Fwd: Abraham's Faith Shadows

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Begin forwarded message:

From: ryanjaustin@comcast.net
Date: November 28, 2012 4:44:59 PM EST
To: ryan austin <ryanjaustin@comcast.net>, Ryan Austin <ryan@southpointcc.com>
Subject: Abraham's Faith Shadows

Holy Spirit give me eyes of faith tonight. Help me to see what you see.

 

I.              ABRAHAM OBEYS

 

-       God calls Abraham to go to an unknown land. He goes. God tells him he is going to be the father of many nations. Abraham believes. At 99 he gives birth to Isaac (the promise). God tells him to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham again obeys!

 

-       When was the last time God told you to do something that seemed impossible and you obeyed without asking? It is easy to obey when you know what lies ahead. But what about when you have no clue? This "unknown" and "unseen" territory that God has called you is different for all of us.

 

o   Respecting mom (Isaac, Brandon). Me leaving Texas & later believing for God to give me a wife. Friends & Bible (KJ).

 

II.            WHAT WAS THE KEY TO ABRAHAM'S OBEDIENCE??

 

-       (Hebrews 11:8-12) "By Faith…"

-       Abraham had no Bible, no church, no history to lean upon, yet he walked into unknown territory abandoning everything to obey the word of the Lord. He had magnificent faith!

-       I believe one of the keys to living an obedient life in God and reaching the destiny that God has for you is living by faith.

 

III.         WHAT IS FAITH?

 

-       (Hebrews 11:1-3) 2 part definition.

-       (Hebrews 11:13) Faith welcomes from a distance

-       Magic eye

 

1.    "Evidence": Faith is the spiritual seeing or perceiving of the fingerprints of God on things he has made.

 

The Magic Eye:

 

-       Some all they can see is chaos and colors. Others look deeper and see what's really there.

-       (skies, rivers, valleys, trees—chaos or something much more?)

-       Abraham saw something different. He saw something others didn't. Faith isn't making up things in your mind like wishful thinking. It is seeing the reality of what's really there! (For Ex: Empire State Building. God. I know because I have seen both).

 

2.    "Substance of things hoped for" Faith is a kind of spiritual tasting of what God has promised so that we feel a deep, assurance of things hoped for.

-       (Hebrews 11:13) pulls the future and brings it to now. (This is how we stay pure)

-       It is the "substance" or smell of the steak cooking that keeps you from eating the BS!

 

IV.          DON'T LET YOURSELF BECOME TOO SMALL!

 

When Abraham was being tested and he didn't have a son til 99, those years of waiting could have made him really really small. When you are waiting for the promise of God and it seems like it will never come into existence it can become really easy to start thinking of God's destiny for your life as small. The promises of God will start to look small and you might even start seeing yourself as small, as someone that isn't really going to change the world. You stop seeing yourself as set apart and begin to see yourself as a part of the crowd (no different than the rest of the world). YOU ARE DIFFERENT! YOU WERE MADE TO BE DIFFERENT! YOU WERE MADE TO REWRITE HISTORY NOT BE THE NORM IN HISTORY!