A Praying Faith

The journey of Abraham has taken him to the great trees of Mamre where he encounters three mysterious visitors. On a day of high drama, Abraham and Sarah find themselves in the presence of God and learn about the sun they will soon have and about judgment on the city of Sodom.

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 watch Abraham develop a praying faith. The Moody Choir comes now to open our service. It's the Lord, O my soul, that can love all his benefits, Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who health all thy diseases. Who reclaimeth thy life of destruction, Who crowneth thee with power, With kindness and tender mercy. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, Bless his holy name, bless his holy name. Bless his holy name, bless his holy name. Bless his holy name, bless his name. Thank you so much, choir, for leading us in our call to worship today. And thanks also to our intern, one of our interns, Rochelle Wendt, who led the choir this morning, as they invited us to bless the name of the Lord. And we hope that you are here today to do just that. Would you take your hymnals, please, and turn to 526, the solid rock. We'll be singing that in a moment.

526. Our scripture reading today is by Luke Angus. Luke is a senior at Moody Bible Institute and one of our interns here with the youth ministry. And he'll be leading us in the reading of God's word. Also be prepared for surely one of our most beautiful hymns, 631, as we will be singing the Lord's prayer. We have prepared a time of worship, of instruction, and of prayer, asking and inviting God to speak to us powerfully today. Jesus told a story, you remember, about two men, one who built his house upon the sand and the other who built his house upon the rock.

They looked identical, but when the judgment came, when the floods came, the house that was built upon the rock stood and the other one collapsed. It was that imagery that gave rise to William Mote who wrote this hymn, On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Let's affirm that, if we will please, as we bow together in prayer and then we stand to sing. And our Father, we thank you today that in Jesus we have found something solid. In a day when everything that has been nailed down is being torn up, we thank you that he is dependable, that his promises are sure and that our lives are built upon him. He will enable us to sing this as an affirmation of our faith, but most of all for the glory of your name, we pray.

Amen. God and righteousness, I cannot trust the speed of spring, but only be of Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. In darkness fails his love with grace, I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every light and soul he hailed, my anchor holds great in the rain. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. His holy solid dwells, I will be in the welling flood, when all around my soul is made, even if all my hope has been. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. His holy solid dwells, I will be in the welling flood, when all my hope has been, even if all my hope has been. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. The scripture reading this morning is from Psalm 33 verses 13 through 22.

Please join with me in the bold print. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man. From where he sits enthroned, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. We'd like you to turn to number 631 as we sing the Lord's prayer together. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. Let's sing the Lord's prayer from our hearts. I feel alone. I will be found. As he reigns, he reigns. Give us this day, O daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. When peace, love, and faith shall forgive us from evil, for our lives have been loved and loved and loved for ever. Amen.

The American spiritual has really helped us a great deal to understand life. As you see the words here, show me the way. It'll sound like we're a little desperate.

That is life, isn't it? Show me the way. Show me the way.

I've been lost, tumbled, and tossed. Show me the way. But by the time we get to the end of the piece, now I have heard your guiding word.

I hear you speak, O Lord. Shine your light on my soul and let your word make me whole. Show me the way. Show me the way. Show me the way, O Lord.

I have been lost, tumbled, and tossed. Show me the way, O Lord. Give me your light. Give me your light. Give me your light, O Lord. God is the day.

God is the way. Give me your light, O Lord. Shine your light on my soul and let your word make me whole. Shine your light. Shine your light. Shine your light.

Shine your light. Shine your light on my soul and let your word make me whole. Shine your light on my soul and let your word make me whole.

Shine your light on my soul and let your word make me whole. Praise God from the Lord. Bless his soul. Praise him, all creatures in evil. Praise him, all our heavenly hosts. Praise God, his Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. Hallelujah. So let me begin by asking you a question. How would you like to have a conversation with God?

Amen. Years ago, a book was written entitled Conversations with God. In the introduction, the author said that he took this book and it was written actually by automatic writing. A being came along and moved his hand, and that's how the book came about.

That is known in occultism as automatic writing. And that's why the book says many foolish things that only a human being and the devil would agree with, such as, quote, God says, I think whatever you think. Now, if you come across a God who thinks whatever you think and that your thoughts are his thoughts, you've come across the wrong one.

God says, my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways. That's a different God. But Abraham had a conversation with God, the real God, and what a conversation it was. It's recorded in the 18th chapter, the 18th chapter of the book of Genesis, where Abraham has this encounter with a divine being. And with your Bibles open, let me tell you the story, then read part of the account as it is given to us in scripture. Here's Abraham. He's sitting at the door of his tent. It's hot.

It's time for a siesta. And three men come to him. It almost appears as if Abraham realized that these were not three ordinary Bedouins, though perhaps they were dressed that way. Abraham not only bows before them and calls one of them Lord, but begins, even though he's 100 years old, to act very quickly. It says in verse six, and Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, quick, three sealers of fine flour kneaded and make cakes. Verse seven, and Abraham ran into the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a man who prepared it quickly.

He's a man in a hurry. So the three men gather under a tree and he feeds them the very best that he possibly can. Who are these three men? Well, we learn very clearly that one is Jesus Christ. Now, if you've been with us in this series, and I believe that this is the eighth message in the series, you know that we've encountered this before. In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, about whom it is written his goings forth have been from of old and from everlasting, was already appearing at times in the Old Testament for purposes of communication, oftentimes referred to as the angel of the Lord. Here he is simply referred to as the Lord, as we shall see in a moment.

One is Jesus Christ and the other two are angels. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, it says that you should be very, very careful, very anxious to entertain strangers. Because by doing that, some have entertained angels, unawares, probably a reference to this particular account. So they're eating together and one of them, that is the Lord I'm sure, is speaking and says, where is Sarah your wife? Verse 9. Wait a moment now, how does he know that her name is Sarah? And Abraham answers and says she's in the tent. And the Lord says, we're in verse 10 now, I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife shall have a son.

And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself.

Now she was told in the previous chapter that she was going to bear a son. But Sarah does not believe it. Abraham seems to believe, but she does not. And you'll notice that even though she's laughing to herself, she is overheard by the angel of the Lord, by Jesus actually. And in verse 13, the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am too old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Is it possible for God to take a man who's a hundred and a woman who is 90 and to give them a son, is that too hard for God? Sometimes in our praying we say, now Lord, I'm just praying about something that's very little. I smile when we say that because to God everything is little. Hurricanes are little. Earthquakes are little. To God, everything is little.

We're dealing with omnipotence. So the angel rebukes her and says, why are you laughing, Sarah? And she denies it.

Self-protection. First thing we do when we're embarrassed is to lie. What she does, she says, no. She says, I didn't laugh. He says, yes, you did.

You did. You see, she laughed to herself in the tent. She didn't laugh loud enough for them to hear out there, but God knew that she was laughing. So after the meal is over, Abraham then begins to go his way and the three men begin to go to Sodom and two of them move off.

The two angels do. And Abraham now is confronted and he stands in the presence of the Lord. They're allowed to enter into a divine soliloquy. The Lord of glory is talking to himself and he asks this question. He says in verse 17, shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice. Could I just pause and say that the primary responsibility for spiritual instruction in the home is the Father? Whether the Father is absent or whether he is present, God holds him accountable for the spiritual instruction that he gives to his children. And then the angel says, or actually the angel of the Lord, if we may call him that, it is the second person of the Trinity. He's saying, I'm going down to take a look to see how bad Sodom really is. Once again, you have to read this with some theological glasses. It's not that Jesus is on a reconnaissance mission trying to find out the state of Sodom and Gomorrah. You have to put this in the same category as God asking Adam in the garden, where are you? It's not that God doesn't know.

But God here, Jesus, is being represented as a human being. So he says, I'm going to go down and check out how bad Sodom has become. And that makes Abraham realize that judgment is coming to Sodom. And that's why we come now to this great period of intercession in Abraham's life.

We have to look at it more carefully. Verse 22. shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And the Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

From here on out, and I'd love to see a video of this. From here on out, I think Abraham's knees are quaking. He now realizes that he is in the presence of God who can make the decision whether Sodom will be destroyed or not. And in his mind, what he's thinking is, Lot lives there, my nephew whom I rescued. And after I rescued him, he went back to Sodom. It's amazing what it takes to change some hearts. And so what he's saying is, Lord, I'm thinking of my nephew Lot and his wife and his daughters.

Lord, I'm not sure whether or not there are 50 in the city. He began rather high. He wanted God to agree on this. And he appeals to the justice of God.

Not the mercy of God as we sometimes do, and that's fine. But here he appeals to the justice of God and he says, God, you will not sweep away the wicked and the righteous together, will you? If there are 50 righteous in the city, and God says it's a promise, I won't.

Now he begins to tremble and he begins to intercede. And he says, Lord, what about 45? 45. If I can get God to agree with 45, maybe I can agree, get him to agree with less than that. So he goes to 45.

Will you do it if there are 45? God says, I won't do it if there are 45. Abraham is not bargaining with God. When you bargain with God, you have something to give in exchange. You're haggling over a price. He has nothing to haggle with. He brings nothing to the table except his concern for Lot and for God's righteousness.

That's all that he has. And he pleads and he says, God, he says, what if there are 40? And from now on, I believe that in Abraham's mind, he is thinking that every advance in this prayer, that I make, might be my last.

God might wipe me off the face of the earth. Because you'll notice how he begins to form his prayer before God. I'm going to begin here in verse 29. Again, he spoke to him and suppose 40 are found there. He said, for the sake of 40, I will not do it.

Then he said, oh, let the Lord not be angry and I will speak. Suppose 30 are found there. He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there. Abraham is speaking, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.

Suppose 20 are found there. He said, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. Then he said, oh, Lord, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak again this once. He believes that the Lord may be exasperated with him.

Please don't be angry one more time. Suppose 10 are found there. And he answered and said, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way. And when he had finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place. Well, what do you think Abraham told Sarah that night in the tent? I can't prove it, but I think he said, Sarah, I just talked God out of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. And I can imagine Sarah saying, oh, Abe, you just glow in the dark. You and God have got this thing going.

This is wonderful. Because think about who was in Sodom. I can imagine that Abraham was maybe thinking this way. There's Lot and his wife, his two daughters, that's four. They're about to be married to two young men, that's six. If the parents of the two young men are believers, that's another four.

That makes 10. He goes home believing that Sodom and Gomorrah will not be destroyed. He got God down to 10.

I can imagine the shock that he had the next morning. Verse 27, chapter 19 now. And Abraham went out early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley. And he looked and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

And he thought, my, oh, my. He thought either, A, God has deceived me. Or else, B, I miscalculated the number of the righteous in the city. There weren't 10.

And it's true, there weren't 10. God could have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, including Lot, without breaking faith with Abraham, without breaking his promise, because there were not 10 righteous in this city. And so Abraham begins to think to himself, I didn't go low enough.

If I had said two or four, maybe the city would not have been destroyed. But God remembered Abraham, it says. So it was that the Lord, when he destroyed the cities of the valley, verse 29, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

The rest of the chapter, chapter 19, talks about how God rescued Lot and his wife and his two daughters. I'm going to leave the account right there as we look at three transforming lessons that should enable us to look at life differently and look at prayer differently as we look at this remarkable story. First of all, let me remind you that the closer our friendship with God, the more freely he shows his intentions with us. The closer our friendship with God, the more freely God shows us his intentions.

Sometimes we hurry over accounts like this far too quickly, don't we? Here is Jesus coming with two angels to eat at the table of Abraham sitting under a tree. That is awesome that the divine sovereign one would come from heaven and meet a Bedouin on his own terms.

Blows you away. And the Bible says that Abraham was a friend of God. That particular expression applies in scripture only to him, and it is said three times. Abraham is a friend of God. You say, well, if I were a friend of God, God would disclose to me what his intention was. He would help me to pray. You're right.

You're completely right. The more intimate we are with God, the more intimate our friendship, the more God discloses to us, and he enables us to pray differently because we begin to discern his mind and his art. In the history of evangelicalism today and in our churches, including ours, there are hundreds of people who I suspect do not pray regularly.

And they say to themselves, the reason I don't is because I've been burned too many times. I've come to God and I've asked him to heal people whom he hasn't healed. I've asked him to bring my wayward son or daughter back into the faith, and he hasn't done it.

I've asked him for an end to the injustice that is being done against me, and it continues unabated. I have stopped praying because I have stopped believing, and it doesn't do any good. And so I'm glad that God is there for great emergencies.

When I go for surgery, I'll call for help and for prayer. But for the normal things of life, I will not bother him because nothing changes when I pray. I think of a woman who said these exact words when they prayed for their pastor who was dying of cancer, and thousands of people prayed, and they had an all-night prayer meeting. She said, if God didn't heal him after all of that prayer, I'm never going to bother him with another request again.

What's gone wrong? What's gone wrong is that we forget that intercession is the second purpose of prayer, not the first. The first purpose of prayer is fellowship and intimacy with God. And by the way, Jesus said, I no longer call you servants, I've called you friends, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends because everything that the Father has shown me, I've withheld nothing. I've shared with you all of my secrets, and that makes us friends.

So we are all friends. And the purpose of prayer is really to develop that friendship in such a way that we are so satisfied with friendship with God that even if he doesn't give us what we think he should, we do not give up on prayer because prayer is first and foremost fellowship with the Almighty. What an amazing example of Jesus and the two angels sitting under a tree eating with Abraham. And today Jesus says to us, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and I will eat with him and he with me. You will become disappointed with prayer very quickly if you think its first purpose is intercession. The first purpose of prayer is for us to come before the Lord in yieldedness, in faith, and simply learn to enjoy fellowship with God in such a way that whether he gives what we ask for or whether he doesn't, it does not shake us, it only deepens us in our desire to know him better.

You live like that and you'll be at prayer meeting. Because now the second purpose of prayer is no longer the first purpose. Someday I'm going to preach a message entitled The Idolatry of Second Things. The Idolatry of Second Things. See, the gifts that God gives us, those are the second things. And when they take first place in our lives, when God doesn't give them to us, we say, why bother? Abraham walked with God and so can we. And God's waiting for you to give up all of your prayer lists, and they're not wrong to have, but give up all of your requests and learn to spend time in quietness, in meditation, in submission, listening to his voice through his word.

That's where it begins. And then what happened is God says, shall I disclose to Abraham what I intend to do? You walk closely with God and God will lay on your heart certain things he wants to accomplish, and you begin to pray about them and they come to pass. I always say that Abraham and God had this thing going. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of us could say, we and God, we've got this thing going?

This friendship? So that he can disclose to us where he's at rather than us barging into his presence, God, look at this request, there's this need, no, it's the second purpose of prayer, not the first. There's a second lesson, and that is that God may choose to deny our requests, God may choose to deny our requests, and yet give us what we really want. When God says no to a request, either the answer is denied, it is perhaps delayed, and sometimes it is disguised as it is here. When Abraham was praying and saying, oh God, please don't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there are some righteous in the city, there's no doubt that his great concern was for his nephew Lot. And so what he was thinking is, in order for Lot to be spared, God has to spare the city in which he lived. It never dawned on Abraham that maybe God could have a different way of answering his prayer, namely getting Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah and then destroying the city.

That never crossed Abraham's mind. So Abraham ends up getting what he wants, namely that Lot would be spared and his wife and his family. He got that, but he got it in an entirely different way than the way in which he had prayed.

And that's the way it sometimes is. We pray for one thing and we think we know how God is going to do it. Have you ever noticed how often we're wrong when we think we know how God is going to do something? God seldom does it the way in which I think he's going to do it. He's so creative, he's always got something else that he does instead, but sometimes it is an answer to our prayer that is disguised.

A good example is David. At the end of his life, David says, Lord, I'd love to build a house for you. I want to build a temple.

I've got the time, I've got the money, I've got the organization, I'm getting the materials ready. Let me build you a house. God says, David, the answer is no, but I'm going to build you a house.

Isn't that wonderful? God says, I don't want you to build me one, but I'm going to build you a house. In fact, I'm going to give you a house, namely posterity, that will go on and on, will be part of the divine plan and the divine stream of history.

God says, I'm going to do that for you. Furthermore, he says, I'm going to give you the opportunity to gather the materials and give some instruction to your young son, Solomon, because Solomon is going to build the temple. And so, David, even though your motives were right, you wanted to build it for my glory so that I would have a place where people could worship. I want you to know that the desire of your heart, David, is going to be fulfilled. The temple is going to be built, not by you, but by Solomon.

It will come to pass. I'll answer your prayer, but not in the way in which you think that it's going to be answered. Sometimes God gives us, therefore, substitutes, substitutes.

And when he does it, you know, it's exactly what he wants. So the second lesson is that God may choose to deny our requests and still give us the desires of our heart. Third, the impact of the righteous is greater than their numbers suggest. The impact of the righteous is greater than their numbers would suggest. After all, if there had been ten righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah, God would not have destroyed it. Now, you must understand that this whole world is under the judgment and condemnation of God. And the only reason why God withholds judgment is because this whole world is still populated in various places with his people.

And because the world is populated with the people of God, God, therefore, restrains judgment and he blesses nations because of the believers that are in those nations. I don't know how to say this without the possibility of being misunderstood. But I want you to know that the world has no idea of the debt that they owe believers. We are seen as obnoxious, and sometimes we are, unfortunately. We are seen as those who impede progress. We are painted by the media in various hues of people who want to impose our values.

We are often misrepresented. But Jesus said, ye and ye alone, that's what the Greek text says, ye and ye alone are the light of the world. Even a candle in a cave can do something. Ye and ye alone are the salt of the earth preserving society from total decay. What would happen if all the believers would be taken out? Well, then the final judgment of God would fall as it will during the Great Tribulation. Because as long as believers are here, they are salt and they are light and they are helping preserve the world from judgment.

Oh, I know what you're saying. You're saying, well, weren't there ten righteous in New Orleans? Well, I think there probably were. I'm saying that with a smile on my face because I'm sure that there were hundreds of righteous in New Orleans.

Many fine churches there, I'm told. You see, there would have been nothing wrong with God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah with Lot in it, by the way. In fact, considering the way in which Lot ended up, we can look back and say that perhaps that would have been part of God's plan.

There would have been nothing wrong with that. God chose not to do it that way. Abraham prayed for Lot's safety. God gave Lot safety. It's not wrong in this life for judgment to fall on the wicked as well as the righteous.

In fact, they die in catastrophes together all the time. But what would be wrong is if in the final judgment there were not made a separation. So that at last in the final judgment, when eternal destiny is at stake, then, of course, God makes a very, very clear distinction between those who are considered righteous and those who are counted as unrighteous. But in this life, the wicked and the righteous often die together.

There's so much more that could be said about natural disasters and even the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which, by the way, is the subject of the next message in this series. Today I want to simply end by reminding you that in Jesus Christ we can draw near to the Holy of Holies and we can intercede for others. We can intercede for cities.

We can intercede for families. And by the way, even those of you who are married to unsaved spouses, did you know that the Bible says that the woman who's a Christian who's married to an unsaved man actually sanctifies him by her presence? The worldling doesn't believe it, but that's what the Scripture says, because it is his people that are a good influence on others. But also to remind ourselves that the final decision regarding judgment is in the hands of Jesus. It is Jesus, Lord God Christ, who goes down to see Sodom and Gomorrah, who evaluates it, and the next day you have all of the sulfur and what have you falling from heaven on the city and destroying it. Ultimately, Jesus is the judge of all the earth.

He said, I am he who was dead and am alive and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. I want you to visualize everyone at death going through into a castle and the only way out of the castle is either the way of life to heaven or the way of darkness and hell and it's Jesus whom you must encounter and he makes the decision where you will spend eternity. He made the decision for Sodom and Gomorrah and he makes the decision for us. But if you trust him, you're exempt from the final judgment.

I love to tell that story about forest fire, actually a prairie fire, and as it was blazing along as it did during the time when there was so much prairie here in the United States and Canada, there was one farmer who realized that the only way he could be spared ultimately is if he lit his own fire and then he burned one patch of ground after another, after another, after another so that when the real big fire came, he had to stand where the fire already was and of course he would not be consumed because the fire had already been there. When Jesus died on the cross, he took our fire, he took our condemnation, he took the wrath of God and he says, if you trust me, you'll be exempt, you'll be standing where the judgment already occurred. Abraham, in the presence of Sodom, we in the presence of Chicago, standing before the Lord, the God of judgment.

Let's pray. Our Father, we do not pretend that we understand all the nuances of this wonderful account, but we thank you today, Lord, that grace and mercy is a part of your nature. Thank you that you remembered Abraham by rescuing a lot. Thank you today, Father, that we can intercede.

But first of all, we must be your friends. First of all, we need to discern your mind and get to know you and see that the primary purpose of prayer is fellowship under the tree and not interceding on behalf of a city. And we pray today that, as your word says, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, then you can ask what you will and it will be done.

Has God talked to you today? Could we just have a moment of silence as you now talk to God? Our Father, we ask today in Jesus' name that you'll help us to be the people that we should be in the midst of a country that is turning its back on you. Help us to know what it means to be salt and light, to be ministers of the gospel of Christ, to stand for righteousness and to believe that in grace you are there to help us. Lead us, we ask, and may many people trust Christ as Savior, coming to Him knowing that they are standing where judgment has already come. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Let's sing a few stanzas of hymn 344. 344, what a wonderful Savior, or rather grace greater than our sin. 344. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, 344.

Could we stand please as we sing together? Praise, let it cease, our sin and our guilt, under a pellowy ground of gold, where the blood of the Lamb was still. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise, O Lord, and let us live. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise, that is greater than all our sin.

Time is the same every hell or height, but thin of hair to wash it away. Good grace, loving the prince of time, white white snow may we eat today. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise, O Lord, and let us live. Praise, praise. On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer spoke about A Praying Faith, the eighth in a ten-part series on Strength for the Journey, a study in the life of Abraham. Next week, we recount the famous story of fire and brimstone and the judgment of Sodom.

Our focus will turn to Abraham's nephew, Lot, who exhibits a worldly faith. Our series on Abraham can be yours for a gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry.

Our thank you will come as a CD album with all ten messages on Strength for the Journey. Call 1-800-215-5001, or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.