The Ingredients of a Life of Faith

1
The Ingredients of a Life of Faith

• How do you get Gods approval?
• By being religious?
• By going to church?
• By keeping the 10 commandments?
• Heb 116, And without faith it is impossible to
  please God

2
Faith

• Two ways to live
• By sight
• By faith
• Last week What faith is.
• Substance
• Evidence
• What faith does.
• Worship, Walk, Work
• Three ingredients necessary for a life of faith,
  drawn from the life of Abraham

3
True Faith Involves Willingness to Obey

• Heb 118, By faith Abraham, when called to go to
  a place he would later receive as his
  inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did
  not know where he was going.
• Not Abrahams plan
• God called him
• True faith leads to decisive action

4
Abraham

• 75- go to a land he had never visited
• Gave up homeland, family, friends, his way of
  life
• He left behind an inheritance of faith
• We are each given one life
• We will leave behind an abundance of memories
• Family, friends, children, grandchildren
• How will we be remembered?

5

• Living by faith can be a lot like driving in the
  fog.
• Do you hear the call of God today?
• Leave your life of sin and place your faith in
  Jesus.
• When Abraham heard and understood he said, yes.
• He believed God and responded to Him in faith.
• What is God calling us to do?
• Lord, I dont know what you want to do with my
  but Im yours.
• True faith involves a willingness to obey.

6
True Faith Involves a Willingness to Wait

• Heb 119-10, By faith he made his home in the
  promised land like a stranger in a foreign
  country he lived in tents, as did Isaac and
  Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same
  promise. For he was looking forward to the city
  with foundations, whose architect and builder is
  God.

7
Willingness to Wait

• He lived like a stranger
• Tent
• Only owned burial plot for Sarah
• 1 Pet 211, Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens
  and strangers in the world, to abstain from
  sinful desires, which war against your soul.
• We tend to amass permanent possessions here and
  now.
• These can hinder our walk of faith
• Vs 10- Abrahams goal was a permanent, eternal
  home built by God.
• So he waited and waited and waited, not always
  easy.

8
Sarahs Faith

• Abraham wasnt alone
• Heb 1111-12, By faith Sarah herself also
  received strength to conceive seed, and she bore
  a child when she was past the age, because she
  judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore
  from one man, and him as good as dead, were born
  as many as the stars of the sky in multitude--
  innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
  (NKJ)

9
Wait

• God has put your life on hold?
• 25 years waited
• Eliezer will inherit?
• Waiting is hard but it is not a waste of time.
• Hagar and Ishmael
• True faith is waiting for the fulfillment of
  Gods promises in Gods timing.

10

• Heb 1113-16, All these people were still living
  by faith when they died. They did not receive the
  things promised they only saw them and welcomed
  them from a distance. And they admitted that they
  were aliens and strangers on earth. People who
  say such things show that they are looking for a
  country of their own. If they had been thinking
  of the country they had left, they would have had
  opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing
  for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore
  God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he
  has prepared a city for them.

11

• Abrahams descendants also demonstrated faith
• They never returned to Mesopotamia
• Longed for a better country, a heavenly one.
• Lives are characterized by two objects
• Tent-confesses their attitude toward this world
• Altar- confesses their relationship to the world
  to come
• Phil 320, But our citizenship is in heaven. And
  we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord
  Jesus Christ,
• True faith involves a willingness to wait.

12
True Faith Involves a Willingness to Sacrifice

• Heb 1117-19, 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, and figuratively speaking,
  he did receive Isaac back from death.

13
A Willingness to Sacrifice

• Isaac was offered as a sacrifice to test Abraham
• What is the most important thing in your life?
• God will never settle for being second place.
• Corrie Ten Boom
• Is there anything in your life you are trying to
  withhold from God?
• Is there anything that is going to hurt if God
  has to pry it out of your hands?
• Rich Young Ruler- Matt 19

14

• What is the most important thing in your life?
• Money
• Family
• Career
• Understand this, Abraham was willing to sacrifice
  everything for God.
• He received back from God far more than he could
  ever have imagined.
• True faith involves a willingness to sacrifice.

15

• If faith is so great why do so few people live
  it?
• Most people would rather do anything than take a
  risk.
• Risks
• Being vulnerable
• May affect our finances, our family, our friends,
  our future, our feelings, our occupation, where
  we live and a host of other considerations.
• Safe and secure
• We fail at faith because we fear to risk.
• True Faith involves a willingness to
• Obey
• Wait
• Sacrifice