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THE ADVENTURE OF FAITH

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Genesis 12:1-7

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Taking the risk to walk with God is never dull.<= o:p>

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

May 18, 2008

I know many people are getting ready for their summer vacations and making plans for various kinds of excursions in the ne= xt few weeks. Vacations are wond= erful ways to inject something different into your life, to get a break in your routine, to spend some time with your family, and to have an adventure. If you haven’t decided what you’re going to do with your vacation yet this year, you may be interested in an item I ran across recently.

For a mere $3,700 a person, you can leave bore= dom behind with a three-day action vacation at a former CIA training facility outside of Tucson, = Arizona. During these three days, ex-Army S= pecial Forces soldiers will make you feel like James Bond. They’ll pick you = up at the landing strip in an off-road desert vehicle and head out across open terrain, arming you with a paintball gun to shoot at pop-up assassins and terrorists. Next they’l= l give you instructions on how to drive a car like they do in action movies. You can learn how to do power skid= s, how to keep the bad guys from bumping your car off the road, and how to smash through a vehicle blockade.

The adventure weekend ends with a hostage cris= is, and the vacationer has to plan and carry out the rescue of people trapped i= n a situation similar to the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis in Munich. Except for using paintball guns instead of live ammunition, it is as real as it can be.[1] Then, after three days, you can go= home, feed the dog, water your plants, and worry about your budget.

I think we all want our lives to be adventures= ome and exciting, maybe not to the CIA extreme, but we want to keep it interest= ing and have a life that has some flavor to it. I don’t think it’s an accident that the most popular movies today are action flicks and comic book movies like Iron Man. Deep down inside us there= is a desire to do something heroic; we would like to take on the evil forces of = the world and fight for truth and justice.&nbs= p; God has implanted in our spirits a “hero gene.” We have a taste for adventure.

The real adventure, however, is not a three-day excursion into the desert with a paintball gun. The real adventure is the journey = of faith. This is the adventure = of life. This is the struggle for truth and justice in an ultimate sense.&nb= sp; This is the battle of the soul.&nbs= p; And only this adventure has the thrill of eternal life at the end.

Today we want to look at one of the early adventurers of faith. In fact= , he is called the “father of faith” by followers of three different religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Initially his name was Abram, which means “exalted father.” After God promised him descendants without number, he became known as Abraham, which means “father of a multitude.” In today’s Scripture lesson,= we catch the beginning of Abram’s story, as he takes his family from Haran down to the land of Canaan, a journey of between 350 and 400 miles.&nb= sp; Why would Abram undertake such an adventure? Because the Lord told him to: R= 20;Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go = from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land tha= t I will show you.’”[2] God did not even initially na= me the destination! He just told Abr= am to go, and Abram went. He was up= for the adventure. I want to share three “R-words” that help us understand the faith of Abram.

First, there was a RELATIONSHIP. Alt= hough this is the beginning of the Biblical story of Abram, I don’t believe this is the beginning of Abram’s relationship with God. They were already on speaking terms. Abram was 75 years old= . His wife Sarai was 65 and had give= n him no children. He had already migrated as a younger man from the city of Ur to Haran.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Abram had experienced enough in li= fe that he and God were already well-acquainted. Abram knew God, and their relation= ship was one of faith. Abram trust= ed God, and was willing to do whatever God asked of him. Later on, the Scripture says, R= 20;Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.”[3] Paul, in the New Testament, pi= cks up on this and declares Abraham to be the first example of saving faith.= = [4]

The point is, Abram was willing and able to undertake the adventure God called him to because he was already in a relationship with him. You can’t follow God’s lead if you don’t know God personally. But if you do kno= w God personally, then even in the struggle, even in defeat, you trust God to lead you through the tough times. It’s all in the relationship.

Former President Jimmy Carter has had a strong= faith relationship most of his life, and he credits his relationship with God for bringing him through the rough parts of his adventure. In 1966, Jimmy Carter ran for gove= rnor of Georgia against the avowed segregationist Lester Maddox, and he was soundly defeated. Carter was angry at= the racism of his state and angry at God for allowing his defeat. But his sister Ruth quoted a Scrip= ture to him—James 1:2—which says, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lac= king in nothing.”

Jimmy thought his political life was over and = that God had rejected him, but Ruth encouraged him, saying, “Jimmy, you ha= ve to believe that out of this defeat can come a greater life.” She advised him to try something t= otally unrelated to his business or politics.&nbs= p; In his book, Living Faith, <= /i>Jimmy Carter said, “Christ gives us courage to take a chance on something new….Shortly afterward I was asked by the Baptist Brotherhood to go a= s a lay witness on a mission in P= ennsylvania. I did, and it changed my life.R= 21;= = [5] Ten years later, this defeated politician and peanut farmer became the President of the United States. Trusting in God, we can take a cha= nce occasionally on something new. That’s part of the adventure.

Another part of the adventure is RISK. The journey of faith is not always= a smooth ride. There are pothol= es and pitfalls along the way. That’s why it takes faith.&nb= sp; That’s why we need God.

Abram understood this. To begin with, he was 75 years old= when God called him to make this journey. He was supposed to be in his golden years, relaxing, taking it easy, living on his shepherd’s pension.&nb= sp; At 75, you’re not supposed to have to relocate unless it’= ;s to someplace where they take care of you.&= nbsp; But Canaan hardly fit that description. It was a gruelin= g trek 350 miles across the desert. = When they got there, they discovered that the land was already occupied, and the Canaanites had not heard God tell Abram that their homeland belonged to him= . This relocation was risky business; I’m sure Abram felt quite vulnerable in the transition.

This time every year I feel the vulnerability = of transition for a particular group of people: graduating seniors and their parents. Karen and I have been there as parents; it’s a time of pride and joy, but it’s not an easy time. High school gradua= tion is more traumatic for the parents, because it’s the beginning of the young person’s flight out of the nest. With college graduation, it’s= more traumatic for the students because they either have to get into grad school= or find a job. For both seniors = and parents, graduation carries with it some anxiety and vulnerability. It takes us out of our comfort zon= e.

The adventure of faith can—and should—take us out of our comfort zone as well. Walking with God and intentionally= trying to be a witness for him can put us at risk. When you follow Christ, you lose c= ontrol of your life. You open yourse= lf up to ridicule, persecution, hostility, and loneliness. Jesus called it “taking up y= our cross.” Grace is free, = but it’s not cheap; discipleship can be very costly.

One of the true heroes in recent times was a y= oung Christian husband and father named Todd Beamer. He was a 32-year-old executive with Oracle software company. He a= nd his wife Lisa were expecting their third child. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, he boarded United Flight 93 in Newark, headed= for a business meeting in San Franci= sco. Ninety minutes later, the plane was hijacked by three terrorists and turned toward Washington, D. C. Todd reached for the phone on the = back of the seat, and called the operator on the ground and explained the situation= . Two men with boxcutters had taken = over the cockpit, and a third man had what he said was a bomb strapped to his be= lly, holding the 41 passengers and crew hostage.

The operator told Todd what had just happened = at the World Trade Center, and he quickly made the connection that their plane, too, was headed for so= me target, and they would not survive. He told the operator that he and a few others were going to try to t= ake the hijackers and disrupt their plan of destruction.

Todd asked the operator if she would call his = wife and let her and his boys know how much he loved them. Then this committed Christian man,= this dedicated father who taught Sunday School every week, asked the operator if= she would pray the Lord’s Prayer with him. When they finished, Todd Beamer pr= ayed that Jesus would help him forgive his enemies. He finished with the words, “= ;Help me, God. Help me, Jesus.̶= 1;

Then Todd turned to the businessmen who were r= eady to help him fight back, and he said, “Are you ready, guys? Let’s roll.” It was a phrase = Lisa said Todd used with their boys all the time. The phone operator heard screams a= nd commotion, then the line went dead. Ten minutes later United Flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, ki= lling everyone aboard. Somewhere in Washington, D. C., there was a target that was untouched and hundreds or thousands of lives that were saved because of the self-sacrificing bravery = of Todd Beamer and his friends. = Lisa, his pregnant wife, told America, “His example of courage has given me, my boys, and my unborn baby a reason to live.”[6]

Faith gives us a reason to live, and heroes in= spire us to live our lives in faith, even when they risk their lives to live their faith. That’s the great adventure. The good news is, = when we take the risk to live by faith, and we make some excursions outside our personal comfort zones, and we endure to the end, then we will find the REWARD. Follow God; receive the reward—that’s the promise.&nbs= p;

God does not call Abram to make the journey wi= thout the promise. In fact, there i= s a whole list of blessings forthcoming in Genesis 12: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, = and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the ear= th shall be blessed.”[7] These are great promises, and ever= y one of them came true. That’= ;s the great thing about the promises of faith—if God makes them, God keeps them. People of faith are ble= ssed, and people of faith become blessings to the world around them, no matter wh= ere their journey takes them.

Lois Secrist experienced a call to missionary = work in 1927, at the age of 15. Sh= e felt God wanted her to serve overseas, helping the poor and needy and sharing Christ. But she didn’t = get to make that trip of mercy. Inst= ead, she married a farmer named Galon Prater in 1935, who later developed a problem = with alcohol. In his later years, = Galon became a Christian and a recovering alcoholic—in that order—and he die= d in 1988. He and Lois were marrie= d over 50 years. She was 76 years ol= d, and she began to feel the call of God again to become a missionary.

At virtually the same age Abram was when he be= gan his adventure, Lois began to fulfill a long-lost desire to help the poor and needy. No church missionary organization would sponsor her because of her age, but she gathered together enough private donations to start a mission in the Philippines. In 1999, when she was 87 years old= , she built a house for the 35 orphans, aged eight months to ten years, that she cared for. Each one of them w= as totally destitute, and they all called her “Lola,” which means “grandmother” in their native tongue.

A reporter asked Lois if her lack of denominat= ional support made her nervous, and she replied with confidence, “I serve a mighty God. He’s in control. I feel I’m not talented enough to do any of this. But God enables me. My responsibility is to do what I can.”[8]

God blesses the adventurers in faith. Those who have a relationship with= God and are willing to take the risk of discipleship will receive the reward God has planned especially for them. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “= For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfa= re and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” You can trust this; God will not f= ail to bless the one who walks with him.

So what do you need to take the first step or = the next step on your journey of faith today?&= nbsp; Where is God calling you to go with your life? God may not give you a road map fo= r the rest of your journey. What he= will give you is a relationship. W= hat he will give you is a blessing, so you can be a blessing. What he will give you is life abun= dant and eternal. Trust God and ma= ke the journey. There’s a great adventure ahead of you! Amen!=

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