A Lasting Faith

The book of Hebrews says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Abraham was given great faith, and with that faith held on to the promise of a land and a countless posterity, even though in this life he never saw either. Today, a monumental covenant between God and a man, as described in Genesis chapter 15.

Stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today, Dr. Lutzer continues his series on Strength for the Journey, Taking Your Next Steps with God, a study in the life of Abraham.

Later in our broadcast, we'll show how God gave Abraham a lasting faith. The Moody Choir comes now to open our service. And in all the people we see, the joy he gives of his majesty. Let us praise him, all the hands within us. Praise him, and worship our Lord Jesus, long, long before he is sent away. I call you now to praise him. I call you to praise him.

And set your affections above. For Satan can teach you from grace. Delight in his mercy and love.

For we've come to love at the smallest part. Again there's love in your Father's heart. Let us praise him, all the hands within us. Praise him, and worship our Lord Jesus, long, long before he is sent away. I call you now to praise him. All the hands within us, praise him, and worship our Lord Jesus, praise him. All the hands within us, praise him, and worship our Lord Jesus, long, long before he is sent away. I call you now to praise. Thank you so much choir, and we do accept that call to praise. We hope that you have come with an attitude of worship and openness to the Lord our God. Would you take your hymnal please and turn to 682, Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, happens to be one of my favorite hymns.

I hope that that is true also of you. And then you'll notice the scripture reading today is by Pastor Mark Peary, who's our director of Christian education, and we'll have an opportunity to participate in that. And then we sing the chorus knowing you. Once we stand, we'll continue to stand until we have sung that chorus. I hope that your mind and heart this morning is open to God. The last stanza of the hymn that we are going to sing talks about standing on the verge of Jordan. In the mind of the hymn writer, Jordan represents death, and he talks about being safe on Canaan's side.

And that, of course, in his mind represents heaven. But notice that the life and the experience of the Israelites becomes ours as we sing this hymn and seek for God's guidance. Whatever barrier may be in your life today to hinder you from full participation and blessing and worship, would you give that barrier to the Lord as we now seek him and invite his blessed presence? Join me as we pray. Now, Father, in Jesus' name, we ask that you will open our lives to you.

Help us to set aside all the distractions. Help us, O Father, we pray, that even those matters that are on our mind shall be yielded to your control as we sing your praise and seek your guidance. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. God light you, Lord, be with thy heart, O heaven. Hail, heaven!

Hail, heaven! Give me to thy one and all. Give me to thy one and all. And now, on the crystal fountain, bless the healing strength of God.

Let the fire and clouded river lead me on my journey through. Strong and ever, strong and ever, lead us to thy strength and shield. Lead us to thy strength and shield. When I tread the wealth of joy in my anxious face of strife, fill me through the standing barrier, let me sail on the inside. Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will never give to thee. I will never give to thee. Our scripture reading is taken from Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 14.

Please join with me on the bold print. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. That I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus had made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of our call of God in Christ Jesus. All is well, great years, and all is to go. All I once thought, faith I had counted, all spent and worthless now, compared to this. Knowing you, Jesus, loving you is no greater thing than to be found in you. My heart seeks thy gifts to know you more, to be found in you and known as yours.

We give from righteousness. Knowing you, Jesus, loving you is no greater thing than to be found in you. You're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you more. Don't you know the love of your risen light and to know you in your suffering?

To be found like you in your death, my heart, showing you to live and never die. Knowing you, Jesus, loving you is no greater thing. You're my all, you are the best. You're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you more. Knowing you, Jesus, loving you is no greater thing. You're my all, you are the best. You're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you more.

Amen. I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe in God, the heart of humanity. Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost.

One of the virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into them. On the third day, he arose. On the third day, he arose. On the third day, he arose. On the third day, he arose. On the third day, he arose. On the third day, he arose. He descended to heaven. From death he was set free. Now he sits at the right hand and is waiting for you and me. He will trust all the world.

He will trust you and me. I believe in the Holy Spirit and the holy Catholic Church. I believe, Lord, in one baptism, the religion of sin and rebirth. I believe in the resurrection and the communion of saints in this world.

I believe when my life is over and going home just to live with my God. I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe in God and the Holy Ghost. I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe in the Holy Spirit and the holy Catholic Church. I believe only one baptism, the religious sin and rebirth. I believe in the resurrection and the communion of saints in this world.

I believe when my life is over and going home just to live with my God. I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe in God and the Holy Ghost. I believe, I believe, God.

Praise God, our Lord, all class is full. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, our God, in every host. Praise God, the Son and Holy Ghost.

Amen. Virtually every test that you and I encounter in the Christian life comes down to two questions. First of all, is God trustworthy? Can He be trusted?

That's the first question. And the second question is, can I trust Him? It's always reduced to a matter of trust and whether or not God is trustworthy. You face a temptation and the temptation is to do your own thing and you ask yourself this question, is sin ever a good idea? Is it a better idea than God's idea? It comes down to a matter of trust.

Everything comes down to that, anxiety, the inability that we have to control consequences and control events that we give over to God. Can we trust Him? That's the question. Abraham was told by God, I'm going to give you the land and I'm going to give it to you forever and to your offspring.

It will be yours. The question now before us is, can Abraham trust Him? Can Abraham do and to live in such a way that he believes that God knows what he is doing and can be believed? The 15th chapter of the book of Genesis, which is our text for today, Genesis chapter 15, is one of the most important chapters in all the Bible. Genesis 15, every Bible open to this great and wonderful chapter. What God does in Genesis 15 is He gives Abraham three promises. We're going to look at those promises because Abraham in the 15th chapter really is having a dialogue with God and we get in on it and we get to listen in on what's happening between Abraham and God. The chapter opens in verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Fear not.

First time that expression is used in the Bible. Fear not, Abraham. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. Promise number one. I am your protection. I am your shield. Why did God say that to Abraham at this juncture?

Remember the context. After these things, it says, Abraham had just routed four kings in the east. They had gone off with a whole bunch of loot which Abraham recaptured, including Lot, as we noticed last time. He no doubt feared retaliation.

There he was in his tent. The kings could gang up on him and they could come and they could overwhelm him very, very easily and kill him. And then what would happen to the promises of God and the seed? God says, Abraham, I am your shield. I'll protect you. And your reward shall be great. I know that you said no to the king of Sodom. The king of Sodom wanted you to keep all of the goods that you recaptured and you said no, lest the king of Sodom say that he made Abraham rich. And because of that, I'm going to bless you.

You're going to be rewarded. Everything is going to be okay, Abraham. God comes, says this lovely promise.

I am your shield and your reward shall be great. Abraham is obsessed with the problem of the promise though. You see, God had said that I'm going to give it to your seed.

He's getting older. Sarah, his wife, is already beyond the place of being able to bear children. And so Abraham is trying to figure out how God's going to do it. Have you ever tried to figure out how God's going to do it?

Whenever I've done that, nine out of ten times, I'm wrong. So Abraham says to God, verse two, O Lord God, what will you give me? I continue childless. And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. He says, you've not given me a child.

And in those days, that was common. If you didn't have any children, the heirship would be passed to one of your favorite servants or someone who was in your house whom you highly regarded. So he says, are you going to do it through Eliezer? And God comes to Abraham and says, Abraham, no. He says, expressly, he says, your very own son. Last part of verse five and verse six shall be your heir. This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son is going to be your heir. And it leads Abraham to more puzzles about the will of God, which sometimes appears to be a mystery wrapped in an enigma. How is God going to do it? So Abraham says, Lord, how is it going to happen? And God says, Abraham, come out and look at the stars. Previously, God says, as many particles of dust as there are on the earth, that's the way your seed is going to be, not that there are going to be as many people as dust. But you can't number the dust, God says. And you can't number your seed. And now God says, come out and look at the stars. Sometimes in the blackness of your experience when there's nothing you can look at, just look at the stars. Can you count them, Abraham?

No, I can't count them. So shall your seed be. God says, I'm your protection. I am also your provision.

It'll happen, Abraham. First promise, God says, I'm your protection. Second promise, a promise of righteousness. Verse 6 of chapter 15 is one of the most important verses of the Old Testament. It's quoted three times in the New Testament.

It says, and Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. The gift of righteousness, the promise of righteousness. Three words in that little verse that you must understand if you intend to get to heaven. Some of you intend to get to heaven.

I hope that your intention will be realized. And it's going to be realized on the basis of whether or not you understand this verse. The first word is the word believed. Abraham believed God. In the Hebrew, the word actually is amen, from which we get amen. It was translated into Greek as amen, and that's the way it appears in the New Testament. When Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, the Greek says, amen, amen, I say to you. Amen means I embrace and I heartily accept what God has said.

If Abraham were German, he'd say, yavol, yavol, that's the idea. Yes, I embrace it as mine. Abraham said amen to God, and it was counted as righteousness. Are you here today being willing to say amen, amen to God? That's what it means to believe. Thank you.

Thank you. Three of you are saying amen. You know, it's not fair that three people would say it. Let's all say it together. Let's all say amen, OK? Let's all say amen. Amen to God. That's what Abraham did.

Now, second word, counted, reckoned. He wasn't righteous. He was a sinner. In fact, his sins are clear on the pages of scripture. But it was credited to him as righteousness. God says, I'm crediting to your account something you do not naturally have, and that is righteousness. In the New Testament, if we may jump there for a moment, it becomes very clear. Theologians called this imputation.

It was imputed to him. The Bible says that Jesus was counted a sinner. He was reckoned to be a sinner. He wasn't, personally, but he was reckoned as a sinner. And what happened when Jesus died is this. He got what he didn't deserve. Namely, our sins were credited to him, and we got what we didn't deserve, namely his righteousness is credited to us.

That's what imputation is. And when the Apostle Paul quotes this in the book of Romans, he quotes it because he wants to show that God's way of salvation always is faith and not works. That's the context in the book of Romans. And so God says today, Abraham, you don't have any righteousness, not the kind that I need, but I'm going to credit it to you as a free gift.

You say, well, how were people saved in the Old Testament times? The answer is this, that God saved people like Abraham on credit. We all know what it's like to buy something on credit, don't we?

We all have plastic in our pocket. And we go to some place, and we say, yes, I want this article of furniture. And we put it on credit, and we begin to enjoy it. And then at the end of the month, the statement comes, and it has to be paid.

Remember, it has to be paid. God says, Abraham, I am going to save you on credit because I know that Jesus is coming. And in your seed is going to be the Redeemer who's going to be qualified to take away your sin.

And already now, I'm giving you the privilege of enjoying me and walking in righteousness knowing that Christ is coming because nobody gets saved apart from the work of Jesus. You say, well, did Abraham actually believe in Jesus? He saw Jesus coming with some clarity, not much, but some. But he believed what God revealed, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

The content of his faith was different than ours, but the end result was the same. Third word, righteousness. What is righteousness? It is the kind of righteousness that only God himself accepts. And the only righteousness that God accepts is his own. That's why we sing, clothed in his righteousness alone. You understand that this has to be a free gift. God does not say, Abraham, now that you've done this, what you have to do is, in order to get it, you need a sacrifice. Go offer a sacrifice. God doesn't say, Abraham, to get it, you have to give money. God doesn't say, Abraham, go off and be baptized. No, it's a free gift. And the reason it has to be free is because this is a righteousness of which you and I have none.

We can't contribute to it, we can't make it better, we can't subtract from it. It is the righteousness of God, as Paul shows in the book of Romans. And that means that God can save big sinners as well as lesser ones, because ultimately salvation has to be a free gift.

Of course, it's better that you be a lesser sinner than a greater sinner, to be sure. But at the end of the day, God says, I can even save criminals if they stop trusting in themselves and trust in Jesus for their righteousness, for the gift God has given. This is the most precious gift God gave to Abraham. It's what he needed the most.

And he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Second promise. First promise is protection, the second is righteousness, and now the third promise is that of a glorious future. And what an important passage this is. In order to understand what's going on here in the rest of the chapter, I need to tell you that in those days when you made a covenant with someone, and it was to be a blood covenant, very solemn, what you did is you took animals and you cut them in two. You killed them, you cut them in two, and you laid them in half so that they were symmetrical. And then the two of you walked through in between these pieces, and what you were saying in effect is, if I break my word, I deserve the same fate as these animals.

It was the most solemn covenant that you could ever possibly make. So God says, Abraham, take some animals, take a heifer, take a goat, take a ram, and cut them in two and lay them out. Abraham does.

He finds he has to keep the birds of prey away from eating the exposed meat. And then the Bible says that a deep sleep came upon Abraham, verse 12, and behold, a dreadful darkness befell him. And in his sleep, God says to him, Abraham, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in the land that is not theirs. I'm in the middle of verse 13, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted 400 years.

But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace and you shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. God says, Abraham, your seed is going to inherit the land. But that's not going to happen for 400 years. First of all, you have to have a child, and then there will be this family that will be created that will go into Egypt for 400 years, and then they're going to come back, and of course we know that that happened under Moses and Joshua, and then they're going to enter into the land. 400 long years.

But they'll be back because God is God, and time is not a limitation to him as it is to us. So Abraham receives this revelation, and then most startling, this is what happens. It says in verse 17, when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying to your offspring, I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenizzites, and then all of these other Gershonites, and Jebusites, and megabytes, and all of the other folks that are in the land. What's with this flaming torch and this pot or this oven? That's God passing through the pieces, as becomes very clear, both in this text and other passages of Scripture. The furnace perhaps representing the furnace of affliction that the Israelites are going to go through, and the torch representing the light will eventually be to the world, both suffering and glory. God says, I am walking in between the pieces.

All right, now you followed it this far, haven't you? $64 question, where is Abraham in this whole thing? The answer is, he's asleep. He's in another world. He's somewhere else. He does not walk with God between these pieces.

God walks between the pieces alone. Because what God is saying is, I'm making this covenant with you, Abraham, but guess what? This isn't an agreement where you do your part and then I do my part. This is a covenant that I am making with you that I will accomplish and it rests wholly 100% and is not even dependent upon your faithfulness or your obedience, though God will bring that about because I am God and this is what I have decided to do and it will happen and nothing, including even the human will, will stand in my way. Wow. Welcome to what is called the unconditional covenant.

No conditions. God says, I'm making this agreement with myself. It's what it says in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews says, when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself, it says in the text. Since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you and thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. God says, this is my doing. Well, does that mean Abraham could be disobedient, so forth? Well, theoretically, but God, when he makes a covenant like this, in effect is saying something else. I am going to work in Abraham's heart to birth in him the faith. I'm going to do the miracle that he and Sarah need to have a son and I am going to work through the human will to accomplish my ends.

But at the end of the day, it is me swearing by myself that it's going to happen. There is nothing more certain on planet Earth than that Abraham's seed will inherit the land that God gave. And one of the questions we have to ask is, have they already inherited it all?

Or is there still a future for the nation Israel? Because God says it's going to happen and if he says it's going to happen, it is. Three very important lessons, life-changing lessons that will help you. First of all, do you notice in this text that God doesn't treat everybody alike? Did you know that God doesn't treat everybody alike?

Oh, you know, people say, well, I can't accept a God who's going to treat some people differently. Well, God didn't give this revelation to Hammurabi, for example, one of the kings that gave us a great law that has been discovered, who lived shortly after the time of Abraham. God didn't give this revelation to Lot. God didn't give this revelation to any other of Abraham's kinfolk. God says, Abraham, I'm choosing you.

And if you ask the question as to why, you're probing into a mystery that I have chosen to not reveal, simply because of my good pleasure. God doesn't treat everybody alike. He has to treat everyone justly, absolutely. But there are some who receive mercies that others do not receive. If you struggle with that, let me simply suggest that you let God be God.

True story. Two sisters grow up in the very same home. One grows up searching God, knowing that she has to be born again, going from church to church saying, I know that if I'm not born again, I'll not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Somebody tell me how to be born again. And she's gloriously converted. Her sister, whom I happen to know, who's a relative of mine, hard as nails atheist, wants nothing to do with God, the Bible, or anything else.

Wow. To one, he shows mercy. You say, well, what about this atheist? Couldn't she believe?

Yes, yes, if she desired to believe, there's no question about it, but it's almost as if the desire has been taken from her, the other one in whom God worked. You say, Pastor Lutzer, by mentioning this point, you have scared up more rabbits than you're able to shoot on a Sunday morning. And so I have. But I want you to think about that.

Not everybody is treated alike. Now, if you find in your heart a desire to pursue God, pursue him, seek him, seek Christ. Because if you have that desire, it shows that God is working within you to bring about his purpose.

Seek it with all of your heart. Second, all of God's children, all of God's children live with delayed promises, delayed promises. Here's Abraham. God says, I'm giving you the land.

It's yours and your descendants forever. Okay, God, start doing it. Well, you don't even have a son yet, Abraham. In fact, the next sermon, I hope you don't miss, has to do with the birth of Ishmael and all of the consequences.

We're going to look at the impact of this in the Muslim world and the Jewish world and the Christian world. But God says, I'm going to do all this for you. And now what does God say? It's going to be 400 years before they actually come back and even begin the process of inheriting it.

And some of us think they still haven't finished the process. So God is saying, this is the way it is. You're going to have to wait, Abraham. It says in the book of Hebrews, he died in faith without the promises fulfilled. You know that when Sarah dies, he has to buy a plot of land to bury her.

What's this? Buying a plot of land? The land was given to him by God. God says, yeah, it's yours.

But you know what? The promise is going to be delayed. We live with delayed promises all the time. Of course, healing is in the atonement.

Jesus died for us, body, soul, and spirit. And there are some people who tell us you don't have to delay anything. Oh, no, no, it's yours.

Just name it, claim it. No, our healing will be ours someday when we have resurrection bodies, when we won't need the glasses, when we won't have the limitations of the flesh. Yeah, but it's coming. It's coming. Justice, all of the things.

Now, can't you imagine Abraham being in touch with a health and wealth preacher? Abraham, it's yours. Take it. God gave it to you. You claim it. What do you mean you're paying for the land? You own it.

You just bring all these enemies under your control and in submission because it's all yours. Grab it now. Can I share something with you?

I will. If God wills it in about a year, I'd like to preach a series of messages entitled Living with Delayed Promises. I think that's one of the greatest confusions that we have, is that we have to live with delayed promises. You say, well, are there some promises we can embrace right now?

And the answer is yes. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved if you wait until some future time. It may be too late. There are some promises that need to be embraced right now. But there are many promises that are delayed, but they are as certain as God's holy word. But we die in faith.

Third and last, through faith. Through faith, you and I also enter into an unconditional covenant, an unconditional covenant. It's called the new covenant, the new covenant in my blood. Today, we're going to have an opportunity to remember that new covenant when we have communion together. And that also is an unconditional covenant.

Once you come to saving faith in Christ, God says, I am going to take responsibility for taking you all the way from earth to heaven and making sure that you arrive. My sheep hear my voice and they know me and they follow me and I give on to them eternal life. Neither shall any of them perish. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. My Father is greater than I.

No man is able to pluck them out of his hand. God says, you trust Christ as Savior. And I enter into an agreement that depends on me and my faithfulness to take you all the way to the promised land. You say, well, does that mean Christians can be disobedient? Just as in the case of Abraham, God says, I'm going to work in their hearts to bring about the faith that they need to be saved and the obedience by which they represent me here on earth. But at the end of the day, it's all one-sided.

It all comes from me to them. Abraham did not make a promise that day. God made all the promises. That's why when you hear me preach the gospel at Moody Church, when I'm asking those of you who have never believed on Christ to be saved, you'll never hear me say, now make a promise to follow Jesus.

I may say that to believers, but not to unbelievers. What do you mean make a promise to follow Jesus? The gospel isn't something that I promised. The gospel means that I come absolutely helpless to receive a promise that God has given. That's what the gospel is.

D.L. Moody said that he heard a man stand up and say it took me 42 years to learn these three things. Well, you know, if you find somebody who can tell you in two minutes something it took 42 years to learn, I think you ought to listen up, as the saying goes. The man stood up and said three things. First, I can do nothing to save myself.

Then the news even gets better. Second, God doesn't expect me to do anything to save myself because he knows I can't. And thirdly, Jesus paid it all. That's the good news of the gospel. A week ago yesterday I was at a reception and I didn't know the folks very well, but I was asked to be there and so I was.

And during a moment there was a cameraman there who was taking pictures of the bride and groom and he had a few moments. So I put my hand on his shoulder and said, can you tell me how far have you come in your walk with God? You know, just thought I'd throw out a question. And he gave me an answer of sorts and then I explained the gospel to him, something like I've done to you. And he said, oh, very easy, huh? Very easy, very easy. So is it easy? Well, if it's so easy, why don't you believe on Jesus right here?

No, I'm not willing to do that. Well, it's easy. Is it easy? It's easy. Looked at from one standpoint, yes.

Very hard from another standpoint. Because when you come to Jesus, you are saying, I cannot save myself. My works are rubbish, as we read this morning in the scripture. I am a sinner convicted of my sin apart from the mercy of God. I'm going to be forever damned. And that's what you're saying when you believe.

So yeah, yeah, it's easy. But my is it hard on pride and human nature, which stands in the way of receiving God's free grace. Overcome that barrier by the power of the Spirit. I pray that you shall, that those of you who have never trusted Christ would believe even right now where you are seated in this sanctuary or listening by some other means. Join me as we pray. Father, we want to thank you today that when God swore and made a covenant, he swore by himself.

He said, this is what I'm going to do. My plans will not be frustrated by human nature with all of its sins, with all of its failings. I shall do as I please. What confidence that gives us in your holy word and your promises. And I pray now for those who have never trusted Christ as Savior. At this moment, may they believe in Jesus. May they say amen to Jesus and receive the gift of righteousness. Cause that to happen, Father, for our lives are frail.

And we can only do it if you work in our hearts. Before I close this prayer, whoever you are right now, would you say amen to Jesus? Amen. I pray, Father, that those who have been converted this morning may tell someone of their conversion that indeed they have chosen to say amen to Jesus.

Not to make a promise, but to receive the free gift that he offers. We pray in his blessed name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right. Praise God. Let's sing together two stanzas of 305.

Jesus paid it all. What other song could we possibly sing other than that one? 305. We'll sing only the first and the third stanzas. Let's all stand to sing 305. On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer spoke about a lasting faith, the fifth in a ten-part series on strength for the journey, a study in the life of Abraham.

Next week, Abraham agrees to short-circuit God's plan as his maid Hagar bears him a son. Join us then for a misdirected faith. We're so grateful to all who support The Moody Church Hour, and during this month, we have a special opportunity. Every gift you send will be doubled thanks to a matching gift fund.

It's been set up by others who value The Moody Church Hour as it reaches the wider culture and addresses crucial issues of the day. You can make your gift a double one by calling 1-800-215-5001. The number again, 1-800-215-5001. Or write to us at The Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago.