Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Equipped 2026: "Following in the Footsteps of Our Father of Faith" by Jet Warren

Transcript

Equipped 2026: "Following in the Footsteps of Our Father of Faith" by Jet Warren · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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  If you've got your Bibles, you know, turn with me to Hebrews 11. That's where we'll
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  be spending most of our time today. Why do we call Abraham the father of our
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  faith? We all know Abraham was a literal father. He's got countless descendants. I
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  mean, as early as Genesis 15.5, God promised Abraham that his offspring would
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  be numbered as many as the stars. The Apostle Paul even emphasized this in
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  Romans 4, 17, and 18, calling him the father of many nations. So Abraham was a
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  father in the truest sense. He became a great nation, just like God promised back
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  in Genesis 12.2. However, there's something much more significant, I think.
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  He's also a father in the figurative and the spiritual sense. He's a spiritual
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  pattern for everyone who seeks to be right with God. Returning to Romans 4,
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  according to verse 11, he's the father of all who believe. When we trust and we
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  obey as he did, we are considered Abraham's children. It was the will of
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  God to make him the father of the circumcised, who were not merely
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  circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father
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  Abraham had before he was circumcised. So why do we call Abraham the father of our
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  faith? Because he serves as an original model for us to follow. When we walk by
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  faith, we walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham. Think about what it means
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  to follow in someone's footsteps. It means you're not looking at the horizon,
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  you're looking at where the person ahead of you stepped. You're trusting that they
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  knew the way. Abraham is called our father in faith because he left a trail
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  of footprints through the wilderness of the unknown. As humans, we often spend our
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  lives trying to build permanent monuments to ourselves. We want to be
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  remembered, we want to be secure, we want to be comfortable. It's a natural desire.
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  But Abraham's life, it teaches us a different rhythm. It teaches us the
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  rhythm of a pilgrim. Today, I want to look at three specific footprints Abraham
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  left for us to follow. The footprint of trust, the footprint of a traveler, and
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  the footprint of sacrifice. The first footprint that I want to look at is the
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  footprint of trust. To follow in the footsteps of Abraham, our father in faith,
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  is to recognize one fundamental truth that should dictate every single
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  decision we make. This world is not all that there is. As we stand and we sing
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  that old song, this world is not my home, I'm just passing through, we're
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  articulating the very theology that Abraham lived out in the wilderness.
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  Today, I want to examine the pattern of faith found in Hebrews 11. I want to see
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  if our lives truly match the footsteps of the one who came before us. Hebrews 11
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  8 tells us that by faith, Abraham obeyed when he called to go out to a place that
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  he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was
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  going. Consider the weight of these words. He went out not knowing. In our human
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  nature, we want the blueprint before we even start building. We always want God
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  to explain the why, the how, the when, but the biblical pattern of faith is much
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  simpler than that, but also a lot more demanding. It's the pattern of hearing
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  and obeying. Abraham didn't know where he was going, and the beauty of his faith
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  is he didn't have to know. Why? It doesn't matter where you go, it only matters that
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  you're faithful wherever you are. Faith isn't about having all the answers, it's
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  about trusting the one who does. Sometimes God calls us to a task or a
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  conversation, or he brings about a change in our lives where we can't always
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  see the outcome. We ask, Lord, why? Where is this leading? And the example of
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  Abraham tells us that it doesn't matter where it leads as long as you're
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  following the Master's voice. Are you waiting for a sign or certainty before
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  you obey a clear command of Scripture? Abraham didn't need a map, he needed a
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  mandate. Moving on to verse 9, we see the second footprint that we must follow. The
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  footprint of a traveler. This is a lifestyle choice that defines the child
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  of God. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land,
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  living in tents. Abraham lived in the very land God had promised him, yet he
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  lived there as a foreigner. He didn't build a fortress, he pitched a tent. This
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  is a profound indication that Abraham understood his residency. A tent is
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  temporary. You don't pour a concrete foundation for a tent. You don't spend
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  your entire life's fortune decorating a tent. You live in a tent because you're
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  on your way somewhere else. Abraham didn't put down roots in the soil of
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  this world, he stayed mobile for God because he was anticipating the eternal
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  city that was built and designed by him. According to Hebrews 11, 13 through 16,
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  these all died in faith, not having seen the things promised, not having received the
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  things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having
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  acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who
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  speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been
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  thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had
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  opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a
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  heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he
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  has prepared a city for them. We must ask ourselves, are we too settled in this
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  life? The text says in verse 14 that people who live like this make it very
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  clear that we are seeking a homeland. Is it very clear to your neighbors, to your
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  co-workers, to your family, that you aren't, that you're seeking a home that
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  isn't on the map? If we want God to be the forerunner of our faith, it will be
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  evident by how we worship, by how we live. When we gather to worship in spirit and
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  in truth, it should be a rehearsal for our true home. If we spend all of our
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  energy, all of our money, all of our time trying to make our tent look like a
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  permanent mansion, we have forgotten that we are just pilgrims passing through.
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  This world is not my home. I am looking for a city whose builder and whose
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  maker is God. The third and the final footstep that I want us to look at is
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  the footstep of sacrifice. This is the most challenging part of the pattern. If
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  we were to follow in the footsteps of our father of faith, we must
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  look at verses 17 through 19. By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered
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  Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his
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  one and only son. Even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that
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  your offspring will be reckoned, Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the
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  dead. And so, in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.
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  Abraham was willing to make the necessary sacrifice, just as Isaac was
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  willing to be led to the altar. We all have something in our lives that we hold
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  dear. Sometimes even stuff that God himself gave us. But the test of faith
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  is whether we trust the gift or the give or more. What's your Isaac today? What
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  is that thing that keeps you from truly serving the Lord with your whole heart?
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  For some, it's the phone in our pockets. We often spend more time in them than we
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  do in the scrolls of Scripture. For others, it's social media, where we seek
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  the approval of men rather than the approval of God. For others, it's sports.
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  Some, it's jobs. Some, it's hobbies. But these, there's so many things that seem
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  to take away priority over the assembly of the saints. Abraham was willing to
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  give up his only son, his special son of promise, because as verse 19 says, he
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  considered that God was even able to raise him from the dead. Abraham's faith
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  was so deep that he trusted that God could raise his son from the dead before
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  the cross was even a reality. He knew that you could never lose something when
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  you give something to God. If we want to be called children of Abraham, we must be
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  willing to lay our idols on the altar and trust that God's promises are better
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  than our possessions. Consider the tension he lived in throughout his life.
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  Abraham was quite literally a man holding the title father of many nations
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  while staring into the sky wondering where God's promise was for decades. Yet
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  as I mentioned before, Romans tells us he did not waver through unbelief. He looked
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  at his own aged body and the barrenness of Sarah's womb and he decided that he
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  trusted the word of the Lord more than himself. This is the heart of Abraham's
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  covenant. God asked us to trade our certainty for his presence. He calls us
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  to step out into the unknown, trusting that the one who has counted the stars
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  has already paved the way for us. To have the faith of Abraham is to believe that
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  God is a promise keeper. As we conclude, I want everyone to look at their own feet.
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  Are we walking in the steps of faith that our father of Abraham had? Are we
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  willing to go where God says to go even though we might not know the destination?
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  Are we living as tent people or have we become foundation people in a world
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  that is only passing away? If we want to follow in the footsteps of the father of
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  our faith, we must believe and trust in the promises that God has made. He
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  promised a home, John 14 3. He promised us a Savior, Philippians 3 20. He promised
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  that our labor in the Lord is never in vain, 1st Corinthians 15 58. I invite you
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  to consider your residency. If you've been living as if this world is your
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  permanent home, it's time to pull up the stakes and start walking towards the
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  city of God. The journey begins when you put on Christ in baptism to begin your
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  life as a pilgrim. The invitation is always open. Let us walk as Abraham
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  walked, not by sight but by faith.
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  Say thank you to both of our speakers, to Jett and Luke. Thank you to their
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  parents for the work they put into them and the congregations that they
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  represent and thank you for being present for these lessons. Jett just
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  talked about walking by faith and that's what I need you to do, okay? I'm about to
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  tell you four different sessions that start in the next two minutes and there
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  won't be a session in the auditorium but there'll be four different panels, one
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  for ladies, one for young people in the barn, and the others will be in 114 and
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  129 and so you can make your way there. If you on the way want to greet these
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  young men and tell them what a great job they did, we stand dismissed and have a
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  good time choosing your next session.