 Okay. Welcome back, everyone. I've just started the recording of this lecture. And are there any questions from the previous lecture before we go forward, before we continue? Any questions from anyone? Okay. So, let's just quickly review Abraham's steps of faith. This is from Romans chapter 4 verses 17 to 21. And then let us take things over. I just want us to really, really get these six simple steps. A little later on in this course, we will expand on this and outline steps that you and I will use. But it's essentially based on what we have learned today. So, just to review quickly Abraham's steps of faith. See this? Abraham believed God. He believed God. So, you and I put our eyes on God. We know whom we believe. Who he is. Believe God. Second, even when there is no reason for hope, you still believe according to what God has spoken. God has given you a word. He's given you a promise. It doesn't matter if things look hopeless. You still believe the promise. You still believe the word. Thirdly, you and I, we choose not to focus on the circumstances. We're not denying the circumstance. We know it's there. But we don't let the circumstance weaken our faith. Instead, we keep our eyes on the promise. So don't let the circumstances weaken your faith. Number four, you take a hold of the promise of God through faith. Or you don't waver at the promise of God through unbelief. But you tighten your grip on the promise of God through faith. Unbelief will come. There will be those moments of doubt will come knocking. Doubt also always wants to enter in. But you say no, no place for doubt, no place for unbelief. I'm strengthening my hold on the promise of God. And number five, you give glory to God. You give praise to God. You give thanks to God. Even before you see things change, even before you see things fulfilled, even before you see any indication of the promise, start giving thanks to God for it. That strengthens you and me in faith, strengthens our faith. And then number six, we come to this place where we are fully convinced that what God has promised, He will perform. We come to that place of being fully convinced. Let me see if somebody wanted to. Okay, Shani, have a question, please. Yeah, I'm a little confused because I know it says in Romans 4.20 that he did not waver the promise of God through unbelief in terms of Abraham. By knowing your notes, you put that he doubted. And if this are here, unbelief causes one to doubt. And I know that he did have a baby with the mate. So I'm kind of confused. What do you mean by that? That he did not waver the promise of the unbelief because he did. So that's a little confused about that. Yes, yes. That's really interesting in the sense, you know, Abraham's journey was 25 years, you know, and along the way he made mistakes. He did things. But like we said, he got out of it and he moved past it. And in Romans 4, you know, it's so wonderful that when God looks back at Abraham's life, he never mentions any of his mistakes. He never mentions any of Abraham's doubts. And God is not interested in highlighting our weaknesses or our mistakes. He wants us to journey past them into the place of faith. And so when the Holy Spirit is summarizing for us Abraham's 25 years of journey of faith, he's only picking out the good points saying, hey, this is what he did. Now, it's not denying that he made mistakes, but the truth is he got past them. And so that's why it says, hey, this is the next point. He came to this place and he did not waver the promise of God through unbelief. He went through unbelief, but he didn't stop that. He came to this place where he didn't waver. So the message for you and me is that God looks at, you know, God always sees the positive. He sees that we've grown out of that place of doubt. We've grown out of that place of unbelief. And we've made it through to this place where we do not waver the promise of God through unbelief. Okay, thank you. That clears up a lot. Yeah. And that's the goodness of God. He sees, you know, the progress we are making. So having outlined from Romans 4, Abraham's journey of faith, we will look at two other passages just to get some additional insights here about Abraham and his journey of faith. The next one, we go to Hebrews 11, of course. This is where Abraham and Sarah are both mentioned. And we will look at this passage and just just outline, you know, some of the things that happened in their journey of faith. So somebody could read this for us. Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to read verses eight through 12 and also 17 through 19. So Hebrews chapter 11, eight through 12, 17 through 19. Please, somebody could read it. Hebrews chapter 11 was eight to 12 and 17 to 19. 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. Yeah, go ahead. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, where born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand, which is by the seashore. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, in Isaac, your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. So these verses are once again summarizing Abraham's journey of faith. And we will let's just highlight what we see here. So verse eight. By faith, Abraham obeyed. And some of this we've seen you saw last week as well. But it's good to just revisit. By faith, Abraham obeyed. So faith is action. Faith is doing, you know, we step out and do something in faith. So in this case, God said Abraham, I want you to go to a place I'll show you, start moving and Abraham obeyed. Now, when he started his journey, he actually didn't know exactly where he was going. You know, he went out, not knowing where he was going. Now, if you look at it geographically, he started out in what is modern day Iraq, somewhere on the north side of the river Euphrates. And then he journeyed a little west, and then he would have come down south into land of Canaan, which is modern day Israel. But anyway, God called him out from where he was. And said, Abraham, I'm going to take you to a land that I'll show you. He just obeyed. He said, okay, I'm going to take this a day at a time. I'm going to take this a step at a time. You know, he didn't have Google Maps, you know, where God would show him like, here's where I'm taking you. And this is the route. He didn't have all of that. It was just day by day, just going the way God would lead him. So Abraham obeyed and he actually went out, not knowing where he was going. Other than God had given a promise, I'll take you to a place which is going to be yours. So that's something for you and me to learn about Abraham's faith that we journey with God, we take steps with God, we obey God, we move out with God. He's given us a promise and look, I will bless you. I will prosper, whatever you do. You know, whatever the promise of God is that you have from the Bible, right? You've got it there. And God says, that's my promise to you. You begin to act on it. You may not know exactly how you're going to get there. You may not know how it's going to happen. You know, all the nuances and all the details you may not know, it's okay. Obey God. Take it a day at a time. Take it a step at a time. Keep going with God. And then it says he came and he lived in the land of promise. That's interesting. He came and he settled down there. Now he still had no children. He still had no children. But he dwelt there as though Isaac and Jacob were there. Now, Isaac and Jacob are not yet born. Isaac would be his son, Jacob, the grandson. They're not yet come. And he dwelt there in that land. So this is the land. God said this land. Okay, I'm going to be here. And it was sometime later. Isaac came along and, you know, Jacob came along. I mean, that was even later. But he went and pitched his tent in that land, a foreign country. This is the land. And God is going to give me a place here. This is where God is going to help build the city. The nation is going to be born. But this is the land. So he dwelt in the land of promise. So you and I come, we position ourselves in the promise of God. Knowing that in due time, you know, we're going to see all the fulfillment of it. I'm dwelling here in this place where God told me I'm in the promise. In the land of promise. Then about Sarah, you see, again, Sarah herself by faith, she received strength. Now again, we know about Sarah, you know, initially she doubted. She even laughed when God said, Hey, you know, you're going to be a mother of a prince, Prince of great multitude. She laughed, you know, she couldn't believe that that's going to happen. That's how she struggled initially. But she got past that to the point where now the scriptures are saying she by faith, she received strength. And she gave a child. She gave for a child. Why? Because she charged him faithful who had promised that she came to this place where she said, Hey, God is faithful. What he promised he will do. She came. She also came to that place of faith. Now, because Abraham and Sarah boxed with such faith, it says a man who was as good as dead. You had descendants like the stars of the sky and sand on the seashore. Okay. That's what we highlighted last week as well. Here's a man. He's as good as dead. People have given up. It's all hopeless. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can happen. And yet God does. The amazing God does what eyes haven't seen what years haven't had. But people have never imagined God does it simply because these people had faith. They believed God. And then Abraham's faith, as we know, they didn't stop there. It's as Abraham, when he was tested, he was able to give up Isaac. But he did it fully knowing that God was able to raise him up. You know, that means when God said, Hey, go offer Isaac. Sure, God, you know, I'll do it. Why? Because I know you have spoken. Isaac is the one who's going to. It's a son of promise. So even if I were to offer him as a sacrifice, you're going to raise him up. I mean, Abraham was so convinced. That's, you know, expressing Abraham's faith in God. So we can take some lessons, even from Hebrews 11. You know, we obey God. We step out on the promise. We come to, you know, we come to a place where we are settled in the promise of God. We judge him faithful and God will do the impossible. God will do the unexpected. God will do the, you know, the unexplainable from who one who's as good as dead. God did this thing. And we keep our eyes on God and his promise. Don't take it off, you know, and, and put it on the fulfillment. Just keep, keep your eyes on him because, you know, you, you and I will pass every test. And one last passage I want us to look at is in about Abraham's faith is in James two versus 20 to 26. James also writes about Abraham's faith. Could somebody read this passage for us, please? James chapter two versus 20 to 26. But do you want to know, oh, foolish man, that faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham a father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar. Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works, faith was made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God and it was a counter to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works. When she received the messengers and send them out another way. Who has the body without the spirit is dead. So faith without work is dead also. Thank you. Thank you, John. So James is emphasizing a certain truth. He's emphasizing that faith without works is dead. So he repeats that twice. Yeah. In this passage, faith without works is dead. That means faith that does not have actions that go with it. Actions that express it is dead, meaning it's unproductive, it's lifeless. So if we want our faith to produce, if we want our faith to do things, have results, we've got to have works. We've got to have corresponding actions. We've got to express it through what we do. So in order to get this point across to us that, hey, you've got to live out your faith. You've got to walk your faith. James points us to Abraham and says, hey, look at Abraham. He too was justified by works and what was his work? Well, he offered Isaac on the altar. That means he demonstrated his faith. You know, he didn't just sit at home and say, okay, God sure. I'm sure that, you know, even if I were to offer up Isaac, I'm sure you're going to raise him up. So why do I need to go and, you know, even offer him up? No. He went to the mount that God told him to go to and he was ready to offer Isaac. So he demonstrated what he believed. He didn't stay home and say, well, this is what'll happen. He went out there. And so he tells us in verse 22, and this is important. He says, do you see? Faith was working together with his works. Faith working together with his works. That means your faith is put into operation when you act, when you live out, live it out, when you act it, when you do something with it. So faith is put into operation when you act your faith, when you have actions. So faith was working together with his work. So when does faith go into work when you start working your faith? When you start doing something aligned to your faith? When you start doing something to express your faith? When your faith starts working, then you start working your faith. It's very important. Do something. It's not enough to stay, you know, sit down and say, oh, I have faith. Well, you've got to work it out. You've got to show it. You've got to demonstrate it. You've got to do something aligned to that. You've got to do something that shows, you know, that you have faith. Express your faith through your actions. So not only does faith go into operation when you act your faith, or not only does faith start working when you start working your faith, but through works, faith is made perfect. This word perfect simply means to mature, to come to full maturity. It's like, you know, a child, a teenage, a young adult and a fully grown person, an adult. So it's like faith is brought to maturity, comes to its full maturity, how by works. So something very important. Faith without works is unproductive. It's dead. It's lifeless. Faith starts working when you work your faith and through working your faith, faith is brought to that place where it can produce. It's mature. It's in that place of being fully convinced. I'm ready to do it. It can produce. So keep these things in mind. That we learn from the life of Abraham, that our faith must be coupled with our works. You start doing something. So we go back to that, the previous example of a man, you know, he may have had 10 failures in his life, a series of failures. But once he believes the word of God, he reads the word, he sees the promise that God said, you will be like a tree, planted by rivers of water, you will bring forth your fruit in its season, your leaf will not wither, whatever you do will prosper. He believes that, but it's not enough for him to believe that and sit at home and do nothing with it. What does he have to do? He's got to demonstrate his faith. He's got to start working his faith. So maybe in his case, he may go out and start another business yet again. But he's doing it by faith in God. Or he may go and get a job or whatever, you know, I'm just using this whole failure to success as an example. But that person begins to act his faith. I believe God will make me like that tree, whatever I do will prosper. My failures will be turned to success. God will make me a success because he's given me his word and he believes that word. Then he starts acting his faith, you know, doing something, whatever is right for him. He starts acting his faith and then his faith is made perfect and he sees the faith producing in his life and the promise is fulfilled for him. So this is how you and I, you know, use our faith in God to see things happen in our lives, right? That you and I can take the promise of God and believe God's word, believe God's word and it will come to pass. It will be fulfilled. He will do it. So any questions here at this point before we go forward? Okay. So I see a question there from Robert would be the first thing you do. How will you operate your faith if you have to make it as an inclusive risk? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So anyway, just to clarify, I closed the business back in 2014. So it's been like, you know, June of 2014, right? So till then I was running the business and then I closed everything down and I had shifted and was focusing on the Christian ministry. But I can tell you there was a time, so I was running my own business. This was an IT company from 2001 till 2014. And I remember one season, so everything I'm sharing with you, I would apply just like what Robert mentioned. I remember one season, this was, I think, again, I forget exactly. Yeah. But I think it must have been 2011, 2012, something like that. I don't know. Can't remember. So that was a very difficult time in the business. And maybe, I don't know, maybe it was 2011, 2012 or just around that or before that. Maybe it was before that, around 2010. So I forget the exact year. But anyway, at that point, things were very difficult in the business, in the company. And we were in big debt. The company was in big debt. In Indian rupees, it was what we call as 70 lakhs. That would be 7 million Indian rupees. Yeah. 70 lakhs, around 70 lakhs. And I calculated all that. I said, well, how much does the company owe? We had 70. And that means a lot of it was my, at that time, I had put my own money in to keep things going. We didn't take any loans from anybody else, but just mainly I had put my personal funds into the company to keep things going. So basically the company owed me money, a major part of the money. And now at that time, I saw basically 7 million Indian rupees. I had to make a decision. As a business person, it's not worth continuing like this. And I've put so much of money into the company and so on. And I'll say, okay, what do I do? Either I shut things down and say, okay, what is a loss is a loss? Cut it down. Or I have to come out of this. Right? One of the two things. I can't just keep running like this. Either I have to come out and clear all my debts and be a success, just let the company flourish. Or I have to say, I'm going to stop everything enough of putting my own money in and running these things. And okay, what is a debt is a debt. What is a loss is a loss. But at that time, I remember, hey, the Bible says God will bless us. The Bible says God will prosper us. He will prosper all the work of our hands. Now during all these years, I was running my business, but I was also pastoring the church and the church was growing and so on. So this was the business happening. Now I would not go and tell people in the church my personal struggles and all that, keep these things separate. The ministry separate, business is separate. So people in the church didn't know my struggles, my personal struggles and all of that in the business. But I remember those days, I would come to the office. We had a small office in Bangalore and I would speak. I would say, I said, God, I'm going to come out of this debt by faith. And your word is true. You're the God who can bless me and prosper me. And I am going to come out of this debt. So, you know, at that time when I was, you know, I looked at the whole picture and said, what is the distance I want to make? Well, I want to see God cancel all my debt. And I want to see God bless and prosper the company. That's what I want. You know, I don't want to, at this point, I don't want to cut my, you know, say it's a loss. No, I want to see God do this. I'm going to say it. I'm going to believe God. So I would come to the office, you know, before anybody else comes in and I would speak to the, all the chairs that say in the name of Jesus, I declare that this company is blessed. I declare that all the debt we have is canceled and we thrive and prosper. And, you know, we were an IT company and one of the biggest desires of my heart was, I wanted to send some of my employees to go and work overseas. That was like a big thing for me. I said, God, I want to do that. I want to bless my employees, the staff we had. I want to send them overseas so that they will have, you know, exposure overseas. They will go and work overseas. So I said, I declare in Jesus' name, that God is going to bless this company so much that I will send our staff to go and work overseas and they will prosper, you know. So I began to use my faith. Just like the things that I'm sharing with you, I began to use it. So this was back in 2000, I think, you know, maybe 2010 and somewhere in those days. So we're going to speak the word, speak the promise of God. And, you know, I had no idea how God was going to do this, how it was going to happen. I don't know. And globally, you know, there was a big, huge downturn. The global economy, there was a huge downturn. Things were pretty difficult in those days. Even in the IT field, things were quite difficult. But this is, I began to use my faith. I began to take the promise of God. I began to speak it, declare it and say, God, I speak to my debt. I commanded all my debts. The company's debt all cleared. We are more than enough. We're going to prosper. We're going to do this. Now, in those days, all our customers, almost all our customers were international people from around. And I remember around that time, we had a client from Ireland. They engaged us and they were building a healthcare product for the U.S. market. So it was the time when, I think, when President Obama was there and there was, there were a lot of, you know, work, effort to make changes in the healthcare system. And part of that was, you know, that there were a lot of incentives for medical practices and so on to have their electronic medical records and a lot of things happening. So basically this was an Irish company. They already had a product for the Irish market, but they wanted to build a brand new product for the U.S. market to get into the electronic medical records space. And so they contracted us to build that product. And of course it had to be certified in the U.S. So it was all part of the whole thing. We had to go through the certification process in the U.S. So we started the work. And, you know, that one project, the funds, you know, it's so blessed us, meaning, you know, through that project that we did with them, I think it went on for three years or so. All our debts were cleared. That means the full 70 lakhs was paid. I increased the salary of all our staff to, like three times more than what they were being paid because, you know, we had this huge project, good project going on. And then of course I would travel, but this time we sent some of our staff to Ireland. I think one of them also went to the U.S. to work on site for several months. It was like God was fulfilling that which I had extended my faith for. And then subsequently, one of the largest hospitals in Asia, we have a huge hospital in India. It's called Christian Medical Hospital in Vellore. We got a project, you know, we, again, we went through the whole project bidding phase and all that. And we got a huge project to build their radiology system. So this is a medical system that manages all the medical images. So they already had a commercial system, but they wanted to build one on open source software that would manage all the medical images across like 22 departments and so on. So we, that project also came in and it was a big blessing. So all this happened between 2010 to 2014 or something, you know, around that time. But anyway, so we, you know, so this project for the U.S. market was done and then we got, we passed the certification. I think there were two levels of certification. And then, you know, the Irish company took over and took it forward. And then this project with the Medical Hospital in Vellore was done and, you know, and then I handed off all the support things to our staff and I closed the company. But the point was this. We were in a place of huge debt. I had to make a choice. I do want to say, okay, it's a loss as a company and close the company. Or do I want to believe God to come out of debt and to bless my staff? I chose to use my faith to do this. Say, God, I want to see you cancel the debt and I want you to bless the company. I want my staff, my employees to be blessed. I want them to go overseas and work overseas and get that exposure and experience. And you know, God fulfilled it. And so, you know, all I can say is, when we exercise faith in the word of God, God will fulfill his word. It was not easy. You know, like I said, there will be these mornings. I come in early. You know, it takes an extra effort to say, God, I believe you will bless us. I believe you'll prosper the company. I believe you will do it because you said in your word and I would just quote the promises of God. Speak the promises of God. But God was faithful. He fulfilled it. And so looking back, I can say, you know, hey, God is faithful. Faith in God always produces. Okay. Yeah. So anyway, 2014, I transitioned out of the company. Just, you know, they're giving all my time to the work of the ministry and in God's doing that. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Sure. Shawnee, I see your question. Yes. You can use your faith to believe God, to buy a house and, you know, take the promises of God like simple, simple the same way like we saw today. Take the promises of God concerning a house. And God's provision. Build your faith. Put your eyes on God and, you know, use your faith and let God intervene. How he's going to do it. I don't know, you know, God will work in different ways in different people's lives. But you have your faith in the word and let him provide for you. You can do it. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. Question from Divya. Yes, Pastor. One is some promises like they are really general, right? In the Bible, like it's very general. So my question is one is, for example, if it is something very specific, like a healing. Yeah. I know what God has promised in that matter. But if it is like, for example, God says, I have a good plan for you. So it's very general. So one question is how I can, I can understand or comprehend those general promises of God into my into the specific situations of life. And the second is, yeah, when God gave the promise to Abraham, he showed him the stars. Like he's giving a picture. So I found it very interesting because that vision stays in our minds. So how important is it to have that clear picture that God gives us through his word? So how can we also have such a picture? Why I asked about that specific is because for Abraham, it was very specific. Like he was holding on to that, that word. But yeah, what about those other promises? You know, that seems very general, but I really don't know how to understand it. So to answer the first question, we take the general promise of God and you make it personal. So example, like you said, God, you know, Jeremiah 29 verse 11, God says, I know the plans I have for you are plans to prosper you, plans to give you a future, plans to give you a future and a hope. That's in my 2011. So God says, look, I'm going, this is my plan for you. My plans for you are good. My plans are to bless you. Okay. Now that's a general promise of God. How that applies to each one of us is, how it applies to us personally will be different. Right? Some may be students. So in your present situation as a student, this general promise is true, but how it applies to you as a student, you know, maybe different, maybe it's like doing well in your studies and so on. Some of us may be, you know, in some other stage in life, we may be working, we may be having our own business, you know, and so how that promise of God applies to you in that stage of life, you know, it's good. Like you take it and you apply it into your situation. Some of us, you know, maybe in a later stage in life, but that promise is still for you, for each one of us. So you take that promise and say, God, right where I am now, in this stage of my life, it applies to me, that right now, your promise is that you know the plans you have for me, plans to prosper me, plans to give me a future, plans to give me hope. So right now in this situation of my life, so a student may apply it in their life differently, middle-aged person, a person later, you know, but it's valid, right? Now, the actual situation that you would apply it, so it will be different for each of us, but let's say somebody is at work, maybe they are employed somewhere, and for them, they are waiting, they are seeking God to, you know, make them successful in their work or see promotion in their work, see increase in their work, whatever. Okay, so they will get, you know, between them and God, in that situation, they say, God, this is my picture. This is how I see your promise being fulfilled. I see myself being promoted, or I see myself, you know, being very successful in whatever the responsibilities are, right? Whatever the work is, let's see myself. So that is how that promise of God translates into a personal picture of it being fulfilled. So it will be different for each one of us, depending on where we are in life, right? And then you go before God. And there's nothing wrong in painting a picture based on the promise of God. That is relevant to a personal life situation, right? Each one of us are in a different situation. So how that promise will be applied will be different. So it's a general promise available to all of us. We are all in different stages of life. How that promise is fulfilled will differ for each of us in this stage. So you take that, you paint a picture based on that promise, and then you go before God, and you apply the same principles that we learned today. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Pastor. So the same promise is available, you know, for all of us, the promise of God, yeah? Okay. Good. Any other questions, please? Okay. So today we looked at Abraham's faith, and the Bible is telling us, follow the faith of Abraham. Be like him. How he believed God. So God gave him a promise, and this is how he believed, and he saw the fulfillment of the promise of God. And God says, follow the faith of Abraham. So I want to encourage each one of us, you know, in different situations of life, whether it's something personal, whether it's for your work, whether it's for your ministry, whether it's for your local church, whatever. Take the promise of God, and believe God like we learned. We got to add to this. So in the coming weeks, we will learn a little bit more, a little bit more other aspects of exercising faith in God. Our next lesson is on faith, hope, and love, how these work together, and then we get into some additional insights on exercising faith. So as we learn these things, I want to encourage each of you just to, you know, begin to apply it in your life, because through faith, you and I will see the promises of God fulfilled in our lives. And not one promise of God will fall to the ground. Okay. We're going to pause here, and we will close our class. I would like to request somebody to pray. All right. I'm not sure if I can pronounce the name correctly, but Abubakre Tobi Loba. Would you like to pray, please? Heavenly Father, we thank you. We glorify your name for this beautiful class. Thank you for the word. Thank you for the teacher that taught us. Thank you for the word of faith that you said we should copy through the Hebrew. Sibida is uttered in the name of Jesus. We pray, O Lord, everything that we receive through this teaching, Father, let it manifest in our life in the name of Jesus. The faith that receive, let everyone of us receive it in the name of Jesus. And at the end of the day, shall be able to glorify our name. In Jesus' name, we have prayed. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. We have a good break and continue to your next class. I'll see you again next week. God bless. Have a nice weekend. Bye now.