Those who do actually believe will often see the beginnings of their faith, in childhood … Even before childhood, in the faith of their parents. Probably a lot of people here today would be able to say, "since I've come to believe, I've rediscovered my past, my parents, God working in my life before I had any consciousness of that work. And now with the eyes of faith, I see God at work in my past… Even in the days before I knew Him or believed in Him at all. That's there, Moses receiving God's work in his past, BUT the big idea in both Joseph and Moses is not so much the past, but faith enabling a new posture toward the future.

Everyone has faith and everyone sees the world through belief in something. Faith in God's promises and His acts in history, THAT'S the faith BY WHICH the Patriarchs saw God and saw themselves and saw how to live and conduct themselves in an often-hostile world. Those are actually our three points:

1. Faith is HOW to see/know God
2. Faith is HOW to see/know OURSELVES
3. Faith is HOW to see/know LIFE (it sets our course of action)

If you're a Bible reader, what comes to mind when you think of Abraham? What are the big events in Abraham's life? He was called out of Ur and Babel in Mesopotamia. He received God's promise to be blessed and to BE a blessing to all nations. He received the promised son and heir and then… that big moment, the watershed, crisis-experience for Abraham – the sacrifice of Isaac.

So, let's look at: #1 – the event itself – this is the third or fourth event in Abraham's life given as an example of faith – let's think about it.

#2 – let's ask, "What IS it, IN the event/action, that we're meant to notice and that exemplifies faith? (What we've called "the highlighted feature".)

#3 – how are WE to follow this example, how to practice this highlighted feature in our own pattern of believing?

Today, we meet the first woman on the list of people who lived, "by faith", that is Sarah. She's not the last woman on the list – more in verses 31 and 35. AND this first woman appears in tandem with her husband. What we really have here is an example of a couple believing together – marital faith/belief.

So, let's follow our regular outline and ask,

1. What IS the event used to illustrate faith from this episode.
2. What is it about this event or action that's important? And
3. How are we to follow the overall example?

If you are not very familiar with the Bible and are hoping to get a basic grasp of it OR if you are inquiring about Christianity and are trying to learn how it all fits together into some sort of cohesive whole – THIS is a good day to be at Park Road. This passage is really, really important to the whole big picture. AND, in fact, if you DON'T get THIS part of the story, it's impossible to make sense of the rest of the Book.

SO, LET'S MOVE GENERAL-TO-SPECIFIC, from big picture to big truths that have big power to affect our own lives and how we approach life in God's world: #1 – The Meta-narrative #2 – Math and Maps #3 – The Mission of God and Your Everyday Life

If you look carefully, you'll notice three FEATS Noah accomplished "by faith": Number ONE – he prepared an ark for the salvation of his family. Number TWO – by which he condemned the world. Number THREE – he became "an heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith".

Scripture: Hebrews 11:5-6

Speaker: T.J. Campo

Series: What It Means To Live By Faith

Scripture: Genesis 4:1-10:4; Hebrews 11:4

Preacher: T.J. Campo