are made new – born again as a new kind of plant because the good seed has been planted into your heart and mind. Paul expressed this in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20:

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

We are to mature into ambassadors for Christ! Our maturing faith causes us to become witnesses of God’s grace. Hebrews 11:5 teaches us the transforming story of Enoch, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.” The Enoch being referred to here is the one found in the generations leading up to Noah in Genesis 5:19-24 (as opposed to Cain’s son in Genesis 4:17):

Then Jared lived eight hundred years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

We learn more about Enoch from our New Testament passage than we do from the Genesis account. Genesis 5:24 stated with finality, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” That’s it! There are many traditions built round Enoch and multiple books written in his name, but no authoritative knowledge about him beyond this. We find only one historical parallel to Enoch’s story: the prophet Elijah in 2 Kings 2:11,“As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.” He went to be with the Lord without dying just like Enoch. While we don’t see Enoch again, Elijah had the honor of being chosen to stand next to Jesus in the Transfiguration, alongside of Moses (Matthew 17:1-9). That places Enoch in a very prestigious position of notoriety – Enoch is a witness to a life that pleases God, the life of faith.

Followers of Jesus Christ are given the promise to be like Enoch when Jesus raptures His church, to bring those who please Him home to Heaven without having to taste of death. This promise is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

You are invited to be like Enoch, a wholehearted person to God’s promises whose trust in God allows you to be a hope-bearer in a world that so desperately needs the grace of God. Choose faith, hope, and love – the currencies of Heaven – even when confronted with the evil in this world, including the ever-intimidating reality of death and dying. Never forget, that as an ambassador of Christ you are not a doomsdayer, but a hope-bearer!

STEP #4 OF THE FARMER’S STRATEGY: REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

The life of growing strong in God’s grace leads to a harvest of praise! Praise God for Jesus Christ who has defeated death and given us the promise of the resurrection and life. Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The author of Hebrews concluded about Abel and Enoch’s transforming stories, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” What next steps of faith will allow you to be like Enoch – a wholehearted person to God’s promises? What next steps in faith will allow you to be like Abel – a living sacrifice to God’s glory?

You can watch this video by clicking HERE.

The Transforming Power of Faith

Hebrews 1:1-3 (NAS95)

We have learned the strategy of a hard-working farmer. If the faithful farmer hopes to harvest a large crop yield, he must diligently work the following four steps:

If you can believe Genesis 1:1, everything else in the Bible is easy because it all points back to one word – Faith! This is exactly what the author of Hebrews is communicating to us: If you can believe there is a God that can speak all things into existence from nothing, then everything else that God does falls within His scope of power to do. In fact, nothing falls outside of God’s scope because “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” When God creates all things form no things, then nothing is outside of the boundaries of what God can do!

If God created all life, then why couldn’t God be able to impregnate the Virgin Mary with the good seed of the incarnate Word, or why couldn’t God raise Jesus from the dead after three days? In the same way that those are perfectly logical to assume of an all-powerful God, so is transforming our stories through the grace of God – God heals the sick! God gives sight to the blind! God casts out demons! God sets the captives free! God forgive sins! God reconciles broken marriages! God restores rebellious children to their parents! God bears good fruit in the lives of ordinary people!

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created and entrusted us to work as His Harvest workers! William Shakespeare famously wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,”[1] but I say to you, “All the world’s a field, and all the men and women merely farmers”! We are called to cultivate people with faith, sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds, care for them as the seed of faith takes root in their lives, and reap a harvest of praise through the church of Jesus Christ. As a harvest worker of God’s kingdom, every time you walk through this farmer’s strategy you will grow stronger in God’s grace, and help others do the same.

CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1-2 defines faith for us and its importance to our lives, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.” Why is this important to us as New Covenant believers? Ephesians 2:8-10 clearly explains:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Who cultivated your soil with faith, hope, and love? Whose soil are you cultivating?

SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

When did you first “experience” faith?

Faith is a resolute conviction, a wholehearted trust, that God can and will do that which God promised – “It is done” in Jesus’ name!

God loves to make something out of nothing! He enjoys this so much that God anticipates, looks forward to, doing it in and through us! When we tell the stories of our something, that which we have done by our best efforts, the only one who gets glory for that is us, but when we tell the stories of how God took our nothing and made it into something, then that brings glory to God and amplifies the quality of the good seed of faith! That proclaims the Gospel! We see this in Ephesians 2:4-7

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Faith gives substance to that which is not yet visible – the kingdom of Heaven on Earth! God’s grace at work in our lives proclaims (SOWS!) the assurance that God can and will do that which God promises to do!

When does the Gospel start working its transforming power? When you first believed and put your trust in Jesus Christ; that is the efficacy (power) of the good seed of faith! Paul expressed this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The new has come, a new life of faith has been formed, now we move to the second step of the farmer’s strategy.

CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

Where are you experiencing transformation through the renewal of your mind? Paul taught in Romans 12:1-3 that once we have become new in Christ, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must respond:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

God has planted a good seed of faith into your life, now you are to grow strong in God’s grace. The gospel changes things: it transforms the landscape of hearts, minds, souls, lifestyles, and relationships… It transforms your story to point to the best story ever told – the gospel!

Next week, we will start learning from the stories of the great people of faith who are named starting in the very next verse of Hebrews 11 – “By faith Abel…” (4). We will learn that our names can be mentioned alongside their names. We must begin to realize that each of our stories has the power to glorify God, proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, and manifest the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our midst! That is what Paul called us to in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, in response to becoming a new creation through the good seed of faith:

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

This is God’s grace at work in each of our lives! As an ambassador of Christ, you no longer represent yourself. Through your reconciliation with God, your life now bears the good fruit of the Spirit for people to taste and see that the Lord is good! That takes us to the last step to realize that every transforming story is intended to bring God glory. We exist to reap a harvest of praise!

REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

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