Alrighty, so good morning everyone. Lovely to see everyone here this morning. Lots of places that I haven't met before, which is good, which is a great thing. And lots of people that I do know. So we're really thankful to be here today. Now I'm going to get you to open your Bibles to two places this morning. So I'll let you just use one of your fingers to hold the place. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 and Genesis 12. Hebrews 11 and Genesis 12. We're going to start in Genesis 12, but I'll ask everyone to be upstanding as we read the Word of God. Thanks. Genesis 12 and then Hebrews 11. Genesis 12 verse 1 through to verse 4, which reads now, the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee. and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now go across to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, just one verse there. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. and he went out not knowing whither he went. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. We're just, Lord, so thankful that we can hold it up with absolute assurance that we have the word of God in our hands. And Lord, as we do open your word this morning, I do pray that you would just let the Holy Spirit of God use the sword of the Spirit, Lord, to speak to our hearts, mine included, Lord, about our need of faith, And Lord, I just do pray, Lord, that you would help us to be focused. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and shed his blood on the cross for our sins. And Lord, I just, the all-powerful blood, Lord, I just pray that you might just cover us with the blood this morning, that we'd have an unhindered time in your word. And Father, I just thank you for that. Lord, I commit these things to you. I pray these things for your honour and for your glory alone. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. I think Abraham is probably one of the favourite characters for all of us in the Bible. We have the well-known verses here in both places, really. Genesis 12 with the promises that the Lord made to Abraham when he was called to go out from Haran, and it was to go to a land that he, that is the Lord, would show him, and it would make of Abraham a great nation, and all the families of the earth would be blessed in him. I'm sure we understand that's talking of all the families of the earth being blessed in Him is talking of the Lord's future, obviously, at that time, death on the cross, when He came through the line of the tribe of Judah, was born into the tribe of Judah and grew up, went to the cross. But, you know, just for a brief moment, I just want to have a little bit of a sidetrack here. I won't go long. But it says there in Hebrews 11.8, it says, Now the word of the Lord came to Abraham and said, Abraham, you need to go out and this is what I'm promising you. I'm going to take you to a land that you don't know and I will show you. And what popped into my mind before was, you know, it's a little bit like when the Lord's dealing with someone that's not saved, the word of the Lord comes to that person, whether it be through your witness, whether it be through a gospel tract or whatever. And the word of the Lord saying, I want to take you to a place that you don't know about. I want you to have eternal life and Like Abraham, he was wealthy when he went out, but God's saying, I want to do something better. The wealth of this world is nothing in comparison to eternal life. There's a nice picture there where you can just see the Word of the Lord coming to someone that's not saved and saying, hey, there's something that you don't know about and you need to know. Why? Because as has been well said already in Sunday school this morning, we're all lost sinners without the grace of God. And we're all headed for that place called hell, a literal place called hell. And we need the Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone and what he's done, that perfect work on the cross. There is no other way. There is no other way. But I'd like to go back to a passage now and what our main thought for this morning. The first thing I'd like to think about is Abraham's thinking at this time. The Lord's given him that promise. those promises, I should say. Abraham knew the Lord already to a degree, to obey what the Lord was calling him to do as he went out by faith. I want to think first of all about his obedience. When you work out the genealogy in Genesis 11, verses 10 to 27, Shem, as in one of Noah's three sons, was Abraham's grandfather eight times removed. but outlived Abraham by 35 years. And so, considering cultures around the world have the story of a great world flood embedded in their culture, it is safe to say that Abraham, who was, as said, Shem's grandson, 8th down the line, he had a good knowledge of the Lord and was not going out to discover God, and if it was God calling him, but went out by faith. He went out by faith. That's what the Word of God tells us. That is, he already had faith in the Lord God of heaven and earth, who had spared Noah and his family, including his great-great-great-great-etc. grandad Shem. He already had faith in that same God, to a degree. Now, we can also think of Abraham's mind at this time in respect of two possible mindsets when he went out. Number one, like I said, he was already wealthy. He could have looked at the Lord's calling out of Haran to be an advancement on his life from where he already was. Or, already having a level of faith in the Lord, his mindset was that the Lord was why he was blessed already, and what the Lord had said when he called Abraham was of importance spiritually in God's plan for his life, Abraham's life. Hebrews 11.8 again, by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whether he went. He had no idea. That's the thing, it's the classic definition of faith that we see there in Hebrews 11.8, for we walk by faith and not by sight, and faith is the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11.1. God had to show him that land that would be, as we know, the inheritance for his descendants further on. Now, the Lord led Abraham into the land and gave him a bit of a look around. First he went into Sechem, and that's in northern Canaan, when they first went in. Then he went a bit south, down to Bethel. which is still north of Jerusalem, or Jebus as it was called then, but it's central, central Canaan, and then continued south through the land. Now, when you look there in Genesis chapter 12, in the verses after our reading, you look there in verse number 10 and down, Abraham took Sarah and Lot and all his household to Egypt to escape famine. And it says it was grievous, actually. And so what was achieved by Abraham going to Egypt? A mess. The only thing that we know about when he went down there to Egypt was that he lied about Sarah. And what happened? The Lord had to plague Pharaoh's household to make him realise that, hey, hang on a minute, there's something wrong here. And that woman there, Sarah, is actually his wife. Now, they came back up out of Egypt and into the south, as it says there in Genesis chapter 12. Sorry, Genesis chapter 13, verse 1. and he came back into the south part of the land of Canaan, then back on to Bethel where he made the altar before they went to Egypt. Now, Abraham had gone out by faith but still had a lot to learn about walking by faith. I think about Abraham in the sense of when he went down there to Egypt because of the famine that was Grievous, Genesis 12.10, There's a few points I'd like to think about with that. Number one, when you look in that passage about him going down to Egypt and coming back out again, I don't see the Lord having indicated it was okay for Abraham to go into Egypt at that time. It's not there. It's as though Abraham made that decision and he messed it up. I won't go into it for time's sake, but when you study it, you think about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There was a famine in each of their times recorded in the Bible. Abraham went down, the Lord never said to go down. Isaac started to head south, and the Lord said, Hang on a minute, you don't go down to Egypt. But when it came time for Jacob, the Lord instructed him to go to Egypt. and he said, and I'll make of thee a great nation. And there's a reason behind that, but that's a different subject. And so with Abraham, there's nothing said from the Lord. And so it would seem that Abraham went down to Egypt with Sarah, Lot, his household, out of his own thinking. That's the way it comes across. The only thing that came out of that time was that Abraham lied about Sarah, this is number two, by not saying that she was his wife. That caused the problem, as I've already said, as Pharaoh thought he could legitimately take Sarah as his wife and took her into his house. So, God played this household and Pharaoh realised what was happening. Pharaoh then rebuked Abraham for lying and it says he sent him out. If you have a look up there in Genesis 12 verse 20, it says, And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had. So Pharaoh's going, you, your mates and your household, get out of here. You and your wife and all your household, take a hike. And so they were out. Number three, the trigger for Abraham going back into the land of Canaan was not the Lord. It was Pharaoh sending him away. So when Abraham then went back into Canaan, the land that the Lord had led him into by faith, it does not indicate anything about the famine still going on or not. Nothing there. And therein is a great lesson that we can learn. In our walk of faith with the Lord, it is easy to look at the headwinds of life and thereby make a worldly-based decision which may not be sinful in itself. but it's still the wrong one. I'm not being mean when I say this, but when a problem arises, what do we want to be? Mr Fix-It. And when we're talking spiritually, that's not a good thing. I'm not excluding the ladies with this, we're all guilty, but when the Lord is not involved, often He has to bail us out. The only thing that we saw with the Lord in relation to going down to Egypt with Abraham and Sarah etc. was that the Lord had to plague Pharaoh's house to make him realise that, hey, this is the man's wife. So we must focus on what the Lord has been having us to do in living for him, in where he has placed us and how we are to serve him. and not how the headwinds of life could affect what the Lord is doing in our lives and through our lives where he has us. We've got to walk by faith, not by sight. Therefore, we must be prayerful about those headwinds that arise that seem to require a change of course. We must be very prayerful. to avoid being buffeted by those strong wind gusts by using our own logical decision-making that could potentially damage or even ruin our walk of faith. And I'm sure we can all think of people in our past walk with the Lord, people who've come across and we think, wow, that person really loves the Lord, they're serving the Lord, they're going on for the Lord, they seem to be really sensitive to what God wants in their lives and then they make a decision. a decision. They make a decision and next thing you know there's great damage to their walk with the Lord. Sometimes they recover, sometimes they don't. So when Abraham and Sarah returned to Canaan from Egypt and back onto Bethel where Abraham had built an altar to worship the Lord before they went down to Egypt, the grievous famine is not even mentioned. It's only mentioned that one time before they went down and that was the trigger for Abraham's decision to go down. So that says to me we must keep our eyes firmly on the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. for the Lord has already set our race before us. You think about Hebrews 12 verse 1, at the end it says, Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. It is already set before us. It's not a race that has variance depending on what happens in our lives. The Lord already knows what's going to happen in our lives. And he's already set that race before us If you really think about it and go deeper into that, it's been set before we were even born, because the Lord is everlasting. He was before the foundation of the world. He could see the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross. He could see everyone that would be born again, elect according to the foreknowledge of God. And so therefore our race has been always set, it's just waiting for us to be born again so that we can look to the Lord Jesus Christ to run the race that is set before us. So we must keep our eyes firmly on the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. For the Lord often does not help us to avoid the storm, sometimes he does, Sometimes, often, He doesn't help us to avoid the headwinds, but to sail through it with His presence. How that is so essential for our lives as Christians. If you've been saved for any length of time and you trust the Lord and you walk with the Lord, you know that's true. He doesn't say, Oh, look, you poor thing, there's a storm coming up in your life, so I'll just help you sail around it. No, He doesn't do that. Occasionally, yes. Mostly, no. So, he doesn't help us to avoid it, but he sails us through it with his presence. In Matthew 14, when did Peter start to sink? When he asked the Lord to go out to him on the water. At the beginning he's looking to the Lord, but then when he started to look at the storm he sees around him and the winds and everything else, he started to sink. The physical circumstances of life or the physical difficulties of life are bigger than our physical capabilities. It is easy to look for a physical solution which at times will be the way that Lord would have it to be, but mostly not. But whether it is or not, we must keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, who guides us through the storm. He helps us to keep our hands steady on the tiller. You know what a tiller is on the back of a boat, don't you? So we can, by the leading of the Holy Spirit of God within, continue on in the stormy seas of life so that we do not start to sink in our walk of faith. So, brethren, Abraham went back into the land of God, into the land that God promised would be given to his descendants. He went back to Bethel where he built the altar before he fouled up by going to Egypt and lying about Sarah. When the Lord shows you where He wants you to be and what He wants you to do, Do not take the first headwinds of life to mean that it's time to move on somewhere else. Don't do that. Our old nature will easily do that. Mine too. I'm just like anyone else. But we ought not to do that. We ought not just to take those first headwinds as an indicator, well, maybe it's time to move on. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6 verse 13, he said, We've got to keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me make a statement here. It appears Abraham had no difficulty in going out by faith from Haran. It appears that despite being wealthy and comfortable, he easily stepped out by faith at God's calling. That's the way it reads. But he discovered by his misadventure in Egypt that while it's easy to step out by faith when we know it's God's calling, the next part, that is to walk by faith in that calling, is often not so simple. I almost cringe when I think about it. This is the only thing that I could put as the title of the message. I'm not big on titles. Faith is easy, but to walk by faith is squeezy. Sorry, I couldn't think of anything better. But it's true, isn't it? You think about the day you got saved. The day that you realised that the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross for your sins, you were guilty in your heart, all of a sudden you saw yourself as a lost person before God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and you trusted him as your Lord and Saviour. When you were convicted in your heart about your sins and your need of the Saviour, it was easy to ask him by faith to save your soul. That's what I need. I'm lost. I'm headed for hell. But then after that, what happens? Our old nature doesn't like it. The devil doesn't like it. He's been trying to keep you blinded from the truth. "...in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine forth unto them." He'd do his level best to stop you from going on for Christ. You see, faith is easy, but it's squeezy. He puts the pressure on. Your old nature, Galatians 5.17, For the flesh lusteth or desires greatly against the spirit, and the spirit lusteth against the flesh. And these two are contrary one to the other. That word contrary means in total opposition. We have a battle within the flesh, without the devil and all his cohort. Faith is easy, but it's squeezy. And I want to think about Abraham with a few points here this morning about his faith and how he easily stepped out by faith, but how he had to learn to grow in faith to be able to withstand in those hard times. Point number one, and I promise I won't be an independent Baptist and have three points. Number one, through difficulty in walking by faith, Abraham learned dependence on God. And in life, for a Christian, especially a young Christian, to learn a dependence on God as we walk by faith is one of the big challenges. Abraham was already a rich man when he was called to go out and ultimately did not need to be blessed physically Therefore, if he had not walked by faith to discover a deeper faith, whereby he learned much more of the reality of God, how much would he have missed out in his relationship with the Lord? He learned dependence on God. Physically, he didn't need to be dependent upon God. But obviously, Abraham understood that what he had was from God. and he needed to still depend upon God as the Lord led him into that place, the land of Canaan. So, not dependence upon his own physical means that produced in his life things that money could buy, but dependence by faith on the Lord that produced things that he had to totally have that total dependence on God. Like, for example, Isaac. What was Abraham when Isaac was born? 100. What was Sarah? 90. So, when the Lord called Abraham out by faith, he had his nephew Lot with him. Now, who was Lot? Lot was Abraham's nephew. Lot was Abraham's nephew. Now, I want to think about the promises of God. So, go back to Genesis 12. Let's just spend a few minutes having a look at this. to get this point. Abraham learned dependence on God through the difficulty of walking by faith. Now in Genesis chapter 12, he said there in verse number two, and I will make of thee a great nation. I will make of thee a great nation. So Abraham's going out. If you look back in the end of the previous chapter, Genesis 11, it says in verse number 30, but Sarai was barren. She had no child. So even in the earlier part of their marriage, Sarah was barren. She was having no children. And so Abraham and Sarah and Lot and the whole household go out from Haran after the Lord's calling. And the Lord has said, I will make of thee a great nation. Now, put yourself in Abraham's place. I like to do this. You put yourself in Abraham's place. Here they are, they're riding the camels or walking, whatever they're on, on the donkey or whatever like that. They're going along and here's Abraham and he's going, God's going to make of me a great nation. So that means I'm going to have descendants that will become a great nation. But Sarah, she's barren. So, I've got here Lot. His dad is dead. I've taken him under my wing. He's like my son. He is blood, close blood. So, I guess, this is Abraham thinking, I guess God's going to use Lot to make of me a great nation. He's family. He's like my son. And so they go along. The Lord takes them into the land of Canaan. And they're there for a little while. They've had the misadventure down in Egypt, and they've come back out of Egypt, and Lot is noted as having gone there with him and obviously come back out again. In Genesis 13, verse 1, it says, and Lot with him when they came back out. So, they're going along, but then later on in chapter 13 of Genesis, we see that there's strife between the herdmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle. And the result was that Abraham says, Well, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. We're family. And so Abraham says, You choose what direction you'll go, and I'll go the opposite direction, whichever way you want to go, so that there's no trouble. So Lot picks the well-watered plains of Sodom, as we know, and off he goes. Have a look at Genesis 13, and let's see what the Lord did then. Verse 14, it says, And the Lord said to Abram, After that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. So, here's God's promise, the Lord's reinforcing His promise again. Verse 16, And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. There's that thing about being a great nation, of Him being made a great nation. And so Abraham's going on, he goes on, and he's now got no family with him. He's got no children. His wife is barren and she's increasing in age. So, Abraham's back and he's going, okay, well, what's going to happen now? How's this going to be? Well, let's go to Genesis 15. So, obviously, he and Sarah, you know, they have conversations. Well, God said like this to you, Abraham. And Abraham goes, yeah, I know, I can't figure out how he's going to make of me a great nation. You know, unfortunately, you're not able to have children. You're already past the time where you could just normally have children. And I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen there. And so, look in Genesis 15, verse number 1, After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? So what does he mean by that? If you don't have somebody born in your own household from your own flesh and blood, your own descendants, then someone born in your house in those days would become the heir. And so Eliezer was born, his servant, or the steward of his house was born there in his household. So in other words he's saying, Lord, I haven't got any children. You said you'd make of me a great nation. So, what's the deal? All I've got is this Eleazar of Damascus. He was born in my house and so, according to how things are supposed to go, he would get it. That doesn't make sense, God. But have a look there in verse number 4. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said, Unto him so shall thy seed be. So Abraham... I'm going to make you view that great nation. Look at the stars. That's how great it will be. And Abraham's going, Okay, okay, Lord. It says in verse 6, and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. He was puzzled, but he goes, yeah, okay, all right, God, I believe you. If you say so, that's it. But then they go along a bit further and then in Genesis 16, we see the episode where Sarah, of course, she had born him no children, verse 1, and she had the handmaid, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar, and she influences Abraham to go into Hagar and they have a son, which is Ishmael. Now, what are they doing there? Sarah and Abraham are talking and God said back there to you when you asked about what's going to happen because you've only got Eleazar. He said that he that shall come forth of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. So how can that be? I can't bear any children anymore. So I guess God just expects us to do this. And so Ishmael is born. which we know is not the one. Genesis 17. A lot of the chapter is the Lord talking to Abraham. Abraham's already 99 years old, so Sarah's by this time 89. If you have a look over there further on, we won't go through the chapter for time's sake, obviously, but if you have a look there in verse 15, It says, And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. In other words, God's saying, Abraham, Sarah's the one. That's how you're going to have the child. This is where the great nation is going to come from. What was Abraham's response? Verse 17, Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? And then he says to God in verse 18, O that Ishmael might live before thee. In other words, God, we've already sorted this out. We've got Ishmael, he's the one. And God's going, Oh no, he's not. Oh no, he's not. You see, Abraham and Sarah were depending upon their own thinking. They're not walking by faith in that. To the point where when the Lord said what he said, Abraham fell on his face and laughed. It's almost like, Oh, come on, God. You've got to be kidding. We've already sorted it out. Oh, that Ishmael would live before thee. And then verse number 21, but my covenant will I establish with Isaac. In other words, the son that would be born from Abraham and Sarah, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. Look at verse number 22. And he left off talking with him and God went up from Abraham. In other words, Abraham, that's the way it is. That's what's going to happen. I'm out of here. In other words, rebuke. Abraham, you need to learn to be dependent upon me in your walk of faith. Abraham's learning to depend upon God in his walk of faith. It wasn't just going down to Egypt and the Lord plaguing Pharaoh's household that gave him that dependence. It was a growth in his walk of faith. You could sort of equate Abraham to a baby Christian by going down to Egypt. What a mess. But he's learned from that. And he's grown somewhat. But then this thing with becoming a great nation because of God's promise, that's become the big thing. And so, as we know, the Lord formed that baby, let Sarah be able to bear the baby from Abraham, sorry, and Isaac was born. A supernatural working of God in their lives. So, Abraham learned dependence on the Lord by walking in faith in the difficult times. Number two. Through difficulty in walking by faith, Abraham learned the deeper meaning of faith. From all that we've looked at this morning, Abraham learned to not look at what he could see to try and figure things out. Again, he's looking at the whole situation family-wise, for example. He learned to not look at that. He learned that faith really is the evidence of things not seen. He learned that faith was to know there was something that God would do that was at that time invisible and just to wait on God. Have you not ever been in a situation where it's just hopeless? And you go, I really for the life of me can't see how this is going to work out. Did you at that time bow the knee and seek the Lord? Lord, this is hopeless and it's beyond me. And Lord, perhaps you've let this happen so that you could show me your reality in a deeper way, so you could show me a deeper walk of faith by just giving it over to you. And yeah, Lord, I'm going to be prayerful and seek little open doors and just sort of nudge the doors and see whether you open them or not, but, Lord, I'm just going to trust you by faith. Abraham had learned to have that deeper walk of faith through the difficult times, through that dependence. So, again, we can think of what we looked at in relation to the Lord making of Abraham a great nation. So the deeper meaning of faith is when we have that situation that we have no solution for, we cannot even have a glimpse of how it will work out, but we just have faith that God is in control, despite our old nature wanting to doubt, despite our old nature wanting to try and force an answer. You ever think about the meaning of the word surrender in Romans 12? You know, when you surrender your life to the Lord, truly surrender it, it's not just about Him. Well, it's within the scope of verse 2. Be not conformed to this world, don't be like this world with your thinking in this case, but be ye transformed, be changed by the renewing or renovating of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Well, what do we want when there's an unsolvable problem in our lives and we're to walk by faith? We're wanting God to show what His will is in that particular thing. Surrender. And I'm not going to be careful how I say this because sometimes a lot of it then goes, well, okay, let me do this in your life. When you surrender to the Lord, He wants you to do that, like real surrender, so that He can lead you in through those situations that you seem like there's no answer, where all you can do is depend on Him. And that's when you prove that deeper walk with Him. And it builds your faith, because when you see God answer whatever situation that might be, it just does something to your heart. and it proves the reality of God in your life, and it proves just what it means to walk by real faith. When you can't see the answer, and all you see ahead is stormy seas, and you can feel the tiller behind you that's sort of wanting to run wild out of your hand, but you've got to hang on to that, and the tiller is like the Holy Spirit of God in your life. And He wants you just to rely on Him and not on your own, Brain up here. He wants to lead you into deeper faith through that dependence. Like I said, yes, probe prayerfully and see if the Lord opens a door, but most often it is a door that's been hidden completely from our sight. How many times has the Lord answered prayer and you kind of go, I never saw that coming. What a blessing. But again, what does that do? It proves God more and more in our lives when He does that. Number three, learning to prayerfully walk by faith in difficult times brings confidence. And in this day and age that we live in, oh how we need confidence in our walk of faith. When you think about Peter and John in Acts 4, one of my favorite passages, they'd healed the lame man. There's about 5,000 men it says got saved at that time. The high priest and company, they were not impressed because this is getting out of hand. All these people are getting saved. All these people are becoming followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. We've got to do something. So, they get Peter and John arrested and they bring them before them. And they say to Peter and John, by what name or authority do you do this? And so Peter gives this wonderful sermonette to them. And when you get down to the verse number 13, it says, And when they, high priest and company, saw the boldness of Peter and John, and that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they took note of them, that they had been with Jesus. The word boldness there means confidence. They stood there in that difficult time before the authorities, the same ones that had the Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. They didn't know what was going to be the outcome, but they had that boldness, they had that confidence. I'm not saying that we then go out and do silly things and try to be arrogant or rude or anything out there and people go, well, I know Jesus, so you know what? No, not like that. But when the Holy Spirit of God is leading you in your life, it should bring that confidence. Learning to prayerfully walk by faith in difficult times brings confidence that the matter will turn out the way God always intended for it to come out to be, like Acts 12 also, for example. I always love reading the passage when Peter had been arrested, Acts 12, he was about to be executed, the night before or the night of, and the Lord sends the angel, drops his chains off from the guards that are sitting either side of him, the centurions, just gives the guards on the door, just makes them not see anything happening, He leads him outside, sets him free and he goes, off you go. And Peter goes to the house of Mary, I think, from memory. And Rhoda comes to the door and answers the door. And she's astounded. They go inside. No, no, no, surely it's his ghost. That's his ghost. He's already dead. And they come outside and they're astounded. And it says that the church was praying for him. The church was praying for him. They're there together, they're fervently praying. And they saw this marvellous answer from their prayer. Brethren, learning to prayerfully walk by faith in difficult times brings confidence. Can you imagine what the Christians there in Jerusalem were like when they heard about Peter? How he'd been delivered by the Lord. We know that Peter sort of disappeared into the night for a bit there and went off, but they had committed Peter's life to the Lord in that prayer time. James, the brother of John, was already dead, so they were just having faith that the Lord would let it work out the way He had planned. But imagine what they were like after that delivery of Peter. Imagine how much confidence it gave them. Not just Peter. You see, brethren, what God does in your life affects others too. If you're growing in your walk of faith, if you're getting that deeper walk of faith, if you're getting that dependence upon God in your walk with the Lord, and you're prayerful in your walk with the Lord, you are going to have an influence on other lives as well. And it's true the opposite way as well, isn't it? We must realise it is so vital, not just for our own walk with the Lord, to have that deeper walk with the Lord, to have that dependence on the Lord, to have that grasp of a deeper faith, to be prayerful in our walk of faith. It's not just for us, but it's for your brothers and sisters that are here today as well. Point number four, and we'll wrap this up. Point number four, the last three points are pretty much just statements. Point number four, learning to walk by faith in difficult times gives the Lord greater opportunity to use us for His glory and His honour. What happens in our lives when we lean on Him and we trust Him and He leads us by faith through the storm, it all comes out for His honour and His glory, not ours. Number five, learning to walk by faith in times only the Lord can lead us through brings a worship of the Lord in our lives. Abraham, you see there at least twice, Abraham went to the altar and called on the Lord. It should bring a deeper worship of God in your life. As we came out in Sunday school this morning, the Lord knows our every thought. Do you worship the Lord in here, not just here in church with your mouth? Is that an everyday thing? As God works in your life and you prove Him and you depend on Him more and you walk by faith in a deeper way and you become more prayerful, does it bring a greater worship of the Lord? Does it bring a greater devotion within you? And number six, and finally, learning to walk by faith in difficult times should raise up our love and devotion to the Lord. I wasn't really planning on saying anything about this this morning, but our first term in the Philippines, or when I met Jen over in the Philippines, we got married, I'm not trying to be a poor man, I'm just saying this as a fact. They were hard times, and I mean we were destitute financially. But when we saw God answer prayer, when we saw God bless because of walking by faith, not materially, but seeing people come to know Christ as Saviour, seeing ministries help, etc. It just serves to increase our love for the Lord. I will share one thing with you before we close. In those times of being quite destitute financially, as I've said in Bundy to people there, in the Philippines, if you're white, you've got money, because you've got white skin. And if you don't have any money, they think you're just chintzy, you're a tightwad. If you say, oh no, sorry, I haven't got any money, no, no, no, you've got money, you're just a tightwad. And time and time again, the Lord would just... The rent would be due, sometimes a little bit overdue. And He gave us the right landlord. He said, Yeah, it's okay. I know. I know it'll come. And I'd go to him and I'd say that. I'd say, Oh, look, the rent hasn't arrived yet. The money for the rent hasn't arrived yet. It's coming. And I'm thinking in my mind, I don't know where it's coming from, but I know it's coming. And God would always supply. There'd be a knock on the door and it'd be the mailman and there's a little money order that's come from Australia via another island. It's taken how many weeks to get there and it's arrived just at the right time. Well, there's no food in the fridge. There's not even a cup of rice to cook. And then someone would knock on the door and say, oh, look, it's so-and-so's birthday. Come on, let's go. Sure, that was hard. But, you know, overall, what does it do? It proves your dependence on God. It makes you more prayerful, I can guarantee you that. It gives you a deeper appreciation of your walk of faith. And it increases your love and devotion to the Lord because you're seeing His reality and His presence time and time again. Brethren, to have faith is easy. But oh, is it squeezy. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for your grace, your mercy. Thank you that we can walk by faith and not by sight. And Lord, it's never easy. But Lord, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Thank You for being able to walk by faith, knowing that You're always there to help us have that dependence upon You, to help us to grow in our love for You, to help us have a deeper walk of faith with You. Father, I just pray that You would let the Holy Spirit of God this morning work in our hearts May we take from this, this morning, your presence, the reality of your presence, the reality of your working in our lives. And Father, Lord, I just do commit these things to you and I do ask and pray them in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.