{"id":11170,"date":"2016-08-17T01:26:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/abrahams-proven-faith\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:26:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:26:41","slug":"abrahams-proven-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/abrahams-proven-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"ABRAHAM\u2019S PROVEN FAITH"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>HEBREWS 11:1\u201319<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(Hebrew 11:17)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Hebrews 11 is a chronicle of people who lived by faith. In each case, we find that faith was not a mere intellectual exercise or mystical feeling, but faith meant loyalty and humble submission to God. Faith issued in fruitful service to God, even in the midst of pain and crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>One example is that of Abraham\u2019s sacrifice of Isaac, recorded for us in Genesis 22. God determined to test Abraham\u2019s faith in terms of his obedience. God told Abraham, \u201cTake your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about\u201d (v. 2).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>We read that Abraham arose \u201cearly the next morning\u201d (v. 3). I imagine Abraham could not sleep, and finally got up so that he could get going on this horrible mission. As the account continues it says that he \u201csaddled his donkey\u201d and that he cut the wood. I doubt if Abraham, one of the wealthiest sheikhs in the ancient world, normally saddled his own donkey, and I doubt if he ever cut his own wood. Today, however, he needed something to occupy his hands to take his mind off what was coming.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>God\u2019s test of Abraham must have been sheer torture for him. God might have said, \u201cKill him right now. Get it over with.\u201d Instead, God kept him thinking about it for three days. The torture continued as Abraham was asked questions by his trusting son. \u201cThe fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?\u201d (v. 7).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Finally, Abraham arrived at the place. He built an altar. He arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac on it. And then he took the knife to kill him. Suddenly God interrupted him, and provided an animal substitute. Abraham had shown his faith\u2014through obedience.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Samuel 9\u201311<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Luke 19:28\u201348<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>Turn   to the cover of <i>Tabletalk<\/i> and spend a moment contemplating the   depiction of Abraham and Isaac. Even the painting communicates the drama   involved in this historical event. That God stayed Abraham\u2019s hand, preventing   him from sacrificing Isaac, is sufficient proof that God would never ask that   of us, either. However, consider to what extent you are prepared to go to   demonstrate your faith.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Romans 4:1\u201325, James 2:14\u201326<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>wednesday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>april<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HEBREWS 11:1\u201319 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son (Hebrew 11:17). Hebrews 11 is a chronicle of people who lived by faith. In each case, we find that faith was not a mere intellectual exercise &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/abrahams-proven-faith\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;ABRAHAM\u2019S PROVEN FAITH&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}