Show Notes
Faith doesn't announce itself, God is always there waiting, helping, comforting. You just have to believe that and trust Him.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] God doesn't design us to fit. He designs us to be impactful.
[00:00:06] Hey, family, it's Ryan Robinson. Welcome to Shifts and Ladders, where we are continuing on our discussion and conversation about the hall of faith found in Hebrews, chapter 11. We left off at verse 8, but today we're going to add a couple more verses, and we're talking about Moses. Excuse me, not Moses.
[00:00:28] Abraham, the father of the faith.
[00:00:32] And he is pivotal to our understanding of what faith looks like. So we're going to actually just jump right in to Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 9 and 10. And it says this. By faith, he dwelt in the promised land, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of the same promise.
[00:00:57] Verse 10. For he was looking for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God powerful.
[00:01:06] Okay, and what I'm going to do, too, I'm going to actually move us to the Book of Psalms, this Old Testament book of Psalms, and we're going to go to 127, and we're just going to use verse one, Psalm 127, verse one. Except the Lord build the house, those who build labor in vain.
[00:01:31] Except the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
[00:01:37] I'm going to verse two. It is in vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, and to eat the bread of hard toil, for he gives sleep to his beloved.
[00:01:51] Look, children are a gift of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is their reward. I'm going to stop right there.
[00:01:58] Okay. All right. So why did I go to the Psalms? There's a couple things we want to talk about here, and I want us to just kind of think about this.
[00:02:08] In the last episode, we discussed Abraham, who did not have a gps, a location or a map to know where to go, just decided to get up and go off of what God told him and what he promised him. Right. So the first thing we're going to talk about is sometimes you can be in the right place and still be living in a tent.
[00:02:31] Let me explain.
[00:02:34] Abraham walked out on faith. He did everything he needed to do, but he still was in. And this is the thing. He was in the promised land, but he did not have any of the accoutrements. He didn't have a house.
[00:02:50] He didn't have a garage.
[00:02:52] He didn't have a place. He lived in a tent, just like he was a foreigner.
[00:02:58] So what's crazy about it is you can actually be where you are supposed to be by faith. You made the steps, you took the action.
[00:03:09] You could be in the land, and it just may not be ready yet.
[00:03:16] I hope that's encouraging for somebody.
[00:03:19] What's important is just because God called you there doesn't mean he's done building and building you while you're there. Abraham didn't have anything to his name when he left. All he had was what he had.
[00:03:37] He had his family. He had some.
[00:03:40] Some stuff, some cattle, some goats.
[00:03:43] He had the wealth that he had.
[00:03:46] But God said, I will make you a great nation. That was part of his promise. He didn't make him a great nation before he moved them. He needed to move him into a land that he said he would give them. And then he said he would make you and he would make him into a great nation based off of that. And he would make his name great. But the first thing he had to do was to leave his country, leave his family, and leave his father's house to a land that God said he was showing.
[00:04:19] So with no direction, Abraham, Abraham Abram at the time, but Abraham walked, didn't know he arrived, but God knew he arrived.
[00:04:32] So sometimes we could actually be where God has us and really wants us to be. We just don't even know it yet.
[00:04:40] Okay, so there's another piece here that I want to get on and start talking about. And it's actually in verse 10, and it says. This verse 10 says, for he was looking for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
[00:05:02] So he was looking for something that had some eternal value.
[00:05:11] When God builds something, when God establishes something, it's done. It's a done deal.
[00:05:20] You can't make it any better. If God says, I'm a build it, that's it.
[00:05:28] If God says, I am the architect and I am the designer of your life, there is nothing you could do. You could if you wanted to.
[00:05:37] God's just. He loves us like that. He will let us do our own thing. But once we have said, hey, we're going to follow you, he's like, okay, I know. The plans I have for you, says, the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you.
[00:05:52] Plans to give you a future and a hope.
[00:05:54] Abraham took the steps to do that. But catch this.
[00:05:58] When we Talked about Psalms 127, this is the cheat code here.
[00:06:05] Except the Lord build the house.
[00:06:09] Those who build labor in vain.
[00:06:13] Except the Lord guards the city. The watchman stays awake. In vain.
[00:06:20] In vain means that it is without purpose.
[00:06:26] Okay, you just did it because you did it.
[00:06:30] If you're doing something and God's not in it, it actually means nothing.
[00:06:35] You could be building something. If God didn't give you the plan or give you the unction or is in there with you building it, it's not going to last.
[00:06:46] The saints say whatever we build for Christ will last.
[00:06:51] All of the foundations, like sinking sand. It doesn't really matter if God's not in it, it's not going to last.
[00:06:59] Okay?
[00:07:03] So if we don't understand that God has to be involved in it to succeed, it's not going to work or it won't last. That is the difference between human success and effort and divine construction and building.
[00:07:25] God builds what we can't see.
[00:07:28] But human success is all about display. Okay, so everything that Abraham is walking out on, he is walking out on things he cannot see but still believes.
[00:07:42] He.
[00:07:43] Like we talked about in the last episode, he believes in the one who gave him the promise.
[00:07:51] And Bible says it was counted unto him as righteousness because he believed God for what he said. He believed him and he believed him and what he said.
[00:08:01] There we go. Okay, so this, if we're going to take all of this, the circumstances that we found in scripture, let's apply this to our life. Okay?
[00:08:12] What does your foundation rest on?
[00:08:17] Good question, huh?
[00:08:19] So do we look to put in the effort, put in the work to do this? I actually had this conversation with my coach and my dad actually recently.
[00:08:32] One of the things we struggle with, and I'm an athlete, so I'm not an athlete now, but in my heart of hearts, I'm still an athlete. And one of the things we keep going back to regularly is the concept of hard work.
[00:08:47] And one of the things that they always talk about is like, you know, your first one in the gym, last one to leave, he's putting in the work.
[00:08:55] And some of the time as an athlete, you remember some of the work was really painful. Like it really sucked. Like it wasn't as glamorous as we make it to be. As if your hard work always made the difference. You can always work hard.
[00:09:12] Anybody can.
[00:09:14] But you can also work hard to get a great result or work hard and not get any result.
[00:09:22] You got to work smarter and not harder. I always want to make people, make people aware of this. When you work hard, you could not be working hard.
[00:09:32] Let me say that again. When you work hard, you may be working on something you're actually not gifted in.
[00:09:39] So, yeah, it's hard work. But did anybody really value what you put your hard work in?
[00:09:46] So what at that point, what were you doing it for?
[00:09:50] And a lot of times what we don't do when we don't apply is the hard work to a gift set and ability to connect and relate and serve people.
[00:10:00] So we think we do. We build what we think people would like from us in order to get something out of them instead of actually serving them.
[00:10:09] Because we want human success. But Abraham is giving us the blueprint on what does eternal foundation look like?
[00:10:20] Because anything that has to do with humanity or human nature, people focusing on people, things, any noun, people, places, things, is going to crumble. Because that foundation is not built to last.
[00:10:38] But eternal foundation, the things that Abraham acted upon, which was only one thing. It was the word that God had given at the time.
[00:10:49] So if I asked you, have you listen to the word of God or can you discern what God is saying? Have you read the Bible to understand what he already said?
[00:11:05] Could it be possible that you are building on a foundation that is destined to fall apart on you?
[00:11:14] Just a question.
[00:11:20] I said this before last week. I want to do it.
[00:11:24] Another thought here. Do not despise tent seasons.
[00:11:28] Tent seasons are necessary. Bible says this.
[00:11:32] Do not despise the day of small beginnings, for the Lord takes joy to see the work begin as Zechariah 4, 10. Now, why is that important?
[00:11:43] Abraham didn't know he was already in the land. There was not a sign that said, welcome to your promise.
[00:11:50] Welcome to Canaan. You have arrived.
[00:11:53] Abraham was.
[00:11:55] Was operating as if he was still in a foreign land.
[00:12:02] But God only knew that he was right where he needed to be.
[00:12:07] Okay, I'm a. This is. This is. This is getting me. This is reaching me.
[00:12:13] It reached me before, but it's really reaching me now.
[00:12:16] Sometimes we could actually be exactly where God wants us to be. But it doesn't feel like we're here.
[00:12:23] It doesn't feel like we arrived. It doesn't feel like what we thought it would feel like.
[00:12:29] But God's like, oh, I already got you there. I just. I don't need to announce it to you.
[00:12:36] I can announce it to your children and your children's children, which is why the scripture mentions Isaac his son and Jacob his grandson. These are in individuals who benefited by being in this land.
[00:12:53] But what's crazy about it is they didn't know that they were actually in the promise.
[00:13:04] It's nuts to me. I mean, I don't know why. It just got me that what we thought was a season of being forgotten is actually a season of a season for us getting prepared, not just for ourselves, but for those who are coming behind us.
[00:13:28] Because that's what God said.
[00:13:31] That's powerful.
[00:13:33] Last point here.
[00:13:35] We gotta let God build it.
[00:13:40] This is the problem that most of us have. I'm telling all myself. I cannot let. I have a hard time letting things go.
[00:13:49] I am one again. You're like, Ryan, you're a preacher. You a man of God. Yeah. And I'm human, too.
[00:13:55] I struggle letting things go and letting God handle it the best way he knows. Because I kind of think I'm smart, but I'm not smarter than God. I know that. But I'm like, well, maybe I could try.
[00:14:10] Lord, will you give me a chance to just kind of, like, use this wisdom that you gave me and this. These smarts to figure out a plan?
[00:14:21] And he's like, no.
[00:14:25] So I'm gonna give you about three questions here for you to evaluate this. This season or this thought of letting God build it. With three questions. One, where you are.
[00:14:37] Sorry, let me say this again.
[00:14:39] Where are you building without God's direction? Where are you building without God's direction? What looks good isn't always God.
[00:14:50] All right? I just want to tell you that.
[00:14:52] Okay. Number two, where are you? Exhausted. Because you've been protecting something he didn't assign you to keep.
[00:15:02] The verse, verse 1 in Psalms 127 said that the watchman stays up all night in vain, lest the Lord actually does what he does. If he doesn't watch the watchman, what he's doing doesn't matter.
[00:15:20] So have you been protecting something that God didn't assign you? Number three, have you mistaken the tent for the destination only? When is just the staging ground for you?
[00:15:34] Yeah, these are some questions, y'. All. These are some real questions. Because faith does not have to have an announcement that it's arrived.
[00:15:44] You could be exactly where God wants you to be.
[00:15:50] But you're looking for the sign that says that you arrived in your promise to confirm whether or not you've made it.
[00:16:01] Let me encourage you today.
[00:16:03] God still has you.
[00:16:06] He's still comforting you. He's still leading you.
[00:16:10] We have to trust him again.
[00:16:13] Hebrews 11, verse one says fate. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[00:16:22] We have to walk this thing out.
[00:16:24] Even though we don't see it materially, we have to trust that it is there spiritually.
[00:16:30] And we have to believe and trust in the one who gave the instruction that he is not a man, that he should lie.
[00:16:39] And the Bible says this that every word that has come out of the Word of God does not return unto him void, but accomplishes everything for which it was sent out to do.
[00:16:53] It's hard, y'. All.
[00:16:55] It's hard trusting God. Because the future doesn't always look like what we want it to look like, because we just have our now, and then we have our past.
[00:17:06] But God says, trust me with your future and let me show you what I can do. I can design a life that is better than what you can ask, think, or imagine if you trust me.
[00:17:18] All right, y'. All. I hope this podcast blessed you subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Share this with somebody that needs some encouragement. Until next time. We'll catch you in the next one. Peace.
