Romans 4:16-21 Abraham Believed God

For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.  In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”  Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

Abraham Beleived God. James Clevland wrote a hymn titled Where is your faith. That is our question today. Abraham was not distracted. He focused on and beleived God. He did not allow anything or anyone includint his wife to come between him and God.

Its about our faith. We are talking about walking our faith not talking our faith. Abraham somehow knew thsat faith equaled grace.

There are few things in our life more essential and important to us thatn the grace of God. Grace is what we all want from God, but we don’t want to give grace to anyone else.

Grace is the offer of exactly what we do not deserve. We don’t give others grace because we really don’t think or beleive they deserve it. That’s our problem. You see grace cannot be recognized or received we are aware of how much we ourselves don’t deserve it.

It is this honest conversation we need to have withourselves and God about how we don’t deserve his grace to allow su to receive grace for what it is. Unmerited, unearned and undeserved. Grace can only be received by those who acknowledge they don’t desreve it.

Now because Abraham grace by a promise of God, grace was guranteed to all his descendents. The grace received by Abraham from God we inherited because of or faith, the faith of Abraham. I guess if you look at it another way, Abraham had enough faith for all of us.

Sometimes in our own families there may be time where you and i may need to have enough faith for everybody in our own family.

In other words we have to beleive God and in God, when noone else does. That is our challenge, because when you are around people who ;lack faith it can cause you to start doubting and second guessing God.

It is at time we need to be like Job and stell ourselves, “Though He slay me yet will I trust Him. Even so I will defend my own ways before Him”

It may be that just getting to the point where we really beleive in God with all of our heart, mind and being, will be the greatest thing we can do to be who God intended for us to be. For it is then that God can amd will use us for the uplifting of His kingdom.

If we are honest with ourselves, our faith and beleif in God is our biggest challenge. We distract ourselves by focusingnon the other aspect of our walk with God, like forgiveness and mercy, but at the center of struggle to grow in our relationship with God is our faith. Abraham beleived God.

Here is what we do we tend to skip over the most basic and foundational aspects of our faith. You see we have to go back to the beginning, to the foundation of our faith.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Everything in our Christian life is built on this foundation. In the beginning God created the Hevans and the earth.

What we are talking about is the wonder of creation. If we can get our arms around the fact that Almighty God created every single think in the universe. He designed everything down to the celluar and moleculor level.

When we grasp that God is the creator of all things great and small, we can then begin to start seeing how big God truly is. I think that as technology advances and we have more distractions we tend to make God smaller and smaller. We may even put God in a box and in our minds start to limit what God can do. Abraham Beleived God.

We begin to look at God as toolmto be used when we have something that needs to be fixed. We beleive in God, but we don’t beleive God. The eb and flow of life and the back and forth of relationships drown out the voice of God in our hearts. We stop listening to or even hearing the Holy Spirit. Abraham beleived God and shut out all the noise.

When we dont’ shut out the noise we minimize the impact of the power of the love of Jesus Christ. We start letting worry and fear order our steps instead of the Spirirt of the Lord.

We make god so small that He seems powerless, but His Word clearly tells us in romans 4:17 that “Even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. Do we really undestand what that means for us? It means that if your broke, busted, disgusted and can’t be trusted, God can call into existence that which does not exist.

No job, no relationship, nos self esteem, no money, no self-worth, lonely, depressed, stressed, ashamed, tired, sick, drained, you and I din’t have a problem that our God cannot fix by calling into existence that which does not exist.

We just need to be like Abraham, and beleive God. Its about faith. Faith in a God who guranteed grace to all of Abrahams decendents. That’s us, you and I. The promises of Abraham are our promises from God.

We really need to take a second and think about that. God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence that which does not exist. Is there anything to hard for God? Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: ... [26] Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, [27] Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

God told and old man and an old woman that they would have a child and that they would be responsible for many nations.

Now it says in scripture that Abraham contemplated his own body. He did what many of us do. god tells us something and we start trying to think for God.

Abraham was almost 100 years old and Sarahs’womb was dead. Ti would have been very easy for him to say this can’t happen. I’m to old to have kids, Sarah is past child bearing age.

The Doctors sya i’m to old and Sarah is to old and brken, the internet says it can’t be done. My family syas its too late, my friends say move on with the rest your life. But Abraham beleived God.

Whatever you situatio looks like, no matter how bleak, no matter how hopeless, no matter how dark the day. Beleive God. You see Abraham beleived God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Beleive God and what his infallable word says. Know God for yourself. don’t let anyone dictate or determine your relationship with God. You are responsible for your relationship with God. You and I cannot blame anyone or any thing for our faith. We own it.

You own it by returning to your first love. Stop talking and acting like you knwo God and you look at your Bible for a few minutes on Sunday, reading the morning scripture.

Abraham beleived God because he spent ime with God and came to trust God, so beleiving God was not a great challenge. So if beleiving God is a challenge for you and I then it might be because we don’t know Him well enough to trust Him. We beleive who we trust, we trust who we know, we know who we spend time with.

What person in you life do you trust the most? It is probably the person who over time you have gotten to know. Someone you opened up to, who did not let you down, who keeps your secrets. Someone you have spent time with.

Let’s be honest here. There are people in our lives who we trust more than we trust God. Now these same people, we would not dare ask them for the things we ask God for. God is not a piggy bank you break open when times are tough. Some peolpe in here may not even knoe what a piggy bank is.

Can I get everyone to stand please. Ok please take you seats. Most of us did not even look back to see if the seat was still there. We trusted that it was. We beleived that it was, because we had already spent time wiith it. You see we trust the pew more that we trust God.

Abraham did not waiver in unbeleif. He refused to givw in to the noise. he ignored the doubts and fears, distractions and worries. It says in the scripyure that he grew strong in faith, giving god glory.

Boom, He gave glory to God. So how do we give God glory? tells us “O nations of the world, recognize the Lord, recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong.29 Give to the Lord the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come into his presence. Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor. NLT

Abraham had no doubt about God’s ability, the scripture syas he was fully asured what God had promised, He was able to perform. Abraham Beleived God.

Do not let your heart be troubled, beleive in God, beleive also in Me.

ABRAHAM’S FAITH IS A MODEL FOR THE KIND OF FAITH that God is still looking for in his people. He believed “against hope,” yet “in hope.” His faith was “against hope” because it flew in the face of material evidence and common sense. He was too old to have children; his wife was barren. How could they possibly conceive a child? Yet Abraham did not let this evidence detract from the promise that God had given him. It was “in [the] hope” created by God’s word to him that he believed God would give him and Sarah a child, even though it made no rational sense. Are we willing and able to believe God’s promises when all the evidence points in the other direction?