Good morning, glad to have you with us today & those who are watching online. For the last couple of months we have been looking at the topic of faith. If you did a search on the word faith you would find that it comes up almost 300 times in the Bible. When you read about men and women in the Bible you would see that had amazing faith.

Faith allows us to attempt things that would be unreachable without it!

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) 7 We live by faith, not by sight.

What would life be without faith?

Faith gives you the Power to deal with change.

Whether you like it or not your life is going to be filled with change. You can deal with change when you are anchored in something that doesn’t change. God’s love and plan for your life doesn’t change! Our jobs change, our kids change, our society changes, your health, your emotions and your day to day dynamics might change – you need to use your faith to connect with the Lord to deal with change.

Proverbs 24:16 (MSG) 16 No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long; Soon they’re up on their feet,(if they use their faith).

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Psalm 32:8 (NLT) 8 The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.

You can’t receive any of these things without faith. Faith gives you the power to deal with change.

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

If faith causes us to attempt things that we would normally pass up… shouldn’t we use it more often?

Romans 8:28 (PNT) 28 So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives…

Faith believes the best and trusts God for the grace and wisdom to handle any difficulty.

In our text today we will be looking at one of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible – the life of Abraham. Abraham trusted God late in his life and believed that God would accomplish the impossible. For this reason, he is called the Father of Faith to those who believe.

Hebrews 11:8 (NIV) 8 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.

Abraham was called to go to a different place physically…I believe that God is calling us today to go to a different place spiritually with our faith. This wasn’t a small thing for him to do. Abraham was wealthy farmer with large herds of livestock and the staff needed to maintain his domain.

All of us have a calling to follow the Lord and serve Him in some way.

You might not be called to preach but you can live a life that preaches. Something powerful happens to any individual, who is willing to believe that God wants to use them to fulfill His purpose. I want us to look at God’s calling of Abraham and see the similarities to the calling that we have in our lives.

Genesis 12:1-4 (NIV) 1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.

God wasn’t going to show Abraham where he was going until he left where he was. In Joshua 24:2 it says that Abraham’s father worshipped other Gods. If you are here today and you didn’t have a good role model growing up that means that you can still have a great faith today. God is saying I have something better for you.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
One of the things that made Abraham standout as a great man of faith was that he wasn’t afraid to make the changes needed for what he believed. Faith gives you the power to change. Doubt keeps you anchored to your past and fills you with fear. The next thing God told Abraham was that I will make him into a great nation and I will bless you and you will be a blessing. This was a huge promise to a man who was already old and didn’t have any children yet. The greatest blessing anyone can have is to know God personally through Jesus Christ! Jesus was a descendant of Abraham…that is how God could say the whole world would be blessed because of him.

Genesis 22:18 (NLT) 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

Your obedience brings God’s blessings…Everything that we see now is temporary. Look around at the people. Those of you that are young some day you will have grey hair or less hair. This building, the places and things you see are all temporary. We have a personal God who knows our personal needs and He wants to keep you encouraged so you can be a blessing to others. Abraham was blessed to be a blessing and so are you – never to give up!

Philippians 4:6 (PNT) 6 Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always…

John 3:16 (HCSB) 16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Abraham took the promise of God, believed it, made it his own and began to walk it out! We need to follow the same pattern.

Offering: Corinthians 9:6-7 (TLB) 6 But remember this—if you give little, you will get little. A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much. 7 Everyone must make up his own mind as to how much he should give. Don’t force anyone to give more than he really wants to, for cheerful givers are the ones God prizes.