BELIEVE: WHEN ALL IS NOT WELL

(HEBREWS 11)
 

Some of you have not had easy lives. Some of you have it rough
right now. There are bad weeks and hectic days for each of us.

I want to share with you a story of a man who had a bad day--

"When I got to the building, I found that the hurricane had
knocked off some bricks around the top, so I rigged up a beam
with a pulley at the top of the building, and hoisted a couple
of barrels full of bricks. When I had fixed the damaged area,
there were a lot of bricks left over. So then I went to the
bottom and began releasing the line. Unfortunately, the barrel
of bricks was much heavier than I was, and before I knew what
was happening, the barrel started coming down, jerking me up. I
decided to hang on, since I was too far off the ground by then
to jump, and half- way up I met the barrel of bricks coming down
fast. I received a hard blow on my shoulder. I then continued to
the top, banging my head against the beam, and getting my
fingers pinched in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground
hard, it burst allowing the bricks to spill out. I was now
heavier than the barrel. So I started down at high speed,
half-way down, I met the barrel, coming up fast. And received
severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground, I landed on
the pile of spilled bricks, getting several painful cuts and
deep bruises. At this point, I must have lost my presence of
mind, because I let go of my grip on the line, the barrel came
down--fast--giving me another blow on my head, and putting me in
the hospital. I respectfully request sick leave."

Christians have bad days as well, don't we? We go through
struggles and frustrations--we are confronted with problems and
sufferings. There are times when questions perplex us and
answers are difficult to find.

There are some today who teach that if you are sincere enough or
faithful enough or diligent enough, then somehow hardships and
difficulties won't come. There are popular ministers, especially
on TV, who would have people think that Christians wear some
impregnable or invulnerable armor--that life is to be one big
emotional high--that if trouble come and lingers, then you
haven't prayed the right prayer or claimed the appropriate
promise.

The fact of the matter is, Christians receive the blunt of a
sinful world like everybody else. In fact, they may be the
object of greater trouble (by intensity or number) because of
Satan's harassment.

But Christians have an edge, an advantage, because they live by
faith (Heb. 10:38). "The just shall live by faith."

THE PEOPLE OF GOD HAVE CONFIDENCE IN GOD, not only because of
what is happening, but sometimes despite what is happening. They
are loyal to God not only when things go right, but also when
things go wrong.

They live by faith not because they have no doubt, but they
believe and obey God in spite of any doubt.

The Bible gives many examples of individuals who lived godly
lives having to put up with tremendous heartache or apparently
insurmountable hardship.

I. THE CHRISTIAN LIVES BY FAITH WHEN GOD SEEMS SILENT

Almost automatically we think of Job in the Old Testament. Here
was a man who lost his cattle, buildings, and nearly all his
material possessions--he lost his servants, his children, and
was severely criticized by wife and friends.

Job asked "why" over and over again. "Why did I not die at
birth? Why do I labor in vain? Why have you set me as a target?
Why do I labor in vain? Why do You hide Your face, And regard me
as Your enemy?"  And he never got an answer.

That was the one thing that bothered him the most--one thing
that tore him up inside--one thing that got to him more than any
other. It was that for a time God seemed to hide His face--that
God had turned His ear--that all Job's prayers bounced off the
ceiling and came back to hit him on the face.

Job was frustrated. He said, "If only I could find Him and
explain my case before Him." Have you ever felt that way?

But there was silence--a time of testing--a merciful God gives
time for Job. It was a time when Job had to search for answers
alone. And he concluded, "Though He slay me yet will I trust
Him."

There are times when all seems to be going well--when you're
following God's guiding truth and He seems to be blessing you
greatly--all the pieces of life's jigsaw are fitting together so
nicely--then the picture changes-- circumstances take you down
unexpected paths or hostile territory.

Like the quip so commonly seen on posters around schools, "Just
when I thought I knew all the answers, they changed all the
questions!"

All at once you can't understand "Why?" Have there been times
for you when you can't understand God's leading or involvement
in your life? Times when you've searched desperately for answers
and found none?

Maybe there have been times when He seemed to do the opposite of
what you knew or thought you knew to be the best.

James Dobson tells the story of a man who is driving a truck on
a mountain road. He is up near the top, and he is going too
fast. Losing control of the truck, it goes over the side of the
mountain and bounces all the way down and lands at the bottom,
and burst's into flames. But he is thrown out at the top of the
mountain, and manages to grab hold of a limb just as the truck
is going over.

He's hanging on to this limb, and can't get up or down, and the
truck is way down below. His back's hurting, and his arms are
hurting, and he can't make any move in either direction.

Finally, out of desperation, he calls out above and says, "Is
anybody there?" And in a few minutes, the voice of the Lord
comes back and says, "Yes, I'm here. What do you want me to do
for you?"

"Will you save me?"

The Voice comes back and says, "Yes, I will save you. What I
want you to do is just let go of the branch. Let go and trust Me
to catch you."

The man looks over his shoulder at the truck at the bottom of
the mountain, and looks back over the precipice, and says, "Is
anybody else there?"

Have there been any times when God seems to require too
much--times when you have difficulty making sense out of a
situation? Have you always understood why things happen? Are
there Bible teachings that seem awkward for you? Are there any
perplexing questions for which you have not yet found answers?
What do you do?

You can go to a theological potluck for a well-balanced
nutritious meal and find no answers--or you can go an over eat
to the point of spiritual indigestion and find no answers. You
can eat only what you brought knowing you like it and fearing to
taste anything new or different and find no answers. You can
pick around at everything to the point of exhaustion, and you
can skip desserts wanting all theory and no emotion--you can
select your favorite vegetable from the salad and pieces of
fruit from the fruit bowl, or you can skip the meal
altogether--still, you may find no answers.

What are you to do? If you are a thinking person, honest within
yourself--then you realize that you've had serious questions,
the answers to which sometimes are slow in coming.

We'll get back to that thought. First, I want you to turn with
me to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. And here is listed some
of the great people of faith:-Abel offers sacrifice, and God
accepts it.-Enoch lives a holy life, and God translates
him.-Noah builds an ark, and God saves his family.-Abraham
leaves Ur of the Chaldeas, and God leads him to the Promised
land.-Sarah believes and God works a miracle and she
conceives.-Moses chooses to suffer with Israel rather than sit
on the throne of Egypt, and God equips him to oversee the
Exodus.-Israel steps into the Red Sea, and God parts the
water.-They march around Jericho, and God shatters the city
walls.-Rahab shelters the spies, and God saves her life.

Then reading verse 32 onward to verse 35.

Heb 11:32 "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me
to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of
David and Samuel and the prophets:"

33 "who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,"

34 "quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in
battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."

35 "Women received their dead raised to life again. And others
were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain
a better resurrection."

These received not the promise--they did not experience
deliverance. They let go of the branch but God didn't catch
them. Was it because they didn't have enough faith? Was it
because they hadn't claimed he right promise?

NO! You can almost hear them say, "And He shall give His angels
charge over thee" as flames licked the flesh off their bodies.

The issue is not whether or not God could or would catch them,
but whether or not they would believe. The Lord wants people who
realize that the branches or our talents and abilities, the
branches of wealth and possessions, the branches of intellect
and presuppositions, can only hold us so long.

The Lord wants us to realize that He is the only One who can
help us. He wants people who are willing to let go of
everything, knowing full well of the possibility that He may not
be there like they thought.

These people realize that some promises supersede other
promises. They know that heaven is their eternal home--they are
sure that Jesus will one day give them an incorruptible
crown--that all things work together for good--and that the
sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to the
glory God shall reveal in us.

These people can resolutely say with the three Hebrews as they
felt the heat of the fiery furnace, "Our God whom we serve is
able to deliver us out of thine hand, O King, But if not, be it
known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image" (Dan. 3:17,18). We will not bow to
unbelief.

II. THE CHRISTIAN LIVES BY FAITH WHEN GOD SEEMS UNFEELING

Moses had dreamed of entering the Promised land for more than 80
years. There were the 40 years of loneliness and isolation while
herding sheep, during which the thought of the promised land
brightened the barrenness like a mirage come true. Then came 40
years of stress as he worked with complaints and problems of
wandering Israel--the Promised Land made it bearable to Moses.

What agony and disappointment he must have felt when told that
he couldn't cross over the Jordan and enter Caanan. Can you
imagine the questions of fairness and justice, of grace and
forgiveness that Moses could've asked? However, Moses had by now
learned, in the words of the song, "Let go and let Jesus have
His marvelous way." And the Lord took Moses to the Great
Promised Land of Heaven as the first fruit of the resurrection.

III. THE CHRISTIAN LIVES BY FAITH WHEN GOD SEEMS ALMOST TO
CONTRADICT HIMSELF

I think of Abraham. One evening He's gazing up at the nighttime
sky and God, as it were, says, "Abraham, do you see all those
stars? Someday your descendants will be as numerous, like the
sands of the sea. I'm going to give you many generations, and
kings will be born among them."

I don't know what went on in Abraham's mind. He probably
experienced a great surge of joy at the thought. But the years
began to go by and he doesn't yet have his first child.
Confusion and questions gnaw at him. How many years go by, we
don't know--five, ten, twenty, thirty? And apparently God
doesn't talk about the promise anymore- -there's no record of
it--heaven is silent.

Abraham hits fifty and Sarah forty--then sixty and Sarah
fifty--then decades pass and Abraham is 100 and Sarah 90. And it
happens. A miracle child is born--it was worth the wait.

For years everything is wonderful. Then one day God, without
warning or time for preparation says, "Abraham."

"Behold, here I am."

And God says, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou
lovest.and offer him for a burnt offering." (Gen. 22: 1,2)

Can you imagine the questions that come to Abraham's mind?
Isaac? The one in whom the promises of the future rest? The
child of promise? How would God fulfill His word? Didn't God
command not to kill? Was it God's voice for sure?

Yet we know from Gen. 22 that every action and word of Abraham
is saturated with faith. When Isaac asks a question about the
sacrifice, Abraham answers, "The Lord will provide."

It didn't make sense to Abraham--he couldn't figure it out--he
had no answer. Yet we see father and son embrace. We hear them
talk as the hands of Isaac are tied. Tenderly Isaac is helped
onto the altar. The glistening knife is lifted to plunge, but
no, an angel holds the slayer's hand. Abraham had let go of the
branch. "Abraham believed God" (James 2:23).

God was teaching Abraham--that the future didn't depend on Isaac
at all--it depended on God. And God is telling us that the
future doesn't depend on us--it doesn't depend on our job--it
doesn't depend on our finances--it doesn't depend on our family
(all of which are important). The future depends on God. And
even when it doesn't make any sense, God is with you!

If it seems ever that God is silent, you, like Job, can still
say in faith: "Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him." If it
ever seems to you that God is unfeeling, you can, like Moses
walk to your grave in confidence of the Great Promised Land. If
ever it seems to you that God almost contradicts Himself, or
asks you to make a sacrifice, you can believe, like Abraham,
that "The Lord will provide."

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen." It is the assurance and
conviction of the unseen. It sees the unseeable--touches the
untouchable--hears the sound of silence. And it keeps doing all
these things--it perseveres to the end.

Heb 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us,"

2 "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God."

Where are you in your belief today? We are presented with
situations that are hard to impossible by human standards. Are
we going to believe.

Can we say with the father of the boy who had the unclean
spirit, 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and
said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

If that is your prayer today, please raise you hand right now.

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