Abram Went. with Pastor Ryan Braley

So this morning we are starting our brand new sermon series.

It's called you Pick.

We've asked the body to kind of hey, give us ideas of things you want to talk about or questions you might have, and we've got a number of responses too many to talk about.

So we have to kind of limit it.

But I'm gonna do the best we can, or we're gonna do the best we can, to get through as many as possible.

But the ones we don't get to, we'll try to get to them later on down the road.

But the first one this morning somebody asked what is faith, and we use that word all the time.

We actually use it, I mean, ad nauseam, sometimes in churches.

But what is faith exactly?

And she asked is faith just something we have to kind of conjure up, or like we try harder to have more faith, or kind of hype ourselves up to be faithful people?

Is it some kind of like a psychological game I play with myself, like just be faithful and kind of talk myself in some kind of an intellectual ascension, like thinking with my brain certain things are true, or is it maybe something else?

This morning we're talking about faith and the title is called Abram Went.

Now I don't wanna be the kind of guy who does the same thing over and over and over again because I'm afraid to try anything new.

I don't wanna just keep doing the same things I've done my whole life because it's easy or I know that it'll work or it's safer.

I don't wanna do that.

I'm not into change.

Just for change's sake.

I don't wanna just be cavalier.

But I don't wanna just sit on the hamster wheel of life and go around again and again doing the same thing I did yesterday, over and over and over again.

I want to instead be ready at any moment to hear the call of God that he might give to me and ask me to do.

I wanna be ready to go wherever God might have me to go at any moment and do whatever it is that God is asking me to do.

And if you're like me, you know that this indeed takes faith.

Now, faith is described in Hebrews, chapter 11, in verse one.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

You heard Linda read Hebrews 11 later on, where Abram is sort of commended for having faith.

So in the context of the Abraham, he's later named Abraham, but in the context of this Abram story, what does faith mean?

What does it look like?

Well, hebrews 11 once says now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for or the conviction of things not seen.

Another translation says it this way that faith is the reality.

I like this one better.

Actually, the reality of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

It's the reality of things hoped for.

You might say it like this, in fact, in a different way of paraphrasing Faith is living in a chord or in rhythm with the reality of things that you hope for.

You might also say it like this Faith is living as if the things that you hope for are real.

It's living as though the things that you hope are real are in fact, real.

In that case, we all have a faith, every single one of us.

There's no way out of it.

All of us, we all, have a faith in something.

There's some narrative or framework that we've adopted to live our lives through.

We all live our lives as though some narrative or story or framework is real.

You might say there is no God, and fair enough, and live your life according to.

Hey, there's no God.

I don't believe in anything beyond this sort of imminent frame.

All I believe in is what I can touch and examine under a microscope and sort of explore with my hands.

Fair enough, but that is a faith.

You are living as though.

That there is no God is actually real and fair enough, that's a faith.

Though you have faith that there is no God, you might also or conversely, maybe many of you do, because you're here after all have some sort of faith that there is a God, that there is something beyond the imminent frame.

You can't help but wonder like, hey, what else is there?

And you have a sense that there are things that are unexplainable that are happening, and that life is not just what you can explore or examine under a microscope or in a lab.

There's something else going on here, and that perhaps you know.

Your belief in this God makes you think that your life has meaning in the story of God.

And fair enough, that's faith.

You're living as though those things are real.

Which raises the question for me what if you and I lived as though Christianity were real?

What if we did that?

What if we lived our lives as though what Jesus taught and said was real?

Russell Brand, the actor love and more hate him, recently said the world doesn't need more people to believe in God.

The world just needs those that believe in God to start acting like it.

I'll say it again the world doesn't need more people to believe in God, just that those who believe in God would start acting like it.

What if we did?

What if we lived as though God was real and had revealed himself in Jesus Christ, and then we could know him, and then we've been embraced and welcomed by him in and through the cross and his work on the cross.

And what if we lived as though God was restoring the broken parts of the world, one person and one place at a time, and then involved includes you and me.

What if we lived as though we truly could be free From the things that so easily entangle us, from addictions, from bad thought patterns, from habits that destroy our lives?

What if we lived as though we could be free?

What if we lived as though non-violence was a better response to violence than more violence?

What if we lived like that, and that forgiveness was somehow better than unforgiveness or non-forgiveness?

What if we lived as though love really looked like us laying down our lives for somebody else, and even our enemies?

What if we lived as though that were real and true?

What if we lived as though serving was better than being served and giving was better than receiving.

What if, even though we have doubts because we all have doubts it's okay to have doubts.

What if, even though we have doubts and with our doubts in hand, we lived as though these things are real?

I'm convinced that a life in which people believe in a God, or live as though God is real, is always going to be better socially, culturally, in every way, than a world in which nobody believes in God.

You don't have to look too far back in our history to see that's pretty much true that living as though God is real is better to aim our life at Jesus and sort of assume for the moment and live as though it's real and that he knew best and His teachings are good, to love God and to love others.

This living out of this idea and living out of this framework or this worldview is faith.

So faith is probably better than understood as not a noun but a verb.

There's a movement to it.

It's a process rather than a possession.

It's not something you hold.

It's this movement of going somewhere, and it's going somewhere even though you're not always sure where you're going.

It's life without maps.

It's not really a firm intellectual grasp of an idea or a thing as much as it really is movement into the unknown.

I'll say that again because I love this.

Faith is not so much a firm intellectual grasp on a thing as much as like a movement out into the unknown.

Luther defines or describes like this faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times.

And, trusting it, it's stepping out, not sure where you're going, but going anyway.

In Abram, in this story where faith is kind of born, he conducts his whole life on the assumption that the heavenly homeland or this permanent city of God were real, as though it's real.

4,000 years ago, in the middle of this place, in the middle of nowhere called Ur you are his name of his town, his hometown, ur.

This family leaves the static, monotonous, endless, repetitive cycle of life that was all that people knew back then.

And he leaves and goes somewhere.

He hears this command and here's what it said.

The command of this mysterious voice says simply go forth, go forth is all he hears Now.

In the original Hebrew there is this insistent immediacy to this command.

It's not in the English.

It's like go forth, right now to a place where there's no return and I'll show you where you're going.

And I promise you I will give you descendants, which is radical, because Abram is 75 years old, as old as little Reeds, baptism and Gount.

That's how old he is.

That's an old man.

How is he going to have kids?

But he promises I'll give you descendants and they will be a blessing to the whole world.

All of humanity will be blessed through you.

And Abram went.

He gets up and leaves everything he's ever known and he goes, and he goes into something brand new, something unknown, unforeseeable, and he ventures out into the mysterious unknown because he hears the call of God to go forth and Something brand new happens.

Something brand new is born out of the old, right in the middle of the old.

Something brand new is born, because that's how it works new things are always born or given birth to right out of the middle of the old.

And he goes.

Now.

Abram lived in a culture and a society that was sort of like this static, predictable, monotonous wheel.

It was like a circular wheel that everything you ever did was always on repeat.

You were born in the same village your family was born into and your parents were born into.

Nobody ventured too far out or left too far.

There was no such thing as travel or journeys or adventure.

You did the same thing every day.

You were born in that hut over there where your parents were born and their parents were born.

You're gonna die in that hut over there where your parents will die and their parents died, and it's this endless Unchanging cycle.

Everything is known and more or less everything is safe.

Ish, but Abram goes.

Abram went, perhaps the most too powerful words and all of literature, and it changes the course of human history.

All anybody knew was this wheel just went around and around and God calls Abram and Abram goes into something brand new and do the unknown something yet to happen.

It doesn't even happen yet.

These promises were to come later.

And Abram goes and steps out in faith.

Now others back over here probably undoubtedly laughed at Abram.

Like what are you talking about?

Man cannot escape his fate.

Your fate was written in the stars.

You're just playing out the role.

How?

What do you think you are?

You think you're better than your forefathers, who went before you, and your wife?

She's as bare in his winter.

She's not having any kids.

Are you crazy?

You think you're better?

The Greeks undoubtedly would have reminded him of Prometheus, who dauntingly tried to take the fire of the gods, but his life suffered chaos because of it.

Who do you think you are, abram?

You're overreaching here.

Don't go.

Stay here and sit and meditate like our fathers and their fathers and their fathers and their fathers.

But Abram goes.

Abram went and he does the thing that's never been done before, and it opens all kinds of doors that had never been opened before and he experienced all kinds of things he had never Experienced before.

He puts his faith in this voice.

Now, remember, abram lived in a polytheistic culture.

There were many gods and this God later be called sort of Yahweh, or known as Yahweh, or the God of the Hebrews, the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob.

All he knows is this voice and he puts his faith in this mysterious voice and it up ends his life.

It changes everything.

It changes his name.

He's now called Abraham.

It changes his geographical location.

He goes to a foreign land, a new place, he leaves his father and mother and it changes his whole destiny.

And All that happens like there's, like these things that could never have been imagined as being possible.

And Abraham went and Experiences this and in doing so, in giving up everything, abram learns that anything is possible.

Also, again, in leaving and giving up everything, abram learns if anything, okay, it's possible Anything.

Do you ever have the sense that anything is really possible, do you?

Or are you stuck on this hamster wheel of the same old, same old, you know, who tends to think that anything is possible Little kids.

My son, gavin.

When he was about 10, 11 years old, we were gonna go over to Europe on a cruise.

My parents invited us all to this cruise.

We're gonna go to Europe and cruise around.

So he's like how are we gonna get there?

I go, we'll fly.

He goes.

Why don't we just drive?

I said well, buddy, pay more attention in school, but also get drive across the Atlantic Ocean.

There's, of course, you can.

No, you can't.

Yeah, you can, buddy.

How in the world will we ever drive across the Atlantic Ocean?

And without skipping a beat?

He goes.

The power of God, bro.

To which I replied look, don't ever call me bro.

First of all, how much of bro I'm your dad.

Secondly, you're right.

You're right, that's right.

You're right.

Anything is possible If you had told 12 year old Ryan that he would one day be a pastor of this wonderful place called Central and Elk River, with four kids and a wife who's way out of his league.

Why are you laughing?

I don't know if you would have believed it.

How would he have ever known that?

I vividly remember when I was 26 years old, we were leaving Colorado, katie and I, and we had two kids, logan and Gavin, and they flew ahead of me and I packed up this U-Haul truck, driving out of Golden, colorado, with this U-Haul truck, the killers, mr Brightside, blowing on the radio Good song, and all I had waiting for was an interview in a couple of days with Chipotle Mexican Grill somewhere down near Southern Minnesota.

That's all I knew.

I had nothing.

I had no job, no promise, but we knew we had to go, it was time to leave and we left.

Well, I doubt everything I ever knew home, family gone by me and we left.

We went to Minnesota and I vividly remember years later, after being here for three years working with middle school kids, pastor Paul came to me and said hey, ryan, we'd love for you to kind of take over the whole youth department.

We're gonna send Kurt out, kurt Hinkelm, to do young life out in the area, and up until then Kurt had been the youth director an amazing man.

If you know, kurt, he's my uncle-in-law.

Much respect and love for him.

He had built this wonderful ministry.

And I was like, oh my gosh, you want me to run it?

What if I kill the thing?

I don't know what I'm doing.

Like no, we believe in you and I kid you not, right, a week over that summer I like lost my appetite.

I was so scared of taking over for Kurt that was screwed up.

And on the morning of my installation this lady comes to me and said, forgive me if this is you.

I don't know who it was, I forget, but she comes to me and she's like hey, puts her hand on my back, so she's taking over for Kurt.

Huh, I'm like, yeah, big shoes to fill, good luck.

So slaps you on the back and walks off.

Thank you for that word of encouragement.

Oh, it's a wonder I'm still here.

So I felt it on my go, gosh, here goes nothing.

The whole thing could have ended in catastrophe, but I went.

And then, years later, the church came to me and like, hey, pastor Paul's retiring, we'd love for you to interview to become the next lead pastor.

And thankfully, at this point in my life like, oh, I've been here before, let's go for it, just see what happens.

And who would have thought Ryan Braley, the pastor of a church, oh my gosh, who would have thought You're supposed to say we did so, thank you.

And so I went.

There is this idea of just going.

That's faith.

It's movement, leaving all you've ever known, the safety, and stepping out into the unknown, not knowing how it will go.

See, faith was a brand new thing in Abrams day.

It wasn't like there was a whole history of faith up to this point.

Prior to Abram, this notion of faith had no place in religious feeling or imagination or thought.

But Abram learns it and because anything is possible, he learns it.

All is possible.

Faith is possible and even necessary, because if there's no road ahead, if there's no journey or calling ahead of you, then faith isn't necessary.

If life is just a cycle, an endless wheel repeating itself, with nothing new, you don't need faith.

If we are going to stay in the boat and not get out of the water and walk on it, then we don't need faith.

In fact, one commentator says like this faith supplants the generalized predictability of the ancient world with the possibility of both real success and real failure.

By the way, we're not guaranteed to have success in a worldly sense.

In fact, success and failure, these are human-made things.

All that I find in the Bible isn't success and failure, it's just faithfulness.

So the more interesting question for me is not are you successful?

I don't care, I want to know are you faithful, are you being faithful to what God has asked you to do?

That's all that I care about and that's what I find interesting, because there might be real successful failure, real happiness, real tragedy.

That is a real journey whose outcome is not yet.

We don't know where this thing will turn out, but we're going to go anyway.

That's life.

It's full of the possibility of love and heartbreak and doubt and wonder and joy and sorrow.

All these things make up this beautiful journey that we call life.

That's how it goes.

And Abram, he went, he got off the wheel and he went, he really went, he really went.

You see, cyclical religion, or religion in a wheel, takes us nowhere, takes us nowhere Because within its comprehension, there is no future.

There's no future in that picture, only the next revolution of the wheel.

Friends, there are churches that do the same thing over and over and, over and over again, and I don't mean liturgies those are beautiful and wonderful rhythms and habits, those are fine.

We do a lot of the same things, but I mean the spirit, the mission of the church.

If I roll out the same spirit from like 50 years ago, what am I doing?

I want to know what God is asking of us now, here and now.

What does God call me to do today, not 100 years ago?

What is God asking of me today?

The churches that stop asking that?

Trust me, they will die or become a small country club of about 100 people.

I don't want to do that, and thankfully, I know a number of you don't want to do that either, because if all we do is roll out the same old, same old, we don't even need faith.

It takes very little risk, very little faith at all, and it goes nowhere.

I'm afraid that many of us, though, are also too afraid, and we'd rather just do the same things we've always done.

But that isn't the story of faith.

It isn't the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, whose lives are changed going down the road.

It's a life of stagnation.

One scholar also says like this the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is a real personality, who has intervened in real history, changing its course and robbing it of predictability.

Now, I know a lot of you who are like type A or like like predictability.

This makes you a little bit nervous, I get it.

But this faith is what we're invited into.

And check this out.

How old was Abraham?

75.

That's an old dude.

His wife was barren, she was not having any kids, and God calls him anyway.

The implication is pretty obvious.

Friends, I don't care how old you are, I don't.

I don't care if you're five, I don't care.

I don't care if you're 15.

I don't care if you're 35, 85 or 105.

I don't care If you have breath in your lungs and you can listen and pray.

You can hear the call of God on your life right here, right now, today.

It's never too late.

Which raises the question then what is God asking of you?

And I'm deadly serious when I ask this question what is God calling you to do or to be today?

And I don't mean love God, I mean that.

I do mean that Love God, love us, yes.

How how will you spend your time?

One great poet says how you spend your days, of course, how you spend your life.

So how will you spend your days?

What will you do?

Where is God calling you to go?

How has God called you to leave this cycle and go and do something new?

What's he asking of you?

What does he want of you?

By the way, as you go, I believe that God will reveal himself more to you Back here, like I don't even know if maybe God's real, but I'm going to go anyway.

And as you go, god has revealed as you go.

It's how it worked with Abram.

God didn't know, or Abram didn't know, much about God at all.

At that point he was one of many gods.

He sort of just speak to the Lord, hey, go forth.

And I was like all right.

And as he goes, god reveals himself more.

It wasn't like God was hiding, but it's like maybe Abram wasn't really fully awake to God.

He was so asleep or kind of like just sort of numb to God.

And as he goes, he experiences God more in real and deep ways.

So as we go, we slowly wake up to God in our lives by faith.

You notice, when you start obeying God, you start seeing more God all around you and working in different ways and you're like, oh, this is incredible.

So it works.

The invitation of God is always there, though it wasn't like Abram needed to conjure up the presence of God or this idea like just white knuckle and stuff.

No, it's the invitation.

The door was open, Abram goes and then God blesses him.

And this is faith.

He was living as though the power of God and the call of God was real.

Now there is one thing that will block you.

I think We've already mentioned it.

I don't think that the opposite of faith is doubt.

I think those go hand in hand.

The opposite of faith, I think, is fear, because fear paralyzes us.

If faith is about movement and me going from here to there, then anything that paralyzes me is sort of the opposite of faith, and fear does that.

You don't notice how fear sort of stops you in your tracks.

One night we were with some friends out in the woods.

We were hiking around with our flashlights I couldn't see much and we heard this loud sound of a twig breaking over in the woods over here, and we all, of course, froze.

Nobody moved why?

Because that's what happens when you become afraid you freeze up, and we didn't want to get eaten by a bear and we froze.

This is what fear does to us.

Fear keeps you from harm, yes, but it also robs us of potential and it robs you of the journey forward.

It robs you of experiences you might have otherwise had, of happiness and real life.

Darkness always has a way of scaring us, but Abram went Central this morning.

May you hear the call of God in your life, and you hear loud and clear, and may you go into the unknown with no map other than God has called you.

And if you need help discerning what does God call me to talk with somebody in here or call me.

We'll get some coffee or a burrito.

We'll talk more about it, but may you hear the invitation of God in your life and may you go Amen.