Father Abraham's Faith: A Powerful Example of Following God

Welcome to episode 330. We're going to talk about Abraham's faith again and what that looks like. Now there's going to be a lot of Bible verses in this episode, so if you don't like the Bible or the word of God, you don't want to stay here because we're going to get deep in this, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But before we get started, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I did a Thanksgiving message that kind of broke up my faith message. We may keep this faith topic going and probably to end of December. This is a huge deal, and if you've tried to get a grasp of faith, you've kind of figured this out. But we have got to get all of these things in line, and we got to take a look at what the Bible says about faith, and then we're going to look at examples. And Father Abraham is probably our best example. And let's go to Romans 4. We ended up with that one in episode 328. We talked about Father Abraham and Romans 4. So let's go to Romans 4 again. Romans 4:17-22: As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able also to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now I'm gonna stop there real quick. We talked about this in the previous episode, but I just want to set the stage because we're going to go back and look at what God said to Abraham. And he started off— his name was Abram. Right now I just want you to start thinking about Father Abraham and what he— he did not waver at the promise. And a couple other things: God calls those things which do not exist as though they did. That's another key in this faith walk, is we don't say what we have, we have what we say. And I know that sounds about the same, but you— if you can say it out loud and believe in your heart, you're going to have it. That's kind of what faith is all about, and we're going to get to that It's going to take a minute, but we're starting to dig in and what Abraham did. And what I want you to see in this episode is how long God will wait. God's not caught in time, and we've talked about this before, but Abraham was 75 years old when God called him out of the land of Ur. And we're going to go to that, that's in Genesis 12. Let's pick it up in Genesis 12:1. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house. To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. Now I want to stop there. Now again, now Abram wasn't perfect. He told him to depart from your father and your father's house. Well, then he brings Lot. So one thing I want you to understand, when God says something— now he did go on the word of God and he took off and he said, I'm gone. He started walking out his faith. I want you to see that he was 75 years old. This is Genesis 12. I know we're in this fast-paced, instant potatoes, drive-through food. We got TikTok that's 13 or 14 seconds. On a video. There's Twitter, that's 40 characters or whatever it is. I know it's 100 and something. We have got such little bite-sized things. We think that's how God is. Well, God's not anything like that. God's not caught in time. And God called Abraham out when he was 75 years old. We're going to go to Genesis 16. We're going to kind of skip a lot, but Genesis 16:16— and I've talked about this before multiple times, but this is fascinating to me. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. And then in Genesis 17:1, the very next verse, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God. Walk before me and be blameless. And then we're going to jump down to 17:5. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. And I want to stop there. So there's a lot going on, and we talked about in 1616 and 17:1, there's about a quarter of an inch in my Bible, and that represents 13 years. That is incredible. So when we start praying and we start getting a word from God, and God says, hey, I want you to do this, like in my case, because I'm Ready Fire Aim, and you know that if you've been here. I've been doing this for over 2 years, or right at 2 years. And I've just decided this is what I'm going to do, right or wrong, I'm doing it. But God is not in a hurry. And God teaches us, if we understand that God is love and that everything that happens to us and through us is to grow us, if we understand that God is the perfect Father, that he gives us things that you and I can learn from and that will grow us, because he doesn't want us to stay the same. He wants us to become strong in Christ He wants us to get into his word and allow the word to get into us, and that takes time. We're going to talk about seed time and harvest. We're going to talk about planting seeds. We're going to talk about tilling up the garden in your heart. There's a lot to go on with faith. Abram was told at 75 years old, hey, depart from here, I'm going to make you the father of many nations, and I'm going to bless those that bless you. And then at 86, for 10 or 11 years, I'm sure Abram every chance he got, he talked to Sarai and said, hey, we need to try to make this child. And so I'm thinking, you know, in my distorted sense of humor, I'm thinking that Sarai is saying, look, this ain't working, Bubba, this is not working. We're gonna— why don't you go into Hagar? And so when Abram heard that, he did not ask God, he didn't pray about it, he just said, oh, you think so? Well, it was his wife saying, why don't you take my maidservant And so Abram didn't think about it, didn't pray about it, he just went and had sex with Hagar, and from that came Ishmael. When Ishmael was born, Abram was 86 years old. So fast forward a quarter inch in my Bible, but one verse to 17:1, Abram is 99 years old. There's a lot of water under that bridge. That child was growing, there's a lot of stuff going on, and God comes and visits Abram again and changes his name. And says, look, you're not going to be called Abram anymore, you're going to be called Abraham. And so God wants him to speak this out, and God takes him out and shows him the stars and the sand and says, so shall your descendants be. So he's getting Abraham picturing this, and he won't let him call himself Abram anymore. He is the father of many nations, Abraham. Every time he talks to people, they've got to say, hey, Abram, no, no, My name's not Abram anymore, my— God's changed my name to Abraham. And everybody knows that that meant— back then, everybody knew that that meant father of many nations. And they knew that Abram hadn't had but one child, so everybody kind of turned their head to the side. But this is what faith looks like, and this is what that faith of Abraham looks like. We got to see examples. So we're looking from, from 75 years old to 99 now, and Abram has got one child, and we're going to find out that that's not the child that God intended with this promise. Now let's go down to Genesis 17:15. Then God said to Abraham, as for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her. Yes, then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her. Then Abram fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? And shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you! Then God said, No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. Now I know that's a lot, but again, I want to show you that Abraham didn't do everything perfect. And you know where it says in Romans 4 that he had unwavering faith? Now when you have unwavering faith, that means that you believe the word of God and you go and get after it. But that doesn't mean you don't have some questions. And then God didn't smite Abraham down for laughing. He's like, oh my God, are you kidding me? I'm 100 years old, this is getting old, and we've tried this for 25 years. And Sarah still doesn't have a baby. And so God said, no, this is going to happen. Abraham believed it again, and lo and behold, Isaac was born. And I just want to encourage you, that is what faith looks like. That's Old Testament faith. That's New Testament faith. Jesus walked on this earth for 30 years before his ministry started. God didn't get in a hurry. God didn't start popping miracles through Jesus. He let him grow. He grew in grace and truth and grace and knowledge. He grew and he grew and he became the man God created him to be. And when he was ready, God opened up his ministry and it started at age 30. If you're waiting on God to do something and it's been like 3 days, give it a little more time because I can tell you from the ready, fire, aim guy that I am, I have seen God work quickly And I have seen God work slowly in my life, and praise God, it's the same. I've just got to see God as love and that he's trying to grow something into me. He's trying to do the same with you, and I just want to encourage you, God knows right where you are. Just understand that God is love. God's not caught up in time. He's not in a hurry. He wants to make sure you are ready for the blessing that's going to come on your life when you start walking in his word and you start living by faith. But right now, let's pray. God, I thank you so much for this word. I thank you for the examples of Abram and then Abraham. And I thank you that we can just read your word and start digging into it and ask your Holy Spirit, who will never leave us nor forsake us, how can we apply that to our life? And God, I thank you for the faith that you've given me, and I thank you for the faith that I'm growing, and for the unbelief that I'm pulling out like weeds and roots in my, in my heart. Lord, we believe you and we receive you by faith. We do the same thing on anything else by faith. We believe it and then we receive it. God, help us to understand faith and help us to learn to walk by faith and not by sight. God, we thank you, we love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.