Sunday Sermon: Faith Is A Night Goggle, February 21, 2021

Sunday Sermon at the Grateful Church (UPCI) in Phoenix, Arizona

Faith Is A Night Goggle

The sun is of little value to a blind man because he walks by faith at all hours. What we see has little value for a person of faith because the promises of God are by faith in all circumstances and not by sight. God foreknown Abraham as the Father of multitude concerning his descendants: (a) as the sand of the seashore and stars of the heavens, and (b) strangers in a strange land when Abraham was old and childless. Abraham’s faith was premised on God’s power to raise the dead and create out of nothing without any consideration to the doubts or arguments posed by his circumstances. Reading from the text

Rom 4:17-22

17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Why faith to navigate the promises?

The wasps of doubt, unbelief, and anxiety gather around the honeycombs of a promise: The promise to Abraham of children as many as stars of heaven and the sand of the seashore for the multitude was surrounded by deaths of his body, Sarah’s womb, and Isaac sacrifice at the altar. We can draw from Abraham’s faith that:

1. True faith is empowered by what we know of God. Abraham knew God as one who quickens the dead. He believed that God would raise Isaac up from the dead. If God could breathe life into dead things to bring them back to life, then God’s promise cannot fail. Abraham faith was nailed and fastened to the fundamental belief that God will raise Isaac from the dead.

2. God speaks in the context of what is to be because they are. God saw, knew, named, called, and spoke of Abraham as the father of multitude through this lens.

   1. Someone who is alive and near will appear at your call, but to call something that does not exist and expect it to appear is faith, suggesting that it may exist but out of sight - Let there be light and there was light,

   2. Abraham believed that if God calls children for me, they will appear even if when there was not a visible sign of being a father.

Application:

Our faith should rest & nailed fastened into two fundamental knowledge of God.

1. His power of resurrection - God raises the dead

2. His power of creation – to create out of nothing.

when God said the promise of the Holy Ghost is for you, He sees us and speaks of us in the context of Holy Ghost-filled, tongue-talking Christians. Our faith should rest on His promises as opposed to the circumstances surrounding the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Acts 2:39

39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Acts 3:19

19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.