Abraham Believed God
Romans 4:17-21 · Jim Pool · May 21, 2006
Romans (2005-07), No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826235212427

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we're continuing in chapter 4. Awesome passage this morning that we're going to be looking at. We're going to pick it up in verse 17 and we're going to go down through verse 21. So let's start in verse 16 and then we'll go down through verse 21.

For this reason it is by faith. that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain 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, the father of many nations have I made you, in the sight of him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. Verse 18, in hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, so shall your descendants be. And without being weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was born, or 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, being fully assured that what he had promised he was able also to perform."

This is an awesome passage, incredible. So, just for sake of review, we've seen in chapter 4, verses 3-8, it was faith alone, apart from works. And then verses 4-9, we saw faith alone, apart from the circumcision. And then last week, 13-16, the promise was through faith, it was not through the law. And then today, verse 17 through verse 21, Abraham believed in God. So, we really just get some of this practical example of Abraham's faith. And light of his circumstances that he was in in his life, here is how Abraham walked by faith and believed in the Lord in the middle of some very impossible circumstance. So, an awesome passage that we have before us today.

So, verse 17 starts out with, As it was written, the Father of many nations hath made you, and this is a quote coming straight out of Genesis in chapter 17 and verse 5. And I think this quote is really confirming the end of verse 16, and that's why I read verse 16 in opening up to go through our verses this morning. So, we could read like this, the end of 16 says, Who is the Father of us all? because it is written, a father of many nations, have I made you." I think that's probably why Paul answered that quote there, to confirm the end of verse 16.

I have made you is to actually, I have placed you or I have appointed you to be the father of many nations and it's a perfect active indicative. It's a completed work that God has done. He made him, he appointed him to be the father of many nations there. The father of many nations in the sight of him who believed, even God, it's interesting, that here, him, and even if you look at the Greek text, those are not there.

So I think, does the KJV use the word before there? Before him? Or is that not correct? I didn't look at that too closely. Before him, okay. Alright. So in this site, whom he believed, God. or before him whom he believed, God. So the idea here is that he is before or in the sight of, with reference to a person. So he's kind of in the presence of, God is observing that he is believing him, he's before him, as in one person standing before another person. It's not before, in the sense of this happened, before this happened. It's in the sense of, you know, I'm standing here this morning before you all. That's the idea of what's coming across, or in the sight of, or before, or in the presence of. Same kind of thing is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17, and chapter 12, and verse 19. For the sake of time, we won't look those up, but that's the same idea that's coming across there.

So Abraham believed while in the sight of, or in God's presence, or before God. So God was seeing, or God was observing Abraham's faith, I think is what's coming across in the sight of him, whom he believed, even God. Now notice it's before or it's in the sight of or in the presence of God, he believed in God.

So that's making very clear to us what the object of his faith was. And the object of one's faith is critical and is crucial. It's not the amount of faith that one has, but it's what is the object that one's faith is in. And we're going to see that in a little while. That faith grows. One's faith grows in relation to the Lord. We're going to talk about that extensively here in a little while. But the object is critical. What is the object of one's faith? We've talked about that a good bit too. Any thoughts? Questions? Please feel free to speak up. Okay, so look at verse 17 again.

God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. So this is some characteristics here of God who is the object of Abraham's faith. And so he gives life to the dead. And literally it would mean calling things not being, being, and making alive dead ones. If you were to read it that way, that's literally what he's talking about here. So God who gives life to the dead, there's three thoughts that are possible ideas here and I think one's going to kind of jump out at us is the one that's probably the most clear here.

The immediate context that God giving life to the dead is the deadness of Abraham's body and the deadness of Sarah's womb. And I think this is probably the one that Paul intends the most as he's putting this phrase there, God who gives life to the dead. Abraham believed in God that he was able to produce a child from Abraham and Sarah even though their bodies were considered dead in relation to childbearing. So in this context of this story relating to Abraham and Sarah, it seems like that's going to be the one that we're going to really want to go with when we talk about God who gives life to the dead.

Another thought though is simply the omnipotence of God. That God is the one who gives life and God is the one who takes life. God is the one who holds that in his hand. And those verses there from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy and 1 Samuel are going to clearly lay that out for us, but again, we won't take the time to read those. But again, that's a characteristic of God, that He gives life and He also has the right and the ability to take life. Let's look at this Hebrews passage, which is very It's very interesting, it clearly applies to our passage today.

God was able to raise Isaac from the dead, Hebrews 11, verse 17-19. So, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who received the promise was offered up his only begotten son. And it was he to whom it was said, and Isaac your descendants shall be called.

And he considered that God is able to raise men even back from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. So, boom, God bringing people back from the dead. I was looking at God who gives life to the dead. Abraham knew that. Because he is willing to, by faith, if God says, offer up your son Isaac, Abraham had faith that God can do this.

Give life to the dead. That was awesome. Again, we're going to see huge pillars of Abraham's faith coming out in this passage. It's so encouraging to me as I was looking at it this week. He knew, hey, if God tells me to offer up my son, that's no problem, because I know that God is able to bring him back from the dead. Wow! That was profound. Any thoughts? That's right, yeah. Other thoughts?

Okay, and God gives spiritual life to the spiritual dead, and we know that is clearly the case. For those who believe in God, He takes mankind, dead in their trespasses, and sin, and makes them alive unto God and Christ Jesus, and He makes them dead unto sin. So, three things there in relation to God who gives life to the dead. The direct application is going to be our first one in the media context where he was able to give life to the deadness of Abraham and Sarah in relation to the barren children. But certainly the other two definitely apply as well. OK, so the next thing was, not only does God give life to the dead, but He also calls into being that which did not exist. And a couple of different ideas here as well.

Calling into being the promise to Abraham which did not yet exist. Again, that's the immediate context that we're talking about. There was a fulfillment of this Abrahamic promise, the Abrahamic covenant. Was it fulfilled yet? No. but God is able to call into being that which did not exist. So, God is speaking in a sense that this is going to be fulfilled, but it hasn't yet been fulfilled, and God is able to do that. He's going to bring about this Abrahamic promise, this Abrahamic covenant, which did not yet exist.

I think that's the immediate context of what's being talked about here. The verb call, In the Old Testament, it often refers to God's creative work. We know that very clearly that God brings about what did not previously exist. Genesis 1 gives tons of evidence relating to that. And calling forth the generations from the beginning, Isaiah talks about that as well in 41 in verse 4.

And just as similarly mentioned to the previous point, God spiritually calls people unto himself. God brings about spiritual life in believers where spiritual life did not exist. But I think, again, the immediate context is probably the best, and he calls them to being that which did not exist relating to the Abrahamic covenant and this agreement between Abraham and God.

Thoughts? Okay, so the next verse here, verse 18, and hope against hope He believed. Now, hope is an expectation of good. It's a joyful and a confident expectation. Now, we use the word hope real loosely today. You know, I hope this is going to happen, or boy, I hope, you know, we've had a lot of colds in our family this week, and I got it this morning. Well, you know, boy, I hope this thing goes away quick. Well, I use that word right there very loosely. We say it all the time throughout our weeks, okay?

But when we look at it in a biblical sense, this word hope is confident expectation. That is a different meaning of the word hope than how I just used it. I hope this cold goes away quick. Do I really mean I have a confident expectation that my cold is going to be gone by tomorrow morning? Probably not. Boy, it would be really nice if this thing would get out of here quick, see?

But the biblical definition here of hope is one of confident expectation. And confident expectation can only find its source in faith in God. Because we can't be confidently expectant of anything if we're not having faith in the Lord related. So hope and faith, they're different, but I think they're related.

Because it's already previously noted. So, in hope against hope, he had this confident expectation he believed. and that was Eris, active indicative, and Eris simply meaning that he believed that something had happened in the past, and he was the one that was believing, the active, and it was a reality. So, he believed, he had this confident expectation in the Lord.

Now, I mentioned this a little bit last week, I wanted just to bring it up again. This verb here, pistuo, to believe, It's used 246 times in the New Testament and 236 times in the active voice. That's a huge percentage. And when we think about the active voice, just for a reminder, I'm sure we are familiar with this at this point, but the active voice simply means that the subject is the one who is performing the action. So Abraham believed. So who was believing? Abraham was the one who was doing the believing.

And so, you know, this is an overwhelming amount of evidence that God desires for us to be walking by faith and dependency upon Him. God desires us to be the one that is going to be doing the believing. Nobody is going to be... No one is going to believe for us. God wants us to believe and to be walking by faith and dependency upon Him.

Okay, confident expectation of faith in God and not in the circumstances. See? This is an awesome story. It's going to be extremely applicable for us as we continue on. So his faith wasn't based on his feelings, on his possibilities, or the probabilities that this was going to come about. His faith was based on a confident expectation that God was going to work. That God was going to do what God said he was going to do. I mean, that might be a very simple truth, but I tell you, that's profound. And if I walked in the light of that, every moment of every day, it would change my life. I'll tell you that just straight up, the way it is.

Let's go back to Hebrews one more time. Just give us an example of this, that his faith was not based on feelings, it wasn't based on possibilities or probabilities. but it was based on confident expectation that God is going to do what God said he was going to do. So, verse 8. So, by faith when he was called, obeyed, not going out to a place which he was to receive for inheritance, and he went out, I'm sorry, and going out to a place which he was to receive for inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

I mean, imagine that. He just went out. not really knowing where it was that he was going. I mean, how many of us would do that? That would be ludicrous. People would say, what in the world are you doing? To just go and not quite sure where you're going to end up. Most people say, don't do that. That's extremely unwise. That's the counsel that we would get today.

So by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which had foundations, whose architect and builder was God. Looking for a city whose architect and builder was God. I mean, we could stop there and look at that for a while, but we won't.

So by faith, even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. there is Sarah's confident expectation and faith in the Lord. Therefore also there was born of one man and him as good as dead at that as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number innumerable as the sand which is in the seashore." And we already looked at 17, 18, and 19. communicating to us that the faith wasn't based on feelings, possibilities, or probability, but in God's word to do what he said that he was going to do.

Okay, so now we've got this phrase here, In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations. that he might become, is in the aorist middle infinitive, so that he might become himself, or that he might become oneself, the father of many nations, is what he's talking about here. So, let me throw this out to you, because when I first read this verse, it really challenged my thinking regarding this.

It appears that becoming a father of many nations is dependent upon his faith. Doesn't it appear that way at your initial glance? He believed in order that he might become the father of many nations. So I was just thinking, does this mean that if he didn't believe, that therefore he wouldn't become the father of many nations?

Well, that brings into conflict, or that would compromise the whole Abrahamic covenant, that it's an unconditional covenant. You guys see that? So I was kind of batting that around, I wasn't sure. I called Vern and said, what's happening here? Because we know that can't be the case. So, Mounts put it this way, which I thought was a really good way to put it together.

Abraham's hope rested solely on God's promise. He had no hope of obtaining his descendants naturally. In fact, circumstances pointed just the opposite. It was a hopeless situation for him to bring forth the sickness naturally. So his faith was not a condition for the reception of the promise, but he believed with the intent of receiving it. He believed with the intent of receiving it because his faith was based on the faithfulness of God. His faith wasn't based on himself generating faith in order to cause God to be causative of God to respond based on his faith, but his faith was he believed with the intention of receiving it.

That helped me a little bit to understand that. So God chose him, a man of faith. We mentioned this last week a little bit too. God chose him, a man of faith, to make a covenant and an agreement with. God knew the character of Abraham. God knew that he was a man of faith. And we said last week that God didn't just choose some rank pagan sinful individual to make disagreement with. God chose Abraham as being a man of faith. So he believed, and this belief was the confident expectation of receiving it based on the faithfulness of God. Does that help a little bit with that question? Any thoughts or questions? It's kind of a tough thing to get your hands around. Abraham believed because he was a man of faith. But then God reinforced his belief by following through.

So here now you have this child that is a miracle child for anyone to see. That's right. And anyone who saw them, when here was Abraham and Sarah, and everyone knew, they couldn't conceive. So this had to be a miracle. So it was just a confirmation. That's right. And that's why as we go through the passage, we're going to see that Abraham's faith grew, and boom, ultimately we're going to close it out with, he was given glory to God. for that very reason. There is no other explanation for why this happened. So, yeah, good point. Anything else? Questions? Okay, so, So Shall Your Descendants Be is a quote coming out of Genesis 15, 5 where the previous one was out of Genesis chapter 17. Okay, so, verse 19.

And without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body. So, without becoming weak in faith, he did not weaken in faith under his considered circumstances. You should fix that a little bit. Under the circumstances he considered, or his circumstances. So, fix that up for you. He looked at his circumstances from a perspective of faith in God. Therefore, his circumstances didn't overwhelm him. How about that? There is an awesome picture of us of faith, of walking by faith and dependency upon the Lord.

He contemplated or considered his own body and he also contemplated and considered Sarah, her body as well. So his body was now as good as dead. Dead was in the perfect passive, participle. Perfect meaning an existing state of affairs. So the existing state of his body in relation to producing children was dead because he was around 100 years old. Yet, despite contemplating his own body, he continued on in faith. That's incredible. That is absolutely incredible. What an example for us.

And Sarah was barren and her womb was dead. You know, you don't often hear of a woman's womb being dead. That's kind of a strange word to use there, but I think Paul used it and put it in here to drive home the point that this was beyond childbearing. It not only was a bearing, but it was dead. It could not bring forth, she could not bring forth children.

So, there's nothing in their circumstances that caused them to believe in the promise that God made. In fact, as I said earlier, all the indicators pointed to the opposite of the fulfillment of the promise. It was humanly impossible for the promise to come true based on their physical condition.

This is the point that we're arriving at. But remember, what is impossible with man is possible with God. I mean, what a place to just settle ourselves at and in. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Every one of us here, to have some sort of impossible situation in our lives today. We hear some of it coming through prayer requests, and that's great because we can pray, but every one of us have things that we're not sharing, where we are in some sort of an impossible situation. What is impossible with us is possible with God. I think we're seeing that come out through this story. So with respect to the promise of God, He did not waver. in his unbelief. So, he was looking rather to God's promise, and looking rather to God's promise, he did not waver.

You know, set your minds on things above, not on the things of this earth. I mean, here's a picture of someone who was, you know, you hear the phrase, being occupied with Christ. Here's an example of somebody that was being occupied with Christ in the middle of some extremely difficult situations. The idea here of waiver is in the Aorist passive indicative to be at variance with oneself or to doubt or to hesitate.

So he didn't doubt regarding the promise of God, he didn't hesitate regarding the promise of God, but he was able to maintain strong in faith despite his circumstances. So because Abraham knew of the faithfulness of God, he did not hesitate regarding the promise, and he knew that God was able to do what he said he would. Look at verse 21. We're going to close with this verse later this morning, but look at verse 21. And being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. There it is. I mean, that's the final nail driven into the coffin right there.

So doubting or wavering or hesitating, it would have been unbelief, if you think about that. Why would he have doubted? Why would he have hesitated? Why would he have wavered back and forth? It simply would have been unbelief. You know what we do every day, too. We doubt, we're anxious, we're worried, all this stuff. And all that is, is unbelief.

That's right. And the simplest things, instead of resting in the Lord, Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah. And that's really all it is. It's just unbelief. Yeah. That's why he says here, he did not waver in unbelief. Yeah. Questions? Bob? Do you have a thought? I'm thinking about those of us who walked in the year 2006 in terms of what this really meant. And God's not talking to much of us, many of us anyway. Right, that's right. Can we hold that thought because it's slide 8? We're going to tie it all right in. Which is an awesome, this is a great story just to put it, to get it to us.

So, does this mean that Abraham always walked by faith and believed in the Lord? No, absolutely not. He was a sinful man, just like everyone else. But as a whole, his mindset and his heart attitude was one of dependency, faith, and trust in the Lord. Are we always going to, moment by moment, walk by faith? No, we're going to be in and out of faith and unbelief. But what is God's desire? It's that as He conforms us to the image of Christ, our mindset and our heart attitude will be one of faith. Okay, so he grew strong in faith. We see that here in verse 20. He didn't waver in belief, but he grew strong.

Now this is very interesting. It's an Aries passive indicative. Passive meaning that the action is being done to him. So he was strengthened by faith, or by God, in relation to his faith. That's an interesting thought there, that God is the one who is strengthening his faith. I thought that was clearly worth bringing out.

Abraham wasn't strengthening his own faith, but God was the one who was strengthening his faith. So, what does it mean to have one's faith strengthened? Let's hold that question until slide 8 when we're going to talk about how this all applies to us, but that's a good question for us to contemplate. What does it mean for us to have our faith strengthened by God? Okay, so he ended up giving glory to God because of God's faithfulness and his faith being strengthened by God. He was giving glory to God in contrast to those who didn't in Romans chapter 1 and verse 21.

I'm sure that you remember that. And for they knew, even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish hearts were darkened. I know they're wrong. Where is it at? They did not give glory to God. They did not honor God or give thanks. It became futile in their speculations. Opposite of what Abraham's doing.

And he was not only giving glory to God, but he was being fully assured, or persuaded, I think is what the KJV uses. And again, it's in the passive, it's heirs, passive, participle, so God is the one who was assuring him, or was persuading him. Again, I think that's well worth bringing out. Not only was God strengthening his faith, but God was the one who was providing the assurance, or was the one who was persuading him. Being fully assured or persuaded is the idea of completion of a business transaction, meaning to fill with certainty. So it wasn't like he was partly persuaded or partly assured. He was fully, completely assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Just the faithfulness of God coming through there.

What are the impossible circumstances in our lives? And here we go and kind of talk this through. How does this great example of faith then flesh out in our own lives? So do we hope against hope and believe in God, what He has said to be true? Do we do that? Now, there's so many things that we can look at in relation to what it is that God has said to be true, but I put down just a few.

It would have taken numerous, numerous, numerous slides to put down all that it is that got us at First Future. So, how does this flesh out into our own lives? Bob, how did you phrase your question, or what was that? I was just wondering about the relevance of having to make a specific promise.

That's right, yeah. Okay, so is our faith based on the same promise that God gave to Abraham? No, absolutely not. But here are some things that God has spiritually said that are true of us. That we're blessed with every spiritual blessing, that we're accepted in the beloved, that we're co-heirs with Christ, that we're dead unto sin, that we are alive unto God, we're always victorious. through Christ, and He's given us everything pertaining to life and godliness, and we have the peace of God. We might find ourselves in difficult circumstances, and our circumstances might not change. Our circumstances might not work out the way that we might desire them to. But, God has said that you can enjoy the peace of God, and that you can have that peace with God.

So, are we walking by faith? Do we consider our own bodies as dead unto sin? Are sin natures being crucified with Christ? And have you been given a new nature? That's what we're talking about there. Yeah, Margaret. When you look at your list, these are all spiritual questions.

And there was nowhere that God promised that on the earth we were going to live a healthy, wealthy life. And I think the message that so many churches today are teaching is that if you just believe, you're going to have this peace on earth, we're going to all get along, we're going to have a great life. And there's nothing about that. And what a wrong message. They're angry. They're blaming God for the hurricane. They're blaming God for this. It's just bad teachings.

That's right. That's right. Bob? Yeah, Jim, you've done a great job kind of establishing the truth here in these various bullet points. That's just outstanding. But you know, now houses play out, right? And so I have a suggestion, maybe the entire purpose of our faith is recognizing God's promise and the purpose of our trials and tribulations of our current forms to be able to decide.

I mean, our citizenship is a heavenly body, but we live in a sinful and dead God, that's right? That's right, that's right. The question is why, and this time, you know, what Margaret said, and the truth of who we are in Christ. Yeah. The purpose of our faith is to see the image of the Lord Jesus Christ created in us. That's right.

And I would suggest, again, that I have taught in this class so many times, it's not our own yardstick we've used. It's got to be the way the world sees that, right? But I've only tracked how we're doing that. That's right, that's right. It's to bring glory to Him. That's right, that's right. And sometimes, you know, and I say it all the time, but we're the epistle, and we talk about it in 1 Timothy where we're the lightest of, you know? We're what people see, and it's His glory living out through us, and it's not our great circumstances. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I saw him on Tuesday and he brought that up. He said, man, we have more time. I'll just tell you about all the people that God's given me the opportunity to share with. Wow. What a thing to be thinking about and talking about in the middle of his circumstances.

Sure. Yeah. And his eyes are not on the circumstance. They're looking at the circumstance as an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. And we, every day, we have those opportunities to, in the checkout line of the grocery store, people at work, we interact with. Yeah. Yeah. For that glory to shine through us. That's right. And that's what it's about. That's right, right, that's right.

And it says, we ended up in verse... Verse 20, he ended up giving glory to God. And that's where it's at. He was fully assured and ended up giving glory to God. So, we know that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

How do we know that? Because God's Word has revealed that. Just the same way that Abraham knew that he was going to receive the promise. And so, Abraham believed in that, despite what his circumstances looked like. Now, do our circumstances and do we always feel like we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places?

Absolutely not. So, the purpose is to be molded into the image of Jesus Christ. for God to be glorified, but there's going to come that moment where we're not going to feel like I'm crucified with Christ, like that peace is possible. It's going to feel like peace is just, there's no way that I can have peace in the middle of this time. It's just one of those things I'm going to have to grind it out. Well, that's not the case.

As soon as we step into that spot, we're wavering. and unbelief, where God said, no, I want you to believe, I want you to walk by faith, despite your circumstances, we know that we're being conformed to the image of Christ, therefore God is going to be glorified, and I think as that happens, our faith grows.

I think as we, God's the one who's growing our faith, as a circumstance comes up, and then we believe God's word, despite our circumstances, Wow, man, God's word is true. Look at that. And then something else. And then something else. And that's, I think, how God is going to be using our trials. He's going to be using our struggles. And as we're believing, God's going to be growing our faith. I have a couple of hands up. Well, I work in the retirement community and I never expected to see so much spiritual life as I see it among some of your saints.

One lady I'm thinking of who's 90 years old, died vague and has, she's an amputee. She could have gone on a bad day and the humidity is that she can't even pick up her head. When you catch her eyes, you can see the joy of a living bird, and her one concern are the people who sit around her at the various tables. She is just on fire. She is so excited. Her body basically is as good as dead.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Thanks. Sure, sure. Ruth? In Christ, instead of constantly looking at your condition, and the more you hang on to your position, the more your condition is going to be in line with God, because you're hanging on to what is true. It's huge. You change that focus onto position. That's right. Instead of your circumstantial condition. Sure. And could you say that hanging on would be the equivalent of believing? Sure.

And trusting that in the midst of whatever is happening, whatever is going on at school, it doesn't matter what this little boy does, or that little girl does, or the school, or the parents. It doesn't matter. I have all those things. It's all going to be okay.

God's with me. It's maybe not going to be okay, it's not going to be easy, but the Lord's with me. That's right. And you will rise above your circumstances based on abiding and resting and believing in your position in Him. That's right. And He will take care of me through the whole thing. That's right. Yeah. Laban? Yeah, something. I have a question going back to Hebrews 11.

I guess when I give people advice, do I have to make a decision? I kind of always gather the facts and make a list, know the whys about this and the other whys, and I guess just try to make wise decisions. Right, right. So we see here, like you said, nothing that Abraham did in the world's perspective was wise. And how do you... I don't know, how do you gather the facts? I mean, some decisions seem so unwise.

I think you have to, everything has to line up with the scriptures. I'll just give you an example. We don't want to base anything on experience, we want to base everything on the scriptures. When we considered moving out here, most people thought we were nuts. You're leaving basically a plush job as a staff member at a church. What do you think I'm going to go to? I came here to work for Helmet. Helmet employed me before I got here. So what are you going to do? Property maintenance? Leave this and do property maintenance?

They thought we were out of our minds. So I was getting that advice from one group of people, but I knew there were biblical principles you had to provide for my family. For me to move somewhere without a job would be very irresponsible relating to my family. So there were certain things we had to have in place before we made the move. Does that make sense? You've got to gather all the facts in the light of scripture, be responsible in what God has called me to do with my family, but at the same time, go where it is that He wants you to go. Does that make any sense? So certainly it might look bizarre what the Lord might be leading people to do.

But you don't want to be foolish. I don't think God would have us be foolish either. I think there's wisdom in the Word. You walk by faith in what the Word has to say. So you're not foolish, but you're walking by faith. So, there's kind of both there maybe. I've heard of missionaries who try to get into countries or try to get into a tribe and get rejected. It's like a closed door. And do you take that as a sign from God that it's not time, or do you go somewhere else, or do you keep going physical?

Well, you know, things that we don't feel are convictions of the Holy Spirit are simple, and certain convictions are simple. God's promised that. I don't know about you, but he's good at that. But anyway, I think that these kinds of things that appear like you gather the facts, as Jim was saying, there are no mistakes that we make in the Lord's Kingdom, right? That's right.

I mean, so if you wait and see if he opens up the door, God's going to perform what He's going to decide in the time that we're going to have. I think when things are neutral and not sinful in terms of our choices, and even sin, if we choose sin, God's going to conform us to the image of the Son.

I don't think that we lose that fellowship when we move in that direction, and that's something that we really covet and desire. So, I don't know, that's a simplistic answer. There's not just one little path that you have to be on, and if you get off that, then it's lost. In that specific example, that boils down to that person just walking with God. You hear stories going both ways. Boy, God got us right in. It was so easy, but we waited ten years. After ten years of trusting the Lord and waiting on Him, boom, He got us in. So you hear both ways. It's not just one, you can't just say, In other situations where it's neutral, and neither one are sin, to go forward or to wait. That's right. That's right. That's right, yeah. If the Word doesn't speak against it, And that's where you're at. Now if the word speaks against it, boom, now I've got some information to base that decision on. The information is God's word. But if there's no specific word from the Lord in it, then we're walking by faith on the legion of the Lord.

Alright, let's pray. Lord, thanks for this. this passage and just the greatness of it. And boy, I pray that our minds and our affections and our occupation would be on you, not on ourselves or our circumstances, but that we would walk by faith and abide in you, rest in you, in the position that you put us in, and therefore doing what it is that you want us to do. So thank you, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen.