Life of Faith: Part 3
Pastor Rollan Fisher
A City Whose Architect is God
Family Faith for that City
Bones in that City
A City Whose Architect is God
Hebrews 11:8 - 16
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 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 for them a city.
*The more we mature in Christ, the more faith becomes less about preference and more about God’s eternal Kingdom purposes in our lives.
You want God to be the architect of your life and story.
For this to be the case, like Abraham, we must seek God for the place, the people and the purpose that he wants us to devote ourselves by faith to fulfill his Kingdom call.
Such a story ends in God’s heavenly city, the home of righteousness, where those who belong to Christ will dwell forever.
What are the place, the people and the purpose to which God has called you?
Family Faith for that City
Living by faith is one where your family learns to make sacrifices to the Lord
Hebrews 11:17 - 19
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
There are different measures of faith required for different seasons of life.
Have no doubt about it - the older you get the more the life of faith requires of you - the more consequential the decisions will be impacting more and more people.
Yet God expects you to press in more, not less, to receive his direction that you might live by faith and obediently fulfill his call.
Why the command to sacrifice Isaac?
As your family grows, so will the need for you to press into God to grow in faith in the decisions that you make for the family.
To ensure that you remain Christ and Kingdom focused, God will bring you to moments of decision, big and small, where you are called to put God first above everything - even what others would tell you is best for your family.
When God calls us to sacrifice anything, it is with our family’s best in mind - not that they would have all of the comforts and pleasures of this present age, but an enduring faith in Christ resultant in eternal rewards in the age to come.
Too often we sell our families short just trying to make them happy and comfortable.
We end up spoiling their character, blurring their focus and dulling their faith by giving them everything that the world offers.
Abraham was teaching Isaac a life-long lesson of faith when he chose to obey God.
Sacrifice and faith go hand in hand.
There was nothing more important than family and posterity in Abraham’s culture.
The very child that God promised Abraham is that which he demanded of him to ensure that nothing, no one and no plan of Abraham’s would begin to trump God’s importance and direction in Abraham’s life.
For God to fully apprehend and keep your heart, at different points in your walk with him, he will require you to sacrifice that which you thought was part of his promise to you.
The truth is that some of the things we finally relent to sacrifice were a promise from God, some were dreams of our own making.
I.e. - What God has started in you, he wants to complete in Christ.
It is a challenge over the years to keep your hands off of the reins - but we must do so by faith to complete the mission of God.
*It will always be a test once we’ve been walking with God for a period of time, and have received part of his promise, to begin to think that we can take it from here - that we now have a better idea of how the plan should be completed and the story should end.
That which you thought was yours by right and promise can be required in sacrifice if it becomes idolatrous in your life.
What God requires in sacrifice he is able to raise from the dead if it is truly of him.
Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you have a better plan.
All the sacrifices of God are a foreshadowing of the provision that we are to look to in Christ.
God requires nothing more of us than what he was willing in love to give with his one and only Son.
Jesus, the perfect promised child, was beloved of the Father but prepared from eternity past to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
God is calling his people to nothing less.
Sow your life into that which endures for eternity.
Give your family that which lasts.
The greatest gift that you can give your family is not all of the toys, comforts and opportunities that society tells us they need, but helping them discover how to by faith live a life of sacrifice like Christ that they might fulfill his Kingdom calling and enjoy his eternal reward.
Show them how to lay their time, talent and treasure on the altar of Christ, in obedience to his commands for his glory alone.
Therein they will find a joy that they will never lose, the heavenly rewards that can never be taken.
So the question is: What is God calling you to sacrifice for the sake of his Kingdom call?
Bones in that City
Your life of faith is not just for your benefit, but for all who will follow you to the cross and into Christ’s Kingdom.
Hebrews 11:20–22
20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
The result of our faith should be bones that provide structure and a testimony for the generations that follow.
Let’s repent of anything that we’ve exalted above the purposes of God in our lives and by faith meet him at the cross to begin a life of which he is the architect!
Second City Church - Pastor Cole Rollan Fisher