Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): Many desire more faith when they really need something else. Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: Now, are you having a faith problem? If you are having a faith problem, you're probably having really an obedience problem. Is there a confession that you need to make? Is there restitution that you need to perform? Is there a gift you need to give? Is there a testimony you need to offer? Is there a place you need to go? Obey. Obey. Do you want faith? Obey God.

Guest (Male): How do you put your faith into action? Through obedience. You do what God shows you to do, right? But what if that means leaving everything and perhaps moving your family, never really having a place to call home? That's exactly what Abraham did. His life will inspire you to have victory that comes from obedience. You will hear Adrian Rogers reveal more today as we share six principles to fortify your faith, taken from the life of Abraham.

Thanks for joining us here on Love Worth Finding as we continue exploring Hebrews chapter 11 to learn about the champions of faith in God's Hall of Fame. Turn in God's Word to that passage as we prepare to hear faith-building principles from this hero of our faith, Abraham. Once again, here's Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: I cannot emphasize enough the importance of faith. We are not talking about something that is incidental. Remember that Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." It is our chief duty to believe God. John chapter 6, verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent." Do you want to serve God? Your chief duty is to believe Him.

The Christian life according to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38 is to be lived by faith. The Bible says, "The just shall live by faith." Now I want us to learn six powerful principles to help you to have that dynamic faith that will bring heaven to your soul. First principle is the voice principle. We must hear God. Now look, if you will, in verse 8.

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whether he went." The operative phrase here is, "He heard the voice of God. He was called." Remember our Scripture that we come back to over and over again in Romans 10:17? "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." There is the voice principle. You must hear God.

If there's something you're wondering about, you think God is speaking to you, say, "Lord, if this is You speaking, just keep speaking. Confirm it in my heart." That's the way God called me into the ministry. God, do you want me to preach? Lord, I think you want me to preach. Lord, if you don't want me to preach, you better let me know. Lord, you want me to preach. Now, that took place over almost a year.

The path of the just is as a shining light that shines more and more into a perfect day. What is the first principle of these principles? It is the voice principle. You must hear from God. The Word of the Lord came to Abraham, and God will speak to you. God is speaking to you. And before you say, "Well, I don't know the will of God," let me ask you this question. Are you living by what you already know in the Bible?

If you are not and you are asking God to guide you, you are a big hypocrite. Why should God give you more light when you are not obeying the revealed Word of God that's right here in this book? Think about it. There is the voice principle. We have something better than Abraham. Abraham did not have the revealed Word of God like we have here. Now, number two, there is the second principle is what I want to call the venture principle.

Not only must you hear God, you must obey what you know. Now look again in verse 8. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance." Here's the operative word now: "obeyed. And he went out not knowing whether he went." He heard and he obeyed. Now he didn't know where it was going to end.

That was none of his business. Our responsibility is not to totally understand, but to readily obey. Now remember all he was leaving, all that he knew and all that he loved and was going out in sheer obedience. I tell young preachers, they ask me, "When I go to a church, Brother Rogers, what should my attitude be?" I say to young preachers, when you go to a church, there must be two things. Number one, you must be prepared to spend the rest of your life there, and number two, you must be ready to leave in the next 15 minutes. Both are true.

You can't say, "Lord, I'm building a nest." You need to pray, "Lord, if I'm building a nest, put a thorn in it." I am ready to go. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. Now, friend, God gives you the choice. If you do not obey what you know, don't ask God for more light. God is not going to give it to you.

Now, are you having a faith problem? If you are having a faith problem, you're probably having really an obedience problem. Is there a confession that you need to make? Is there restitution that you need to perform? Is there a gift you need to give? Is there a testimony you need to offer? Is there a place you need to go?

Obey. Obey. Do you want faith? The voice principle. Hear from God. The venture principle. Obey God. Now let's move to the third principle, and that is what I call the value principle. You must establish priorities. Look again, if you will, in Hebrews chapter 11 now. Let's begin in verse 9.

"By faith Abraham is speaking of, he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country." Now here's the operative word, or phrase, "dwelling in tabernacles." That means tents. "With Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Now I told you that Abraham was a stranger away from home and he was a pilgrim headed home.

Canaan was not his home at that time. He's looking for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And he's living in a tent, and he won't put the tent pegs down too deep because his motto was, "This world is not my home. I'm just passing through." He had a different priority. Now the reason that many of us don't have faith is because our priorities are wrong.

We think that faith is some way to get our will done in heaven when faith is God's way to get heaven's will done on Earth. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." So he's living in a tent. Now, do you realize that our citizenship is in heaven and we dare not, we must not get too attached to this world?

Philippians 3, verse 20, "For our conversation," that means our behavior, our citizenship, "is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." If you are living for this world, you will not have faith. Furthermore, you will be in the junk business.

The Bible warns about friendship with the world. James 4, verse 4, "You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity," warfare with God. "Therefore, whosoever will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God." Are you worldly? You wonder why you don't have faith? You think God's going to give faith to His enemies?

Friend of the world? Abraham was not a friend of the world. When you become a friend of the world, then you begin to live like the world. First John 2, verses 15 through 17, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." And remember that faith comes by the will of God.

Now, think of it. First of all, you become a friend to the world, and then you begin to love the world, and then what's going to happen? Romans 12:2, "You are going to be conformed to the world." Look at it, "And be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, perfect, and acceptable will of God." Remember I said that you need the mind of Christ to know the will of God?

But if this world is squeezing you in, molding you in, shaping you, Madison Avenue, television, your football team, the fashion designer, what is it that molds you, conforms you? And then you wonder why you don't have the mind of Christ. And then you wonder why you don't understand the will of God. First it starts with friendship with the world, then love of the world, then confirmation to the world, and then condemnation with the world.

First Corinthians 11, verse 32, "But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world." A lot of good illustrations about this. Abraham had with him a nephew whose name was Lot. Now, Lot is following Abraham, and the Bible tells us that Abraham was living in a tent. But Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.

He moved into the world. His wife obviously became high up in Sodom society. His daughters probably cheerleaders at Sodom High. He becomes a businessman and some sort of a civic councilman or something there in Sodom. And he lost it all. Because he was gravitating to the things of this world. We hear so much today about the separation of church and state.

Do you know the message that needs to be preached today is the separation of church and world? "Come out from among them." I look at the average Christian today, they look alike, they dress alike, they talk alike, they smoke the same things, go to the same movies, drink the same things. We ought to be different. The Bible says, "Come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord.

If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? We ought to be different. You want faith? Abraham had a pilgrim character. Now that doesn't mean that he was a dropout. Abraham was in business. He had a family. He taught. He even had to go to war several times. But Abraham was not molded by this world.

Let me ask you a question. What are your personal goals? Is your personal goal to make enough money to retire and have a nice house and to live in ease and to have certain things? What are your goals for your children? Do you want them to be successful and famous?

Are you more concerned about your spiritual walk with God? Are you more concerned about the character of your children growing in Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven? Would you leave your present job and take a lesser job for less pay if it were better for the character of your children? Would you do so? What is your goal? Is it to impress other people?

In whose home had you rather visit? The rich and the famous, or the godly and the pure? Most of us are so squeezed in by this world, and we wonder why we don't have faith. Put it down big, plain, and straight. Abraham was a man to whom this world meant very little because he looked for a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He had a pilgrim character.

And Jesus epitomizes it in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." And we are just talking about principles of faith, folks. And we are saying without faith, it is impossible to please God. Here's the fourth principle. It is the vision principle. The vision principle. Keep your faith focused. Now you can hear the message today, and you can agree with it.

But as soon as you get back home, you are going to get out of focus if you are not careful. Look again in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 10, "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." The operative word is he looked. He looked. Now look again in Hebrews 11, verse 13.

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off." That's the vision I'm talking about. "Having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." It is so easy to lose the focus that we have of the right values.

Colossians 3, verses 1 and 2, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth." Now, friend, Abraham was a man who had a vision, and his vision enabled him to see the invisible.

Remember Hebrews 11, verse 1, our definition of faith? "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Now, that's the important thing. Look again in verse 13. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off."

That is, they saw the invisible. They saw things that were not seen. Faith is seeing the invisible. And it is so true that we can by faith see the invisible. Let me give you an interesting verse. Second Corinthians 4, verse 18. "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." Is that double-talk? Paul says, "We are not looking at what we can see, we are looking at what we can't see."

Faith sees the invisible. It knows the unknowable. It does the impossible because of the vision. There is the focus. You have to keep your faith on these things. A man went into the psychiatrist's office. The nurse came back to see the doctor and said, "Doctor, there's a man out here says he needs to see you. Doctor, I think he's crazy. He thinks he's invisible."

The doctor said, "Go tell him we can't see him." There is an invisible world. There is a world that is more real than this world. And all of these heroes of the faith were people who could see the invisible. Most of us live a life where all we see is what is before us, our car, our house, our jobs.

We never get a vision. We never look upward. We never look onward. You know, even in the material world, you think of the people who make a mark. The explorers, the novelists, the artists, the creators, the inventors. All of these had the ability to see the invisible.

Before I ever preached in this pulpit, I would come out here when it was sheer dirt and stand up here and preach. That may sound funny to you. But God put a dream in my heart. And what we are doing today. When Disney World was being dedicated down in Florida, they opened it up, grand procession. They were all up there in the stands, and Walt Disney had died, and Mrs. Walt Disney was sitting there alongside of one of the executives, and everything was happening, and all of the fanfare Disney did it in those days.

And the lady sitting next to Mrs. Walt Disney said, "It's a shame Walt is not here to see all of this." She said, "Oh, he saw it. That's why it's here. That's why it's here." He saw it. Friend, it begins with a vision. Faith is setting your affection on something that is bigger than most of us are living for, just drawing our breath and drawing our salary.

Now here's the fifth principle, and it's the vigilance principle. You must guard your heart. The devil will war against your faith. Look in Hebrews 11:11, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged Him faithful who had promised." Well, that all sounds well and good. God gave Abraham a promise, but you know that he got his eyes off the Lord, and so did Sarah, and they did some terrible things.

Old Abraham went down into Egypt when God had put him there in Canaan. I wish I had more time to tell you about that, but God put his faith to a test. God tested him, and he failed the test at first. Friend, God will test your faith. A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. The Bible speaks of the trial of our faith in First Peter chapter 1 and verse 7.

Now, when you live the life of faith, it's not all honey and no bees. Your faith is going to be tested. Abraham should have stayed there in the land of Canaan, even though there was a famine, if he knew that God had put him there. He should have said, "If I starve, I'm going to stay here. If God put me here, God's going to take care of me."

Be vigilant. Your faith is going to come under attack. In churches, don't get the idea that all the lost people are out there and all the saved people are in here. That's wrong. In the home, don't get the idea that you are not going to have any problem with your marriage just because you have faith. In life, don't think there are not going to be any heartaches, any tears. There are going to be problems.

But Abraham returned. He came back to the life of faith. I wish I had more time to speak about that, but let me give you the last of these principles, and it is the victory principle. Enjoy the blessings. Hebrews 11, verses 11 and 12, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged Him faithful who had promised."

Sarah got her baby, friend. "Therefore, sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore, innumerable." Abraham, his name is great. His descendants are great. Abraham has been a blessing to the world. He's been a blessing to me. God gave Abraham the land. God made his name great.

And listen, think of all the things that God did through Abraham. From Abraham came the Jewish nation. From Abraham came the prophets. From Abraham came the Bible. And in the flesh, from the seed of Abraham, our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It all came. It all came by faith. There is the victory principle. There is no way, no way you will live in victory apart from faith. "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith."

Guest (Male): What wonderful truths God has placed here for us to discover in the life of Abraham, and his example shows us it's never too late for us to begin walking in faith, since Abraham was 75 when he first turned to faith in God. Coming up next time, you'll see how Abraham responded when God put his faith to the ultimate test. Join us here for more life lessons from this great champion of faith.

We are greatly encouraged here at Love Worth Finding with the people who are responding to God's truth. You know, that truth is encapsulated in what the early believers discovered. They were asked to come and see that empty tomb. They were asked to see the nail prints in Jesus' hands and the hole in his side where the spear pierced him. Come and see and then go and tell.

And that's what we do every day right here. We come and see what the Lord Jesus did, what he said to us, how he lived, how he treated others, and then we go and tell the difference that he has made in our lives. If you want to be a part of that, I encourage you to listen to these broadcasts, study along with us in God's Word for yourself, and come and see as you go and tell. Spread the truth of the forgiveness and the mercy and the love and grace of God to those that you know and you love.

Guest (Male): Hi, this is Kerry Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a nonprofit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you. To give a gift today, call 1-877-LOVE-GOD. That's 1-877-LOVE-GOD, or write to us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38-600, Memphis, Tennessee, 38183. You can also connect with us online by going to lwf.org/radio.

There we offer helpful resources inspired by the timeless teachings of Pastor Adrian Rogers. Additionally, you can sign up for daily emails, donate to the ministry, and learn more about how to become an ambassador of the Word. Thank you so much for listening today. Be sure to join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.

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