The Journey of Faith
Texts: Genesis 12:1-9, Hebrews 11:8
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
May 26, 2024
The Lord calls Abram to go. “Go” is one of the most dangerous words the Lord might speak to people. Abram, as he was known at that time, is to go from his country, his people, and his family. Abraham is to leave everything that is familiar, all he loves, all he finds comfortable, and he is to go on a journey of faith. The only directions? God will show the way.
The most important part of this passage is that this is how God begins his plan of redemption for the world. The Lord makes a covenant with Abraham. You go and I will make of you a great nation and bless you. That nation will become Israel. It is from Israel that Jesus Christ will come. Of course, this is not known to Abraham because it is centuries down the road. This redemption will take a long time. Which tells us journeying with God can take a long time. Beware of valuing efficiency when it comes to walking with God. But the Lord will begin all of this with Abraham.
The secondary part of Abraham’s going is that he now begins a journey of faith.
We are told that Abraham went as the Lord told him. Hebrews 11 is the greatest chapter on faith in the Bible. There we read that Abraham (and let’s not forget Sarah) when called by God obeyed and went, even though Abraham did not know where he was going. Note that line: Obedient even when you don’t know where you are going.
Abraham had to trust God. Read the narrative of Abraham and we find he didn’t always do it perfectly. He made mistakes. But he did it obediently.
Abraham joins this covenant with his feet, not his words. Abraham doesn’t say anything. He just goes. And when he goes he leaves a set of footprints for anyone who walks by faith in the Lord.
What I want us to understand this morning is that anyone who surrenders their life to God in Jesus Christ is on a journey of faith. A journey that will involve many shorter journeys. We can talk a faith or we can walk a faith. The faith that God is looking for is one were we follow him in obedience.
Everyone who follows God is on a journey of faith. Sometimes things open up before us and the way makes total sense. Sometimes things are not always clear. Sometimes we find it affirming and sometimes it gets uncomfortable. Sometimes it is full of joy and sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it is like we are in fog and can’t see very far ahead, and other times we see so clearly where God is leading.
The most important thing for the journey is trust. We have to trust that though we can’t always see God can,
…that though we may not know God does,
…that goodness and mercy are following us, though we may not always feel it.
We have to trust God is holding us because God never tells anyone to “Go” and doesn’t go too. If we are too comfortable, too secure, too in control then we won’t be willing to trust God.
The Bible is full of journeys of faith.
The Hebrews journey out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. God leads them on a journey through the wilderness. In that journey they learn to depend on the Lord.
Job’s journey of faith is about asking God “why?” amidst his great suffering. And Job’s path was about perseverance as he refused to give up on God even in his bewilderment and extreme frustration.
Nehemiah was on a journey of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. This is what he sensed God called him to do. He faced opposition but stayed the course and completed this monumental task.
Think of Daniel’s journey of faith: taken from his home to a foreign land. While living amidst a culture and religion that was not his, he kept to his convictions and was faithful to the Lord.
Ancient Israel was taken into exile, journeying in a foreign land for a long time, living by faith that God would someday restore it.
During this time God sends prophets to speak to this hurting people assuring them of God’s eye upon them and that he has not forgotten them. Part of Israel’s journey was to go through these years of discipline because of its unfaithfulness to the Lord, but believing God was not done with them by a long shot.
Mary and Joseph journey from Galilee to Bethlehem.
Our Lord Jesus Christ invited people to follow him. He told those fishermen to drop their nets, and Matthew to get up from his table, and likewise with others. They go. Leave. They didn’t always know what Jesus was going to do next. He took them into some wild situations. But they followed. It was their journey.
The early church goes on a journey of faith, receiving the Holy Spirit and going to the ends of earth to share the gospel of Jesus. The apostles and others go into cities, towns and far away countries. And the Christian church continues that today.
Before it was called “Christian” it was called “The Way.” It meant the way of Jesus, which is a phrase Mark uses prominently in his Gospel.
In the book of Acts we hear about the missionary travels of Paul, journeys he took to bring Jesus to others. And, oh, the trust that took.
The Bible is a story of many journeys really making up one big journey of faith. And those of us who have entrusted our lives to Christ and are willing to follow are on that journey.
We go trusting God to lead us though we may not know what is to come or the way.
Mount Olympus Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake City where I was the pastor for 14 years has a dynamic ministry in Kenya. While I was there my three daughters all were able to be part of mission teams that went to serve. On one trip our second and third daughters, Cara and Jordan, went. They were 15 and 14 at the time.
We had two large groups of students and adults. One group would fly through Dallas and another group through Chicago. Both groups would meet in London and then fly together to Kenya.
We were at the airport very early to see everyone off. But the airline would not allow my daughters on the plane because there was a minor error on their names on their ticket. We talked and pleaded but the woman would not issue boarding passes.
This was a trip that was in the planning and preparation for months.
The travel agent who had booked all the tickets couldn’t believe the airline was doing this. I told our youth director who was leading the trip to go ahead and I would get my girls situated with air travel. So off the groups went.
The travel agent called me back and said there was a plane on another airline leaving for Washington D.C. in 20 minutes and this was the only way they were going to get out of Salt Lake. Then they would fly to New York, and then catch up with the group in London. She didn’t have an exact itinerary yet, but the agent would build it as they were flying. All connections would be tight but it could work.
We whisked our daughters to security where after telling someone the situation they let them go to the front of the line. I told Cara and Jordan to just go, call me when they landed in D.C. and we would have more info. Off they went. Off they went not knowing exactly where they were going.
We were sending our teenage daughters, both minors, off by themselves. Destination: Kenya! Were we nuts? Some parents in this room are saying “yes” to themselves right now.
They texted us to let us know they had arrived in D.C. I told them to find the gate for such and such a flight and go to the counter.
They called when they landed in New York. They went to the counter and the agent wouldn’t check their bags because she said they wouldn’t make their flight in London. We told them to be firm and insist. I was so grateful in that moment that my daughter’s had their mother’s fierce and irrational stubbornness. No negotiation! The agent checked their bags and put them on the flight.
My daughters were nervous. I told them it will be tight but I assured my girls that they will make the flight. They will have to really hit it to get to the right gate, but Jamie, our youth director, and others would be there to meet them. They get on the plane at Kennedy Airport.
30 minutes later I get a text: The plane is still at the gate. I figured the time for them to get to the plane in London and they were still fine. Another half hour goes by. Still at the gate. I told them they would have to run but they would be OK. And London is no small airport. They might have to take a bus or shuttle to get to another terminal. Just ask someone and they will get you there.
Two hours and the plane still has not pulled away from the gate. I know they will not make the flight in London. My two teenage minor daughters are going to London, will be all by themselves when they land, and are at the mercy of the airport and who knows who else.
This was also before we had iphones. Our little cell phone did not have international service. Once they leave New York we lose contact them them.
I try calling the airlines. We email. We try to get a message that two girls are on flights such and such and are to get onto flight such and such. I try to alert someone.
You know why there are no more bomb threats at airports? Because you can’t get anyone on the phone.
We are worried parents and we don’t know what is going to happen.
The mission group has arrived in London are about ready to catch their flight to Nairobi, and our youth director calls on the phone of one of the adults who had an iphone and international service, and in a panic asks where are our girls. This is like 3 AM in Utah. We explain the situation. Jamie talks to airline people at the gate and tells them to look for these two girls. The mission team flies to London on their scheduled flight.
Later, when we realize the flight our daughters were on has landed in London we wonder how they are and has anyone found them? We felt a little helpless. Then Nancy just happens to get on her Facebook. And there is a posting from our daughters. There is a photo of a buffet - the buffet at British airways VIP lounge. The airline was looking for them, met them off the plane, told them they were booked for a flight to Nairobi, Kenya. It wouldn’t leave for several hours. They were escorted to the lounge and told to take advantage of anything there compliments of the airline.
They have a time of resting and enjoying. They are taken care of. They are escorted by an agent to the gate for their flight to Nairobi, checked in, put on the plane and off they went. The rest of the group had obviously landed hours before, and bussed to the town where they would be staying another couple of hours away. It happened to be a convent led by a community of nuns. These nuns had heard about our daughters and had been praying.
Our youth director went back to meet the plane carrying our daughters. She traveled with them to the convent, and they were reunited with the mission team. When they arrived, in the middle of the night there, the nuns praising God said the lost sheep have been found.
A journey with all kinds of twists and turns and uncertainties. Anxiety and provision. Obstacles and help.
What’s your journey of following the Lord been like? Has it been a blessing? Has it been hard? Filled with some really painful things?
Has it been up and down? Seasons of knowing God’s presence? Seasons of feeling apart from him?
Has it been uphill? Have there been times like you are in the desert?
Maybe you have never started walking with the Lord? We just have to place our life in his hands, go, start walking, and trust the Holy Spirit will lead us. The end is God. He is the one we are created for, destined for, and the end of a journey of faith is seeing and being with him. If we place ourselves in his hands – which is a daily thing – we will get there. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is faithful. We won’t always know, see, understand it all, but all who go with him will get there.
Maybe you have been on the journey with Jesus for a long time but feel stuck. Or maybe you are filled with energy and walking strong with Jesus.
When the Lord called Abraham to go he went with no guarantees other than the Lord himself. Perhaps God is not interested in clarity so much as faith. Faith means trusting him to be all the things we need him to be, despite our own inadequacies, and in light of the fact that we don’t actually know what we need. God doesn’t want to give us clarity. He wants to be our clarity.[1]
I am going to close with this prayer by Thomas Merton. It’s about going, leaving, and journeying with God. I have lived by this prayer.
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
[1] From David Zahl, Blessed Perplexity, mbird.com, 5.16.24