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Believes God
Sermon #3 from Pastor Ronnie Floyd's series "Big Faith."
$6.00 — $12.00
Today we’re going to read from Genesis chapter number 15. Genesis 15. The Bible says in verse 1, “After these events,” now if you’re one of those Christians that likes to mark in your Bible, you need to put in parenthesis, or underline that statement, “After these events.” Now the reason is because that phrase is there to link together the events of chapter 14 with the events of chapter 15. “After these events the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield. Your reward will be very great. But Abram said, ‘Lord God, what can you give me since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Elezor of Damascus?’ Abram continued, ‘Look, you have given me no offspring so as a slave born in my house will be my heir.’ Now the word of the Lord came to him. This one will not be your heir instead one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” Key verse in verse 4, “Now the word of the Lord came to him.” That’s a key phrase in this scripture. “Now the word of the Lord came to him. This one will not be your heir, instead one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, ‘Look at the sky, and count the stars, if you’re able to count them, then He said, ‘Your offspring will be that numerous.’ Abram believed the Lord.” Oh what a powerful phrase. “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to Him as righteousness.”
Now Father I ask in the name of Jesus today that the Holy Spirit of God would minister the Word today, and bring this written Word to live among us, in us, and through us. And we ask this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.
Have you ever been placed in a situation in your life when you had to believe God? I mean a time when you had no other alternative but to believe God? I have been there numerous times in my life. When I was in that situation, when there was no alternative, at least in my heart that I had to believe God. And you know when those times come in life, and we go there, what God does is really amazing. Because what the Lord does is that He takes us from where we are and He moves us to a place we’ve never been before. And the bridge that gets us there is our faith.
You see big faith always moves you to a new future with God. And that new future may not have anything to do with your geography, and most of the time it doesn’t, but it has to do with where you are, and where God wants to take you in your life in the future.
In order to understand with clarity chapter number 15, you have to recount what happened in the 14th chapter of Genesis. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we were in this series, and I want you to listen very carefully because if you must get the context in order to know the real meaning of this scripture in chapter 15, especially verse 1. What had happened is a word came to Abram that Lot had been captured by the King of Sodom. He gathered together 300 plus men, and they went, and they rescued Lot from the captivity of the King of Sodom. After the victory, something happened that was unprecedented in that day and time. Jesus appeared to Abram.
What happened was there was a person that appeared by the name of Melchizedek, but when you put together Genesis, and you put together Hebrews, and you put together the understanding of the scripture, bottom line is he had an appearance of Christ in his life. And when he saw Jesus, he honored Him with everything he had. All of who he was, he brought honor to Jesus. And the scripture says he showed that in a tangible way because Abram took a tenth of everything he had and he gave it to Jesus.
The scripture says shortly after that the King of Sodom came and said, “Hey Abram, let’s make a deal.” What do you mean, king? He said I want to make a deal with you. You know all of the possessions you’ve got because of the, of the war, and, and all that you were able to rescue, not only Lot, but all those possessions? He said I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you all those possessions, but I want Lot and the others back. Do you realize what happened in the story? It’s quite remarkable. Abram said I’m not making a deal with you king. He said in fact, I’ll tell you what, you see all these possessions? You go ahead and take them. I don’t want them. I’ll take Lot. And he said why is that? And he said because I’ll tell you why. Because I don’t want anyone, especially you, to ever think you were the one who makes me rich. I’m not going to sell out to you, or the system of this world because you see, king, you’re not the one who makes me rich. It is God, alone who supplies my need, and it is God who I honored in my life, and I will continue to honor in my life.
You see, that was a defining moment in Abram’s life. And here was Abram coming out of one defining moment, moving into another defining moment because when you read verse number 1, “After these things that occurred,” “After these events happened,” we understand that, that bold honor that he gave to Christ by honoring God with at least one-tenth of all that he had. When he saw Jesus, I’m telling you that was a big faith moment, and now the events have changed whereby God has given to him, and telling him what that big faith is all about in his life, and He was trying to help him to see what big faith was really going to look like in his life.
That’s what I want to talk to you about today. Because you see, what I’m going to teach you today is the following, Big Faith Receives, Big Faith conceives, and Big Faith believes. But let’s begin with:
1. Big Faith, and how it receives. The Bible teaches us so much in this first verse of this book in chapter 15. “After these things,” after these events the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. I wish God would give me a vision one day. That He would come to me, and He would reveal to me the future in some panoramic HD style. But every time I get close to thinking I’m about to emerge with vision, I remember what I had to eat the night before, and that’s usually what it is. But in that time, God gave him a vision. And in the midst of that vision, God gave him a word through that vision.
And the scripture says, “After these events,” there was a connectivity that went forward in this text because of what he did in chapter 14, and the way he honored God in chapter 14, God was saying I’m going to do this in your life in chapter 15 because you did not compromise and sell out over here; I’m going to tell you man, I’m going to take care of you because you demonstrated big faith there, and you’re demonstrating big faith now. I want to bless you in a measurable way.
You know what big faith is? You see big faith believes that God gives us what I call a spirit of:
(1) Fearlessness. What did he say in the text in the first verse? “Do not fear…” You know when you honor Christ in your life God somehow or other gives you a quiet, peaceful confidence in Him. I’m not saying there’s not going to be that moment of doubt at times. I’m not saying that there’s not going to be that moment of question at times. But I’m telling you today that because you honor Christ in your life, that God is able to remove all fear from your life.
Can I ask you this, this morning? What do you fear the most right now in your life? What do you fear the most? Some of you fear the future, others fear failure, others fear loneliness, others fear abandonment, others fear just life. Oh no, what could happen? What could happen? What is the worst-case scenario? And I’m going to try my best to remember that every day. You see there’s a lot of fear in the American public, and there’s a lot of fear in each one of our lives today if we’re not careful. But can I tell you something about big faith? Big faith dissolves fear. Big faith removes fear in your life because God gives you a spirit of fearlessness.
Big faith always leads you to:
(2) Protection. Protection. You see what did He tell him? He said not only do not be afraid, but He told him I am your shield. That word shield doesn’t register to us a lot in our generation. We don’t walk around the streets of Northwest Arkansas with a shield. But yet, if you lived in earlier times, you may live in certain cultures where you would never go anywhere without the shield.
We’re told over in Ephesians chapter 6 that we need to put on the shield of faith in the armor of God. We know that that shield is a very large shield, and one is able to literally crouch behind the shield, and have his human body protected from the arrows of the enemy, and of the one called Satan. God is your shield today. When you honor Him with your life, can I assure you today that He is going before you? He is behind you. He is on each side of you. God is your shield. And you get behind the shield of God in your life, and be reminding yourself every day God will not let anything touch you unless He permits it to touch you! Because you are behind the shield. Do you need protection today in your life? If you need protection today in your life, I want to challenge you to honor God with your life because the greatest thing you can do is bring honor to Christ in your life? Showing Him He’s valuable. Showing Him He’s special. Showing Him He is Lord because when you have that, and you do that, you receive fearlessness, you receive protection, and the scripture here says that you also receive:
(3) Reward. Reward. Interesting, isn’t it? Because Abram had honored Christ in chapter 14, and then rejected human wealth, trusting God for God’s supply. God told him now I’m going to reward you in a very special way! Be encouraged today, provision always follows a promise of God. How many of you today desire blessing in your life? How many of you today desire reward in your life? We pray all the time Lord bless me today. What does that mean? Lord, bless me today. I mean, a child is always looking for the blessing of their father, and their mother. Others are always looking for approval. You see, many of us, when somebody comes up to us and says hey man, you look good. You know, you feel good about that. It makes you, it makes you…you see the devil doesn’t want us to hear this message today. The devil doesn’t want us to hear this message today.
This sound system today reminds me of my iPhone. I told my ladies the other day in the office, I said, listen if ya’ll go outside one day and there’s a hole this big in that window of my vehicle, that’s where it’s going until they get it corrected. But here is the Lord telling us that He will reward us. Somebody walks up to you and says boy you look good. You say man that’s good. Thank you. If somebody comes up to you and says hey man, your children seem to really be doing good. I mean don’t you feel good about that? Man you’re doing a good job at the house. You know, you’re doing a great job at your workplace. Man, you kind of feel good about…you know what they’re doing? They’re blessing you! They are affirming you! And that’s what God will do to your life when you honor Him! Don’t you want God to bless you? To affirm you? To give you countless blessings in your life? Abram said God is going to bring reward to life.
Big faith leads you to things God’s way, and big faith always results in those moments when God blesses you with reward. You know there are all kinds of ways to honor Christ? All kinds of ways. We need to work hard under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to honor God with all of our being, with all we have. You know interestingly, however, there is a tangible way God brings up every now and then in the scripture? And that tangible way is discussed in chapter 14, and is mentioned even here. The tangible way is discussed numerous times in the scripture. So I want to give you a biblical observation, even though I’m well aware there are all kinds of ways to honor Christ, but when your heart is honoring Christ, sooner or later, I promise you, you’ll get to where I’m talking about right here.
The biblical observation is this: There is a strong and undeniable connection between honoring Christ with one-tenth of everything you have, and receiving fearlessness, protection, and reward in your life. There is a strong and undeniable connection. You can’t deny it. You cannot, you cannot act like it doesn’t exist. I promise you it’s all over the scripture because God promises that He is going to bless you when you bless Him. He is going to bless you when you honor Him. You cannot escape it. You cannot deny it. Big faith receives.
But:
2. Big Faith also conceives. That’s a word that you probably wouldn’t imagine a Baptist preacher using on a Sunday morning. But that’s exactly what happened is that Abram was able to conceive something from God. The Bible tells us in the 2nd verse that Abram began to tell God, “God you know you’re telling me all this, but I’m childless, and the only person I’ve got in my house that’s underneath me would be Eleazor, who is nothing more than a servant.” So Abram begins to reason with God in verse number 3. And he’s trying to figure out and put in his mind over in chapter 12, God told me He was going to bless me in all kinds of ways. He’s going to do it through my family, and my family will be a blessing to all the nations. And here I am in chapter 15, I’ve just met Jesus, and now God’s affirming to me He’s going to do that in that makes no sense to me because all I have is Eleazor.
And look at verse 4. Powerful word. “Now the word of the Lord came to Him.” God spoke to Abram! And God said to him Eleazor would not be your, your heir. But He said from your own body this heir will come. Here is this old man who knew he was past childbearing years as a husband who knew his wife was old. He knew there was no way in the world that could happen, but yet, the God who raises the dead back to life tells him from your own body the heir will come. You can just imagine the way Abram responded to that. He must have had that look, you know that look of doubt that we periodically exhibit, that look of amazement, that look of no way, and God said I’ll tell you what Abram, let’s go outside together, and He said I want you to look up in the skies. He said do you see all those stars up there? It’s written about in verse 5. You see all the stars up there? Count them. Well He knew he couldn’t count the stars. Have you ever tried counting the stars?
The other morning I was running early and it was a beautiful, dark, early morning. The sun was not even near to coming out, and the sky was full of stars. And I started thinking about this, and, and could I count the stars. You can’t count the stars. It’s hard to keep up if you did. And what Abram was doing is that God was telling him you see how they are, they are so numerous that no man can count them, and that’s exactly how numerous your descendants will one day be.
You see what faith did here is big. Question: What is conceived? What is conceived in his heart? I’ll tell you what is conceived. Listen carefully. God impregnates Abram with a word from God. That’s what He does. Here’s Abram searching in his faith, trying to figure out how God was going to fulfill the promise. God speaks to him, verse 4, now the word of the Lord came to him. That’s a word from God. Walked him outside and gave him the word again. Again, another affirmation of chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3 in the book of Genesis. And what God does, God injects into Abram’s life a word from God. And the word that received was what word? Through your own body there will be an heir who will come through you. And that heir will be a blessing to all of the nations.
It was Abraham reasoning with God. Here was Abraham asking now God how are you going to do that? I don’t quit understand that. I mean, hey, I’m old. I mean my wife’s old. I mean this ain’t good God. I don’t see how all this works. Oh that reminds me of something today. When God told him I am going to do it through you that brings something to my mind that we need to write down today. God has all the answers to your questions. It doesn’t matter whether your question is who, what, when, where, how; God can skip through every one of those and God can answer them, and He’ll answer the ones He wants to. God has the final word.
God has all the answers to your questions! Ask Him what you will, but He knows the answer. And just because we plead ignorant doesn’t mean God is. And oh by the way, why don’t you take action on something this week. Try this on this week. Why don’t you wear this out this week? Give your hows to God. Hows? What is that? How are you going to do this, Lord? How’s this all going to work? How’s that going to happen because I don’t see that happening right now? You see those of you who can see the end from the beginning in your life, and you’re pretty administrative, you’re pretty organized, you’re going to really struggle there because we can see the end; we just don’t see the how. And that how is a real issue. But most Christians I know, they really struggle with that how, and I want to challenge you this week: give your hows to God! God spoke to him and said I’m going to do it. He didn’t know how, but God said He was going to do it. And God has the final word. The how that every one of us need to be concerned about is how in the world can I conceive a word from God like Abram did? That ought to be the question we ought to be asking ourselves. Not how is God going to do this? How is this going to occur? How in the world is this going to happen? How in the world is our church going to do what they talked about doing last week? I don’t understand how all that’s going to work. How? How? How? God is able.
How in the world can you receive that kind of vision like Abram received? Oh it may not be the same vision. It won’t be, in fact. But how do you get there in your life? Listen to this, hang out with Jesus! That’s where it all starts. Find a place in your life everyday where you hang out with Jesus. You’ve got to be with Christ. Hang out with the Word of God. Are you listening? Hang out in the Bible. Hang out in the Word personally. Personally get in the Word of God. Hang out in the Word of God in a small group. Get yourself in a small group in this church. Find you a way. Discover one. You say I can’t find one. We’ve got so many, then you start one! Get off your blessed assurance and do it! Do what you can! Get yourself in the Word of God through a small group! Get yourself in the Word of God through worship!
Some of you come to worship this week; you’re off three, four, or five weeks. You know if the Razorbacks lose, you stay home. Or if they win, you stay home. Or if this doesn’t happen, or my kids had a soccer game yesterday, I’m just so tired. Get over it. Grow up. Mature. Get yourself under the Word of God. You’re never going to have big faith in your life if you don’t put yourself under the Word of God. So get yourself in it personally. Get yourself in it small group. Get yourself in worship. And I promise you; you know what God will do? God will speak through His Word! He promises to do that! Paul talked about it over in the 10th chapter of the book of Romans. In verse 17 he says, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” How do I get faith? Through the message of the Word. How do I carry out that faith? Through a message about the word of Christ.
Every time I’m around the word of God my faith grows. Every time I’m in the word of God my faith grows because guess what happens? There is an increasing capacity for God to use His word in my life when I am in the word! And the word is what gives me faith! Here I am over here trying to figure it all out! And I want to go over here where I know God wants me to be! The bridge to get you there ladies and gentlemen is the word of God! It’s a faith walk, and you’ve got to get yourself in the word!
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11, verse 1 and 2, “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by it, our ancestors were approved.” It is the Bible. It is the Word of God that conceives within us what I call big faith! So big faith receives. Big faith conceives. And then:
3. Big faith believes. It believes. In verse number 6, it’s one of the most powerful statements found anywhere in the scriptures. Listen to this statement. “Abram believed the Lord.” God took him outside and spoke to him again. In the midst of his how, God told him it’s going to happen. And he believed God. He trusted in God. That’s what the word means. He confirmed it in his heart. And that’s exactly what faith is. Faith acts on the power of God’s word, and what had happened is this, some have said it is when the written word of God, lagas, becomes the living word of God, rhama, and that word that’s on the page of scriptures jumps off of the page of scripture and gets in your heart. That day when God took him outside and said you see the stars up there? I’m going to bless you in that way. Genesis 12 began to take more reality than ever before because when God showed him the stars and said buddy this is the way it’s going to be, do you know what he did? He believed the Lord. He took God at His word. And when he took God at His word, you know what the scripture says happened? He credited into him righteousness.
What in the world does that mean? He credited it to him as righteousness. Here’s what it means. Abram is credited, meaning he is regarded, he is thought of as being righteous, but more importantly, being credited is a bookkeeping term. It is an accounting term. We have any accountants here today. And you know what it means? It means to enter into the account book. What? Because he believed God, God is going to enter into the account book of Abram’s life you are righteous!
You know what that means? Righteous? It means that Abram because you believed Me, based off My word to you, I am going to give to you right-standing with God from now on man, you are right with Me! That’s what He said to him. And that’s where Abram began to track the rest of his life.
Does that not remind you of exactly the same thing that happens in your life when you come to reality that you’re a sinner and you need Christ in your life? And someone tells you that God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life? And they encourage you to turn from the life you’re now living and give your life to Christ. And some of you might even quote this word to you like found over in Romans 10 that says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth his confession is made concerning his salvation.”
And could it be that someone has also said to you for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved? You see, that’s what happens when you came to Christ as Savior and Lord, and if you never have, you can today, but I want to tell you what happened to those of us that did. Someone gave us a word from God. Someone told us we were sinners, and we needed Christ in our life. Someone quoted a Bible verse that, that encouraged us to come to Jesus, and then we said yes! And when we said yes, in heaven, God put into our account righteousness. Do you know why He put us as righteous and right standing with Him? Not because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done! And because of the cross we are in right standing with Jesus Christ! It’s all because of the cross! Therefore, when I come to Christ, I’ve got to come to the cross.
You see what Abram did was exactly what we need to do. Do you know what it is? Big faith trusts in God, and believes in what He says! That’s what big faith does! It trusts in God, and believes God for what He says. You know Abram was old. He didn’t have an heir. He didn’t know how it was all going to take place, but he believed God. I promise you if you hang out with the word enough, and in the word enough, there will be things that God will speak to your heart about that don’t make sense. They don’t add up on paper. You can’t get your arms around it. It makes no sense at times, but you believe that God is going to do it.
The Apostle Paul who wrote Romans, over in the 4th chapter of the book of Romans, there is great similarity there, and in the book of Genesis about Abram’s life. But in chapter 4 of Romans, in verse 17, he said these words, “He believed in God,” meaning Abram, “and he believed in God who gives life to the dead.” IN other words, he knew he was a God who gave life to the dead. “And calls things into existence that do not exist.” Calls things into existence that do not exist. Calls things into existence that do not exist! And do you realize that’s exactly how God created the heavens and the earth? He spoke it into existence! That which was invisible became visible. And that’s what big faith is all about! Because you know what big faith is? Big faith treats those things, which do not exist now as if they exist already! Are you listening today? Are you out there today? Shout out! Do something! Big faith treats those things, which do not exist now as though they exist already.
Are you doing that in your life? You’re talking about there even when you’re here. Your faith in God for there even though you are here. In fact, right here the only reason you’re exhibiting that big faith, and you’re in that bridge of the word of God is because God’s given you a word. And you’re still talking about there, even though there is not reality yet. You ever been there? I guarantee it I’ve been there numerous times. You see Abram understood this, and we need to understand this.
I could recount for you many experiences in my life when I had a word from God and I walked by faith in that word. Circumstances made it appear it was impossible to achieve. My emotions could have kept me from believing! Yet, God prevailed. You know why? Because God has spoken a word in my life, and in my heart!
I’ve been a pastor now 34 years. In one of my pastorates before I came here, I can recall a specific time when the church was exploding in a good way. People were coming to Christ constantly. The church was growing at an astronomical pace. And some of the power boys in the church were losing control. And they said they wanted their church to grow, but at the same time, without losing their control. Things got a little scary. You ever been in a church that got a little scary? Where the warfare began, and the darts started shooting, and business meetings were about like getting an enema? I remember in the midst of one of those difficult times a layman called me in the early morning, and he said pastor, God’s given me a word for you, and a word for the church. And I’ve got to share it with you man. I’m really excited about it. I said that’s great, what is it? He said get your pen and write it down. He said it’s Acts 27:25. And he began to read it, and he said, “Therefore take courage men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me.” Take courage men because I believe God, and it’s going to happen in the way that I told you.
I thought about that passage numerous times. In fact, this past year, in leading this major great commission effort within our own convention of churches, there were many times when things got rocky, and all appeared to be lost. But in the early morning January the 11th of this year, God spoke to me again through Acts 27:25, and reminded me of that story that happened now over 25 years ago. And I felt like God was saying to me out of that passage in Acts, “Ronnie, you take courage where you are right now. You believe Me, and what you want to happen, it will happen.” Therefore, to the best of my ability, I began to operate in that big faith moment, calling things as though they existed, even though they did not exist. I walked that way. I prayed that way. I believed that way. And I believe that there was nothing whatsoever at all would keep us from it. And you know what? It did come to pass. It is coming to pass. And it will come to pass. And you know what kept me going? One thing. The Word.
You see, the word gives you big faith, not the Wall Street Journal. The word gives you big faith, not the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The word gives you faith, not someone’s blog. The word gives you faith, not your friends. It’s the word that moves you to have big faith, calling things into existence when they do not exist, but yet you are acting as though they exist already!
I’ve got a big faith question for you today before we go. And I really want you wrestle with this question today. I mean really want you to wrestle with it. What am I believing God for in my life today? What am I believing God for in my life today? I try to wrestle with that most of the time. I’m going to really try to discipline myself to wrestle with that every day. This morning early in the word, I wrestled with that, and answered that. What am I believing God for today in my life? Right now, today? What is it? And you know what helps me to believe it? When I got in this book, this book bridged me from unbelief to belief! Nothing can take you from unbelief to belief! Nothing can take you from boredom into a faithful, exciting future except this book!
It’s the bridge. It’s the life. It shows you the way? It’s your roadmap. Call it whatever you want to call it man. But it’s the word of God, and you’re absolutely foolish. I don’t want to offend anybody, please hear my heart. But you’re absolutely foolish not to do your best everyday in your life to get yourself in it, because you’re missing all that God wants you to get. And if you think what you have now is good, oh my, how much better could it be when God gets on you in your life through His word?
I thank God today for the Bible, the infallible, inerrant truth of God that is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. And if I will hide it deep in my heart, I will not sin against Him.
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