Counting Faith (Romans 4:13-25)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.399 --> 00:00:08.109 Please remain standing, and let's give our attention to Romans Chapter Four, verses 2 00:00:08.230 --> 00:00:21.429 thirteen through twenty five, Romans Four thirteenth through twenty five. Here we conclude 3 00:00:21.579 --> 00:00:35.770 chapter four and Paul's Focus on Abraham as the father of faith, Romans four, 4 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:42.369 verse thirteen. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would 5 00:00:42.369 --> 00:00:48.170 be the heir of the world did not come through the law, but through 6 00:00:48.210 --> 00:00:54.079 the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherence of the law who 7 00:00:54.079 --> 00:01:00.240 are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void, for 8 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:03.989 the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no 9 00:01:04.150 --> 00:01:10.750 transgression. That is why it depends on faith in order that in order that 10 00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:17.069 the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not 11 00:01:17.269 --> 00:01:19.739 only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares 12 00:01:19.780 --> 00:01:23.939 the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it 13 00:01:25.060 --> 00:01:29.579 is written, I have made you the father of many nations, in the 14 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:34.049 presence of God and whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and 15 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:41.129 calls into existence the things that do not exist. In Hope, he believed, 16 00:01:41.170 --> 00:01:46.010 against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as 17 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:51.239 he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken 18 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:55.040 in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead 19 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:59.799 since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness 20 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:05.629 of Sarah's wound. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, 21 00:02:06.510 --> 00:02:10.590 but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully 22 00:02:10.669 --> 00:02:16.180 convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why 23 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:23.020 his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted 24 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:28.460 to Him we're not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. 25 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:32.969 It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead, 26 00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:38.569 Jesus, Our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised 27 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:46.080 for our justification. Hey, God bless his word to us. Please be 28 00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:54.039 seated. Well, if you are familiar with this passage or if you've been 29 00:02:54.159 --> 00:03:00.949 tracking with us in the last several sermons, you know what this passage is 30 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:07.229 about. That our justification are standing before God comes by faith alone and not 31 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:14.259 by works, or even faith plus works. But Paul has been making that 32 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:20.620 point in particular through this example of Abraham, as a way to connect us 33 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:27.330 together, US being both Jew and gentile, those who are brought under the 34 00:03:27.409 --> 00:03:34.650 law or adheres to the law, those who are born according to according to 35 00:03:34.689 --> 00:03:38.729 the flesh, according to Abraham, and those who are not, both Jew 36 00:03:38.889 --> 00:03:46.879 and gentile, belong to God through faith in Jesus. Depends on faith, 37 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:52.919 not on obedience to the law. Now, this has all kinds of powerful 38 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:58.069 implications, as we've been seeing, all kinds of ways in which this impacts 39 00:03:58.110 --> 00:04:04.509 our life and speaks to our unity in the church. But I confess that 40 00:04:05.069 --> 00:04:09.870 as much as we hear this and as much as we know it, there's 41 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:15.979 a way in which hearing it is still hard. You hear that God promised 42 00:04:15.019 --> 00:04:20.699 the world to Abraham, that the substance of those promises was received by faith 43 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:28.649 and not by works, and it always feels a little abstract. It always 44 00:04:28.649 --> 00:04:32.730 feels a little bit like a thesis statement that you know you need to affirm, 45 00:04:33.329 --> 00:04:36.490 that you know you should live by it in some sense, and yet 46 00:04:38.209 --> 00:04:44.040 it always feels a little bit distant. I feel fairly confident in using a 47 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:49.000 word like always there, because I've talked with you, I know you and 48 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:55.829 I know my own heart as well. I know that believing by faith is 49 00:04:56.430 --> 00:05:03.069 not always easy. It's hard to hear a promise and move forward, to 50 00:05:03.310 --> 00:05:12.220 believe in something that you cannot see, to trust God and his promises even 51 00:05:12.259 --> 00:05:16.620 while they don't seem to be happening here and now, to put our faith 52 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:23.810 in all his historical event, the death and resurrection of Jesus, even when 53 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:30.850 we weren't there, relying on the testimony of witnesses and of God. Of 54 00:05:30.970 --> 00:05:35.040 course, this Christians. It feels a little bit ridiculous to admit this. 55 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:42.800 Who would doubt God? But right do we have to doubt his word, 56 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.879 to doubt his promises? Why in the world would we struggle to walk according 57 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:55.990 to a promise made by God? And yet we do. We struggle. 58 00:05:57.149 --> 00:06:01.430 We struggle against all kinds of things. We struggle to see by faith. 59 00:06:02.709 --> 00:06:08.699 We struggle to give glory to God. We struggle to hope in the things 60 00:06:08.819 --> 00:06:14.420 that God has given us instead of putting our trust in our current circumstances and 61 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:21.970 situation. We struggle to feel like we belong to God's family or that others 62 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:30.410 should belong who have done terrible things. We desire continually to add something to 63 00:06:30.569 --> 00:06:35.399 contribute in some way to our salvation and do not trust God for simply giving 64 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:45.279 it to us. I know that you are afraid. You're afraid that your 65 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:50.029 sins will catch up to you, that God saying that he has freely forgiven 66 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:57.829 you and forgiven your trespasses on the cross may not be true, that the 67 00:06:57.949 --> 00:07:02.620 regrets that you have, the sins that you've committed, maybe even as recently 68 00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:09.620 as to day, we'll catch up with you will destroy you, that the 69 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:15.329 cross is not good enough, afraid that God is angry with you, or 70 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:21.850 you are filled with pride. You prop yourself up with your plans, your 71 00:07:23.610 --> 00:07:30.319 career paths, your chaste hopes. You pride yourselves on the things that you 72 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:34.920 know, the things that you've done, the places you've been, the plans 73 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:41.879 that you have. I know how you feel. I feel these ways too. 74 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:47.550 But more important than mean knowing how you feel is that God knows how 75 00:07:47.629 --> 00:07:55.550 you feel. He knows who you are, he knows the particulars of your 76 00:07:55.750 --> 00:08:01.699 life, just as he did when he came to Abraham and promised him the 77 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:11.379 world. When God came to Abraham about this good news that he would make 78 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:18.769 him and his offspring air of the world. God already knew about the circumstances 79 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:26.480 and sins and particulars of Abraham's life. God knew about the decades of Sarah's 80 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:35.399 barrenness. He knew about every creek and ache and every discomfort in Abraham's hundred 81 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:43.190 year old body and Sarah's hundred year old body. He knew about their particular 82 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:48.190 spiritual upbringing, which was likely not a happy one or God glorifying one. 83 00:08:48.309 --> 00:08:54.870 He knew about the century, now that it happened, of sin and rebellion 84 00:08:54.909 --> 00:09:01.940 against God, things that you and I know nothing about, things that aren't 85 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:05.940 recorded in scriptures, all kinds of stories and events that they could go on 86 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:11.370 hours and hours and hours about. We don't know. But God knew. 87 00:09:11.250 --> 00:09:18.850 When God came to Abraham and promised him the world, he knew. But 88 00:09:18.090 --> 00:09:22.690 none of those things, none of those circumstances, none of those sins, 89 00:09:22.769 --> 00:09:30.519 had any effect on God's plans when he promised eternal blessing to this couple and 90 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:35.679 to their offspring. It didn't have any effect on him in the sense that 91 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:41.110 he was unaware of them and just sort of moved forward without thinking. But 92 00:09:41.190 --> 00:09:46.509 it didn't have any effects effect on his promises. Because he was ultimate and 93 00:09:46.669 --> 00:09:52.509 in control of their circumstances, of the lives. He would give Abraham and 94 00:09:52.899 --> 00:10:01.820 Sarah and their children the world in a eternal and completely blessed sense, not 95 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.620 because of what they had or didn't have, or would or wouldn't do, 96 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:09.529 but simply because he wanted to give it to them. It wasn't based on 97 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:15.809 some kind of good works that they had done or or based on a certain 98 00:10:15.809 --> 00:10:20.009 amount of sin that they had accumulated. It was simply in His grace and 99 00:10:20.169 --> 00:10:24.080 him his love and in the particulars of their lives that he came and he 100 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:31.600 spoke to Abraham and said, through your offspring, I will bless you and 101 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:37.029 all the nations of the world will be blessed through you and I will give 102 00:10:37.110 --> 00:10:46.470 you a heavenly country. This is what Abraham believed. Abraham would come to 103 00:10:46.590 --> 00:10:52.899 see things in this particular way, and it's seeing things in this particular way 104 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:58.539 that we call faith, trusting in God and the ultimate decrees that he has 105 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:03.220 made, even, as we have confessed this morning in the shorter catechism, 106 00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:11.129 the for ordained things that he has planned and promises to fulfill, believing those 107 00:11:11.289 --> 00:11:16.529 as alternate, even over the circumstances and things that we see right now. 108 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:26.440 That's what faith is. Faith looks past the secondary circumstances of our lives to 109 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:35.669 the primary cause of all things, God, and trusts his word above everything. 110 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:43.269 So if God says you're going to have a child, even though you're 111 00:11:43.629 --> 00:11:48.059 barren and have been for on a years, you start getting a nursery ready, 112 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:54.820 you throw a baby shower, you gather your friends around and you say, 113 00:11:54.860 --> 00:11:58.539 Hey, I'm going to have a baby. I don't know about you, 114 00:11:58.659 --> 00:12:03.730 but I like the idea of Sarah and her friends have a good baby 115 00:12:03.809 --> 00:12:09.289 shower, eighty, ninety a hundred year old women gathering to gather and tasting 116 00:12:09.409 --> 00:12:15.009 baby food, putting on diapers quickly. But it be kind of like Noah, 117 00:12:15.049 --> 00:12:20.440 wouldn't it, building an arc in the desert without any rain because of 118 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:28.600 the promise of God? They acted because they believed. That's what faith is. 119 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.029 Faith isn't doing this kind of calculus and saying well, there's this plus 120 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:37.710 this, mine is this. Well, okay, faith is saying God is 121 00:12:37.909 --> 00:12:43.940 God and I am not, and God has promised me something. He has 122 00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:50.460 said he will give me something, so I'm going to believe it and thank 123 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:56.659 him for it and be grateful for it and be filled with joy and act 124 00:12:56.659 --> 00:13:03.210 accordingly. And that's what Abraham and that's what Sarah did. Faith believes God. 125 00:13:05.049 --> 00:13:09.490 It believes that he's not constrained by the things in this world, by 126 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:16.360 our disabilities, by our sins, by our fears. Are there are things 127 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:22.279 in your life that you believe God is constrained by? Are there things that 128 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.149 you don't trust him about because you think that there are things that you have 129 00:13:26.549 --> 00:13:33.950 or don't have, physical or spiritual, that God is not capable of overcoming? 130 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:39.110 Put that kind of thinking to death, because God can overcome it. 131 00:13:39.750 --> 00:13:43.980 And if you need an example, there are hundreds. We can consider the 132 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:50.659 one Paul has given us this morning of Abraham and Sarah. They didn't believe 133 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:56.250 an empty promise, did they? Do you know what happened to Sarah's baron 134 00:13:56.330 --> 00:14:05.769 womb? A child was born and through him whole family was born. Eventually, 135 00:14:05.090 --> 00:14:11.840 our Savior was born, Jesus Christ himself, who would come and fulfill, 136 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:16.279 in an ultimate and final sense, all of these things that God had 137 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:26.269 promised. Hundreds thousands of miracles lining that road, signpost after signpost after sign 138 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:31.629 post pointing to God and his promises, a sale to our faith, over 139 00:14:31.789 --> 00:14:35.549 and over and over again, of God saying yes, I can, yes, 140 00:14:35.590 --> 00:14:37.700 I can, yes, I can, I will, I will, 141 00:14:37.700 --> 00:14:41.779 I will, I have, I have, I have. That's the road 142 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:46.460 on which we walk, billboards, placard all the way, placarded all the 143 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:54.169 way, showing us what it means to live by faith. Well, that's 144 00:14:54.210 --> 00:15:00.850 how Abraham heard this promised and received it, and it's how he would one 145 00:15:00.889 --> 00:15:07.960 day enjoy its fulfillment. But just as God knew Abraham and his particular circumstances, 146 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:13.879 the challenges, the difficulties, the physical impossibilities, he also knows you. 147 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.720 And this is good news, because did you hear what God said in 148 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:26.590 his word? He says that this promises that were made to Abraham were also 149 00:15:26.629 --> 00:15:31.029 made to you. So when we think about God going to Abraham and saying 150 00:15:31.309 --> 00:15:37.580 to this, are to you, this I promise, it's not a great 151 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:41.980 leap to say to this, to me, God has also promised the same 152 00:15:43.019 --> 00:15:46.220 thing. Why is that not a leap? Because that's exactly what the Bible 153 00:15:46.340 --> 00:15:52.610 says right here. These promises that God made to Abraham, these amazing, 154 00:15:52.690 --> 00:16:00.809 spectacular promises that, through this child, Jesus all the nations in the world 155 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:06.759 would be blessed, nations and people's that include even us who have believed on 156 00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:11.159 him. Let me read it to you, he says. But the word, 157 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:14.240 this is verse twenty three. But the words, it was counted to 158 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:18.190 him, were not written for his sake alone. This is a remarkable thing. 159 00:16:18.350 --> 00:16:22.789 This is scripture commenting on scripture. If you've ever watched a DVD and 160 00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:27.950 you've turned on the special features right where the directors or producers, actors talking 161 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:33.659 behind the thing, describing what's going on in the thing itself, that's what's 162 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:38.379 going on here, God commenting on Holy Scripture itself as you're listening to it. 163 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:45.820 He says, that's why it was written. Righteousness was counted to Abraham 164 00:16:45.019 --> 00:16:51.210 by faith, not just so Abraham would hear it, but for you. 165 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:56.690 It's not written for our sake, of loan, but or for his sake 166 00:16:56.769 --> 00:17:03.359 alone, but for all hours also. It. That is righteousness, the 167 00:17:03.400 --> 00:17:10.799 righteousness which justifies, the righteousness which saves US, which declares makes us innocent 168 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:18.869 before God. That righteousness will be counted to us who work, who do 169 00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:26.910 good things, know to those who believe in Him who raised Jesus from the 170 00:17:27.069 --> 00:17:34.539 dead, our Lord he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our 171 00:17:34.779 --> 00:17:41.900 justification. See, Jesus didn't go to the cross. Jesus didn't die this 172 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:48.490 terrible death because you lived a great life. Does that make any sense? 173 00:17:48.849 --> 00:17:52.690 Would God send his only son into the world to die on a cross at 174 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:57.599 the hands of evil men and for sin, because you pulled your act together? 175 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:04.359 No, God sent his son to come as a sacrifice because your sin 176 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:14.950 needed to be sacrificed for, because you needed to be saved. These promises 177 00:18:14.990 --> 00:18:18.309 are not just for Abraham, but for you. How do we know? 178 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:23.029 Because of the original promise and for his offspring, and because of what it 179 00:18:23.150 --> 00:18:27.140 says about Abraham, the father of us all, both Jews and gentiles, 180 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:36.259 because of what scripture says now and back in Genesis. But it is for 181 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:41.529 US only. These promises and gifts are far US only, in the way 182 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:47.529 it was for Abraham. God will not give this gift to those who will 183 00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:52.809 not receive it, to those who will not believe it, to be offered 184 00:18:52.970 --> 00:18:56.400 the gift of God and say no, thanks, I don't want it, 185 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.039 I'm not interested, I've got other plans. Whatever the excuse. Maybe I'm 186 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:07.240 too scared, I'm not worthy is to act just like the people and Jesus, 187 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:12.309 as parables, who are offered gifts and turned them away and who ended 188 00:19:12.309 --> 00:19:18.470 up being cut off and cut out and remaining under God's wrath and curse. 189 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:26.180 To reject God's gift is not to stand in some kind of neutral place and 190 00:19:26.259 --> 00:19:30.380 say, well, I'll be all right. It is to remain in sin, 191 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:34.420 it is to remain under the law, it is to remain under the 192 00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:40.450 curse of God. And that's why it is so critical that, while God's 193 00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:45.769 grace is being extended to you, you open up your arms and you embrace 194 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:56.319 it by faith. Those who do not trust in him but choose their own 195 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:02.559 obedience to the law will find, as Paul says here in Romans for that 196 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:10.750 the promise is voided. Why? Because the law brings about wrath. When 197 00:20:10.750 --> 00:20:15.309 you choose to turn away from the gift and say I'm going to earn it, 198 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:19.710 I'm going to merit my salvation, I'm going to go and please God 199 00:20:21.029 --> 00:20:26.180 by pleasing him or pleasing men or pleasing myself, Paul says that's a dead 200 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:30.980 end. As he's shown to us, the law only brings wrath, it 201 00:20:32.180 --> 00:20:36.809 only brings us under condemnation, and that's true for both Jew and gentile, 202 00:20:36.849 --> 00:20:45.769 as he's been pointing out. But the promise is different. It's also for 203 00:20:45.809 --> 00:20:52.319 Jew and gentile, but it rests on grace. Where the law guarantees death, 204 00:20:52.480 --> 00:21:02.799 grace guarantees life. This promise overcomes all the things. This promise overcomes 205 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:08.950 all the things that usually overcome us. God's word, his promise to give 206 00:21:08.990 --> 00:21:15.750 this gift, overcomes our sin, it overcomes our fears, it overcomes our 207 00:21:17.470 --> 00:21:22.299 deaths, the flesh that is so strong in us, the circumstances, these 208 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:32.579 particular circumstances of wrath and curse and disobedience. That's what God overcomes by His 209 00:21:32.819 --> 00:21:41.650 grace, by these powers. God puts death to death and he does it 210 00:21:41.769 --> 00:21:47.680 on the Cross. That's why he gives us Jesus. Do you remember what 211 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:51.599 he says? They're at the end verse Twenty Five. Who was delivered up 212 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:59.440 for our trespasses and raised for our justification? That's why Jesus came, to 213 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:06.309 make sure that that promise that God gave to Abraham all those years before would 214 00:22:06.349 --> 00:22:11.150 be fulfilled. God didn't leave it to chance. God didn't leave it to 215 00:22:11.269 --> 00:22:19.059 sinful men. God sent his perfect and only and righteous and holy and good 216 00:22:21.579 --> 00:22:30.529 son who went to death so that our death would die, so that our 217 00:22:30.769 --> 00:22:40.170 sins would be overcome. Through Jesus Christ, God brings about all of these 218 00:22:40.289 --> 00:22:45.119 promises. He makes us worthy, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, received 219 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:52.880 by faith, to belong to the family of Abraham, to receive the blessings 220 00:22:52.319 --> 00:23:02.869 promised to Abraham. So what do you believe? Do you trust and hope 221 00:23:03.029 --> 00:23:08.789 and fear the Lord God who has sent his son to accomplish these things? 222 00:23:11.430 --> 00:23:18.180 Or is your greater trust in the circumstances and particulars of your life, the 223 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:22.660 sins of your past, the troubles of your present, the your worries about 224 00:23:22.700 --> 00:23:27.289 the future? Is that where your hope is? Is that where your faith 225 00:23:27.329 --> 00:23:33.250 is? Or are you a child of Abrahm, an air of the promise? 226 00:23:34.089 --> 00:23:41.369 Does the world belong to you? If you put your faith in Jesus 227 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:45.599 if you trust in him as Abraham did, and look past all of these 228 00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:55.400 things to trust the word of God beyond all else, then these promises are 229 00:23:55.710 --> 00:24:02.069 for you and I pray that you will believe that the spirit of God either 230 00:24:02.190 --> 00:24:07.269 has worked in you or will work in you even today to make you be 231 00:24:07.430 --> 00:24:11.140 able to see the world in a New Light, to be able to see 232 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:18.660 things according to God's word, above all things in every particular circumstance and every 233 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:25.410 particular trial. And I pray that if that light has already been given to 234 00:24:25.490 --> 00:24:29.890 you, that if you already see things in that way, that you will 235 00:24:29.930 --> 00:24:36.849 continue to walk in that way, even as Abraham did, because God promises 236 00:24:36.930 --> 00:24:42.200 that he will work in us according to his promise. And so let us 237 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:48.200 live in that way and trust God to strengthen us according to faith, as 238 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:55.109 only he knows how. Let us turn and pray and ask that God would 239 00:24:55.109 --> 00:24:59.069 give us these kinds of gifts and this kind of faith.