Please would you turn with me this evening to two portions in God's word, one of them in Hebrews chapter 11 and one of them in Genesis and chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 11 and Genesis chapter 12. Hebrews 11 from verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead, still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. And then Genesis chapter 12, just to give us something of a backdrop to the verses that we have read about Abraham. The first four verses of Genesis 12. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Let's ask God to help us study his word. Again, our Father, we plead for blessings that you alone are able to give, for light that we need from heaven, for our darkness, that you would save those still lost, that you would guide those whom you love, that you would teach us each one what it means to live by faith. We ask this through Christ Jesus, our Saviour. Amen. Many of us face particularly troubling decisions. Maybe not immediately, but we have faced them in the past and we will face them again. Some of us are facing them now, wrestling through difficulties. Sometimes the problem lies not so much in the decision itself as in the consequences that we anticipate following on from the decision. If I do this, then what if? pressing difficulties can loom before us. Significant seasons and significant moments crop up in our lives when a lot seems to hinge on one action, one next step. How do we respond in times of pressure and difficulty when the decisions that we need to make are either not always clear in themselves or are sometimes just painfully clear and we can see or fear the consequences of them? Well, Abraham gives us a model of faith, of obedient faith at just such times. Faith in the midst of really quite a pressing uncertainty, not knowing so much and yet needing to act in accordance with the word of the living God. Now in some respects Abraham gives us just a little glimpse into the faith of a far greater than Abraham, that Lord Jesus who is the author and finisher of faith. He is the preeminent man of faith, the man who acts in obedience because of his trust in his God and Father. But here is Abraham, and Abraham too is a model, an example of faith, the father of the faithful. And we're just going to zero in on one instance of Abraham's obedient faith. Now, Abraham was a man who faced some very obvious challenges and some that he wasn't yet aware of, and the same could be true for us. If I were to ask you now, each of you, what challenges do you face, some of you would be able to say, well, these are the ones I know about and these are the ones I'm afraid about that I might not even know about. Sometimes the things that we don't know are even more fearful to us than the things which we do know. Some of the difficulties we face have already arrived with us but others are still travelling and some of them we haven't even caught a glimpse of yet in the distance. And yet the Lord God of heaven has told us how we are to live. He has laid down for us principle and precept to guide us in every circumstance. The question for us more often is how will I respond to divine direction rather than how will I deal with the consequences of my response to divine direction. Sometimes I pastorally have to say to people, your problem is not that you don't know the answer to your question. The problem is you don't like the answer to your question. And Abraham is a man who takes God's answers and acts accordingly. How will we then answer the call of God? How do you respond to what God says to you in his word? To help answer that question from the experience of Abraham, we'll think about what Abraham did not know, and what Abraham did know, and then simply what Abraham did. So what Abraham did not know. Abraham did not know very much. We're told in Hebrews 11 verse 8, that by faith he obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. The writer, when he looks back on Abraham's history and interprets it for us as an example of obedient faith, emphasises Abraham's relative ignorance. Some of it's very obviously stated and some of it is implied by what is stated. It's very clear that Abraham did not know where he was going. God said, go out to the place I will give you. And Abraham did not know where that was. There was no exact location given to him. There was no Google pin to drop in the map somewhere in the promised land. There was no final destination. Abraham was simply told, get up and go, leave everything behind and move on. By implication, Abraham did not know how he would get there. He didn't know by what means. He saddled his donkeys, took his camels, his flocks and his herds, took his staff in his hand, by whatever means he and his family members would have travelled with him. He didn't know what dangers he was going to face along the way. He wasn't told what dangers he would face when he arrived, although some are clearly implied. He didn't know by what route he was going to travel. He didn't know when he would arrive. What's the first question that some of you boys and girls ask when you're on the road with dad and mum? When are we going to get there? And some boys and girls ask that about 10 minutes after the journey has started. We want to know. We want to know where we're going and when we're going to arrive. These questions press in upon us. It's not necessarily that we're afraid of where we're going or how long it's going to take there, but there's a confidence, isn't there? This is where we're heading to, this is the route we're taking, and this is when we're going to arrive. How long will it take Abraham to reach the place, Well, that's a hard question to answer when you don't even know what the place is yet, and you don't know how you're going to get there. Now, we're told later on here that Abraham, even when he got to the place, lived in the promised land like it was a foreign country dwelling in tents. When Abraham left, he didn't know how long it would be before he would settle in the land. In fact, Abraham never put down roots any stronger than a tent peg in the land of promise, physically speaking. And Abraham did not know how he would be guided. Now, remember again what the Lord had said to him there in Genesis and chapter 12. Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. How will you show me? No, I'll show you. Now again, we read the rest of the history and we see particular visions that Abraham sometimes has or other indications of divine will when the Lord simply speaks to him. But Abraham goes out not knowing where he was going, not knowing how he would get there, not knowing when he would arrive, and not knowing how he would be guided on the way, what modes of communication the Lord would use. If I wanted to bring in some kind of visual reference or aid, I would bring in something that perhaps some of you may not have seen and others of you will remember as quite a fascinating artifact. It's called a map. And most of us, when we started driving, had to have a map in our car. And I wouldn't be surprised. I hope... Well, I say I hope. I don't imagine I'm the only person who still keeps an emergency map book. Yeah, I've got at least one nod over here. Thank you, Mickey. An emergency map book in the back of the car, just against the... Abraham didn't have a map. Abraham didn't have sat nav. Abraham did not know where he was going, how he would get there, when he would arrive, and how he would be guided. And bear in mind, friends, that this was not a road trip. This was a final departure from everything that Abraham had known up to this point. and see what the Lord tells us in Genesis 12 verse four, this was when he was 75 years old. Now, I think it's fair to say that most people, as time passes, do put down deeper roots. If I were to tell you this afternoon to sell up and start driving, how many of you would feel comfortable doing that? Just stick it all in a trailer and get on the road. Where am I going? To a place. I think most of you would say, can I have a little bit more than that? How will I get there? What route will I follow? I'll show you along the way. How will you show me? I'll just show you. How long will it take to get there? Until I guide you to the place where I want you to be. What will I do when I get there? I'll tell you when you arrive. There's a great deal of uncertainty in what the Lord God of heaven says to Abraham when he speaks to him, we might almost say out of the blue, in his land of Haran where he had been living up to that point. How would you feel? Fear? Certainly reserve? Would you reject it? If God said, do this, and you didn't know all the outcomes, would you say, no, I can't, I won't, now is not the time? Most of us, when we're faced with a call to obedience, we like to know all the outcomes. Some of us admittedly less than others, some more than others. But most of us, even when it comes to direct revelation from heaven, and by that I mean direct revelation from heaven, not a voice that speaks from out of the blue as it were, not a vision in the night as Abraham was privileged to enjoy, but with the privilege of the prophetic word made more certain, We still have an instinct to second guess. I want to know more. I want to know the whys and the hows and the wherefores. I want to be able to plot the route. I want to be able to see the destination. I want to be absolutely sure of what's going to happen all the way along. We are either accustomed to or quite quick to demand some kind of safety net. I have to know more. God is somehow obliged to tell me more than he has already told me. I want the route mapped out. I need a full explanation of what's going to happen. My friends, that's not humble faith, is it? That is demanding pride. If you and I will not obey God until we know everything either that God knows or at least everything that we think God ought to tell us, that is not faith, and it's not the kind of obedient faith that Abraham showed. So put yourself in the shoes of a 75-year-old man. That'll be easier for some of you than for others, with a large family, and a great deal of property, relatively but not easily mobile, and God speaks to you and says, get up and go. And that's pretty much all you know in terms of where you're going, how you'll get there, when you'll arrive, and how you'll be guided. What Abraham did not know. He didn't know very much at all. I can imagine fear, can't you? I can imagine a multitude of questions, can't you? But what did Abraham know? Well, for that, I think Genesis 12 fills in some of the gaps, because this is the language with which the Lord spoke to Abraham. Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And then we're told that Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Now just incidentally there, if some of you were looking at that and going, is this Abram the same as this man Abraham? Yes, he is, and it won't be long in Genesis before the Lord just subtly shifts Abraham's name to reflect the new relationship that he has as a man with this God who's spoken to him. But Abraham and Abraham are the same person, just with a slight name shift. So when God says to Abraham, or Abraham, go out to a land that I will show you, he does so giving to this man a string of assurances. He assures him of God's presence with him, of God's promises toward him, and of God's protection for him. Notice in the language of Genesis chapter 12, all that lovely I-you relational language. Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, it won't be long. before the Lord God, making a more specific covenant with Abraham in chapter 15, will, if you like, put flesh on the bones of that assurance. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abraham. That's significant, isn't it? because I think fear is the natural response to some of these things. Do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. I myself, Abraham, are your inheritance. I will be with you. You can now, Abraham, whatever he knows about God, There seems at least to be some consciousness here of God as the God who will be with him both in Haran and in the journey and when he arrives in the promised land. Even in the fact that God says, I will be with you here and I will carry you there and I will end with you there and I will be your God. God's presence is implied. But Abraham perhaps wouldn't even use the kind of labels and language, the kind of technical theological vocabulary that perhaps rolls off some of our tongues. But what he does know is that this God who speaks is speaking to him with an assurance of his presence. And with his presence comes a promise or even a set of promises. And the most significant of them is the inheritance. Now, again, that language is relatively vague. It's the kind of language that I think I or you might have said, I need to know more. Is it going to be worthwhile? Should I really leave? my country, my family, my father's house. Notice the Lord does not in any way dilute the cost of Abraham's obedience in the moment at which he renders it. But I will give you a place, a land that I will show you. Hebrews talks about Abraham looking for his inheritance. And I think it's very much worth bearing in mind that Abraham only ever saw his inheritance by faith. Because even in the land of promise, Abraham, who was promised a place, lived in tents as a pilgrim, a sojourner. Why? Because he was waiting for what? A building, a city, a place which has foundations. Even in the land of promise, Abraham kept living by faith. The land of Canaan was never intended to be the final destination in the finalist sense and the full expression of God's promises to Abraham. No, Abraham looked for something more. He looked again, to use the language of Hebrews chapter 11, for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Even his son and his grandson Isaac and Jacob lived in tents in the promised land. It was not until later that these cities began to be established, and they themselves were pointing forward to something more substantial. God promises Abraham a place And it's a place that Abraham could only ever have seen by faith, even when he arrived in Canaan. He promised him a great name with blessing. He promised him that he would become a great nation. He promised Abraham that Abraham himself would become a blessing. Now did Abraham ever see those things with eyes of flesh? No, even the promises demand faith in order to be fully grasped. And then alongside the divine presence and alongside those divine promises, there is also divine protection. Look at verse three, I will bless those who bless you. Now look at the next part, I will curse him who curses you. Now already you might say, well now I don't mind the blessing of the blessers, that seems to work well with me, but If you're going to have to curse those who curse me, that's not a great situation to be in. The Lord God is implicitly warning Abraham that this journey is not always going to be an easy one. There are going to be contentions, there are going to be enemies, there are going to be great difficulties. But I'm with you and I've made promises to you. And those who smile upon you will know my smile, and those who scowl at you will know my frown. I will take care of you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. When I make promises to you, Abraham, I'm going to act in such a way, I'm going to hedge you about in such a way, I'm going to order things and structure things and plan things and carry things out in such a way that my promises must come to pass. And to that end, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. And my promises shall not fall to the ground. So Abraham did not know a very great deal. But what he did know, that was precious. He knew who would go with him, he knew who would guide him, and he knew who would keep him. And if this God were Abraham's God, what could he then do? He could get out of his country, from his family, and from his father's house. That's not a small step, is it, brothers and sisters? To leave behind everyone and everything that up to this point has been precious to you, has been something of an anchor point to you? This is what I know. This is what I'm comfortable with. This is what I understand. This is where I feel safe and secure. But if God is the God of Abraham, then he can leave his family. he can strike out on his own. If this God is Abraham's God, he can embrace the loss of all the things that he leaves behind. If this God is Abraham's God, he can accept the risk of this departure and the journey and the unknown destination. If this God is Abraham's God, then he can let go of the present things because he trusts in what God will give him in the future. This is the obedience that a child should be able to show to a beloved father. I'm not saying it's always easy because if you're a parent, you will know that one of the things, one of the questions that most instinctively comes from the mouths of many of your children is why? But I hope, you boys and girls, you might want to listen to this. There will be times when dad or mum might say to you, this is what we are going to do, and we are going to do it now. And do you know what obedient faith sounds like? It's a very short word. Yes. Just yes. That's childlike faith. Dad knows best. Mum knows best. There's a lot that I don't know, but I trust my dad to know what he needs to know, and I will do what he tells me. No questions asked. That is implicit trust. And it's the kind of trust that Abraham showed toward the Lord his God when God said to him, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. And so, in verse eight of Hebrews chapter 11, having seen what Abraham did not know, and that's a whole heap of stuff, and having seen what Abraham did know, and that is something that is visible only to the eye of faith, we see what Abraham actually did. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. There's a lovely little parallelism there, a proper echo with progression. He was called, he went out. It was as simple as that. God spoke and Abraham obeyed. He took the next right step. Now, Again, I find it hard to put myself quite in Abraham's shoes here, gather the flocks, gather the herds, break down the tents, load up the camels, put the donkeys in the right places, put the women and the children of my household here on the donkeys. We don't know quite how many people went with him on this occasion, although he has a household of his own. So can you imagine living there in Haran and everything's packed? And you're standing on the edge of whatever settlement or place. I don't know if there are more permanent buildings or if it's all tents, some sort of tented town or city. Where do I go next? Imagine driving around the M25 waiting to find out which of the motorway spurs you take in order to go. We don't know exactly how the Lord spoke to Abraham next. Maybe Abraham just started walking, relying on God at the proper point to tell him when to change direction. But he'd been called, and so he went out. There's nothing either in Genesis 12 or in Hebrews 11 to suggest any hesitations. That's staggering, is it not? God spoke and Abraham started packing. He got his stuff together. He gathered the people who were under his immediate care. He corralled his flocks and his herds. He gave instructions and then he started moving. There was no delay in Abraham's obedience toward the Lord God. there are no conditions. You or I might have said, well, I will if... I want to know more or I need some kind of guarantee. What are these blessings that you're going to give me? How exactly will you smile upon those who smile upon me? When you say you're going to make my name great, how great will you make it? Will the greatness of my name and the greatness of the nation that's going to come from a 75-year-old man and his barren wife, is that going to make all of this worthwhile? I'll do this if. when but only if, not a word of that, God says you go, Abraham gets up and he goes out. There are no discussions. Now later on in the narrative you'll see that Abraham, there's a familiarity to the point of boldness. in the way that Abraham is able to speak to God. It comes out perhaps most distinctly when there's that, it sounds almost like a negotiation, does it not? When Lot is there in Sodom and the Lord says to Abraham, I'm gonna rain down fire on Sodom and destroy that place. And Abraham begins to ask God, well, if there's so many righteous, or what about this? He says, look, no. let not the Lord become angry, I'm going to speak again. He's conscious of God's greatness, but he's not in that sense afraid to enter into discussion with him, but not here. God says you go, so Abraham got up and he went. And there are no qualifications. I'm not going too fast. I'm only going this far until I know the next step for myself. Abraham doesn't impose any kind of conditions or qualifications. Do you notice that all the blessing that God promises to Abraham is future? The present decision is costly, difficult, potentially dangerous. Okay, there's people out there who will bless me, but there are people out there who will curse me. I'm going somewhere I don't know, I don't know how long it will take to get there, I don't know what will happen when I arrive, I don't know quite what route I will take, and I do not know how this God who is speaking to me now will guide me along the way. I simply have the promise that he will be with me, the promise that he will bless me, and the promise that he will protect me. What is faith? Do you see why the writer to the Hebrews uses these kinds of histories, these lives to illustrate his point? What is faith? You go back to the beginning of chapter 11. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That is precisely how faith operates. Faith looks to the promised blessing. Faith looks to the promised reward. Faith counts the cost. God states the cost. Leave behind everyone and everything that you've become accustomed to and that is dear to you and go out to a place that I will show you, the land that I will give you. And it all lies in the future. And in Abraham's case, there's a sense in which he is still waiting for it. because he's still looking for the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells, that city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. God's will, though, has been revealed for the present with all its demands and costs, and for the future with all its certainties and blessings. And so Abraham obeys. What are we to make of this, my friends? Is this the point at which we begin to claim special revelation, or even to demand special revelation? Well, when God speaks to me like he did to Abraham, then I will act like Abraham acted. Well? In one sense, you have a very special revelation. God already has spoken to you. You have everything that you need to know to glorify God between the pages of your Bible. So this is not about saying God spoke to me and therefore I'm going to do this, that, or the other. Please also notice that it is not an excuse for some kind of spiritual sounding recklessness. This is not about you acting on a whim. This is not about you deciding what you would like and doing it and then expecting or demanding that God should bless you in the way. That's a recipe for disaster. What I'm emphasising here is that God spoke clearly to Abraham at his time, in his place, for his circumstances, and that the very same God of heaven giving you the very same assurances of His presence, with His promises, with His protection, has spoken to us in these days through His Son, and He has made clear the path of faith that you and I are to walk. And he has called us to leave behind everything to which we naturally cling in this world and to make our pilgrimage through this fallen place to the land that God will show us, to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And the Lord has spoken to you in such a way that you know where you are going, and you know the way that you must take. And he has given you assurances, perhaps we must say even more specific and sometimes more definite promises in that sense, than he gave to Abraham. This is not then about expecting a voice to ring from the heavens. This is not about waiting for a vision in the night. This is not about anticipating God making himself known in some new covenant. The covenant has been made, and now God speaks through his Son, Jesus Christ. And our privilege as Christians is to hear and to believe and to obey. Faith. The faith that saves, the faith that glorifies God does not need or demand all the answers before it obeys the God who speaks. It obeys because it trusts God who speaks to us. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Verse six, without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Is there somebody here this evening who is holding back from salvation? Not yet a Christian, but you've heard enough to know that there is a heaven for those who trust in Jesus Christ and walk in his ways, and that there is a hell for those who deny him and take this world as their portion rather than God and the heaven which he promises. What is it that's holding you back this evening from trusting in this God and in his Christ? Is it some particular relationship? Some family connection? Is it your apparent present security? happiness, ease, and comfort. Are you effectively saying to the God of heaven, I need more guarantees, greater certainties? I can't let this go because I don't quite trust you. My friend, that's not faith. The faith that will save you is the faith that will take guard at his word. The faith that is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The faith that reads these words in the Scriptures, that reads the Gospels, that reads the Old and the New Testament, that reads all the promises which are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. The faith that says that the things which I cannot see yet are more real than the things which I can see now. My friends, if there is something in that that is holding you back this day from trusting in Jesus Christ, then I put before you the happy example of Abraham, a faithful man, who heard God's call, who heard God speak, And God said, get up and go to the place that I will show you and I will be with you and I will bless you and I will take care of you. And my friend, that is all that you need to know. because this God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, let's go back, the God of Abel, the God of Enoch, the God of Noah, let's go forward, the God of Sarah, we've talked about Isaac, we've talked about Jacob, here is Moses also. the God of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets, the God of unnamed, sometimes guessable, sometimes utterly unknown men and women who promised them all that he would be with them, and he was, that he would bless them, and he did, and that he would protect them. And you look at it and say, protect them? They had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawn in two, tempted, slain with the sword, wandering in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts and mountains, dens and caves of the earth. Is that protection? All these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. How did God protect them? He kept them faithful through all those trials. He blessed those who blessed them and he cursed those who cursed them. My friend, the greatest protection that I need and that you need in this fallen world is that God would hold us up and God would keep us true. He has promised to be with us, he has promised to bless us, and he has promised to keep us. That is the basis on which you must trust him and take Jesus Christ for yourself as saviour. Get up and go out as God directs you. Let nothing hold you back from salvation. And if you're a Christian, let nothing hold you back in salvation. My friends, so often, as we said at the beginning, our problem as believers is not that we do not know what God wants. It's either that we do not like what God wants or we don't like the consequences, real or imagined, of doing what God says. Do you know that? Do you feel that sometimes? I've known that, I've felt that. I've wanted the safety net. There are times when you have to cut the ropes that hold up the safety nets that men's wisdom and strength would weave together. Take God at his word. And it is not reckless. to rely on the presence of God, on the promise of God, and on the protection of God. That is faith in operation. Are you then facing some difficult decision, either difficult in itself or difficult because of what you see or think you see coming as a consequence of that decision? Is there a challenge that you already know or that you do not know? Is there a problem that has arrived or that may soon arrive? Is there some sin to cut off? Is there some temptation to stamp out? Is there some duty to take up? Is there some wise course to start walking? Is it clear what God wants? then why haven't you or I done it yet? When God spoke to Abraham, there were no hesitations, no conditions, no discussions, and no qualifications. God said, go out, Abraham got up and went. And my friends, when God's word is clear to us, that is the kind of obedient faith that you and I need to show. The gospel of God calls you to trust in Jesus Christ this evening. And if I needed to, I could stand surety for God this evening and tell you that whatever it costs and whatever you leave, whenever it demands, that if you will trust in Jesus Christ, all will be well with your soul, now and forever. And I will stand surety, as it were, for God in this too. Brother, sister, that if God is calling you to some particular path of obedience, if that means there is some sin from which you must depart, or some duty which you must pursue, then you are called this night to pursue holiness without hesitation, condition, discussion or qualification, to render obedience to the God of your salvation. Because decisions and difficulties actually shrink and melt away when God speaks to us. and those looming fears that so often seem to be rolling down the line toward us, those consequences which we so often dread of taking a stand, of speaking for Christ, of planting our flag, of making those decisions and taking those actions which honour him, even though they may be costly in the present. Those things melt away when God speaks. If you've heard, you should believe and you ought to obey. And when you do, God will be with you and God will bless you and God will protect you. That does not mean it will be easy. It does not mean that the path will somehow map itself out in front of you. But faith will take guard at his word, and like Abraham, take the next right step, relying on the Lord to keep you and to guide you. Because this sweet obedience is the happy daughter of lively faith. Amen.