Stepping Forward in Faith

I’d like to tell you a true story about a man and woman who learned to step forward in faith. Bill and Helen Furnish were high school sweethearts who got married just after they graduated.

They worked hard to put themselves through college. It was a struggle, but they were young and they had lots of energy. After college, Bill began a promising career in sales. They decided it was finally time to begin a family. They tried for eleven years to have children with no success.

Finally, with the joy that only an expectant mother can know, Helen broke the good news to Bill. “We’re going to have a baby.” They were thrilled.

Helen gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. They named him Steven. But soon afterward, the doctor told Helen that another pregnancy would be too great a risk to her health. It was impossible for them to have any more children.

Bill and Helen thanked God daily for all the blessings He had given them, especially for their son Steve. Time passed too quickly for them, as it always does when you’re raising kids, and pretty soon Steve graduated from high school.

That’s when the dark clouds began to gather over their little family. It was 1969, and the Viet Nam war was at its height. Steve decided, along with a few of his friends, to join the US Marines. Bill and Helen had a lot of misgivings about his decision. They tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistent. So finally, they stood by him and supported him in it.

To make a long story short, just five days after Steve arrived in Viet Nam, a Marine chaplain and another officer knocked on Bill and Helen’s front door. Steve had been killed by a sniper on his very first patrol.

Bill and Helen were devastated. They had feared the worst, and now the worst had happened.

Bill took a leave of absence from work, and for three months they withdrew and mourned the loss of their only son. Finally, Bill’s company offered him a job transfer to Southern California. After much prayer, they decided to make the move. They hoped that their new surroundings would help them to cope with their grief.

They moved to the town of Oceanside and bought a lovely house with a view of the Pacific Ocean.

But to their surprise, they soon discovered that their new home was only a few miles from the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. It seemed that everywhere they looked in their new community, they saw young men in uniform. And every Marine they saw was a painful reminder of Steve, the son they had lost.

I want to come back to Bill and Helen’s story later. But right now I’d like you to turn in your Bible to Genesis 12.

Genesis 12 is the beginning of the story of Abraham. The story of Abraham is the beginning of the story of the nation Israel. And the story of the nation Israel is the beginning of the story of how God brought redemption to all mankind through His Son Jesus Christ.

But it all begins back in Genesis 12 with a man who learned to step forward in faith.

Today, we’re going to look at three video clips of Abraham’s life; three faith-steps that he took. And we’re going to try to see what stepping forward in faith means in practical terms for us today. Let’s read Genesis 12:1…

Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

The very first step of faith that God challenged Abraham to take was to LEAVE. Leave his homeland.

Abraham was living in the city of Ur, which was kind of like the New York City of the ancient world. It was located in the lower Mesopotamian valley, near present-day Kuwait. Ur was the leading city of that day. It was a center of commerce and culture. Archaeologists have dug up some of the treasures of Ur—they are sophisticated and beautiful works of art.

God wanted Abraham to leave Ur. “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” God was not challenging Abraham to move to the suburbs, he was asking him to get out of the country completely!

“Leave your homeland. Leave your extended family. (The extended family, or clan, was extremely important in those days.) Leave your culture. Leave the land of your birth. Leave all your familiar surroundings, and go to a place I will show you.”

God was asking Abraham to go to a place he didn’t even know about yet. God said “Leave… and later, I will show you where you’re going. But first, you’ve gotta LEAVE.”

The first thing we have to learn about trusting God is that we’ve got to be willing to LEAVE our comfort zone. We’ve got to be willing to step out into the unknown.

Every one of us has a circle in which we live. Let’s call it our “circle of confidence”. All the things in our circle of confidence are things that we feel comfortable with. Things that we like to do; things that we know we can do. Things we’re familiar with. Everybody’s circle of confidence is different.

For example, if I were to ask you to prepare a sermon for next Sunday morning, you’d probably say “Oh no! I can’t do that! That’s way outside my circle of confidence.”

But if you were to ask me to come up with a menu and prepare meals for a family of seven, which is what my wife does every week, I would be paralyzed with fear! I’d say “I can’t do that! That’s way outside my circle of confidence!”

Everybody has a circle of confidence, and everybody’s circle of confidence is different. But here’s the important lesson to get hold of: God is always challenging you to take a step outside of your circle of confidence in order to prove to you that He is real.

As long as you stay inside your circle of confidence, you never really have to trust God. As long as life is safe and predictable and you feel secure in what you’re doing, you never have to rely on God. Because you don’t really need Him. You can handle everything in your circle of confidence on your own.

And so you never grow in faith. And you never get to see God’s blessing; you never get to see Him work in your life in supernatural ways.

In aviation, they have a term they use about the flight characteristics of any given airplane. They call it “the flight envelope”. The flight envelope is defined by several variables such as speed, weight, altitude, engine power, and so forth.

As long as you stay within the envelope, the airplane will fly safely. But if you get outside of the envelope, unpredictable things start happening, most of them pretty scary!

God is always pushing us outside the envelope. He’s not content to have us comfortable, because He’s trying to make us Christ-like. And to do that, he has to take us outside the envelope. Outside our circle of confidence.

If Abraham had never left Ur, he would have been quite comfortable, but he never would have become the father of a great nation. He never would have become the ancestor of the Messiah. He never would have been such a tremendous blessing to the whole world.

He would have lived a safe, secure, predictable, comfortable, anonymous, empty life in Ur. And he would have died without ever knowing that God is real.

The first step of faith is to be willing to LEAVE your circle of confidence and follow God where He is leading. Maybe God is challenging you to do that in some area of your life right now.

Let’s look at another video clip in Abraham’s life. Turn to Genesis 13. When Abraham left Ur, he didn’t obey God completely. (He wasn’t perfect.) He took part of his extended family along with him. He took his nephew Lot.

Abraham and Lot were what we would call nomads. They were like bedouin sheep herders. They had flocks, and they had servants, and they lived off the land, moving from place to place wherever the grazing was good.

Genesis 13:2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.

Genesis 13:5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. And quarreling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot.

So here’s the problem. Abraham and Lot had to split up. But how would they decide which family would go where? Abraham came up with a solution. Look at verse 8…

So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.

Abraham gave Lot the freedom to choose where he wanted to go. Now that’s pretty remarkable. Because in Middle Eastern culture, they put a lot of value on age, and Abraham was certainly the elder of the two men. He was Lot’s uncle.

He had the right to first choice of the land. But Abraham did not insist on his rights as the elder. He let Lot choose first. And on the basis of Lot’s choice, Abraham was wiling to take what was left.

What did Lot choose? Look at verse 10

Genesis 13:10 Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar… So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

Lot was greedy—he got to choose first, so he chose the best land. Poor old Uncle Abe got stuck with the scruffy, rocky, infertile hill-country of Canaan. He got a raw deal, but he was the one who let Lot make that choice.

When Abraham allowed Lot to make that choice—a choice that would determine his own destiny—he was really putting his fate in God’s hands. He was willing to let God work in his own life through a choice that somebody else made.

Abraham knew God well enough to know that he wouldn’t be alone whatever way this thing happened to turn out. He realized that since God was with him, it didn’t matter whether he went to the left or to the right. So to Abraham, it really didn’t matter what Lot chose—God was still in control.

The first step of faith is to LEAVE. The second is to LET. Let God be sovereign in your life. That may mean that you have to let God unfold His will for you through the choices that other people make.

The question is control. We have such a hard time letting go and letting others have control, especially when their choices affect us.

You may have a boss that you think is totally unreasonable. And you’re not going to stand for the way he treats you! You’re not going to let him have control!

Or you may have children who show a pronounced tendency to choose the total opposite of the way you would choose. So you’re not going to let them have control to make those choices.

But have you ever stopped to ask: Is God trying to accomplish something in my life through the choices that other people make? Do I believe that God is sovereign enough that he can accomplish his will for me even when other people make choices that make my life difficult?

Think of Joseph. Joseph’s own brothers sold him into slavery. Then Potiphar’s wife framed him and he ended up in jail in Egypt.

But that jail was just one step away from the prime ministership of all Egypt. God was sovereign in Joseph’s life every step of the way. And at the end of the story, Joseph could say to his brothers “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Are you willing to let God be sovereign in your life? Are you willing to let Him have control? When you let other people make choices that bring change into your life—sometimes wrenching, painful change—what you’re really doing is saying “God, I believe that you are my sovereign.”

Turn over to Genesis 22. There’s one more faith step that Abraham had to take.

Genesis 22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Look at Abraham’s response. He got up early the next morning, cut some wood for the burnt offering, saddled up his donkey, and set out for the place God had told him about.

On the third day, they arrived at Moriah. Abraham started up the hill, with his son Isaac carrying the wood.

Genesis 22:9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and LAID HIM ON THE ALTAR, on top of the wood.

The first step of faith is to LEAVE your circle of confidence. That’s tough. The second step of faith is to LET God be sovereign in your life through circumstances and people. That’s even tougher. But the third step of faith is the toughest of all.

The third step of faith is to LAY your most precious possession on the altar of God. Isaac was the son that God had promised Abraham. He was the apple of his father’s eye.

Isaac was the key to the future—he was the heir through whom Abraham’s descendants were supposed to come.

And now God was telling Abraham to kill him! To do away with his only son. To sacrifice him on the altar. To destroy the only means through which those promises could be fulfilled.

Wouldn’t Abraham have had the right to refuse to do such a thing? What a terrible thing to ask a father to do!

And yet what was Abraham’s response? He didn’t cling to Isaac. He bound him up and LAID him on the altar, even though he knew it might mean the end of all his hopes and dreams

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead…

Are you willing to LAY your most prized possession on the altar of God this morning? That which is closest to your heart? It may be your spouse…your family…your reputation…Your career…Your plans…Your goals…Your dreams.

You will never know the resurrection power of God in your life unless you are wiling to sacrifice that treasure on the altar of God. Because anything that you cannot lay on the altar of God will end up becoming your god.

The Lord asked Bill and Helen Furnish to give up their only son Steve. And for a long time they couldn’t understand why.

They got in their car that first Sunday morning in their new home in California and they began to drive around looking for a church. As they sat through the service, they were haunted by the question “Why? Why did God take Steve? And why has He led us here to California, only to be tormented by the sight of all these Marines?”

After church, they stopped for lunch at a little café where they could watch the ocean. They tried again to make sense of their situation. As they drove back home, they saw a young Marine hitchhiker carrying a sign that said “Home”.

On impulse, Bill pulled over and offered the young soldier a ride. As they drove along, the Marine explained that he had finished basic training and was going to Arizona to see his folks before shipping overseas.

Bill and Helen didn’t reveal the sadness in their own hearts; they just listened to the boy and drove him all the way into town. There, Bill bought him a bus ticket to Arizona. “You can waste a lot of valuable time hitchhiking.” Bill said. “I know your parents must be anxious to see you.”

From that day on, Bill and Helen Furnish made a silent commitment to be available to the young men and women that God might send their way from Camp Pendleton. Their pastor encouraged them to begin a ministry to these lonely young recruits who were far from home. Before long, dozens of people in the church got involved in that ministry.

Hardly a week went by when Bill and Helen did not have Marine recruits in their home. The women of the church began a “cookie ministry” for the boys who were missing Mom’s home-baked treats. Bill got some business cards printed up with their name and address and the phrase “a home away from home”.

Bill and Helen’s grief over losing their son Steve slowly began to heal as they gave themselves away in ministry. The spring returned to their step as they began to see that God had, indeed, led them to where they were.

One day in the mail, as often happened, there was a letter from a grateful Marine. It went like this:

“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Furnish,

You probably don’t remember me, but I was hitchhiking a few months ago and you picked me up. I just had to write and tell you something. When you picked me up, I was running away from Camp Pendleton. I was AWOL.

I was angry and confused. I felt that nobody in the world cared whether I lived or died. But you were so loving to me. You were so kind. When you prayed with me and slipped me that $20 bill, I tried to be cool. But then when Mrs. Furnish hugged me and told me she hoped to see me again, my heart practically broke.

I did not know of another person on earth who wanted to see me again. I cried when my bus pulled away.

When you stopped to give me a lift, I was desperate. I had decided that if a car picked me up, I would kill the people and steal the car. I had a sharpened bayonet with me, and as soon as I got into the back seat, I took it out of my bag and laid it across my knees.

But as we drove along, you talked kindly to me and you showed me so much love. Your spirit was so sweet that I just couldn’t do what I had planned. If you’ll look under the back seat of your car, you’ll find where I hid the bayonet when you weren’t looking.”

Bill and Helen put down the letter and went out to the car. They looked under the back seat and sure enough there it was. A long shiny silver knife, maybe something like that knife that Abraham held in his hands on Mount Moriah.

That bayonet now hangs on the wall of Bill and Helen’s den, right next to a picture of their son Steve And in that den there are hundreds of other photos of young men and women who have passed through Camp Pendleton who have had their lives touched by the ministry of Bill and Helen Furnish.

God wants to use you like that. But he can’t do it unless you’re willing to take those steps of faith.

• Leave your circle of confidence to follow God.

• Let God be sovereign in your life through the decisions and actions of others

• Lay your most prized treasure on His altar.