No Limit Faith
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[During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the China Inland Mission was suffering great losses, and every telegram brought more tragic news of Christians being killed, property being confiscated, and workers scattered. The mission’s founder, the elderly J. Hudson Taylor, was in Switzerland and under orders to rest because of ill health. His heart ached for his coworkers in China. When things were at their worst, he said,] “I cannot read; I cannot think; I cannot even pray; but I can trust.”
bio.hudsonjtaylor
Hudson Taylor was a British missionary who felt a strong call to serve in China. In 1853, at 21 years old, he set sail for China, facing a long, arduous journey and numerous challenges upon arrival, including cultural barriers and limited resources.
Unlike other missionaries, Taylor adopted Chinese dress and customs, believing this would help him connect better with the people. Despite initial criticism, this approach proved effective. Taylor is best known for his "faith missions" policy, where he did not solicit funds but trusted God to provide. Miraculously, God always met the mission's needs just in time.
In 1865, Taylor founded the China Inland Mission, aiming to reach the unreached interior regions of China. By the time of Taylor’s death in 1905, the CIM was an international body with 825 missionaries living in all eighteen provinces of China, more than 300 stations of work, more than 500 local Chinese helpers, and 25,000 Christian converts. Taylor stamped his own philosophy of life and work on the CIM: sole dependence on God financially, with no guaranteed salary; close identification with the Chinese in their way of life; administration based in China itself rather than in Great Britain; an evangelical, nondenominational faith; and an emphasis upon diffusing the gospel as widely as possible through all of China.
Application: Hudson Taylor's story demonstrates "No Limit Faith" by showing his radical trust in God's provision and willingness to adapt for the sake of the Gospel. His life encourages us to step out in faith, trusting God completely even when the future is uncertain.
1. The Legacy of Abraham
1. The Legacy of Abraham
Abraham’s life is narrated in Gen 12–25, but his memory and significance run through the entire canon.
Abraham is the father of three different faiths in the world, Jewish, Christianity, and Islam. 3B people.
He is listed among the heros of the faith chapter, Hebrews 11.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
2. Abram’s Calling
2. Abram’s Calling
And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.
He was born to an idol worshipper in the place of idol worshipping.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God called Abram.
God narrows his plan for the world to a specific family. This plan will lead to blessing for all people through Abraham (Gen 12:1–3). God is often referred to as “the God of Abraham.”
Called out of sin to a new life of bringing about the Kingdom of God on the earth.
The Vagueness of the Call
“Go from where you have been living to land that I will show you.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
3. The First Step No Limit Faith
3. The First Step No Limit Faith
How many of us have heard God’s call or felt His impression upon us to do something and we wait for a confirmation? Some sort of sign.
Here we have a man, born into an idol worshipping family, whom we know nothing of his faith in God, Yahweh, Jehovah, who the Bible tells us heard the call and immediately heeded the call with no questions asked.
If it were your loved one, what kind of questions would you be asking them?
What about his wife?
Vs 5 tells us he took his wife and his nephew and all their possessions and the people he acquired in Haran and they headed out toward Canaan.
The Bible never tells us God told Abram to go to Canaan. All God said was go to a land I will show you.
It’s only when he gets to Canaan, which is currently occupied by the Canaanites, then God tells him:
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
He didn’t know the land he was to go to. He only heard the command and went.
We want the answer before we step out in faith.
We want to know how things are going to turn out before we will step out. That’s not faith.
That’s not No Limits faith.
We want to tell God, “I’ll go when you show me everything will be ok.”
God says, “Go and trust me.”
4. God’s Promise
4. God’s Promise
God made a promise…”Go…then I will make you a great nation.”
What if he didn’t go?
What promises are you waiting on God to fulfill in your life and you’re like, “give me the promise and then I’ll go?”
We don’t receive some of God’s promises because we won’t step out of the boat until it hits dry ground and we know it’s safe.
If we want to see God’s promises come to be for us then we have to have No Limits Faith.
With each promise fulfilled, we’ll see that Abram sets up an altar to the Lord. This is his way of giving thanks and praise.
Maybe we need to do a better job of setting up some altars in our lives to reinforce our faith.
Write down the promises. Track them. Record when they are fulfilled, and give Him praise.
5. Separate Ways
5. Separate Ways
We’re told Abram and Sarai wen through some hard times…there was a famine and they went to Egypt.
Abram and Lot both became wealthy while in Egypt and when they left Egypt they knew they needed to separate, and so Abram told Lot you choose what land you want and I’ll go the other way.
Lot lifted his eyes and saw how beautiful and good the land of the Jordan Valley was, and so he went there.
In other words, he took the best land for himself. Abram gave him the choice.
Abram went back to the Promised Land and Lot chose Sodom, an evil detestable land.
It was pleasing to the eye but rotten to the core…like the fruit Eve chose to eat from.
Abram’s faith took him back to where God wanted him to be, where He promised to make of a him a great nation.
6. A Great Nation
6. A Great Nation
Abram was 75 when he left Haran, and he and Sarai had no children.
God’s promise was I’ll make you a great nation. Abram never asks God how this is going to happen.
When he returns to Canaan, God speaks to him again, telling him to look around at the land, and all that he sees is his AND his offspring.
I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
Up to this point Abram never seemed to question God’s promise. He seemed to have No Limit Faith.
But, he was human, and like us eventually, after we’ve gone so long without an answer to the promise, we begin to question.
After some time, God speaks to Abram again:
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
He says, “your reward shall be very great.”
Abram tell’s God, in my words here, “I don’t want possessions, I am still childless.”
In other words, “How is the promise of a great nation going to come to be through me?”
God reiterates the promise to him. “You will have your very own son.”
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Abram never questioned the promise of a nation, an heir again.
7. Faith as Righteousness
7. Faith as Righteousness
It wasn’t a work that Abram did that granted him righteousness with God.
It is His believing, his faith, his trust in God’s promise to him that we are told God counted it to him as righteousness. In other words, his belief, his faith, was how he received God’s righteousness, not anything he had done.
It was his faith that God would uphold His promise.
Because of his faith, his actions were in obedience and trust in God.
He was justified, made righteous by His No Limits Faith, and his No Limits Faith played out in his going when God said Go, and His believing when God said I promise.
Like Abram, we are saved by our faith, not our works.
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
I love that, “he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.”
Want to grow stronger in your faith? Glorify God. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Notice it says he was, “fully convinced that God was able to do what He promised.”
Are you fully convinced that God can do through you and for you what He has promised?
8. Weary in Waiting
8. Weary in Waiting
Have you grown weary in waiting? Is your faith wavering because the promise you believed He gave you hasn’t come true yet?
Has He promised you would be healed, but it’s been years?
Has He promised you provision, but you’re still struggling?
Has He promised you a ministry and you don’t see it yet?
“No unbelief made him waver.”
Sara, eventually gave up on God’s promise. It had been years since the Promise was given and no further Word of the Lord had come. So she tries to make the promise’s fulfillment occur in her own power.
And we’re told of one of Abram’s few downfalls, “Abram listened to his wife.”
Often we get tired of waiting. We begin to question. And we either take on the wrong advice from others, or we come up with our own plan.
Don’t do that. If the Lord has promised you, then trust the promise as long as it takes to see it be fulfilled by Him and not you.
In Sara’s case this caused some hardship and strife. Jealousy and hard feelings.
In my own life it has caused stress, money spent and time spent where it didn’t need to be, if I would have trusted the Lord only.
Innovate Church - “I will build my Church.” “I have a flock for you.”
Sometimes, as we look back on His promise to us, we may question, “Did I hear it right?” Or we may think it is impossible now.
If God promised, He will see it through.
Seek that No Limit Faith and believe God.
9. The Ultimate Test of Faith
9. The Ultimate Test of Faith
Abram, later renamed Abraham by God, had one last act of No Limits Faith.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.
Years later, at the ripe old age of 100, Sarah births Isaac, the promised descendant to Abraham.
God has one major test of Abraham that I believe points to a later promise made to us all.
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Once again, we see no question from Abraham, the text simply says, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and went...”
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
How could Abraham believe this is what God wanted of him?
Why would God want to take his only son away like this?
What about the promise of descendants? A nation of people as numerous as the stars?
I can’t imagine Abraham’s thoughts, but luckily, the writer of Hebrews tells us what Abraham must have been thinking.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
In response to Isaac’s question Abraham told his son,
Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
The story goes on to tell us that God calls out to Abraham to stop him from killing his son, and He provides a ram caught in the thicket nearby.
Abraham then names the place, “The Lord will provide,” or “Jehovah-Jireh.”
He provided for Abraham and heir whom He would bless for generations...
I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
You and I are part of those stars of heaven offspring. And there will be many more that will be saved, made heirs of the original promise, through Jesus Christ.
The Lord will provide...
The Lord not only provided a lamb for Abraham and Isaac, but He also provided for you and I the Lamb that was slain.
Jesus is the Lamb of God that was slain for our sins so that we could be made righteous through faith in His work on the Cross and His overcoming of the grave.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Will you believe?
Will you trust?
Will you live with No Limits Faith?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Post-Service Discussion Material
Post-Service Discussion Material
Discussion Questions:
What aspect of Abraham's faith journey resonated most with you?
How can we apply Abraham's immediate obedience to our own lives?
What promises from God are you holding onto, and how can you strengthen your faith in them?
How does understanding the covenant relationship with God impact your daily life?
In what ways can we trust God's timing, especially when it doesn't align with our own expectations?
How does Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac challenge your understanding of faith?
What are some practical steps we can take to develop "No Limit Faith" in our current circumstances?
How can we support each other in overcoming personal struggles through faith?
Share a time when you had to trust God without knowing the outcome. How did it strengthen your faith?
How can we encourage others to live out their faith boldly, like Abraham?
Additional Scripture References:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.