June, 2007
Being Fully Persuaded
Romans 4:13-25
INTRODUCTION: Today is Father’s Day. You can probably look back and remember some of the “words of wisdom” your father said to you over the years. You probably have at one time or another passed these same sayings along to your children and grandchildren. See if any of them sound familiar to you:
1. Don’t ask me; ask your mother.
2. Close the door; Were you raised in a barn?
3. Don’t worry; it’s only blood.
4. A little dirt never hurt anyone; just wipe it off.
5. Keep your eye on the ball.
6. This will hurt me a lot more than it will hurt you.
7. Do I look like I’m made of money?
8. No, we’re not lost!
9. No, we’re not there yet.
10. As long as you live under my roof, you’ll live by my rules.
11. I’ll tell you why; because I SAID SO, that’s why.
12, You throw like a girl.
13. I’m not sleeping; I was watching that show.
14. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
15. What did I just get finished telling you?
16. Don’t make me stop this car.
17. Men are like buses; just wait on the corner and another one will come along.
18. What part of “no” don’t you understand?
19. If you’re gonna be dumb, you’ve gotta be tough.
Did you recognize any of these? Are you beginning to sound like your father?
Story: A little boy and his father were talking about what boys know and what their fathers know. The boy asked, “Do fathers always know more than their sons?”
“Yes,” answered the father.
“Who invented the telephone?” the boy asked.
“Alexander Graham Bell,” replied the father.
“Well, then, if fathers always know more than their sons, why didn’t Alexander Graham Bell’s father invent the telephone?”
Good question.
In today’s scripture Abraham was called the “father of us all.” In what way? He was the father of faith to all who believed--the Jews, the Gentiles--to us today. Abraham became a pretty important pattern or example of faith to his family as well as families down through history. He was brought into right standing or right relationship with God simply by faith rather than by working hard to keep the law as people tried to do later on in history. In fact, Abraham’s right standing was independent of the Mosaic law. He was justified by faith over 400 years before the law was given.
1. Accessing Faith for Salvation: We can call Abraham the father of faith not because he got God’s attention by living “like a saint” but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody while he was still on the “outs” with God.
Many people say, “I’ve got to get my life straightened out first before I come to God or come to church. I’ve got to quit this habit or that habit first. I’ve got to quit first and then I will come.” No, you do it the other way around. When you come to God by faith, then he will begin to take care of the problem. Sometimes we try to “help God out” too much.
Abraham shows us that we are brought into right standing with God not by our works or by anything we try so hard to live up to but by faith. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own. This is hard for us to grasp because we always think we have to DO something or LIVE UP TO something. From his example, we can start the process in the same way today. Verse 23 says, “the words, ‘it was credited to him” were written not to him alone but also for us to whom God will credit righteousness (right standing) for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
What would it matter to you whether a right relationship with God is a GIFT to be received or a PRIZE to be earned? For one thing we would never know if we had done enough to earn it.
Ephesians 2:8 tells us that our salvation is a GIFT rather than a prize to be earned. “For it is by grace [unmerited favor] you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourselves. It is the GIFT of God not by works so that no one could boast.” Paul wrote these words years later, but they were the same thing that Abraham had learned years earlier.
The starting point for Abraham was faith + nothing. Same for us today. We are saved through faith in Jesus + nothing else. Anything we receive from God is accessed by faith--Abraham our “father of faith” ENTERED INTO what God was doing for him and that was the turning point of his life. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.
You might wonder, “Where is MY starting point?” Same as with our father of faith, Abraham. We come to God just as we are--sin and all--and let Him do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. Abraham’s part was ACTIVATING the spark of faith that was ALREADY WITHIN HIM. Abraham entered when he believed. That was what opened the door to God.
Today, ask yourself in what areas of your life do you need to take a lesson from Abraham and focus not on working but on believing?
2. Growing Up in Your Faith: Sometimes we fail to grow up in our faith. For years we just drift along as baby Christians unable to understand what God wants to do in our lives. But we don’t have to stay that way. Our father of the faith, Abraham, didn’t.
Story: A teacher had been assisting a young Sunday school class with finger painting. As she escorted one little solemn eyed six year old to the restroom to wash her hands, she said to her, “We have to get the germie-wormies off. Do you know what germie-wormies are?”
“Yes,” replied the little girl. “They are micro-organisms.”
Already at this young age this little girl was growing in her knowledge. Abraham, scripture tells us, was a person who became STRONG in his faith. We can learn several things from his example and apply them to our lives today. How do we know that Abraham was strong in faith? We have five pieces of information in this chapter concerning the kind of faith he had.
1. Vs. 18 “against all hope, he believed in hope.” God had given him a promise that he and Sarah would have a son through whom the promise would be fulfilled. They were both old and the promise didn’t happen for another 13 years after it was given. There was no ground for hope in the natural. It looked like an impossibility. Yet, “Against all hope, he believed in hope.” Hope is future. Faith is now. Faith and hope work together to bring about a desired outcome.
He believed in hope which arose as his faith grew from the consideration of God’s sufficiency. God enabled him to believe against hope that he might pass for a pattern of strong faith to all generations.
2. Verse 19 “Being not weak in faith, he considered not--or paid no attention to--the fact that he was a very old man. Scripture tells us in Genesis 25 that after Sarah’s death he married Keturah and had six more children.
3. Verse 20 “he wavered not--hesitated not--at the promise of God through unbelief.” He had some anxious moments as shown in Genesis 17:17-18 but God did not count these against him. The strength of his faith appeared in the victory he won over his fears and his anxious moments. He overcame them.
4. Verse 20 “he was strong in faith giving glory to God.” You could say he was STRENGTHENED in faith. His faith took root and he was grounded in STRONG faith. While he was waiting on the promise he gave praise and glory to God. Faith is a way of giving Glory to God. When we are standing in faith for our prayers to be answered we need to give thanks to God who is at work in the situation. We may not see anything happening--faith says--it is happening behind the scenes. Thank you Lord for working it out. A good motto is, “Believe you’ve got it before you get it.”
5. Verse 21 “He was FULLY PESUADED--fully assured of--that what God had promised he was able to perform.” He was not PARTIALLY persuaded.
We say, “Well maybe God won’t do it for me. Or we say, “I don’t see how God can do that.” We need to learn this from our Father of Faith, Abraham--God is ABLE. As far as Abraham was concerned God’s power would match His promise. Our waverings arise mainly from our distrust of His divine power.
CONCLUSION: What are things in your life that look like impossibilities? What are the mountains that you can’t seem to get over? Verse 16 says that he “counted those things that ARE NOT as though they WERE.” He had a vision for a preferred future--WHEN the answer comes--not IF. I believe we can rise in faith to DECLARE things that ARE NOT as though they WERE. To see ourselves healed. To see members of our family saved. To see God open up new jobs for us to meet our financial needs. To see ourselves living an overcoming life rather than a defeated life. We access these things by FAITH.
Seeing the promise fulfilled is the result of our faith and depends entirely on faith.
How do you need to access your faith this week? Do you need to ACTIVATE your faith to come to Jesus and be saved? Do you need to GROW in your faith to believe for your healing or other answers to prayer? Do you need to decide to live not on the basis of what you CAN’T DO but on what God CAN DO?
Abraham’s faith is a standard for every believer today. For you and for me. It is especially a standard for fathers to live before their children and instill faith in them today.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Hebrews 10:35 tells us, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised.
Let us Pray:
