Sermon Title: Imitators By Josh Kappes
Life Group Leaders: It would Aim: To see the absolute, without a be good for you to read doubt, can’t go wrong, faithfulness of through Abraham’s story from God to do what He says He will do Genesis 12 through 22. Again and as a result actively trust and the emphasis is on how obey Him. through faith and patience Abraham inherited the promises of God.
Imitate: to follow as a model {How have you used modeling for your children in order to teach them? Is it effective? What are some things that you hope your children imitate from you?
As parents, there is the high calling that we have to train our children to love and follow Jesus. We want them to be lovers of God and of others, to be productive in the world etc. One of the tools of our discipleship as parents is imitation. Our children will learn and follow what they see in us. That is a blessing and a curse.
Telling our kids to do as we say and not as we do will not work. We learn by watching others. {What is a practical example of modeling that you have used as a parent or teacher}
I get to coach baseball and one of the things I do as a coach is model for my players the right way, or at least the right fundamentals of playing the game and then I ask them to repeat or imitate what I just showed them to do. Then we ask them to practice it through repetition.
This idea of imitation and learning from the example of others is the theme of what we are going to study this morning. The writer of Hebrews has taken time in the first half of this letter to point out some bad examples that he doesn’t want his readers to follow. We find this mainly in chapters 3 and 4 when he reminds them of the faithlessness and disobedience of the Israelites. He warns us over and over to not follow in that same way of life as they did.
He also points us to holding fast to Jesus by faith and instead of drifting and being passive and sluggish in our relationship, to be an imitator of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises of God.
One of the reasons the scriptures are given to us is so that we can learn from and imitate the example of others.
What are some things that God desires us to imitate? Specifically in this passage it is faith and patience/endurance. The emphasis on this is in Hebrews 6:12 as well as 6:18 and then Josh made the link in Romans 15:4.}
1 Corinthians 10:6- Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope
Our text this morning begins with Hebrews 6:12 There are two examples of living the Christian life laid out in this verse. One is perpetually immature, sluggish or dull faith that leads to unbelief and turning away from Christ. The other is an example of enduring faith that holds fast to the hope set before us. And he actually gives us a positive example from the Old Testament to follow.
Read Hebrews 6:12-18
Cover Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 God chooses Abraham and tells him to pack up and leave and go in a general direction and makes him a promise. I will make you a great nation, I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing and in you all nations of the earth will be blessed. Genesis 15 Your offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and Abraham believed God and it was credited to Him as righteousness. God cuts a covenant with Abraham.
Read this Genesis 17:1-8
Genesis 21 Isaac is finally born to Abraham and Sarah and God keeps his promise.
Genesis 22 God tests Abraham and asks him to sacrifice his son. And here is where the author of Hebrews quotes what God said to Abraham. Genesis 22:16-18
How was Abraham able to wait for so long without giving up? What does his life teach us about faith? What does his life teach us about God?
You can also point out here that there were times when Abraham got ahead of God and tried to do things his own way by lying to protect himself or trying to have children through his maid servant, that God was still faithful to Him and kept His covenant.
Well, remember he tells us. He wants us to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises of God. In this case it’s Abraham.
Did Abraham wait patiently? Yes over 25 years. Did he stumble at some points yes but the scriptures tell us the he grew stronger in his faith as he waited. This is the idea of patient or enduring faith. There are two places in scripture that you can go to emphasize the role that trials and patience play in the development of our relationship with Christ. James 1:1-5 and Romans 5:1-5. God is not seeking to develop patience and endurance in us for the sake of it being a nice attribute to have but because without it the work of maturity will never be completed.
If you’re going to go here, spend time reading these passages and thinking on them. You can go to www.blueletterbible.com and read commentaries.
The word for patience has the idea of being “long of soul” someone who takes a long time to lose it or to give up.
The word for endurance, especially in Romans 15:4 through endurance we have hope, means to stand up under a weight without succumbing to it. The end goal being a life of hope.
What do we do in the meantime of waiting on God to fulfill his promises? The short answer is steward my entire life for the glory of God while I wait for Him. This was modeled for us in Abraham to a great degree and perfectly in Christ Hebrews 12:3
Now, what I believe the author is trying to do for us is giving us someone to have faith in. Our culture today loves the idea of faith as long as it is vague and non-intrusive into someone’s life. It’s faith in faith. The Bible’s teaching on faith is that what is truly important is what do we have our faith in. What are we trusting in? Ourselves or our own imagined form of God or are we trusting in the God of the Bible as He has revealed himself to us in Scripture?
When it comes to trusting in God I think we have some obstacles to overcome: Which one of these three things do you struggle with? 1. Basing our trust in God based off of our circumstances 2. Basing our trust in based on our feelings 3. Basing our trust in God based on what we think God should or shouldn’t do
Where does enduring faith come from? God’s revelation of Himself in the scriptures. Look at what the writer stresses here.
He is stressing the character of God and the word of God. They go hand in hand. God’s word doesn’t mean anything if he’s a scoundrel. But if he is trustworthy and cannot lie His word and His sovereign power to do what He says mean everything!
When God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 22 he doubled down on his promises to Abraham. “You’re going to have a people, a land, be a blessing and I will be your God.” God repeated the promise he made many years before that but then he made an oath and swore by His own name.
The author said HE did that because there was no higher name by which He could swear. Next comes God’s character: it is impossible for God to lie.
I’m going to do this Abraham, I swear on my own name, I cannot lie.
Now here’s the exciting part: God said this for our benefit. Look at verse 18.
Those who have fled for refuge in God might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Finish with Romans 8.
Can you share some life experiences in which God built your faith and patience?