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The River ChurchSermons

Righteousness

Righteousness Illustrated, Pt. 1

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 8 June 2025 · Romans 4:1-12 · 43:35 · 6,277 words

Romans S7 · 4:1-12 Holly

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

tradition 24 footsteps 13 abraham 29 righteous 37 pass 18 count 17 circumcised 12 david 12 bless 18 whose 8 ungodly 8 faith 32

Topics

Faith 13 Righteousness 10 Abraham 7 Prayer 3 Salvation 3 The Flesh 2 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 Grace 2 Sin 2 Baptism 1 Justification 1

Scripture referenced 31

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 2 4:41 Romans 4 4:43 Romans 4 4:43 Romans 4:1-12 4:50 Romans 4 6:30 Romans 4:1 6:30 Romans 4 14:04 Romans 3 14:04 Romans 3 15:00 Romans 3:10 15:00 Romans 3:1 15:30 Romans 3:2 15:56 Genesis 12 17:39 Romans 3:2 18:21 Romans 3:3 18:36 Romans 3:3 18:36 Romans 3:3 18:42 Genesis 15 20:20 Genesis 15:4 20:42 Matthew 20 24:51 Romans 3:6-8 26:09 Psalms 32 27:39 Psalms 32 27:40 Romans 3:9-12 29:49 Genesis 15 31:11 Romans 4 32:07 Ephesians 2 32:23 Romans 3 32:49 Romans 3:12 34:31 Romans 3:12 34:32 Romans 4 41:16

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 18 lines, 0:46. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Joanna.

Thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us today

and we hope you're blessed by this message.

Good to gather with you.

Good to worship with you.

If I don't know you,

my name is Caleb.

I'm the pastor here

and I'm just honored to be able to open God's word with you,

sing with you,

It's just great to be here.

I do want to point out to Pastor Noble,

I know how to.

I use the text.

All right.

I'm not that.

I can handle that.

I'm 40 but not that old, right?

So no, it's great.

I do want to point out on that.

We get the question all the time.

Hey, this idea of praying for one another,

it's so important in the church.

It is something that you can go,

how do I do that?

And so on that same thread,

you can join the prayer team.

You can submit prayer requests through that as well.

And so there's a weekly email that gets sent out

where people will say,

hey, you know what?

You could be praying for me for this.

And it gets on that.

And you have hundreds and hundreds of people praying for you.

I got a report last week that those emails get opened.

That's a huge percentage, like 60, 70%.

So if you know anything about open emails,

if it's anywhere over 20%, you're doing well.

And so it's a, there's a lot of people praying.

And so I know many of you have got this going on in my life.

I've got this happening in my family, in my health, my finances.

This happening in our world, my anxiety,

all filled in the blank.

We want to go, hey, you know what?

As a church, we want to pray for you.

We want to be praying for one another.

We want to be praying for one another's issues

and realities in one another's lives.

And so an easy way to do that is that same avenue.

And so I want to point that out to you.

We are going to continue in our Roman series.

And so if you're a guest,

knew you've been missed the last few weeks,

we have introduced the book,

the book of Romans.

And as a church, we are going through Romans for 32 weeks.

Yes, you heard that correctly.

It will be snowing as we are finishing up this.

I shouldn't probably say that.

That's, that's really depressing.

I'm sorry.

Right?

I never got booed preaching before, by the way.

I don't know if it was a boo or a moan or a groan.

Like it was terrible.

Like, and so we're going through November.

Does that feel better?

Right?

And so it's some of you guys like, wow, how dare you?

It's like I cursed up here or something, right?

And so, no, we, but I'm looking forward to it.

And so hopefully you're following along,

jumping along with us.

We are going through the entirety of the book of Romans.

Some great additions that you can follow along with

is on our app.

You can download our app.

There's a daily devotion that walks through

exactly what we're preaching through,

as well as a study guide.

And I want to point that out to you.

And then another resource.

I point this out just about every week

at our nine locations.

We record and post other sermons from other speakers.

I'd encourage you to listen to them,

driving to work, following along.

Maybe you have time working in the lawn

or just seeing the perspective

or passages that they preach through.

I've said this very, very clearly.

I will not be able to encapsulate all,

every single verse in Romans.

And so I'm doing my best

and making sure I'm giving it a solid,

biblical, faithful swing.

But there are some other great,

faithful teachers of the word

that are continuing to,

and our hope is to compliment one another

as we edify the body,

as we teach and understand God's word together.

Because Romans, as I said last week,

is the deep end.

And so there's a lot to it.

And so I want to do my best to explain,

teach, as well as see how the Holy Spirit

guides us this morning and through the series.

We're going to be in Romans chapter two.

Chapter four, looking at Romans chapter four this morning.

We're going to look at the first 12 verses,

looking at verses one through 12,

looking to see how the apostle Paul continues

his argument towards salvation.

and really challenging that both the Jews

and the Gentiles last week.

And a quick summary, all right?

I'm not gonna re-preach the message.

Always encourage you if you missed it,

you can go on and listen or watch.

But Paul is walking through what justification,

propitiation, righteousness, salvation through faith.

We talked through those terms last week.

I defined them.

Really a quick summary is justification is our view.

God is repaired.

We are repaired back to God.

God views us just as if we had never sinned.

And so that is his view.

We are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Propitiation is Jesus took our place.

He was our atonement.

Some of your translations may say that.

He took our place.

He stepped in and took the very wrath of God

and righteousness.

This is us as viewed as a right place,

Back to righteousness or repaired back to righteousness.

I wanna say this very, very clearly.

All of us without Jesus are 0% righteous.

Jesus is the only 100% righteous.

It's a very, we're not graded on the curve, all right?

Jesus and us, and that's okay.

And we understand and read Romans

with that clear understanding.

And so we're gonna look a little bit more

at righteousness this morning.

But in Romans chapter four, verse one, it says,

what then shall we say was gained by Abraham,

our forefather, according to the flesh?

For if Abraham was justified by works,

he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him

as righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted

as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work,

but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,

his faith is counted as righteousness.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one

to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven

and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord

will not count his sin.

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised

or also for the uncircumcised?

For we say that faith was counted to Abraham

as righteousness.

How then was it counted to him?

Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

He received the sign of circumcision as,

a seal of righteousness that he had by faith

while he was still uncircumcised.

The purpose was to make him the father

of all who believe without being circumcised

so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

And to make him the father of the circumcised

who are not merely circumcised,

but also walk in the footsteps of the faith

that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Let's pray.

We'll jump into that passage this morning.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

We honor you.

We glorify you.

God, we just lift you up.

God, we lift you in song and sermon.

God, thank you for being here.

We glorify you.

God, we open your word this morning.

We're thankful for it.

God, may it convict, may it guide.

God, give me the ability, the wisdom,

clearly communicate what you have for us.

God, may your Holy Spirit lead and guide us.

God, we just praise you.

You're worthy of our praise.

That's what we talked about last week, God.

And just over and over and over again,

you're worthy.

We honor you.

We praise you.

We glorify you because you're good.

Thank you for being faithful.

Thank you for being here in Jesus' wonderful name.

I know there's a lot in that passage

and we're gonna unpack a lot of it

and try to define some different things.

Growing up, did you know something as truth?

You were taught it or maybe handed something

Maybe it's tradition or maybe folklore

or something that say, hey, you know what?

This is something I've always known as true.

And then when I got older, I found out

it was not true anybody experienced that it was it was i was listening to the radio this week

and uh they were describing things that happened in homes or traditions that are handed down and

a caller called in and he said what was passed down to my home is we would eat a banana but

first before eating it we'd wrap it in cheddar cheese if you do that you're weird i want you

to know that all right like a banana and cheddar cheese i've never heard of that before it was a

tradition passed down and he's like i don't even know why i do it it was just passed down and i

just believe that was the right way to do it when i was a kid my parents poured milk on ice cream

all right i don't know i don't know if you're a milk pour on ice cream it's one of the weirdest

things ever all right some of you are nodding like you do it you're weird michigan people all right

and i i remember my wife watching

she's

from california watching people in my family pour milk on ice cream and she was

super weirded out and grossed out it's just extra dairy nothing wrong with that all right

but we all have these quirks we all have these additional things we all have these

really family traditions that have been passed down and we don't know why it is it the way we

do that or it doesn't know why this truth is the way it is when you were younger um i was

describing this to somebody

this week it was a great conversation like how did you find out if something was true or not

before google these things called encyclopedias google it right right right you were better like

how did you go find out if something was fact or false you had to go to the library right you had

to go to the library you had to go okay where's this book you had to search and some of your guys

are like i know exactly what you're talking about man that took forever by the way and you had to

believe and find what was ever in there and you had to go to the library and you had to go to the

encyclopedia and which version you were digging through and all those different things and maybe

some of you had an encyclopedia at your home and you were spoiled right now you open your phone

and you ask siri or you ask chat gpt or ai or you ask google and it gives you the answer in

t minus one second right it's interesting as we've kind of come to understand how these

traditions how these truths have been passed down in this passage paul

addresses a truth that was passed down from generations but he he addressed a truth that

was actually false he was addressing a tradition that the jews believed to be true and they would

pass it down from generation to generation to generation and paul if you will in this passage

is even getting personal at some of the heritage that they believe to be true he was fact checking

them what's interesting about this

is those traditions or in high church you talk about those of those liturgies are passed down we

we don't know why we do things well because we've always done it right but paul is leaning in

getting highly personal and bringing up really two i would say two main characters in the jewish

religion probably one of the probably the two most highly regarded people abraham and david even to

this day in the jewish religion and paul is leaning in getting highly personal and bringing up really

if you were to go to israel and you bring up abraham you bring up david they are very very

they're well liked well talked about it's a great tradition that they they celebrate but what the

what paul is doing here in really chapter four is continuing in his argument from chapter three that

that we are saved or we are justified we're made righteous by faith not by works and paul brings up

this man named abram or abraham and abraham believed in tradition that they the jewish tradition believed

that abraham was always righteous that he committed no sin i was sharing this with pastor noble and i'm

like man we don't want to list all of abraham's sins the bible chronicles a few of them but i'm

glad we're not listing everyone's sins this morning um we're not going to do that but what

we can very clearly see is in romans three for all have sinned and for all have sinned and for

fallen short of the glory of God. That all

includes Abraham. That all includes you and I as well. In verse 10 of chapter 3, there is none

righteous. No, not one. It's a very clear standard. That's why I put out just a few minutes ago this

idea, this concept of righteousness. It's a standard. James says, if you break one part of

the law, you've broken all parts of it. You're guilty. We're 100% or 0%. And the only way we get

to 100% is through the blood of Jesus Christ. That was the message last week. But in verse 1,

he brings up Abraham. He says, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather,

according to the flesh? In simple terms, what did he do? What accomplishments was he able to

gain by his works? And then in verse 2, he says, for if Abraham was justified, if he was made

righteous, he would be a righteous man. He would be a righteous man. He would be a righteous man.

By works, he has something to boast about. Paul here is, if you can look, he's almost getting

sarcastic with them. He's saying, if he got there, he could boast. But in the matter of fact,

he cannot because God is that perfect standard and he doesn't meet it. He's not putting down

Abraham and saying he's not righteous. But what he's doing is he's clearly communicating how he

came to his righteousness. He didn't get there. He didn't get there. He didn't get there. He didn't

get there by accomplishing all these good works, by praying this many prayers, by giving these

monies or praying to the priest. He didn't do any of these. He was able to accomplish it

simply by his faith and his trust in Jesus Christ. He's saying, okay, who is this Abraham guy?

I don't want to just flippantly skip through this. A little quick background. Abraham is found in

the book of Genesis. He's a man found in Ur, called by God.

And head to the promised land. God would, through the seed of Abraham, bring Jesus. That's much of

what the Old Testament describes is the lineage and the line of salvation through Jesus. God would

make a great nation through Abraham and Sarah. We did a series in February looking at four different

weeks of father Abraham. But in Genesis chapter 12, God promises Abraham. He says, now the Lord

said to Abraham,

go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great

so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And in him who dishonest you,

I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so God has chosen to

communicate and ultimately bring his seed through Abraham. And that's how

all the nations would be blessed. And in verse two, he continues with this idea of the standard.

But what I love about verse three, this is great. This is a great, I almost just taught verse three

because I think it is so pertinent for our lives today. Verse three, he says, for what does the

scripture say? I love that passage because it is so important. You may just flip and go, okay,

he's talking about Abraham. But this has more to do with our lives today than you may even,

understand. This should be a model for us, how we live our lives. What does God's word say?

When we come across something in our homes, what does God's word say? When we have a disagreement

in our homes, what does God's word say? When we have a struggle at work, what does God's word say?

When there's a struggle in church, yeah, that happens as well. What does God's word say? When

we have an opinion or a feeling on something that's happening in this world, we go to what

does God's word say? What does God's word say? When we have a disagreement in our homes, what does

God's word say? What an important thing for us as a church, as followers of Jesus. What does God's

word, God, God's word say? Not what do we feel? Not do we think? Not what does social media tell

us? Not what does the world tell us? Not what we think that we've learned. All we go back to what

the truth is and what does God's word say? It's so important.

important and imperative for us to live out a practical way in our lives. What does God's word

say? And that's what Paul says to them. Hey, you've heard this tradition. You've heard this thought.

Well, let's, let's, let's put this aside for a second. What does God say about it? And that's

what he says. He said, what does God's word say? And then he highlights or echoes what Genesis 15,

six says. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. He believed the Lord and

he counted. How is he, how did he, if you will accomplish righteousness, that almost feels weird

to say. He believed, he trusted, he had faith and his righteousness came through faith. Verse four

uses two big terms. Out of the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but his due. Some

of your translations may say credited.

This word is used 11 times in the book of Romans. It's a bookkeeping term is your faith is credited

on your account. If you will, it's on your account. You have a stamp of faith. What I love about this

is it echoes to the cross where Jesus yelled out paid in full. He was paying your, in my debt on

the cross. That's what it was to tell us that he was saying paid in full. You and I all had a debt

prior to the cross.

That debt was death because of our sins. We were separated yet by the very grace of God. God sent

his son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross and his body was broken and he shed his blood. He paid for

the remission or the cost or the wage of our sin. That's what makes the cross so incredible. That's

what makes the love of Jesus so good because that death was mine. That death was yours. And

when he paid it in full, your faith and trust in him is credited. So if you get a monthly credit

statement, you get a monthly statement. Those don't exist spiritually. Okay. So don't, don't

freak out. Some of your faces went, what, what's that? What is this? But if this was a real thing

on it, it would say, Hey, Oh, zero Jesus. How cool is that? How cool is that? Like, you know,

I racked up a huge debt and yet when the bill came and said, Hey, paid in full Jesus,

I took it. It was not counted towards me. He credited me through faith. So we trust and have

faith in what he did for us. Verse four continues. Now the one who works his wages are not counted

as a gift, but his due. And so the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies

the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. This verse was a huge, if you will,

mic drop for Paul. Paul is dropping a mic on this statement.

In his argument, he's saying, Hey, you know what? The ones that, that, that, that think they're,

they're getting their due, they'll get their due. But guess what? God in his great grace forgives

or justifies the ungodly. Tell you who the ungodly are. It's us. It's us. It's every one of us that

have sinned. It's every one of us that have failed. It's every one of us that have missed

the mark. What's great. Romans five, six, for while we were yet sinners at the right time,

Christ died for the ungodly.

He died for each and every one of us in a beautiful love and a beautiful care and a

beautiful showing of demonstration of his love for each and every one of us. He said, Hey, you know

what? You have a debt. I'll take it. I'll die. Yeah. You have missed the mark. You are unrighteous.

Just like every single one of us yet. I still love you and we'll do it for you. This is sweet.

When God justifies the wicked, he's just like the employer who gives wages to those who do no work.

Hey, you know what? We all need it.

As I read that, I thought about Matthew chapter 20, where Jesus is telling a parable. He's telling

the parable of, of these.

day laborers where he's setting up them for them to come each day and he set up the standard the

cost the payment that they will get and so the ones that would come at eight o'clock or nine

o'clock in the morning they would receive righteousness they receive the payment but

guess what the ones that came at five to five before everyone was dismissed and they started

they received the same righteousness they received the same payment see he agrees to pay the the

employees whether they were there for a long time or a short time and jesus is describing in matthew

chapter 20 guess what it is the employer it is the one that sets the standard and yet somehow

we think we're better because i've done so many good things we are all ungodly yet through his

great grace in each and every one of us this is good amazing grace is our our favorite hymn yet

many of us believe if i do my best i will somehow earn heaven and it couldn't be further

from that

from the truth god loves us cares for us let's continue in verses six through eight because then

he uses david king david just as david also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom god counts

righteousness apart from works blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins

are covered blessed is the man against whom the lord will not count his sin here paul is using

some of his

pharisaical training you're thinking what is that paul was trained just as these religious leaders

and teachers he was a jew of jew he describes and so he knew their ways of interpretation

their way of understanding and so he's using that in his argument he's saying you're going to use

this and so i'm going to show you exactly how he does it he says you know what he uses the method

of principle of analogy he uses a word and it simply is described as a cross reference for us

a word used in this passage your word used in this passage and they mean the same thing it's a little

harder in english as the old testament is translated from hebrew the new the new from greek

but if you've got to go to the original language to do some of this cross referencing but paul is

using this he's using the very training that he does and he's appealing now to the old testament

psalm 32 where david said blessed is the one whose transgression transgression is for you and for me

psalm 32 where david said blessed is the one whose transgression transgression is for you and for me

forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the lord counts no iniquity and whose

spirit there is no deceit for when i kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day

long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength dried up as by the heat of summer

i acknowledged my sin to you and i did not cover my iniquity i said i will confess my transgressions

which simply means sins to the lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin what is david

saying here i can try all why all i want but blessed is the man who's been forgiven by the

work of god i came to the point of confessing my sin and he forgave me it's that realization of

we are all broken we all struggle we all battle we all deal with the difficulties of this world

yet god in his great grace and his mercy loves us first john one

nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all

unrighteousness but we most many of us stop at verse nine by verse 10 it says if we say we have

not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us and this is exactly what paul is

identifying or dealing with hey i i'm good i've got it all figured out i i i have accomplished

through my works no no no if you say that you're making god a liar

see it's coming to that realization of confessing my sins i'm broken i'm lost i'm in need of jesus

paul calls david blessed why because he received the very grace the unmerited the unearned favor

of god he received grace verses 9 through 12 paul continues

I'm not going to deep dive circumcision this morning, all right?

Some of you looked uncomfortable as I read it about eight or nine times, all right?

If you're unsure what it is, ask your parents.

I don't care if you're 50, right?

I'd say Google it, but I'm not sure you want to.

Please don't do that, all right?

That's terrible, all right?

The reality for each and every one of us is what is happening in this passage.

Paul is proceeding to tell them that salvation is to all who believe,

whether circumcised or uncircumcised, in a quick, simple synopsis.

The Jews believe you had to be circumcised to be saved.

It was a work.

And so without that, you were not saved.

And Paul is saying, guess what?

Abraham was made righteous or saved well before he was circumcised.

Some theologians guess somewhere between 14 to 29 years prior to his circumcision.

Prior to they believed, no, no, no.

He was made righteous all the way.

In Genesis chapter 15, years earlier, they believe, well, he accomplished it.

No, no, no, no.

He was made righteous by what?

His faith, his belief, and his trust in God.

He obeyed and said, hey, you know what?

I trust you.

I believe you.

He's dealing again with this historical or religious tradition

of what they understood at the moment that, well, you know what?

I've got to earn my way.

I've got to do this work.

Many churches today, well, I've got to be baptized to be saved.

No, no, no.

Baptism is not salvation.

It is a outward expression of what Christ has done in me.

There's churches that believe, well, I have to do these spiritual gifts

to show that I am saved.

No, no, no.

That doesn't exist in God's word.

It's very clear.

Romans 4 is right here.

The salvation is nothing we can do.

There's no work that we can earn there.

There's no work that we can qualify ourselves there.

It only comes by faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2, for by grace,

you've been saved not of yourself.

You're like, man, you are beating this drum

over three, four weeks.

This is what Romans is saying

because the truth of the matter is,

for many of us, we get caught in this religion,

this tradition, oh, I've gotta be good.

I've gotta earn my way there.

God only loves me if I can do these good things.

The great thing about God's love

is it's clear in Romans 3,

while you were ungodly, God loved you.

While you're at your lowest low,

the worst spot in your life,

God said, hey, I love you in spite of that

and I'm gonna send Jesus to die for you.

He's gonna pay your debt

and all you have to do is receive it.

You can't earn it.

But for each and every one of us,

we get this misconception, let's say that,

where we believe the lies from the devil

that I've gotta earn my way.

I've gotta do these good things.

I've gotta check this box off.

No, this doesn't bring righteousness.

No, we do those good works

because of what?

Christ did for us not to earn our way to it.

Paul, man, isn't pulling any punches here.

Some believe, well, he's just talking to the Jews here.

No, no, no.

At this point, he's already established

that Father Abraham is over all.

The Jews and Gentiles, through that line,

he describes in Galatians of us

being grafted into that same line,

the Jews and Gentiles.

And for each and every one of us,

he's talking to us.

No, no, no.

It's coming to the end of self and saying,

God, I can't do this.

I'm my own.

I need you.

I love verse 12.

And to make him the father of the circumcised,

who are not merely circumcised,

but who also walk in the footsteps

of the faith that our Father Abraham had.

What is Paul doing here?

He's illustrating.

He's taking a...

practical tradition to call truth that they viewed and he's applying it to their lives

and an incredible incredible explanation that's my goal each week really is take what the word

of god says illustrate and apply it as we study it as first timothy talks about it is is all

scripture is is profitable for teaching or proof correction as we study that it's applying it in

our lives and living that out i don't want to land here just for a few moments then we'll sing

one more song 12 has called us to walk in the footsteps of the faith it's what i i love paul

he doesn't play a bait and switch here but he he illustrates and then says hey you know what

you believed in this tradition that he was but had belief that he worked his way to righteousness

but i'm going to give you the opposite follow in his footsteps

trust that's how you achieve righteousness and i i use that achieve loosely okay that's how you

accomplish that's how you arrive at righteousness only by what jesus christ and his justification

for us but as we walk in those footsteps of faith i thought man as we pass down traditions

as we pass down these these sometimes funny things that we do in our homes with kids or grandkids or

we pass down these

maybe traditions uh in the church sometimes biblical biblical sometimes extra biblical

i think here paul is calling them to pass down his faith his trust i thought man this is probably a

reboot of tradition he's going hey there's some good things there's some great things you passed

down but guess what let's let's let's send her back out and trust in jesus i faith paul later

in second corinthians tells them to walk by faith

not by sight thought what does that practically look like in our lives a tradition of the footsteps

of faith and then i came to this understanding this idea that i think it looks different for

each and every one of us when the rubber meets the road when when when people around you see

when the world seems to be crashing around you in your life and you still trust and you have faith

in jesus so go hey what are you doing i'm saying i'm walking in the footsteps of my forefathers

i'm carrying on that tradition as a parent we want to pass down all these different things

want to pass down these these abilities these ideas these truths at the end of the day if my

kids see that i am faithful to the lord through all things in my life isn't that good enough

isn't that the tradition you want to pass down the very footsteps that i thought about us as a church

community look to say hey you know what through thick and thin through storms and sunshine through

ups and downs they stayed faithful to the word of god and what jesus christ has called them isn't

that enough it's like i began to then go man i want to walk in the very footsteps of faith what's

great is paul's not saying you have to do it perfectly he used abraham and david as examples

both were adulterers david killed a guy talking about they had sins guess what you and i do too

i'm glad mine are not chronicled in god's word amen that's the truth

this is saying walk in those footsteps and then i look and go apply it and look and go what and how

am i walking in footsteps of faith trusting god i gotta i don't understand i don't understand what

tomorrow brings i don't understand what my job looks like i don't understand i don't like i

don't understand what this doctor is saying to me i i don't understand but god i trust you it's yours

god i don't understand all the things that are happening in this world i turn on the tv

i'm filled with anxiety and fear i'm i'm filled with all these feelings yet i want to walk in

footsteps of faith god give me the ability to do that and that's my prayer for you that's my prayer

for us that's my prayer for each and every one of us as parents or grandparents husbands and wives

as individuals that work as neighbors as one this in this community that we walk in a tradition

of faith that we can pass that down that people look wow they'll find

them

faithful that's my prayer for you this morning that's my prayer as we this message and i think

that's what paul is describing in romans 4 1 through 12 tradition of faith may we pass it down

amen amen let me pray for you god we love you praise you we honor you we glorify you

god i think this morning of individuals in this room god it's easy for me to get up and talk about

tradition of faith and trust and to follow those footsteps god i know there's ones that are carrying

the weight of the world right now pray for me

through your holy spirit you bring comfort encouragement strength god thank you for

loving us and our imperfection thank you for loving us when we're ungodly thank you for

sending your son jesus to die on the cross for our sins and this morning i just want to ring the bell

a call to be faithful call to honor you call to glorify you and how we trust how we believe we

just praise you thank you for your plan though we don't understand it that we don't know how it's

working out we do know that you have one we don't know how it's working out we do know that you have

one we don't know how it's working out we do know that you have one we don't know how it's working out

and it's good we just honor you that we worship you in song their whole hearts this morning

jesus wonderful name