EPISODE 0065 | The Father of Faith

Nov 11

THESE NOTES ACCOMPANY EPISODE 0065

In this episode, Pastor Stephen explores the faith journey of Abraham, known as the father of faith. Through the story in Genesis 15, we examine why trusting God can be challenging and how Abraham’s life provides powerful lessons in faith. From waiting on God’s timing to believing in His promises against all odds, Pastor Stephen shares three key principles that Abraham would likely tell us today. Join us to see how Abraham’s story can inspire your own walk with God.

Episode Transcript

If Abraham were here right now, he would tell us three things:

1. Trust God even if it takes a long time

God promised that Abraham would be a father of nations, and yet after many years - still no son. I’m going to tell you something about God today that you’re not going to like. God is never late but He’s never early either.

Even the Father of Faith struggled with God’s Timing:

Genesis 16:1-2: Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

· She did what we all do when we think God is taking too long… we try to make God’s promise happen on our own. They went to Plan B.

· When we take God’s promise into our own hands, we always settle for less and create un necessary delays and problems.

THIS IS HARD: We live in an instant society we get what we want, we go to ATMs, we’ve got drive-thru, we’ve got microwaves, we’ve got instant downloads, it’s a ‘right now’ generation.

Our timing and God’s timing are rarely the same.

2. Trust God even if it seems impossible.

Context: Now, Abraham is ninety-nine years old, and Sarah is eighty-nine, and God says, “All right, it’s time, you guys are going to have the promised child!” This is almost 25 years after Abraham received the promise.

Genesis 18:10-12: Then one of them [God] said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”

It’s almost as if God said, “I’m going to wait until you are nice and old, just to show you that nothing’s too difficult for Me.”

3. Trust God even if we don’t understand

Here’s the last life experience, it’s when God tests Abraham with his son of promise - Isaac. This is the greatest test of his life. Abraham and Sarah now have a son named Isaac - their son of promise. And God says, “Hey, I want you to take your son and I want you to take him to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him.’

Hebrews 11:17-19: By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

· So, Abraham took him to the mountain and was holding up the knife over Isaac, and God said, “No, no, no, stop, stop, stop.” He said, “Look over your shoulder, there’s a ram in the thicket, use the ram.”

· Abraham had fully intended to go through with it and was thinking, “I’ll tell you, God’s going to raise him from the dead. I’m going to kill him and he’s going to get right up.” That’s faith. The more you know God, the more you trust Him.

Faith is powerful. When Abraham trusted God, he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t without issues, and look at what the Bible says of Abraham:

Hebrews 11:9-10 says: 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Something happens to you when you see Jesus. When you see God’s plan, that it isn’t just about you or what you’re going through in the moment but what you’re moving towards.

If Abraham were here, he’d say, TRUST GOD:

Even when it takes a long time, even when it seems impossible and even when we don’t understand, God is good and He always keeps His Promises to us!