Hebrews: Hall of Faith

And, if you'd like to grab a Bible and turn with me to Genesis chapter 22, And as well as Genesis 22, you'll need to get Hebrews 11 up as well. So Genesis chapter 22, and we're reading the first 14 verses. Sometime later, god tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied, then god said, take your son, your only son whom you love.

Isaac, and go to the region of Mariah. Sacrifice him there as a bird's offering on a mountain that I will show you. Early the next morning, Abraham got off and loaded his donkey. He took with him 2 of his servants and his son, Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the bird's offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the bird's offering and placed it on his son, Isaac, and he himself carried the fire in the knife. As the 2 of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham.

Father, yes, my son. Abraham replied, The fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the bird's offering? Abraham answered God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son. And the 2 of them went on together. When they reached the place god had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.

He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the woods. Then he reached out his hands and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the lord called out to him from heaven. Abraham Abraham. Here I am.

He replied, do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me, your son, your only son. Abraham looked up and there in a thicket, he saw a ram caught by its thorns. He went over and took the the ram and sacrificed it as a bird's offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called that place the lord will provide And to this day, it is said, on the mountain of the lord, it will be provided. And then Hebrews 11 verse 17 to 19. By faith Abraham, when god tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his 1 and only son Even though god had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that god could even raise the dead.

And so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the death. Pete. Well, good morning. My name's Pete Woodcock, and, if you're visiting, it's lovely love you to have you with us. I'm 1 of the elders and ministers at the church.

Let's just pray. Father, this is your word we're looking at. It's not some, little helpful spiritual thoughts. But it is the very word of god, and we know that very word of god, creates in us faith. And we ask you please that today, your spirit would take your word and do just that.

In Jesus' name, our man. Now we sing a song. It's quite a popular song, among amongst us called blessed be your name. You know that song? Bless be your name.

And it's a good song. It's it's it's it's good tune. It's It's a very, you know, biblical words. It's very it's very good. But I always feel a little uneasy singing it, and I know a lot of other people do.

Because it's a really quite a rousing tune. And, particularly when it comes to the refrain, you'll, you'll know what I mean, I think. Talking about god, god, you give and take away. You give and take away My heart will choose to say, lord, blessed be your name. It's it's a little difficult singing that.

With with reality, isn't it? And I think that is the problem. My heart doesn't always choose to say blessed be your name, particularly particularly if he's gonna take anything away that I like. It's quite hard singing that song, isn't it? It's alright when the lord's given and given.

But when he's gonna take away, I think it is quite hard. Now the song as we know is based on the experience of Job in the Bible. Who was given everything, by god, and then lost everything. He lost his health, his wealth, his family, his friends, his reputation were all taken away. And in that experience, he says those words, the lord gave, and the lord takes away.

And it actually If we're honest, and if we're thinking correctly, that will be our experience. The lord has given us everything we have, all of life and everything in life. The lord has given it. And of course, 1 day, when you die, he would take everything away. I mean, he's the lord.

He can do that. Now, we sort of know that but we often expect it to sort of come in a certain set way, a sort of certain period and a certain time frame that god would take things away. When things are taken away too early, that's when we start questioning, hey, what's going on? You give. You take away.

You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, lord, blessed be your name. How How are we genuinely to come to a point where we can say bless you god. Praise your name god. In any circumstances and all circumstances.

How how do we get to the place where our hearts or our emotion will choose to say bless the lord bless the lord when he's actually taken things away. How do we get to that position? Yeah? How do we how does that become real in us? Are not simply a sort of religious sentiment that we sort of say or sing in in church together.

You give. Thank you lord. You give Thank you, lord. Praise his name. You give.

I just wanna praise you, lord. It's what I needed. It's what I wanted. Praise the lord. You take away.

Why lord? Why? Why me? What have I done? Do you love me?

Why at this time? What's going on? Now, of course, sometimes it's the other way around. Sometimes the law doesn't take away something that we wanted to take away. That's what happened to the Paul, if you read the scriptures.

He had this thing that he called a thorn in the flesh that was troubling him greatly some kind of illness. A lot of people think it was a a serious eye problem that he had that was painful and uh-uh sort of stopped him from seeing clearly. And he prayed 3 times, lord, take it away. Take it away. Take it away.

You give and take away. Take it away. This. And the lord said, no. The lord said, my grace is sufficient for you.

My power is made perfect in weakness. Paul, you're going to show my power by your weakness, by the thorn in the flesh You will prove to the world I'm a powerful god because it will make you rely on me. So we've got to understand the big plan of god for us, haven't we? God is about making us like his precious son. That's what god is about.

He's about making us like the lord Jesus Christ. And unless you're perfectly like the lord Jesus Christ, it's gonna take some sort of molding and honing and refining, isn't it? I mean, how like the lord Jesus Christ are you? So it's gonna take some, you know, cutting and shaping. And if we're to remain in Christ as Jesus says, who is the great vine then then the father will trim us and prune us hard so that we grow fruit.

God's objective for you is for you to be the best you you can be, which is to be you like a son of god. But that molding and that refining and that cutting and shaping and trimming and pruning, it hurts. It's painful, but he's taking us through that to make us more like Jesus. Now, we've seen, in this, in this Hebrew's letter, I've been going through Hebrew's chapter 11. And we've seen that the writer of Hebrews is is is is a this is a beautifully crafted sermon by a pastor who cares for his his flock for his for his people and he's encouraging them in in in the face of hostility.

Their property is being taken away. Their reputation is being taken away. They are physically being persecuted and he's encouraging in their them in their faith. And they're tempted to shrink back. He knows that, and he said that to them.

They're tempted to give up. They're tempted say where is god when he takes away my property again. They're tempted to do that and so the writer wants to inspire them with people from history that have faced the same trials that they have faced. Last week, we started to look at the first part of, Abraham, and the life and story of Abraham. Abraham's called the father of faith or the father of those who believe.

And we saw last week in the first sort of part of of his story that he was not gonna settle on this earth. He's gonna get that right. This world isn't the world that you're on about. This isn't the we don't start marching around, save the world. This world will go Don't waste your time on trying to save this world.

Put all your energy in looking to another world. This is temporary. There's a world coming that will be not temporary. And even the land that Abraham was promised by god in this world was only a picture of a more substantial world to come. Look at verses 8 to 10 of, Hebrews 11.

By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Listen, by faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. So this was the promised land on earth, but he wasn't gonna treat it as his home. He lived in tents as his eyes and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is god. So that's the first part of Abraham's faith.

This world is temporary Even the promised things god gives us, the good things god gives us in this world, a temporary they'll be taken away because they're only a picture of the true world to come. Now, what is interesting in the book of Genesis is that the story before Abraham is the story about people that say I'm going to build in this world. It's the story of of the the tower of babel. I'm gonna make a name for myself in this world. I'm gonna establish foundations in this world.

So you've got these 2 2 buildings, if you like, these 2 worlds, the the the great theologian, Augustus, back in the fourth fifth century, he he spent 13 years writing 1 of his most influential books and 1 of the most influential books in the world called the city of god. And what he said is that there are 2 cities, the tale of 2 cities. The Bible is the tale of 2 cities. The city of man built in this world, like the tower of Babel, where men are trying to make a name for themselves in this world where they're establishing themselves in this world and then the tale of the city of that world, god's world, god's city. That god creates that's bigger than this world, grander than this world, more stable than this world, where there is no sin or death or violence.

It's amazing, and he says these 2 cities. Well, Abraham had come out from the city of. I think it's a an amazing title, isn't it? Yeah? Where are you from?

Yeah, that's right. You know, it's 1 of those questions, isn't it? That you would get. You hope you get. Where did Abraham come from?

Correct. Anyway, he comes from the city of which is the chaldeans, which is Babylon. And Babylon throughout the Bible is seen as the city of man that in the end, the last book of Babylon, it's grand, and it stands for the whole world, but it collapses into a funeral. And the city of god that lasts forever parades into a wedding. Tell the differences.

And Abraham's come from 1, and he's living in this world and he lives for the city of god where the wedding will be, where it goes on forever. That's his first big point of faith. Now we come to this very well known story in the life of Abraham. He's offering his son, Isaac, to god. Isaac, the son that god had promised Abraham, the miraculous son of Sarah and Abraham.

After years and years and years and years. Sarah was 90. He was a hundred. Just to make it a little bit more awkward. God said, I want you to circumcise yourself, Abraham.

Abraham is a hundred year old circumcised man creeping up on his wife who's 90, and they're gonna have a baby together. It's the it's a miraculous birth. But Abraham in this story, comes to the place where he could say the lord gave me a son and the lord wants me to give him back. You give and take away. So what I hope that this story does for us this morning, and my prayer is this, for those that are wondering what god's doing in our lives, For those that have things that seem to be taken away, I hope we see what's going on here.

And that this story helps because it looks like god's taking away the promise, but he's not. So let's get into the story. Here's my first point the test, tested, tested. It's very important we get this right. Look at verse 17.

By faith Abraham when god tested him. Now, the idea of testing is sort of commonplace, isn't it? In every area of life, if you think about it. Everything needs to be tested. If it's not, it's gonna be dangerous.

Yeah? Even in the area of sports, you you hear people say they haven't been tested until they play this team. Yeah? And and the testing sort of shows the measure of the team. Yep.

They upped their game, or in exams, which are nasty things to mention. We're tested. We think we know a lot of maths. You go into the exam, and you come out of the exam and realize you didn't know anything. What on earth was number 2 about?

No idea. Yeah? Or fire extinguishers. They're tested. That's good, isn't it?

You know, Tamara Fire extinguisher isn't tested and you run to it and there's a fire and it doesn't work, you say, oh, didn't test this? Yeah. We had a fire extinguisher at the hub, and, I shouldn't say this. We're saying thorough good. Sorry.

Sorry, Anne. We had a fire extinguisher at the which was about a hundred years older than you. I think it goes back to Abraham. And, And the bloke came. He says I've been doing fire extinguishes all my life.

I've never seen 1 that old in my life. And, we said, oh, can we let it off? He said, yeah, let's go into the car park. And it worked. It worked.

You know, we tested it. And then that was the end of it. But anyway, they need testing. Bridges need testing. Water needs testing.

Temms water needs testing. Yeah. Structures, need testing. So testing is always a good thing because you test to find out where the weaknesses are so that you can do something about the weaknesses. You don't just test to expose you test to expose to find out the weaknesses so you can do something about them.

Now personally, when it comes to personal testing, that's harder, isn't it? Because it shows us up, but it's quite important. Jesus told told a story about 2 houses. 1 built with a foundation on a rock, 1 built with its foundation on the sand. It had no foundation.

It was built on the sand, and they were both perhaps very beautiful houses. But when the test came, when the storm came, the house that had no foundation fell down. It was tested. It fell down. And when the storm came to the house, well, it stood the storm and and and was battered by the storm, but it stood.

So look at verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when god tested him. We don't really know our faith in god until it's test it. And it's important it is tested to make sure we have faith in god. So don't be surprised If you're going through a moment where your faith is being tested, don't be surprised.

Testing faith, the writer of Hebrews is telling us, It has a long history for those who follow the lord. A long history. And this is father Abraham This is the father of faith. This is the father of faith having his faith tested to make sure he's the father of faith. Tests reveal how genuine our faith is.

And Abe Abraham, in this case, passed the test. But if you read his life, he had other cases that he failed the test seems to me. For some reason, and will you really tune in here? Because this is important because, unfortunately, there's false teaching all over the place on this. For some reason, we have the idea that faith is never tested.

For some reason, we think that faith in Jesus means that I'm immune to to difficulties in life. I have an immunity pass. Difficulties come, faith in Jesus, difficulties go. Hold up the pass. Yeah.

It's like a shield. The faith comes, the the the pressure comes. I just hold up the shield of faith and there is no difficulties in my life. They just shoe away. If you had enough faith, you would be immune to the difficulties of life.

People tell us. You'd be able to ride over the difficulties without worries or without pain. You won't have any worries. If you have enough faith, you won't have any worries about health or wealth or prosperity. Yeah?

In fact, the reason you are worried and the reason why you've got anxiety and the reason why you have challenges in your life in the first place is because you do not have faith. If you had faith, life would be a breeze. That is not remotely Christian. It's not remotely Christian. And when you hear the big preachers saying that stuff, it only shows they are not Christian.

They don't have the first understanding of what it is to follow Christ. It's prosperity gospel and it's a lie. Scripture never says that faith gives us a a pass to escape difficulties of life. It is faith that enables us to endure difficulties. It is the strength to stand when the storm is hitting the house.

It might mean that the windows are broken and the roof tiles come off, but you stand the storm you may be hurt more than the house that completely collapses because you go to the end of the storm standing It's the same battering and maybe more that you Christian will have. So get this faith is tested. If a storm is hitting you now, and you're genuinely not sure what's happening. It's not that you have no faith. It's that your faith is being tested.

That is such an important thing to get. Such an important thing. So Faith brings testing not immunity to life troubles, to life's troubles. That's my first point. Testing.

Here's my second point. What about the promise here? What about the promise here? What's the nature of the test? That Abraham has.

Well, look at verse 17 and 18. By faith, when god tested him, sorry, Abraham by faith, Abraham, when god tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his 1 and only son. Even though god had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offsprings will be reckoned. Now I think the trouble is then I'll have to deal with this because so what I've already said here is this that Abraham's faith is tested in this way.

The lord gave me a son and the lord's gonna take him away. That's that's that's what's the test is going on here. But I wanna say this because immediately, when we read that, I don't know what you think. When we read this story, it sounds like a monstrous act of immorality. Child sacrifice.

Yeah? Doesn't it? And people like Richard Dorkings, the atheist, they pick on this and say, your god of the Bible is a god of love. Look at this story. He's monstrously immoral.

That's what they say. The problem with that is that child sacrifice didn't happen. But it actually didn't happen. Abraham, let's get this, lived in a time where child sacrifice pleased some of the pagan false gods that were around, not the god of the Bible. In fact, the god of the Bible gives a law in deuteronomy, 18 that says, let no 1 be found among you who sacrifices their son and daughter in the fire.

Don't let anyone sacrifice their son. Now I know that law comes later, but that's the heart of god, and it's the same god that's talking to Abraham here. So how would the world come to see that Abraham was devoted to his god and as much devoted to his god as the child sacrificing pagans are devoted to their god. How would the world see that Abraham is as much devoted to his god as the child sacrificing pagans are devoted to their god. And how does god show the world that he doesn't want child sacrifice from anyone, but he's the god who provides the sacrifice himself.

How does he do that? What by this story? That's how? Abraham is the as devoted to god as any pagan to their false god, The real god says I don't want human sacrifice and stops it. He's different from every other god.

He himself provides the sacrifice and of course as we'll see later on that this whole story points to the god that gives his own son The story has gone around the world. Around the world, Jews celebrate this story, Muslim celebrate this story, Christian celebrate this story. And what does it tell us? That Abraham was devoted to his god as any other person, that god does not want child sacrifice. He it, that god provides and that god can resurrect the dead.

The test, you see, to Abraham actually reveals god to the world. Do you see that? The tests we go through reveal the kind of god we believe in. But look at verse 19. Abraham of chapter 11 of Hebrews.

Abraham reasoned that god could even raise the dead. And so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead. So Abraham was absolutely convinced that that Isaac would live because God had promised that. And then if you read Genesis chapter 22, and I'm sure you saw it that Abraham and Isaac say to the servant, you stay here. We're going to do the sacrifice and Abraham says, we will be back we.

Who's the we? Well, it's Abraham and, and an Isaac. We will return And then just another thing just to help us. This isn't a little child. We've got whenever you see the pictures of this, it's always like a 4 year old or something like that.

Isazuk most traditions believe he was probably 25. So Isaac was a believer in in god providing and resurrection because when he was bound and was gonna be put on the sacrifice, He must have believed that god would provide and resurrection happened. So with all that in mind, Let's get back to the nature of this test, the nature because it helps us when we're being tested. Isaac is the promised 1 of god, and it looks now as they're marching up the hill that god is going to fail his promise. He's a promise 1 of god.

How could you kill Isaac? He's the 1 that going to, make you Abraham have children as much as sand on the seashore as stars in the in the night sky. And now you're asking to kill him. How does that work? When Abraham obeyed god, when he left, he simply gave up his past.

For Abraham to be summoned to Mount Mariah to live to deliver up his only son, he's surrendering his future. And actually he's surrendering his presence because he loves his son. So this isn't an automatic belief system going on here, This hurts. God wants you to give your past and your present and your future into his hands. It's the safest place.

For your past, your present and your future. At the heart of whatever trial you're going through is this question, is god true to his promise? And that's what's going on here. Sometimes, let's be honest, life just doesn't make sense. Your faith is being tested.

How could this possibly do me good? Your faith is being tested. How could the church benefit from this the church's faith is being tested. What why would god allow this to happen if he wanted the gospel into all the world? Our faith is being tested.

How could this possibly help with the promises of god in my life at this moment. Your faith is being tested. In the midst of the taking away, it seems that god is going against being my father. Your faith is being tested. Is God good?

Is he even there? Does he answer my prayers? How can this be happening? Is he punishing me? Your faith is being tested.

He wants your past, your present, and your future, and he'll test you until you give them him. Now it's at this point, we go to my third point because it's here, faith needs to reason. That's my third point. Faith reasons. Look at verse 19.

Abraham, what? Abraham what? Abraham reasoned. Faith and reason go together and not opposites. Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.

And so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead. So Abraham's reasoning according to the character of the god he believes in. And that's what we need to do in a storm. We need to step back as it were. We need to take a breath, and we need to reason what is the god I believe in.

Abraham believed god despite the confusing circumstances that were going on. Yeah? Despite the pain, despite the trial. I mean, it must have been for Abraham, 1 step of doubt as he stepped along. Going up Mount Mariah.

And 1 step of faith, mustn't it? It must be pretty hard. Your son that you've waited for for years who's a miracle son. Yeah? And you're going to take and sacrifice him I mean, 1 step of doubt, 1 step of reason.

And that's what Abraham's doing. This isn't blind faith. This isn't leap into the dark stuff He's reasoning. He's churning over. Who is god?

Do I believe in god? Only god can provide, can't he? Isn't god the god of revelation? You can imagine him walking 1 step at a time. Life.

Yes. I believe that god is is the lord of life. Death, but he's the lord of death. He could resurrect the dead, life, and he's sort of marching along, taken up with this sort of stuff. And the whole test is pushing Abraham into what god do I believe in.

Do I believe that he keeps his promises? Yes. I do. Do I believe that he provides the sacrifice? I don't know how, but yes, I do.

Do I believe that there is resurrection from the dead? And this world is not all that there is? Yes, I believe that. He's reasoning, and he's reasoning, is it pushing him through the circumstances, is pushing him through the tears, pushing him through the real pain of giving his son a, pushing him through his love for his son. He's reasoning through This is the god I believe in.

And you get that in verse 13 as well. You see Abraham and these people of faith, this is exactly what they do. Go verse 13. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised.

They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance admitting that they were for us foreigners and strangers in the earth. Now just think about that. I hope this isn't too complicated, but They're living by faith right up to their death, and it says they didn't get what was promised. Now what does that mean? Because Noah did get a flood.

Abraham did get a son, Sarah got a son. The patriarchs got the land. So what it what's it mean? They didn't get what was promised. Well, what it means is the promises of things in this world they received They're only little tiny glimpses of the real promise to come.

In other words, they believed in resurrection. They believe that everything good in this world is only temporary and is only a picture of the better that is to come. The father's given you this good thing to remind you that there's a better good thing. This is temporary. Don't hold on to that.

Let go of that. Even let god take that away because the promise And then look at verses 39 to 40. I I hope this isn't too much, but it's just it's it's bloom ahead off. Look at it. These were commanded, commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, yeah, since god had planned something better for us so that only together with us, they would be made perfect.

They were always looking for better. Isaac was his promised son but there's a bigger promised son to come. There's something more glorious to come. The promised land was the promised land, but it was nothing compared to the promised land. But the amazing thing is, I don't know where this blows you away, that Abraham's gonna get the promise, and so is Isaac and Jacob, but all those people on the same day that I get it.

Isn't that amazing? It's not that I walk into the promise that Abraham says, I've been here. Thousands of years, you know. We get it. We're running at this Abraham.

We're getting the promise. Hi, Abraham. I'm getting it at the same time as you. And that's the vision they had. It's the vision of resurrection.

It's the vision of a new city of god. It's the red It's the vision of the lord Jesus Christ coming and bringing the the house, the palace that he's been preparing since he rose again. That's the 1 coming. The return of Christ There will be no death in that place. There will be no crying in that place.

There'll be no sin. There'll be no bad things. No graveyard. Only resurrection people. You and Abraham.

So Abraham believed in god who provides even when it looked weird and in the god of resurrection. Which leads me to my fourth point, and it's my last 1. What do you do When your faith has been tested and you're found wanting, What do you do? You failed the test. What do you do when you're being tested and you failed.

You blew it. What do you do? This story helps us. This story helps us. Mount Mariah where Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed is the very hill that Jerusalem's built on.

Is the very hill that the temple is built on. It's from that very place that Jesus was cast out and went to another hill nearby and died on a cross. When you read this story, if you know the Bible, you can't help but thinking of another father who did take his son up this other mountain. And in partnership of love, god the father in his holy love gave his 1 and only son, the lord Jesus Christ, lord of heaven and earth. It reminds you of that, this story.

If he doesn't, then you hardly know the Bible. That is the lord's provision for you. That is what the lord provides, the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world. That's his provision for you. God so loved the world that he gave.

He gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus was taken up the hill. And Jesus was tested and what quality was his faith. You failed, but hold it. Keep your eyes off you for a moment.

What quality of his faith? On the cross, where every injustice boasts about beating him. Every injustice. We won. You the righteous 1 are there amongst criminals.

Where the promised 1 of god, the promised son of god, is mocked and spat on and laughed at and joked about and nails through his hands The 1 who when he walked this earth touched and healed people in their pain has his hands now nailed firmly on the wood firmer than Isaac's bindings. The quality of his faith is put on view every test, every trial, not my will, but yours be done, he says. For the joys set before him. He endured the cross. He endured it.

It is pain. His faith didn't stop him going through the pain. For the joy set before him. He's looking beyond to the city and a family he's gonna introduce into the city. He's gonna populate that city with people that he's saved, that he's loved, that he's come down for, and sacrificed himself for.

He's going to bring them to the father and present you to the father, sons, brothers and sisters of Jesus. He's gonna present you for the joy set before him. He endured the cross What does the cross reveal about Jesus? He's beautiful. The goodness, stability, faithfulness, integrity, commitment character of the son of god.

This is no fraud. He has faith. That this horrific thing that looks like everything's gone wrong is the very foundation and cornerstone and pillar of truth if only people would come to him. He's no buddha, smiling serenely, sitting under a tree smiling serenely. That's not our god.

Trying to get his mind off this world. This is Jesus. On across amazing grace, the son of god, submitting to the storm of the wrath of his father, crying out my god, my god, I'm abandoned. I'm abandoned. What's going on here?

I'm the man of faith and I feel abandoned. And going through that supreme wastage This supreme defeat on the cross brings everlasting glory, everlasting salvation, that sins are so forgiven that death is so dealt with that it cannot hold him. And so he rises again. God provides. God is the resurrection and the life.

So what do you do when you realize you've failed or your faith is weak? When the storm hits your house and the crack in the wall show your foundations aren't very good. When these trials and tribulations come against you and your faith is shown for what it isn't, the discomfort of being humbled when you've failed in life. What do you do? You don't let that discomfort say that god is against you.

You don't do that. He never tempts anyone. Don't give up on god and run away from him. It's a very wrong thing to do. The testing of your faith that exposes the lack of faith should make you run to him who had perfect faith on the cross.

You're pretending that has now fallen away and you see yourself as god sees you. You failed. The test exposed your weakness. That's good, isn't it? Isn't that good?

That's the point of a test to expose where you're weak. Well, that gives you the opportunity to go to the 1 who is strong. Don't blame others for your failings. This is what people do when they fail. It's always someone else's fault Don't blame god, but why did he put me through such a strong test that I would fail?

Don't do that. Don't start saying things like, and this is what a lot of people do. Oh, well, I'm human. I can't do it. I haven't got the faith of Abraham or whatever.

No. No. No. Repent. When you've seen you've failed in your faith, repent.

And turn to the man on the cross and see that he's the 1 who will stand for faith for you. He's your cornerstone. He's your foundation. He's your savior. When your faith has failed, good.

Go and put your faith again in this 1. This god who provides and this god who resurrects so that the next test, you'll be stronger. You'll understand what's going on. What is beating against your house now? What will it reveal your faith to be?

If your house is failing and crumbling, it's not the last word. It's there to make you run to the 1 who was tested and died and rose again. Come and hide yourself in Jesus. Come and hide yourself in Jesus. And when you understand, and you put your past and your present and your future in his hands, the 1 who provides and the 1 who re resurrects the dead, my heart will choose to say.

Lord, blessed be your name. Because you know that he's doing all of this to make you like his son.