Moving Forward in Faith

Good, what a beautiful worship time. And we wanna welcome you to church. Whether you're joining us here in the auditorium or whether you're watching over in Munskey Hall in the venue service via video, or we get more and more people watching online on the internet. We actually have a larger congregation watching the sermons every week online now than we do actually here in person. So really wanna welcome everybody who's watching online too. It's just a wonderful tool to use.

And if you're here joining us for the first time today, I just wanna say I think you chose a really great weekend to start because we are just in the very early stages of a series we call Faith Building. We're just in day 15 of this 40-day series and we intend for this to be an immersive experience about faith for the whole church. What do you mean immersive? Well, as Mark mentioned earlier during the announcements, we also have books that I wrote about 40 days of daily faith devotionals, just one-page devotionals that are meditations about faith to encourage you. And they've got daily Bible readings and prayers.

And in the back of the book, there's small group questions and you can pick up this book for free. We're not even accepting donations for it. It's just our gift to you. God gives us good gifts. We wanna give good gifts to you too. And also there's a DVD that goes with it. You can pick that up for free too. We filmed extra lessons about faith and those are meant to be watched weekly. They tie into the sermons. There's questions related to them in the back of the books. Why? Because we are just in a just faith-deprived culture right now. Would you agree with that?

And I don't just mean religious faith, the way people might stereotype it. I mean the kind of biblical optimism that the Bible is referring to when it talks about living by faith, living with a sense of potential about the future, living with a sense that God is going to do great things, that miracles are on the horizon, the kind of faith that the Bible recommends. But you look around these days and you just see a lot of pessimism, even among Christians. A lot of anger, a lot of anxiety.

But our Lord Jesus never said, you know, here's what I recommend. Go to bed anxious, be really angry at worldly people and just be pessimistic about your life. In fact, he said the exact opposite. He said don't be anxious. Pray for those in authority and live with faith. Even a mustard seed of faith can change your life. And so that's what we've been talking about, the sense of biblical optimism in this series that can really change your life.

And I wanna start out this morning with an illustration from a movie. So let me just ask for a show of hands. How many of you in this room right now, whether you're watching remotely or you're here live, how many of you are Lord of the Rings fans? Can I see a show of hands? You love those Lord of the Rings movies. Personally, I think those first three Lord of the Rings movies are like the best movies ever made. I just love them. And so consequently, I show clips from them a lot.

Like this one, the first one, Fellowship of the Ring has this scene. This is it. This is what? If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home I've ever been. Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilder used to say? "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Don't you love that quote? If you don't watch out, if you step out, go into new territory, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

Taking that first step is what faith is all about. Now, some of you here today, in fact, I would say all of you here today, whether you know it or not, are right on the edge of uncharted territory in your life. Every single one of us in this room is right on the edge of a place that God wants to take you in your life that you have never been before. Now, you say, "What are you talking about, René?" Let me put it to you this way. Where would you go in your life if you knew you couldn't fail? I'm not talking about traveling somewhere. I'm talking about spiritually. Where would you go?

Put it another way. What's your God-given dream for your life? What's your dream? Your big dream? I'm not talking about winning a billion dollars in the lottery or something. What's a dream you feel like might be given to you by God? A dream like, "Well, I've always thought about adopting a child, but I've been too afraid to do that. I've always thought about starting a ministry, but I don't feel qualified to do that. I've always thought about writing a book about the way God has worked in my life, but I feel like I don't really have a right to do that. I've always wanted to write music for the Lord. I've always wanted to get Jesus to be really the Lord of all of my life. I've always wondered what it would be like to live sober and sanely and get all of my addictions and habits under the control of God."

What dream is it that you're right on the verge of that you're wondering what it would be like to step forward into that dream and really make a difference in the world? How do you get past the hesitation to move forward? How do you get past the procrastination? How do you get past the excuses? How do you develop in you a sense of godly ambition about moving ahead? That's what I wanna talk about this morning, moving forward in faith, moving ahead into that uncharted territory in your life, not letting things just be status quo, having holy ambition.

And in discussing this specifically, I wanna look at four lessons from the life of Abraham in the Bible, the first really major character in scripture. Abraham is a beloved figure, not only in Christianity, but also in Judaism and also in Islam, because his life really teaches us a lot about how to move forward in faith. God asks Abraham in the Bible to literally pack up everything and move to the wilderness because he's gonna make him the father of many nations.

In fact, late one night, God even says, "Abraham, look up at the stars. Your descendants are going to outnumber the stars you can see tonight. What a great dream." Only problem? Well, first Abraham had no kids, zero, let alone a couple of dozen descendants. He had no descendants at 75 years of age and his wife Sarah is infertile. So that dream looks like an impossibility. Second thing, God asks him to move forward in faith and doesn't even tell him where he's going. He just says, "Oh, you'll know when you get there. I'll tell you."

So how do you move forward in faith when God's directions to you are that vague and seem that impossible? When God says to Abraham in Genesis 12, starting in verse one, he says, "Go from your country, your people, your father's household." In other words, leave everything you know. And go to the land that I will show you eventually. And I'll make you into a great nation and I'll bless you and I'll make your name great and you'll be a blessing. And I'm gonna bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. In other words, I'm gonna protect you and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And then verse four simply says, "So Abraham went."

Now how do you do that? You know what's interesting to me about Genesis 12 is that God promises Abram a lot, doesn't he? I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna protect you, I'm gonna give you a new name, I'm gonna give you a purpose, I'm gonna bless the whole world through you. But he doesn't ask a lot from Abram. Not a lot of specifics, he didn't say. And here's the 10 commandments, those come later. And here's a thousand rules for you. He doesn't say anything like that. All he says is, "Just trust me. Just trust me." Enough to take the next step. And that's the same exact thing he asks of you and me. He's a God of grace. He says, "A lavish blessing on you. Just trust me and take the next step."

You know, in Hebrews chapter 11, this episode in Genesis 12 is mentioned four times. Four times the writer of Hebrews says, "By faith." Abraham did this, by faith he did, by faith, by faith. And I wanna look at those four times to look at four lessons from the life of Abraham because these will inspire you about getting off home base, you know, and moving forward in your life, getting back into the game if you feel paralyzed on the border of some potential future you see out there for you. We'll jot these down. There's the message notes that are right there in your bulletins that'll help you follow along.

Number one, by faith Abraham stepped out. He took the first step. This is the first time Abraham is mentioned in Hebrews 11:8, by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went even though he didn't know where he was going. Now, we've heard this story so many times, most of us who grew up in church, that we don't even have an accurate picture of it anymore. So I wanna do a little Discovery Channel moment here because I want you to understand what Abraham was leaving.

The place Abraham left, his hometown, was a city called Ur. And Ur was the sister city of Um. No, just kidding, that's not true. But I just wanted to see if you were listening. Check this out, the rest of this is true. This was an amazing place. He left, part of ancient Ur survives like this massive ziggurat. This stands almost six stories high. It's one of the best preserved ancient monuments in the world. And this was at the center of the city of Ur in Abraham's day, 4,000 years ago. Only in Abraham's day, at eight more levels. It was the skyscraper of his day. Now, today it sits in the middle of the Iraqi desert, but when Abraham lived here, the Euphrates River flowed right through the town and it was a very fertile city.

What else was the city like when Abraham lived there? Well, historian Thomas Cahill writes, "This period in Sumer," now Ur was the capital of Sumer, "This period saw an explosion of technological creativity on a scale that would not be matched until the 19th and 20th centuries of our era." Now check this out. "It witnessed the invention of wheeled transport, sailing ships, metallurgy, fired pottery, written language, engraving, mass production of bricks, the arch, the vault, the dome, the first legal system, the first lawyers, for which we will hold them responsible forever. Just kidding if you're a lawyer.

Next, the first large commercial breweries, the 12-month calendar, geometry, and he says, "It all appeared, as it were, within weeks of each other." This is the city that Ur was. This was a major center of science 4,000 years ago. In fact, look, if you have a watch, you ever wonder who divided up the year into 12 months? Why 12 months? Who divided up hours into 60 minutes? Who divided up minutes into 60 seconds? Who did that? Why 60? Why 12? Guess who did? The people of Ur. That's where that all started. And so this is all of this amazing, literate, scientific, knowledgeable society, and they knew how to have fun, too.

I wanna show you a massive mosaic that I saw in the British Museum with scenes of everyday life in Ur. This is from Abram's day. They're having fun, they're listening to music, they're hanging out, happy. It was a nice place, and it was lavish. They discovered a tomb at Ur in the 1930s, which had been totally untouched by looters for over 4,000 years, very rare. And the woman in the grave who was from Abraham's era was wearing this amazing golden headdress. This is the sort of thing that maybe Sarah, Abraham's wife, would have worn. It showed you how much they valued beauty. This was made out of pure gold, so it shows you how rich they were. And this place is where Abraham lives. And he is among the wealthiest and most comfortable people there. The Bible says he was rich. In fact, the Bible says he had at least 50 servants. And God says, "I want you to leave." Leave this? What? To go where? Well, the outside. Outside of the city.

And here's how a citizen of Ur described the wild people who lived outside of Ur. This is from a little cuneiform tablet from around Abraham's time, talking about how uncivilized people were outside of Ur. Buffeted by wind and rain. He knows not prayers, eats uncooked meat, has no house in his lifetime, is not brought to burial when he dies. This is almost the description of a wild animal. They were saying, "Look, we have all this knowledge in scientific progress and beauty, and the people who live outside of our city are basically cavemen. So are you getting a picture of what Abraham is leaving?" This place is very nice. In fact, the word Ur means the city. It's not even a name, it just means the city. It was the city on the planet. Everything else was uncivilized.

And there's one more thing you need to know about Ur. The people of Ur, for all their technology, did not like to travel, except for merchants who had to do it to trade. Their city was the nicest place on the planet, and they knew it, and they liked to just stay there. You could say that they were kind of like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. They love the good life. Their food, their drink, their comforts, but no adventures, please. And this all helps you appreciate this verse, doesn't it? When God says, "Abraham, I know you're comfortable. I know you've had power and prestige and pleasure and profit, but I'm calling you to purpose."

So how do you and I apply this? How do we make this step from the known into the unknown? Because right now, some of you are thinking of somewhere that God has asked you to take a step of faith. Well, here's the way Abraham did it. He thought first step instead of whole journey. This is very key. Abraham didn't know the whole journey, but he knew the next step. See, a lot of times we go, "God, if you show me the roadmap, you show me everything that's gonna happen, all the problems that I might encounter," and then I'll consider taking the first step. But of course, that never happens.

I heard Brother Andrew, who used to smuggle Bibles into Eastern Europe, say that following God is like approaching doors at a supermarket that open when you step on the mat. He said, "To get the doors to open, you have to approach the doors," and then they open. If you stay in your car and look at the doors and think, "Well, I'll wait until the open doors are there for a long time, and then I'll rush through them," you'll never get into the supermarket. You gotta step forward, and that's the way life is too. You step forward, and then God opened doors.

Now, what's amazing to me about this first step of faith that Abraham makes is he's 75. I mean, you may be thinking, "I don't know. I mean, I had dreams about doing this and that for God, but I mean, I'm old. I'm too old to do anything new for, I gotta just be happy with the status." I can't move into ministry. Well, Abraham was pretty old too, and he just gets older, and he continues to step out in faith for God. Or you might think, "You're too young." I remember 20 years ago, almost now, that I came on here at Twin Lakes Church and was asked to be the pastor, and I told my wife, "There's no way I'm the right person for this job. I'm way too young. I'm 32 years old."

And this is Twin Lakes Church, the guy who was here before me, the legendary Roy Kraft, had been here for half a century. I said, "I can't at 32 follow a guy who was here for half a century." And Lori just gives me great advice all the time, and she looked at me, she said, "Look, René, you're young, that's true, but let's say worse comes to worse and you just go down in flames in a couple of years." She says, "I'll still love you, and the two kids are too young to even know the difference, and so just go for it. Take the first step, René, and see what happens." And I'm so glad I did.

You know what, I think all the way back to the very first founders of this church. This is the earliest picture that we have of the congregation here at Twin Lakes Church. This was taken in the 1890s, because this church was started by some of these very people in 1890. And if you look very closely at this picture, you will see a very young Dan Baker. It's incredible, no, that's not true. Again, a lie, but the rest of this is true. But you know, these people didn't know what they were starting when they started that place. In fact, their idea wasn't even to have a regular church. I don't know if you know this. Their idea was just to open a conference center. They built the building and said, "We'll just have summer conferences here."

And almost immediately, people in Santa Cruz said, "But we want it to be a weekly church." Oh, okay. They just stepped down on faith and started something. And then God opened all kinds of other doors. And of course, I feel exactly the same way about this whole idea that we have given to us by God, we believe, of constructing a children's ministry center here. It's part of what we call our 2020 vision that we've been talking about for weeks now. And if you didn't get it yet, I'd encourage you to get a brochure that looks like this. You can get 'em in the lobby. It'll explain the whole thing to you. I won't go into it now, but the point is, I feel like our generation is on the edge of some uncharted territory for us. We have not built a building here in 30 years.

So there's a lot of people in my generation that have never done this before. And I think God's calling us to step forward in faith, because all sorts of doors can open up when we do that. The question is, will this generation step forward in faith and just take the first tentative step and see what God does next? So by faith, you gotta just step out and take the first step. And the number two is by faith Abraham stayed on. He stayed on. He goes from the splendor of Ur to living in tents, Hebrews 11:9, by faith. He made his home in the promised land, a stranger in a foreign land. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

Now, staying on can be way harder than stepping out because you step out in faith and it's sort of a thrill and then the hardship starts. Then the rocks under your tent start to bother you as you're sleeping out there, having your big adventure, right? I remember stepping out in faith, coming here, and then the criticism mounted. Those first couple of years that I was pastor here, I got so many negative letters sent to me. I saved them all. I have two thick file folders, this thick, with letters that were sent to me. I saved them because some of them were so vitriolic. They crossed the line into just humor. One person called me the Pied Piper of Satan and I thought, I've never been called, hold that before, I gotta keep that letter.

Here's another one. This is an actual letter that I got. I'm not making this up. Every word's true. This is not a joke. Dear Pastor Schlepfer, it has been a long time since our church has had a competent shepherd to guide us and now that you are here, it appears he wants us to continue to suffer for a season. Yours in Christ, a sister. Now, my mom has since apologized, but still, that hurt. No, that part was a joke. Now, it's exciting to take first steps, but then you get criticism. How do you stay on? Well, you do what Abraham did. He built his present on the foundations of the future. Did you notice in this verse it says, he was looking for, you don't look back, that's for sure. He was looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

You look forward to what God is going to do in your life. And let me just say this, even if it's heaven, even if all you have to look forward to is being with Jesus in heaven, because that's enough. So by faith, Abraham stays on for nearly 25 years and what happens? Things go from bad to really bad to impossible. Almost 25 years and God does not fulfill his promise. I don't know why God delays like this sometimes, but God promises Abraham, quarter century later, still nothing happened. Isn't that incredible? But he stays on and what's worse to me, really, is that God changes Abraham's name. Do you ever wonder why sometimes he's referred to as Abraham, sometimes Abraham? Well, it's 'cause God changes his name. God likes to do that. To make your name reflect his promise to you.

Abram just means father. So that's bad enough. You don't have any kids, your wife's infertile, and your name is dad. That's literally your first name. So God says, you know what, I'm gonna change your name because of your situation and I'm sure Abraham's like, good, change it to just like bud or something, because being named dad is kind of a drag when you don't have any kids. So God changes his name to Abraham and you know what Abraham means? It means great father or mega father or father of many. What is, you know, I'm sure Abraham's like, God, what are you thinking? Now that's gonna be on my name tag like in the Chamber of Commerce, what's your name? Father of many, how many kids do you have? None. Okay, paging security. Just, it's weird that he has this name.

So how does Abraham handle it? Well, he struggled and that's number three. By faith he struggled through. You know, you may have an idealized view of Abraham. Every day Abraham's having his quiet time and he's serene, he's saying, God, no matter how long it is, I'm cool with it, I trust you for this promise. Well, that's not what he was like at all. Let me just show you the rest of the story. The Bible actually talks about three sons of Abraham. Did you know that? See Abraham's first idea is, okay God, that son you promised is not being born. So how about I just call my trusted servant, Eleazar over here my son and I'll make him my heir and I'll just let you off the hook, God. Now that's an example of when I say, I'll settle for less. You ever done that? God's not going fast enough so you just settle for less.

But God says, no, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a real baby born to you. So then Abraham cooks up another idea. He says, okay God, I'll have a physical son through my wife's handmaiden, Hagar, and that son, Ishmael, is an example of the second way I often react to God's word, I'll take a shortcut. I know God's word says this but I have needs, I've got desires, I've got dreams and I'll fulfill 'em this way. But listen, shortcuts usually leave you shortchanged and shortcuts can lead to destructive impact that goes far beyond your generation. I mean, think of what happened as a result of Abraham's shortcut. You've got the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac clashing. Generations, thousands of years later as a result of this attempt to shortcut.

And then finally Abraham says, okay, I'll trust in God. I'll trust in God. And along comes Isaac. Now, by this point Abraham and Sarah are almost a century old. And when God appears again to tell them when they're both just shy of 100, okay, now is the time, that promise, Sarah is actually gonna get pregnant now. And the Bible says when Sarah hears this, she laughs out loud because she's been hearing this promise for a quarter of a century, she literally, you'd laugh, say God. But what I love is that then she gets pregnant and has a baby, miraculously. And guess what? She names their son Isaac, which means laughter. And she says, I named him laughter because God made me laugh.

Now, are you hearing this? After all their struggles, God still brings them laughter. After all the lame shortcuts, God still brings them their dream. And that's the way God rolls. After all your struggles, after all your shortcuts, after all your compromises, God, by his grace, still wants to bring laughter to you. God still has a dream for you. God still is tender with you. God still puts his hand on your shoulder and says, look up at the stars. I still have a wonderful plan for you. Hebrews 11:11, by faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren or infertile, was able to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

Now, he considered who faithful? Did he believe in himself? No. Did he believe in his feelings about this? No. Did he believe in human biology even at this point? What was considered possible? No, he considered him faithful. You need more than faith in yourself because you are not always faithful. Abraham wasn't, but he had faith in God because God is. Verse 12, and so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. This is how God works. You may feel like your life is as good as dead. All your dreams are over. Congratulations, you're exactly the kind of person God chooses and uses all through the Bible again and again and again.

Now, I wanna give you some examples of what we've been talking about before the final point in this series every week. We're featuring another faith story, and every faith story is different, and for today's faith story, I wanna welcome to the stage Anastasia Stone to tell her story for us. Would you welcome her with me? Great to have you here, Anastasia. Now, Anastasia, you are doing something, you and your husband, Dustin, are doing something that to me is a great example of the steps of faith we've been talking about here this morning. You guys decided just a little while ago that you were kind of intrigued with the idea of being foster parents, and you were kind of like, "We feel like maybe God is calling us to that." So what was the first step of faith for you?

So the first step was to go to an orientation and take the classes. So you just went to a class, right? And kind of like, "Okay, I'm oriented." And then when did you get a phone call? So after we got licensed, it took about, I believe it was six to eight weeks, and it was Thanksgiving weekend, 2011. And we got a phone call and they said, "Can you take a newborn baby boy for about a week?" And we adopted him on July 26th. Wow, that's awesome, that's fantastic. So there you are, a newborn for a week, and then you adopt him in July of this year. And he's just a couple of years old, and here's his picture, there he is right there, adorable.

And then right before the adoption, I guess while you're in the process, you get another interesting phone call. What's that? So December 30th, 2012, the birth mom called me, which she hadn't talked to me in about a year, and she said, "I'm pregnant, it's twins, will you take them?" And I said yes and didn't ask my husband. Did you ask him about everything else? You just left out one little question. So you said yes, we'll take your adopted son's twin brother and sister, and something cool happened because she called you early, what was that?

So she hadn't really gone to the doctor yet, so I started taking her to the doctor and that turned into every false labor that we had me going with her to the hospital, and then ultimately me being at the birth of our twins in March. Wow, just this past March, and now you're in the process of adopting those twins as well. So they will finalize on November 22nd. Wow, wow, now you already have two biological daughters, and how old are they? They are five and seven. And what do your five and seven year old think of your instant, what, including the five kids and you two, instant seven-person family? What do the two girls think of that?

Well, when we told them about the twins, they said, oh, well, we were praying for twins. What else are they praying for? You better ask them that now. No kidding, so they love them. Yes. That's awesome. Yes, they do. And then God keeps opening doors for you as you keep taking these steps of faith. The latest is the County of Santa Cruz actually said, you know what, we love what you do with these kids, and so what did they offer you? They asked me to work for them and to be the faith-based foster parent recruiter.

And so our county, yeah, that's awesome. Our county actually started this position and got a grant to fund this position and said, we want you to actually seek out faith-based families to foster parent and potentially adopt these kids. And that's just amazing how it starts with this little, well, we'll check it out with a class, and then God just opens one door after another. And it's funny because a lot of times, if we had known all the things that would happen so quickly, we might have been too scared to take that step of faith. That's how I feel sometimes. And that's why God doesn't tell us everything. He just says, just take the next step.

How does your faith play into all of this? What have you learned? I think with the twins was the scariest point for us, and just trying to navigate that I'm at a birth with the birth mom, and what's my role, and how do I fit in here? And I just had to take a deep breath and go, okay, God, you better talk through me. You better tell me where to go and what to do because I don't know what to do. And so I literally put one foot in front of the other and dealt with each thing as I came.

That's awesome. That's just fantastic. Now, if you are resonating with this, and you're thinking, you know what? We've been thinking about adoption. We've been talking about it. There are steps you can take before you get to that, but if you're definitely persuaded, I wanna do that, Anastasia and some friends are at a table in the lobby, you can see them afterwards, and sign up to go to the class that she and Dustin went to. But there's other ways you can help too, if you go, well, that's too much for me. They also need what they call respite parents, to just give parents who are foster parenting just to rest even for a couple of hours.

They also, these kids need these little backpacks. I brought one sample up here, because a lot of these kids come from really dicey backgrounds and they don't have anything, right? They don't have toothbrushes, they don't have pajamas, like nothing. And so they ask people to fill up these little backpacks with just the bare necessities, because a lot of these kids that are in the foster parent system don't have those things. So you can get a backpack and fill it up. You can sign up to be a respite parent, and there's a ton of other ways to get involved. After the 10:45 service, they're gonna have a meeting over in the modulars to learn more about this.

But I just wanted you to hear this, because it's a great example of stepping out in faith. Let's thank Anastasia for sharing. Thank you so much, really, really great to have you here. So by faith, if you're like Abraham, you step out, and Anastasia and Dustin, her husband experienced this too, and then by faith you stay on, and then by faith you struggle through, and then finally point forward by faith Abraham simply trusted. Finally Abraham learns to simply trust God. Watch, don't miss this here. Hebrews 11:17 says, "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac," this is the son, "he finally gets as a sacrifice." But God stops him. God says, "Don't do it. I'll provide the sacrifice myself, and God provides a ram.

So what's all that about? This story probably has more questions asked about it than any other story in the Bible. Why would God, after fulfilling this promise, ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? Weird. Now follow me, this is huge, because it sets the stage for the whole rest of the Bible. In those days, 4,000 years ago in Abraham's era, child sacrifice, human sacrifice, and even child sacrifice was very common. We know that all of the tribes around Abraham practiced it, but God was turning that traditional religion on its head by showing that sacrifice is provided not by humans for God, but by God for humans, and this is a complete religion paradigm shift.

Religion in those days was all about humans trying to get the attention of the gods by cutting themselves and by human sacrifice and showing the gods how serious they are, but God's saying, "No, no, no. The way I operate is the other way around entirely, just the reverse. I initiate," God says. "I," God says, "provide the sacrifice. I take care of you. I get your attention. I make the plans. All you have to give me is your simple trust." And of course, the ultimate example of this is Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus was sent by the Father to be the sacrifice for your sins and for my sins.

Remember how God had said to Abraham, "All the families of earth will be blessed through you." Well, he was talking about Jesus Christ, who was a descendant of Abraham and Sarah, and this is the way God's saying to you and to me, when we feel like we're crucifying ourselves for something bad we did in the past, God says, "No, you don't have to crucify yourself. I provided the sacrifice. Look, I provided the sacrifice for you. All you have to do is to simply trust and move forward in faith." Now, Abraham takes this step. He makes the leap. He changes his life. It says, "And Abraham believed in God who gives life to the dead and creates something out of nothing." And God can create something out of nothing in your life too, if you'll trust him.

So we're gonna close the service here today with communion. And as we take it, I want you to think about the story of Abraham and ask yourself, what is the next step of faith for me? What's the next step of faith for me? Now, listen, you just filled out that blank here, but I don't want you to yield of the temptation to put this away right now, all right? I want you to stay focused on that last question and look over the notes and say, which one of these steps is next for me right now? Just think about that for a second.

Maybe you need to step out for the first time into uncharted territory, maybe in faith and put your trust in Christ for the very first time. Or maybe you need to step out in faith and take a practical step you have never done before in a relationship. You're gonna make that phone call. You're going to take the step and forgive that person. You're gonna apply to that school. You're gonna get over that last obstacle to faith you have, that question about Christianity and you're gonna make an appointment with a pastor and talk about it. You're gonna step out in faith.

Or maybe you need to stay on somewhere. Sometimes it takes more faith to stay than it does to start. And you need endurance. Ask for endurance, not to quit. Not to quit maybe your ministry, not to quit your marriage. Or maybe right now you're on step three. You're just struggling through. You've got a challenge in your life. God is going to give you strength if you'll trust him to overcome that challenge. Or maybe you need to simply trust that God will provide for you. You need to just let go of your anxieties and simply trust in him. Or simply trust that he has provided the sacrifice. Whatever your step is, take that step today. Because once you do, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to when you move in faith.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that you provided. And Lord, I confess I'm weak. I need your strength, your power to move forward in faith. And I know that that power starts when I simply trust in Christ's sacrifice for me. And so during this time of communion, I choose to simply trust in that. And Father, I pray that instead of leaving here worried about the fact that we struggle, maybe beating ourselves up that we don't have enough faith, I pray that instead we leave rejoicing in your grace for our struggles. And see in a fresh new way that we can simply trust that you provide the sacrifice for us. Increase our faith, we ask, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.