- 00:00
- Today we're going to do Pastor Steve is away, which is why I'm here and we'll be looking at the question
- 00:08
- Let me phrase this question properly How do I live?
- 00:14
- by faith Today, how do I live by faith today? Seems like a very simple and easy question and So my goal will be we'll do a little bit of a definitions in the beginning to kick us off Then we'll look at Abraham in particular to look at what it looks like to live by faith or not live by faith and then we'll
- 00:35
- Apply the principles of living by faith in our own lives today. So whatever it is that you need to be doing today tomorrow
- 00:44
- This week this year. How does it look like to live by faith? Today so that's that's the goal of today's
- 00:53
- Sunday school. So before we begin, let's let's pray a loving father we
- 00:59
- Thank you for this morning. We thank you for bringing us here this morning to worship you and to hear from you and to Have your spirit open our eyes to the truths of your word
- 01:10
- Work in us Oh Father and revive our spirits help us to worship you as we ought to Truly in spirit and in truth in Jesus name we pray.
- 01:19
- Amen All right, so let's begin with some easy questions to get us started
- 01:26
- All right, so salvation Has three components that we normally talk of Can somebody just call them out?
- 01:36
- What are those three elements or stages or phases of salvation? awesome
- 01:48
- Justification sanctification and glorification three aspects of salvation All Right, so justification, let's just quickly define each of those what what is justification
- 02:24
- Perfect. So here's God the righteous judge Striking the gavel down and saying not guilty.
- 02:29
- Yeah, you have your sins have been paid for on the cross and you
- 02:36
- Not guilty anymore. No more penalty Condemnation no no more Judgment you are passed from death into life
- 02:42
- Justification is what we normally think of when we think of faith, you know,
- 02:48
- I was an unbeliever I had no faith and now I have faith and I'm justified. I'm right with God.
- 02:54
- So that's the first Of the three Elements of salvation was the second one sanctification.
- 03:02
- How do we define sanctification? Define seems like a very heavy word.
- 03:08
- Just what do you think of anything of sanctification? Oh, wait, wait, let's give somebody else a turn.
- 03:17
- Everybody needs to wake up this morning Yes Excellent.
- 03:33
- So we started by faith and then we are growing in the faith as the Spirit of God then Enables us to walk by faith if you will and that's kind of where I'm gonna land today anything else on sanctification
- 03:43
- To add to this. Yes, Andrew Excellent.
- 03:55
- So what we mean by that is God is the one who? Initiates our he's the one who completes justification.
- 04:04
- He initiates and completes justification He's the one who is the one who puts the desire for you to grow in the ways of the
- 04:12
- Lord So he's the one who initiates it. He is the one who also Empowers you in order to live that life out.
- 04:18
- So you're the one who's living it. You're the one who Accomplishes it but it is God who is who is the source of your sanctification.
- 04:27
- Thank you So we have justification sanctification and last one glorification.
- 04:36
- This should be the easy one Amen Our life on this earth is done and we have glory that we anticipate so there is an element of glorifying
- 04:59
- God in all of this, but there is a Ultimate, you know in the presence of God in in glory
- 05:06
- We are Transformed so, you know, we if you think of what happens to us in justification sanctification and glorification justification child of The devil if you will, you know under the
- 05:17
- Prince of the power of the air to now into the kingdom of light In sanctification, we are being conformed more and more into the image of Christ We still have to deal with the flesh and the sin and this world.
- 05:28
- But when we are in glory we have We cannot sin we are
- 05:34
- Beholding God face to face and we get to experience the culmination of our salvation as it were
- 05:40
- So all three of these together are what we refer to in Salvation. So now faith
- 05:47
- In each of these three aspects, where does faith come in? Which of those three involve faith?
- 05:59
- Do they? Good job No Because that's why first Corinthians 13 says faith hope and love abide the greatest of these three faith at one point will become sight
- 06:15
- You will actually behold him face to face and you will no longer have to trust something that is still unseen so in justification and Sanctification faith is a very key aspect.
- 06:29
- It is the Conduit through which we apprehend the object of our salvation Whereas in glory we are face to face with the object of our salvation.
- 06:38
- I see Andrews got a quirky smile. Go ahead Yes I'm not infallible
- 06:55
- But I love and that's exactly what I want us to all think through which is you know When we talk about glory here,
- 07:00
- I'm talking about the eternal state but I think you brought about a excellent element of I still trust that the verdict that's going to come out there is
- 07:08
- Well done good and faithful servant. No, here are your rewards because I haven't yet received it, but I'm in the transition.
- 07:14
- Thank you Nice job But we're going to focus on the
- 07:23
- First and second aspects of salvation for this study. So once again for those of you who just joined The question we want to ask ourselves is how do
- 07:32
- I live by faith today? You know, that's the question and we did a little bit of a definition on what salvation is.
- 07:39
- There is One more definition before we move quickly. It's faith itself. So faith is
- 07:45
- Generally talked of as having three components. Does anybody remember what those three?
- 07:51
- Components or stages of faith are stages is maybe a little three aspects of faith
- 08:00
- If you know sprawl You would know the Latin versions of these. I just need the
- 08:06
- English versions Yes Awesome.
- 08:12
- So that's the middle one. You you have to give a scent to something to have faith before that There is something and after that there is something
- 08:21
- Knowledge a scent and trust. Yes. So those are the three elements of faith So you if you want to have faith you first need to know what you're having faith in in Jesus Christ's finished work
- 08:33
- Whatever it is that you have the object of your faith. You need to know what that is So without knowledge, you can't have faith.
- 08:39
- You can't just say I'm I'm just having faith in the nebulous thing and somehow everything will be fine
- 08:44
- No You need to know like the gospel in order to be saved you need the knowledge of the gospel and then you have a scent
- 08:51
- Which is you acknowledge that to be true, you know, whatever it is that you're hearing you can hear The gospel and say okay.
- 08:57
- I know every element of the gospel, but yeah, I don't really care that doesn't count as faith You need to say yes, that is true.
- 09:03
- God did send Jesus Down here on my behalf as a perfect To live that perfect life.
- 09:11
- I couldn't live to die on my behalf and he was indeed raised from the dead So I need to ascent meaning I heard it and I acknowledge it to be true.
- 09:18
- So I need knowledge and ascent now Why is these two components not sufficient who else has these two components
- 09:27
- Say the devil's do and tremble, right? they know about God and everything that he has done perfectly much better than we do and They know that this is true.
- 09:36
- They are not they are not deceived. They know the truth. They want to deceive everybody else but the component that we need in addition to the first two is trust which is you
- 09:47
- Submit yourself under this truth. You are you commit your life to the Savior because of what he has done you you come under and I mean the analogy of faith that's always used is you can say
- 09:59
- I can see a chair I acknowledge the check and hold my weight, but if I don't sit on the chair I'm not showing that I have trust in this chair.
- 10:06
- So that's basically the three components of faith. So Definitions done. Let's now go to Abraham Any questions so far before we move?
- 10:15
- All right, Abraham, so I'd like us to read
- 10:21
- Hebrews 11 there are a few things there said about the faith of Abraham and Then depending on how our conversations go we may go first to Genesis if we have some questions on Abraham's history or we'll go to Romans and James in order to examine what faith looks like and while we are doing this through the life of Abraham I want us to examine our own lives.
- 10:46
- That's the goal. So let's go to Hebrews 11 and I need
- 10:53
- Someone to read a few verses for me who can read loud. Hey, all right,
- 11:00
- Becky So I didn't I'd like you to read verse 1 2 6, please
- 11:11
- Yeah, let's pause there you can just go straight to 6 right, thank you So here's a little bit of a definition on faith and then where 6 kind of tells you your relationship with God by faith
- 11:21
- You know, what does it mean to please God? What do you acknowledge about God himself and about how he relates to people?
- 11:28
- So that's part of faith. So now let's jump ahead to Abraham So we are going to now look
- 11:35
- I think John you had your hand up. Yeah, would you like to read the rest? so I'd like you to read from Let's see from verse 8 up until verse 19
- 11:52
- Yeah, let's pause there and we'll go if you can continue at verse 17. Thank you all right, so there are a few events here in the life of Abraham that are recounted for us and talking about what was the
- 12:08
- Promise that Abraham trusted God for he had faith in God that God would accomplish something and Because of that he did some things and then he what was the consequence of that?
- 12:19
- So we kind of see three things there. Well, I Gave up my answer. What were the things that we see that Abraham trusted it?
- 12:26
- Okay, you just have three but what were those three that are listed in Hebrews 11 that Abraham Trusted God had faith in God for yes,
- 12:38
- Cory. All right. Yeah, let's let's just take a moment there.
- 12:46
- So That's that's exactly right So to start with the first thing was here is Abraham in the land of Ur of the
- 12:53
- Chaldees you know an idolater among other people and God calls him and says Get up and leave and up and leave doesn't know where he's going
- 13:02
- But he's up and leave God because he trusts in God he had faith in God that God's God will accomplish what he has for his life and God was a
- 13:12
- He had greater confidence of God than all the wealth and the Situation and the environment that he had there always tried.
- 13:19
- I was trying to picture this I was like, you know if I'm going to Niagara Falls I know I'm gonna get there in like six to eight hours
- 13:25
- And I know there are two rest areas on route 90 where I can stop I've got everything covered between start to finish
- 13:31
- But Abraham had like nothing you just get up go and his journey was a pretty long one before he came to the promised land
- 13:38
- So that's his first one What was the second? Aspect of no
- 13:47
- Second promise that he trusted in God for Sarah would conceive.
- 13:53
- Okay So actually that Sarah's actually commended for that as well, right?
- 13:59
- So he it is said that Here she was, you know, she trusted in the power of God God had promised it and she's like well
- 14:07
- I'm past the age of childbearing, but I would believe it and God God granted her the son.
- 14:13
- Okay, so but there is something before that which I think We can also look at The key
- 14:23
- I think pastor Mike preached through Hebrews 11 is like, you know, look for the word by faith You know, that's kind of your starter for the author of Hebrews So the first one was what
- 14:33
- Corey said the third one in the middle, which is Sarah's is what Becky said the second one is
- 14:43
- Right as in a foreign land with in with living in tents. So here he was, you know He had trusted the first promise and he had come to the second one
- 14:51
- But the second one was not yet accomplished. And in fact, we go to Genesis we might if you have time We get to see how?
- 14:59
- Abraham trusted God Because you know, yeah, he had come to this place, but he was still a nomad.
- 15:04
- He didn't have a land in fact God even tells him later. You're not going to inherit this land now and not just that your descendants will actually
- 15:14
- Be taken as slaves to another land and it's only 400 years later. They will come and inherit the land
- 15:19
- So that was the promise that eventually God would tell Abraham. How is this promise going to be fulfilled?
- 15:24
- But he was content living in a tent while he was waiting for God's promise to be fulfilled and was the third third
- 15:35
- Promise that Abraham believed that we see in Hebrews 11 Somebody who has an answer who needs to wake up.
- 15:45
- All right. Thank you That's connected with the second promise
- 15:53
- Yeah, because that that second thing is kind of broken up and there's many elements to it But but that is that is exactly what he believed for the second promise, which is okay
- 16:03
- I don't have the land of Canaan yet, you know, he God gives him all the geographical boundaries But that hasn't happened and he says 400 years later.
- 16:09
- It'll come Yes, that's right. That's the third one.
- 16:15
- So the second promise Abraham sees through the bigger fulfillment not just in the national
- 16:22
- Israel, but also in the final promise of God, but the third third area where Abraham believed is the offering of Isaac and So It says a few words here about what he believed.
- 16:38
- It says he it says he was tested He offered up and then he received He offered up while he had received the promise of verse 18
- 16:48
- Which is Isaac through Isaac your your offspring shall be named because he considered
- 16:53
- God was able to raise him even from the dead Which figuratively speaking he did so here is the third aspect of faith
- 17:01
- And that's the one I want to kind of dwell on. In fact, I think Pastor Steve sent me a note.
- 17:06
- I was like, okay, what should I teach and I was listening to this is a household name at The Tlax are listening to Kierkegaard's fear and trembling.
- 17:14
- I know he can be a curse word for some Christians I I love this man for what he he has taught me about Abraham and He he probably does a little theological
- 17:28
- Mumbo -jumbo But but the thing he does really well is he brings that faith in front of my face and challenges me and says
- 17:36
- Don't don't just say I have faith There is something that faith
- 17:43
- Produces there is faith is a gift from God and Many can claim to have faith
- 17:48
- But what does it mean to trust in God and and enjoy the promises of God the way that he intends and that's the one thing
- 17:55
- Taught me which is We have a God a mighty God a powerful
- 18:00
- God and we can actually walk by faith and that's the question How do I walk by faith today and we want to use
- 18:06
- Abraham? So using this third aspect of what happened in Abraham's life.
- 18:11
- I want to ask a couple of questions So we began by asking salvation has three faces justification sanctification and glorification.
- 18:18
- We said faith applies primarily Thanks to Andrew not exclusively to justification and sanctification
- 18:26
- And I think many of us here have a well, no, let me not give the answer So let's let's now look at the life of Abraham The man of faith the father of faith as it is called
- 18:39
- As he is called and then ask ourselves the question What does faith as applied to justification and faith as applied to sanctification look like?
- 18:50
- I was Let me pause here we're going to go to a couple of texts to unpack this.
- 18:56
- So let me just ask an open -ended question How do you see faith applied in?
- 19:03
- Justification and sanctification through the lens of what happened when Abraham believed
- 19:08
- God in these events that we see Perfect. So we talked about the three components of faith. It's knowledge
- 19:14
- Ascent Abraham could have said yeah God you can do this I'm not breaking this knife down But who would blame him for it, right?
- 19:23
- I mean you're you're asked to kill your only son and he could have just said no and here the the act of Obedience demonstrates his genuine faith in God.
- 19:35
- It wasn't just a Ascent but it was actual trust in what God had said. I love that You know, here is the thing
- 19:42
- God does not reveal to Abraham ahead of time. That's why it's called a test here you know, God knew what he was going to do, but here was this this decisive moment if you will where Abraham is coming to this place, which you know, that's why the book is called fear and trembling which is you know
- 19:59
- What there is a great cost to what it means to trust in God in this particular trial that he's going through where he has to appropriate the promise of God for himself and When he comes there
- 20:13
- His son is asking a question and he gives him an honest answer But he doesn't exactly know what that provision is going to be and that mountain is called
- 20:22
- No, it no it is. He calls Jehovah Jireh my provider because in the mountain of the
- 20:28
- Lord it shall be provided and it was where God provides the ram for the offering and in Hebrews 11, it says that Abraham had a faith that yeah even if he had to kill his son
- 20:43
- God would in some way shape or form bring him back because What was the promise that God had given
- 20:49
- Abraham that he trusted? Amen, so God cannot contradict himself.
- 20:55
- God had said this and he trusted it This beloved son at a hundred years old that he had got was now grown
- 21:01
- He now is willing to sacrifice because he knows that the promise of God is yay and amen
- 21:07
- He can trust in that promise No matter how this all of these events turn out
- 21:13
- This is and and and that's the part that we're going to apply for ourselves in our lives today
- 21:18
- So let's I still have a few things to call out from the text before we apply it. I Loved what you said about the dilly -dallying, but put yourself in this position.
- 21:30
- Don't put yourself. Just hypothetically imagine this I don't want any of you
- 21:36
- I Say pretty upset You know, thank you.
- 21:45
- Thank you very much so on this momentous occasion of taking your child up to the mountain and Committing what would be the most abominable of crimes in any other circumstance except that God God required it of Abraham Would you dilly -dally?
- 22:10
- Or would you just rush and get it done? I mean it took him like three days to get there to the mountain and and do it
- 22:16
- I mean God tells him in the night early morning. He's up and off. He's not like waiting I don't think he told
- 22:21
- Sarah That's another story, but he's going down the path, you know leaves the men and he's like I'm taking the boy with the with the wood
- 22:32
- No lamb goes all the way up is ready to sacrifice And God says
- 22:38
- Abraham not once but twice Abraham Abraham and then talks to him about what that faith is
- 22:45
- In the sight of God, how does God view the faith that Abraham has stem on demonstrated by obedience?
- 22:52
- So All right. I think for the sake of time we'll pause here
- 22:57
- I want us to read two texts and these two texts if we mix them We just lose an understanding of what it means to say
- 23:05
- How must I live by faith today actually All right,
- 23:12
- I won't make the confession I'll I'll just tell you in Galatians 2 20 if you go and see
- 23:19
- Paul says I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer I who lived
- 23:26
- But Christ who lives within me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
- 23:31
- Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me So that was Paul's confession and that ought to be our confession in our walk today so many of us
- 23:41
- I think when we look at the aspect of Justification how will probably have very little question about that first part of Paul's confession.
- 23:49
- I have been crucified with Christ right, my old Pradeep is on the nail on the cross nailed to the cross and I have a life that has come from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- 23:59
- That's my identity is in Christ Justification it's It's clear when it comes to sanctification.
- 24:07
- That's the part where I think I sometimes Disconnect my my identity or my position and my practice and I have a clear idea of what faith means
- 24:17
- When it comes to my identity But my faith in my practice Gets muddled and before I talk a little bit more.
- 24:26
- Let me just say what's most obvious and probably running through all of your minds did Faith get muddled in Abraham's mind in his practice ever
- 24:40
- Yes. Yes. I mean in this particular these three events are You know just like mind -blowing he just like trust
- 24:47
- God in a way that I can't even fathom and then there are other times where he's like I Could have done better there, you know,
- 24:55
- I We're talking about like, you know, I'll be my leg, you know where he's so afraid of his life he says my wife is my sister and he's just like and then in first Peter 3 the
- 25:04
- Woman has said Sarah called him Lord. Okay, you know that takes a lot of faith to to trust in a man
- 25:11
- Who just wouldn't even protect his wife in in a foreign land? So Abraham's faith was not perfect.
- 25:17
- The only one whose faith is was perfect would be Jesus Christ.
- 25:23
- So while he lived here on earth, he lived in full Submission to in full acknowledgement of the power of God in his life the promises of God in his life and was willing even on the
- 25:35
- In the Garden of Gethsemane Heading up to Golgotha that you know Your will and not mine be done because he was he entrusted him completely faithfully every single time
- 25:44
- Abraham the father of faith had troubles with faith like all of us do and so When we look at sanctification
- 25:53
- We are not looking for perfection there comes a day in glory when faith we need it in the ultimate sense but for today
- 26:02
- How do I connect this faith that I have in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me? In the choices that I make today.
- 26:09
- What are those promises of God that I need to anchor my knowledge in give a scent to and Trust in as I walk my life today
- 26:19
- So that's the goal of the Sunday school, which I have about 10 minutes to work
- 26:25
- But hopefully you have a little bit of what I'm trying to get through at the as the foundation So I skipped all the
- 26:31
- Genesis verses because of time now the two passages that I didn't get to which I did want to get to our j -j -james 2 and Romans 4 those are the two passages for justification my faith, right?
- 26:45
- So instead of Exegeting them which I again don't have time for I'm just going to ask for the meaning of those two texts.
- 26:52
- So in in Romans 4 Paul makes a huge emphasis on Abraham was justified by faith and it was counted to him as righteousness and then in James 2
- 27:11
- James makes a big point of saying Faith without works is dead.
- 27:18
- And so he says Abraham was justified by works His faith was accompanied by works.
- 27:27
- All right, I'm kind of cutting through the chase and giving you the two texts now What do each of those mean are they contradicting each other?
- 27:35
- All right, I see I like the head shakes like this Which is like yeah, the Bible doesn't contradict it
- 27:41
- Contradict itself Paul is not fighting with James and James is not fighting with Paul They're both looking to the same
- 27:46
- Lord and the same revealer the Spirit of God who's what who's instructing us through them so, how do you take these two texts and Understand what they mean?
- 27:56
- Okay, what do they mean? Yes? Excellent. Thank you. So the context of James will also give you an understanding of what he is explaining
- 28:06
- You know again anybody else want to say otherwise, I'll give you the answer Any bold soul who wants to venture?
- 28:14
- Yes Excellent. And I think that is the point, you know, there is in the whole issue of Lordship salvation came because of this very reason which is you shouldn't have to even talk about Lordship salvation because It'd be implicit in everything.
- 28:28
- We talked about salvation that Jesus is Lord But when someone just says I believe and does the first half of James and doesn't do the second half of James It's like you're like a demon, you know, what's the point of your?
- 28:40
- Confession if there is really no Transformation in your life if if I cannot see the fruit of what is happening in your life, then there is really no
- 28:49
- Validity to what you're claiming, you know, you bought the ticket, but the plane just took off without you You know, that's so there needs to be a connection between the two and I don't think
- 28:59
- Paul or James are and James kind of emphasizes that hey get on that plane
- 29:05
- You know, don't just say I have the ticket but the the the key that I want to just make sure we understand because they both use the word justified and People can then see that as a contradiction in terms
- 29:16
- It's like hey, you know just very faith just where it works faith or works for the faith and works are fighting with each other
- 29:22
- One of them has to win. No Justified by faith. Okay. So somebody you want to know
- 29:28
- I'll give you the answer The answer here is justified by faith is this is your relationship with God, right?
- 29:34
- You are justified before God through faith Ephesians 2 8 9 and 10 right 8 verse 8 says faith.
- 29:43
- It's a gift of God. God gives you the gift of faith Through it, you know appropriate the grace that God has given you
- 29:49
- Jesus Christ free. You have apprehended it and What you have apprehended is what justifies you in the bar of God's divine code not guilty, right justification
- 30:02
- James when he's talking about justification, he is not talking about your justification before God. He's talking about how
- 30:09
- You demonstrate I think you use the word effect, right? There is Anybody can claim to have faith.
- 30:15
- How do you know who has faith? This is the people of God that James is writing to he's like, how do you how do you you know?
- 30:22
- I could come here and talk all day long about faith and go. Oh pretty was a great man of faith You come back to my house and see it's like hollow there's really nothing it's like oh there goes the
- 30:34
- Man of faith, right? I mean you you can I am not justified if I my works just show me to be a you know
- 30:41
- Full of hot air, right? I mean if I have genuine faith it will show itself out in the fruit in the obedience and the actions that my life should show a bed
- 30:53
- Love it. So I hope everybody could hear it. I know the folks on outside may not have but that's that's the definition of the
- 31:02
- James context and if you understand the context, you know How there is a vertical and a horizontal side that are given in Romans and James respectively.
- 31:11
- I Have to learn 45, right? Okay, five minutes. All right. So let's let take five minutes now to say what does this mean in my life today?
- 31:21
- I said, you know when it comes to justification I think it's pretty obvious the vertical part all of us kind of know what that means in the not necessarily the horizontal
- 31:29
- But just in terms of sanctification How does? That question I started out with Living by faith today, how must
- 31:38
- I live by faith today? Let's take a couple of practical situations that you're in that require you to trust
- 31:45
- God and when I say trust God you want to say what it is that you're trusting God for and Then what would that mean that you do as a result of it, you know, so how does your
- 32:01
- Living by faith in the Son of God look like today. So let's just take a couple of examples and work through it
- 32:07
- What might be some circumstances? I think the example that Janet gave about the plane is a great one.
- 32:12
- Let's now take some regular Examples that you have and say what does it mean to live by faith today?
- 32:19
- Thank you for sharing so Someone's wife dies
- 32:26
- You have faith up until then and then you see this tragedy this horrible evil occur and then
- 32:34
- Suddenly you fall away What would be the act of faith the corresponding act of faith,
- 32:42
- I think you use the word perseverance What would be the act of faith in this situation? What would be the?
- 32:49
- Yeah, go ahead we don't know but But I think you know when we say trust, yeah, okay
- 32:56
- Providence Can we just explain that a little bit more? So where I'm going is with is this all those three examples of Abraham?
- 33:03
- It was like God told him to go he was like I can trust in God and I go I Come here and I'm living in a tent
- 33:10
- There's no land But he has promised me an eternal inheritance and I'm content with that and then
- 33:16
- I have I'm asked to kill I is a sacrifice Isaac and I know that through Isaac my
- 33:24
- Generations will come so I trust that God's Word or promise that Abraham will live
- 33:29
- I trust even if I have to do something that is so he had something from God that he trusted on So when we talk about Providence, how does that apply in this situation?
- 33:38
- I mean you can See how the same thing can apply to any difficult situation that you may be facing
- 33:44
- What does it mean to have faith in that difficult situation when you think of Providence? Excellent.
- 33:50
- So God is sovereign. He will bring about his sovereign purposes for good. Yes Can I just encourage everybody to I don't know if you all heard what
- 33:58
- Janet said, which is I'll say it slightly differently
- 34:05
- Each of you will encounter those kinds of moments not the specific situation but those moments when you run out of the resources that you
- 34:15
- Need in order to meet the situation that you are facing. I've run through it many times
- 34:21
- The first time I was like, oh I got this You don't got this And the thing is you want to go to the source of help, you know the word the body and get the help you need in your time of need and We talked about the three components of faith and knowledge assent and trust
- 34:42
- Sometimes I just need the knowledge, you know that my God is sovereign that he is Bringing about his purposes through this and Abraham didn't need to know, you know, how
- 34:51
- God was going to do He later finds out 400 years plus later. You know, this land will be inherited like My problem
- 34:58
- God's the one who's architecting it. He's good. He's bringing about it and me old man I'm gonna have a nation that comes after me and he discovers all of these as he goes through those
- 35:10
- Individual steps the first step is okay. I'm having a big trouble now. Can I need to know that God is sovereign?
- 35:16
- I need to know this is just not out of control. I need to know that God is good I need to know that he is bringing this about for my good even through the situation
- 35:24
- So knowledge of God then you have to assent, you know, it's like sometimes it's like I know this But it's hard for me to bend my knee to it
- 35:31
- You know when I'm and this is one of the reasons why we want to study the Bible when things are going well So you you have these truths hidden in your heart and then now you apply them in this particular situation
- 35:42
- Yeah, I knew God is sovereign all my life. But at this particular moment, I need to bow my knee and say
- 35:48
- God You are sovereign. I mean we want to be able to say like Job in when his trial hits him and say you know naked
- 35:55
- I came and naked I go and I I Something like that. I Can't remember the words who can somebody remember what
- 36:03
- Job said? Maybe I'll have to read it after the after today, but the point is
- 36:12
- Now comes the part of trust. So whether it is something catastrophic like the example that we just heard or maybe something simple
- 36:18
- You have I mean I have a work situation. I need to go into tomorrow I actually don't even know what
- 36:24
- I should be doing. I don't and James actually says if you relax wisdom Ask God and he will give so I'm praying and you can pray for me and Each of you have situations in your lives that may not be like this, you know, sacrifice
- 36:38
- Isaac type of moments. It might be you know what they are and you want to walk yourself through those elements of faith just like Abraham did and you want to remember that We started with Hebrews 11 6 without faith.
- 36:55
- It's impossible to please him Don't disconnect your Justification and your understanding of faith from what it means to walk
- 37:05
- Today, you know many a time I end up walking and then looking back and say hey, I should have
- 37:11
- Apprehended the riches of Christ by faith as I walk through this rather than walk by the flesh walk by the spirit
- 37:19
- Instead. All right any final questions before we close? Sorry, we kind of had to rush through this Let's pray loving father we thank you
- 37:29
- Lord for Saving us through Jesus Christ giving us the gift of faith and Providing for us in so many different ways through the word by your spirit and especially
- 37:40
- Lord for this body Help us in our times when we are tempted To trust in our own resources or to lose sight of you as we walk this life today
- 37:53
- May you O Lord get all the honor and glory as you demonstrate your power Through those trials that you lead us through father.
- 38:00
- We pray for the rest of our service this morning Would you O Lord be exalted in? powerful ways
- 38:07
- May we O Lord see you as high and lifted up. May our hearts O Lord Exalt in you and Oh Father do a work in us as you did in the life of Abraham and all your saints