Going into the Unknown

 

The unknown is scary. We feel like and are being told that we are living in uncertain times. The truth is we are always living in uncertain times.

 

Look at what James says in James 4:13-14, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

We have never known what tomorrow holds but, given the time in which we are living, that reality has become much more real.

 

I am consistently getting offers for books or videos or courses that will help me navigate our church through the covid-19. I also get similar offers to help me know how to pastor our church after covid-19. The truth is no one has ever navigated a church through covid-19 and no on knows what the church will be like after covid-19. So, the truth is, no can tell us or even help us do what these claims offer. It is unknown

 

So, how are we to deal with life right now and how I am going to navigate our church through covid-19?

 

Hebrews 11:8

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going.

 

Abraham was going not knowing where he was going.

 

What was the basis of why he was going? – Faith.

What was the basis of where he was going? – Faith.

 

In Genesis 15:6 it says, “And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.”

 

Abraham faced the unknown by faith and God honored that faith and declared Abraham righteous.

 

So, what was the faith based on?

 

Genesis 12:1

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

 

The first thing that Abram did was that he listened to God.

 

When we face what we have never faced before, the truth is each day is an unknown. We may have thoughts and plans but we cannot know the future. But God is all knowing and He knows the future. We first, before anything and above everything, need to listen to God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is always being attentive to God’s voice.

 

Genesis 12:2-3

And I will bless you and 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 him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

 

The second thing Abram did was that he believed what God said. He trusted the promises that God gave him.

 

Hebrews 11:1 defines what biblical faith is.

 

It is having the assurance of things hoped for.

It is having the conviction of things not seen.

 

Abram believed that God would:

Make him a great nation

Make his name great

Bless those who bless him

Curse those who dishonor him

Bless all the families of earth through him

 

Abram never in his life time saw the fulfillment of any of these promises, but he believed them because he believed God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing what God says and what He promises because you believe God.

 

Genesis 12:4

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

 

The third thing that Abram did was obey God.

 

Abram heard what God said.

Abram believed what God promised.

Abram obeyed God and did what God told him to do.

 

Abram was not a young man starting his adult life. He was seventy-five years old. He had a family and responsibilities. He did not use those as excuses. He obeyed God and packed up and left.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying what God says without using any excuses.

 

So, do we live in uncertain times? – Yes!

Are we moving every day into the unknown? – Yes!

 

I have never pastored a church in a pandemic before or dealt with online and live worship times. I have never done hybrid Bible studies. I have never ministered to two congregations (live and remote) before.

 

And you have never worked in a pandemic. You have never dealt with changing restrictions weekly. You have never had to try and educate your children in a covid-19 environment. You have never had to work and coordinate things remotely.

 

So, how are we going to do it? The same way Abram did.

 

We are going to be attentive to God’s voice, to listen to Him.

We are going to trust God’s promises, to really believe God.

We are going to do what God says, to obey Him.

 

When we do that, where are we going to be going? We will be going to the same place Abram was: to God’s presence and to God’s will.

 

With God into the Unknown Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                Joe