God’s great grace, His magnificent mercy, and His powerful peace are yours, now and always, from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Christ Jesus:

Today’s sermon is for every person here this morning, regardless of age, who has ever experienced a weakness of faith.

Today’s sermon is for every person here this morning, regardless of age, who has ever prayed for a stronger faith.

Today’s sermon is for every person here this morning, regardless of age, who has ever felt they could no longer go on in life just depending on their faith.

In short, today’s sermon is for every person here this morning, regardless of age…PERIOD!

And I would like to challenge each and every one of you this morning to do something which, perhaps, you have never done in your life….

something which is, admittedly, very difficult to do…

something which is, even, frightening to do most of the time.

This morning I challenge you to live BY faith.

Oh,

I know that many, if not most of you, have a strong faith,

I know that many, if not most of you, walk in faith.

I know that many, if not most of you, desire more faith.

But…

How many of you walk BY faith?

You believe in the reality of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit… and the Triune God is the object of your worship and life. That’s living in faith!

You believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin, and as the Lord of your life. That’s living in faith.

You believe the promises of God that He is with you and will be there for always, no matter what. That’s living in faith.

But, this morning, I want to challenge and encourage you not to just live in faith, but that you would walk by faith IN THE PROMISES OF GOD…and thus, live like you have never lived it before!

Now, I not splitting hairs here, or giving you a bunch of gobbledy-gook when I differentiate between living in faith and walking by faith. There is a difference. And I would like to give you the example of Abraham to make that point.

Abram was seventy-five years old when one day God came to him in a place called UR of the Chaldees and said to Abram: "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others.”

And God’s Word tells us that Abram departed as the LORD had instructed him. It takes faith to just pack up all your belongings, leave everything behind, and go to a place you’ve never even heard of...but Abram went BY faith, BELEIVING THE PROMISES OF GOD

Then one day, the Lord came to Abram again and said to him, "Look as far as you can see in every direction. I am going to give all this land to you and your offspring as a permanent possession. And I am going to give you so many descendants that, like dust, they cannot be counted! Take a walk in every direction and explore the new possessions I am giving you."

It takes faith to believe a promise like that when you have no children at all. Yet, God’s Word tells us that, by faith, this childless old man believed the promise of God that he would have so many descendants that, like dust, they could not be counted!

And still God was not finished making promises to Abram and Abram wasn’t finishing walking by faith. With a visual aid, God took Abram outside one night and told Abram to look up into the heavens and count the stars!

Do you know how long that would take…to do that? The Milky Way has 100 billion or so stars in it. Counting one star a second it would take you 33 years to count a billion stars or 3,300 years to count them all. Then God gave the punch line “That’s how many descendants you are going to have!”

Wow! That’s amazing! But what’s even more amazing is that Abraham believed the Lord - that even at such an old age he would really have a son.

And you know what? When Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah, his wife was 90, the LORD did exactly what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant, and she gave a son to Abraham in his old age. And it all happened at the time God had said it would.

Abraham never wavered in believing God's promises. Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though he knew that he was too old to be a father at the age of one hundred and that Sarah, his wife, had never been able to have children. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.

How was Abraham able to have such a hope and faith? And

How can we have it, as well?

Well, Abraham was able TO WALK THROUGH LIFE BY FAITH because He believed in the promises of God.

The idea that so many people have is that anything is possible for those who believe they can. That’s we often hear –

“You just need to have faith! Just believe you can do it, and you will!”

But it doesn’t work that way!

Friends, Abraham’s faith was not what made Abraham’s faith so strong.

Let me repeat that. Abraham’s faith was not what made Abraham’s faith so strong.

What made Abraham’s faith so strong were the promises of God to Him. He didn’t have a child because he just believed HE could have a child. He had a child because he believed God could give him a child.

But,

some preachers will preach and

some teachers will teach and

some writers will write that if you want to have good things happen to you like

they happened to Abraham, all you have to do is have enough faith and

it will happen. Believe hard enough and it will come true!

It doesn’t work that way! Believe in something hard enough and it will come true, isn’t the way it works!

Because if we operate on that theory, look what happens We depend on our own faith and we often end up with
more doubt in our faith and

more questions about our faith and

more guilt with our faith because….

we didn’t get the promotion we wanted,

we don’t have babies like we dreamed of, or

we can’t find that spouse we’ve been praying for.

Instead of our faith being strengthened; it is only weakened. And it’s because we think we have to try harder or believe more.

And that’s a shame, because that’s not what God’s Word is telling us in the Second Lesson for today.

It literally states that Abraham in hope believed he would be the father of many nations, because that’s what God had said to him, "Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars,” even though such a promise seemed utterly impossible! Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything He promised.

Notice throughout these passages that

Abraham is the RECIPIENT – of the PROMISES of God

Abraham is the one being PERSUADED by the PROMISES of God and

Abraham is the person STRENGTHENED - by the PROMISES of God - so that

he couldn’t waver through unbelief.

The truth of the matter is that God made Abraham the father of believers and nations through HIS promises and HIS miracles. Even though it was completely impossible for Abraham and his wife to have a baby, God’s promises enabled Abraham to believe it!

Years ago, when our boys were younger, they would like to stand on the top of the stairs and jump into my arms when I’d come home. But some times they hesitated. And so I’d have to sit at the bottom of the stairs to convince them to jump. I’d say, “it’s OK, I’ll catch you.”

If they still didn’t jump, I’ll hold my arms out farther and say, “It’s OK!” Trust me, I’ll catch you.” Then, finally, after many promises and assurances, I could convince them to jump.

It WAS a leap of faith, but they wouldn’t do it without me holding out my arms, and promising to catch them. I would even venture to bet that they wouldn’t do that for too time if I broke my promise to them.

LIFE IS A LEAP OF FAITH IN THE PROMISES OF GOD!

The continual promises of God gave Abraham’s faith a reason to believe that, since God is almighty, then He can accomplish the impossible.

Abraham looked back over his life and saw

how many promises God had made to him and

how many promises God had kept for Him, and

how many promises God had given him the faith to believe.

He said to himself: “God has rescued me from my mess in Egypt. He has brought me to this land of plenty, just as He promised. Therefore, He will grant me a son. He will send me a Savior.”

That’s what faith is. It is a result of hearing God’s promises and REMEMBERING God’s goodness and being led to believe in those promises in spite of the odds.

Unlike Abraham, we often let our reason get in the way of our faith. We walk with fears and doubts and sorrows that God doesn’t want us to have.

God wants to do the same thing with us as He did with Abraham. In times of doubt and questioning we need to go back to the words and promises of God and let them speak to our hearts. Just look at how St. Paul opens up the arms of God in the Second Reading for today by describing the death and resurrection of Christ.

Jesus was delivered over to death because of our sins and was raised to life FOR our justification. God’s promise is that Jesus was delivered over to death because of our sins. That means that Jesus didn’t go to the cross because of His sins or by some chance act of injustice. He specifically was delivered over to death because of our sins - to pay for them and suffer for them.

This is the only place that we can find shelter from the wrath of God’s Law - which says we must go to Hell for our sins. The promise of the Gospel is that Jesus went to hell of crucifixion FOR us. But the second part of the passage is even better. He was raised to life FOR our justification - in other words - God promises us that Jesus He was raised from the dead to make us right with God.

It is equally comforting to hear HOW we receive this acceptance from God. Long before Abraham performed one good work, God credited Him with righteousness when he believed in his promises. And so Paul writes, “ Now this wonderful truth--that God declared him to be righteous--wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, Who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised from the dead to make us right with God.”

My being looked at as “holy and righteous” by God does not have to do with the amount of my faith; it has everything to do with the object of my faith - the Lord Jesus Christ - raised from the dead.

Faith, then, is taking God’s promises at face value. Even though my conscience tells me that I am a sinner, and my body shows the result of sin and condemnation, the promise of the Gospel is that God regards me as holy and credits me with the holiness of Christ - through faith in Jesus.

If Abraham was credited with righteousness through faith in God’s promise of a Savior, and God promises me the same, then I also am credited with righteousness through faith in the same Savior. Either Jesus died for all of my sins and God accepted that sacrifice and I am saved through faith, or God is a liar. God isn’t and can’t be a liar. So I must be holy.

It’s these promises that call to us from heaven saying,

“Trust in Christ!”

“ Believe in His blood and righteousness!”

“Turn to Him in faith!
”He paid for all your sins!
”He made you holy!
”Believe it!”

Believe it!

Look back over your life and see

how many promises God had made to you and

how many promises God had kept for you, and

how God had given you the faith to believe.

“Trust in Christ!”

“Believe in His blood and righteousness!”

“Turn to Him in faith!
”He paid for all your sins!
”He made you holy!
”Believe it!”

This morning, I challenge and encourage you not to just live in faith, but that you would live and walk by faith IN THE PROMISES OF GOD…and thus, live like you have never lived it before!

Live by faith IN THE PROMISES OF GOD…and thus, live like you have never lived it before! God really grant that or you!

Amen.