By Faith Rahab

Posted on October 18, 2026 by sarhodes

By Faith Rahab, A Prostitute with a Heart of Faith (Heb 11:30-31; Josh 6:23)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH, on Sunday, October 18, 2026

About thirteen years ago, Meagan and I watched a television show called Turn. The show is about spies during the Revolutionary War. I liked it because I love history, especially Revolutionary War history. I have read books and biographies about that era. I remember reading a book about Alexander Hamilton that explored what would have happened to our founding fathers if we had lost the war. So the show Turn always kept me on the edge of my seat. I was always thinking, “Oh no, I hope he is not caught by the British!”

In real life, I have read about Christians meeting in secret because of fear of persecution. I have read and shared real stories of people being imprisoned for possessing a Bible in many countries today.

I want us to examine the narrative of Rahab protecting the spies. She trusted the Lord, even though she was not Hebrew. I also want to show you how the Hebrew spies trusted the Lord.

I hope we can think about our trust.

Let’s read Hebrews 11:31:

Hebrews 11:31 (ESV)

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Let me share a few words about this passage.
1. Instead of reading the entire passage. I am going to explain the passage and the context.
2. We must know the passage before we can apply the passage:
3. In Joshua 2:1-7, we have the introduction: the spies are sent out, and Rahab hides them and tricks the king’s men.
  1. This is not the first time they have tried to spy out the land:
  2. In Numbers 13:2, the Lord had told Moses that they would possess the land of Canaan. The Lord keeps His promises.
  3. In Numbers 13-14, Moses sent twelve spies to survey the Canaanite land and assess its defenses, manpower, and fertility.
  4. Joshua was one of those spies (Numbers 13:8).
  5. Joshua’s name was originally Hoshea. Moses changed it to Joshua (Numbers 13:16).
  6. Joshua and Caleb were the only two of the 12 spies who returned with faith that they could take the land (Numbers 14:30).
  7. The other ten said they were like grasshoppers in their sight (Numbers 13:33).
  8. Because of their lack of faith, they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, and all of them died (except Joshua and Caleb) (Numbers 14:28-45).
  9. In Numbers 22-24, Balak feared the Israelites, even though the Israelites feared the Canaanites.
  10. Now, back to Joshua 2.
  11. The men are sent to view the land.
  12. It says, especially, Jericho.
  13. They end up in the house of a prostitute (see also James 2:25).
  14. In Joshua 2:2, the king of Jericho finds out that spies are in town.
  15. In Joshua 2:3, the king of Jericho goes to Rahab and suspects her.
  16. In Joshua 2:4-5, she admits they came to her, but she did not know where they were from.
  17. She recommends pursuing them quickly.
  18. In Joshua 2:6, she explains that she hid them under stalks of flax on the roof.
  19. In Joshua 2:7, the pursuers leave, and they shut the gate.
4. In Joshua 2:8-14, Rahab confesses that the Lord is Lord, and the two-way protection deal begins.
  1. In Joshua 2:8, it reads “before they lay down”: this must mean they slept there.
  2. In Joshua 2:9-11, she admits that the Lord has given them the land and that they fear the Lord.
  3. She speaks of different events they have heard about:
    1. They have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea.
    2. They have heard about two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan.
    3. They have heard about Sihon and Og, whom they utterly destroyed.
  4. Their hearts melted at the sound of this.
  5. They had no courage.
  6. We see a confession: The Lord their God is God, Heaven above and on earth beneath.
  7. In Joshua 2:12-14, she seeks a pledge that her father’s household will be spared (mother, brothers, sisters, and their families).
    1. She says she has handled them well.
    2. The two men say they will be spared.
5. In Joshua 2:15-21, we see the promise to Rahab.
  1. In Joshua 2:15, she lets them down a rope.
  2. It says she lived in the city wall.
  3. Something interesting: Translated literally, the Hebrew reads, “Her house was against the vertical surface of the city wall, and in the city wall she lived.” How was her house preserved when the wall fell? Remarkably, archaeology provides an answer. German excavations from 1907–1909 on the northern section of the site uncovered a portion of the lower city wall that did not fall as it did everywhere else. The still-standing section rose as high as 8 feet (nearly 2.5 m), with houses built against it still intact. A second wall at the crest of the embankment revealed that these particular houses were situated between the upper and lower city walls and were thus “in the city wall.” Since the lower wall also formed the back wall of the houses, an opening (window) in the wall would have provided a convenient escape route for the spies. From this northerly location it was only a short distance to the hills of the Judean wilderness, where the spies hid for three days (2:16, 22).^[1]
  4. In Joshua 2:16 she recommends a route:
  5. The hill country;
  6. Three days of hiding, then go on your route;
  7. In Joshua 2:17-19, we see the terms of the oath. They are free unless specific conditions are met:
    1. Scarlet thread hangs outside the window;
    2. Gather in the house all the family;
    3. Father;
    4. Mother;
    5. Brothers;
    6. Father’s household;
    7. If they leave the house, the Israelites are not responsible for them.
    8. The Israelites are responsible for protecting anyone in her house.
    9. If she reports this, the Israelites are released from this oath.
  8. In Joshua 2:20-21, she agreed to the terms, and they left.
  9. She tied the scarlet cord on the window.
6. In Joshua 2:22-24, we see the men escape:
  1. They leave, and the pursuers do not find them.
  2. In Joshua 2:23, they leave and return to Joshua, son of Nun.
  3. They share what happened.
  4. In Joshua 2:24, they share the people’s fear.
We must trust the Lord as the spies did.
1. In the first few verses, I notice that these spies went into a dangerous city and trusted the Lord. I have read about how people back then treated prisoners. I have read accounts of them cutting off a person’s thumbs and big toes and letting them go. They risked it all.
2. Can we trust the Lord as the Hebrew spies did?
3. Will we go into a hostile area for ministry?
4. Will we go out to share Jesus with other people?
We must trust the Lord as Rahab did.
1. Will we offer to pray with someone in public? These are little things, but they are big for us, aren’t they?
2. Why not trust the Lord with your life and get involved in a new ministry?
  1. The Caring Committee is a great ministry of this church, and it could always use more volunteers.
  2. I know that Matt and Chrissy need helpers with certain youth activities.
  3. Karl can use help with the children’s ministry.
  4. Maybe there is a ministry idea on your mind; what do you have to fear? Bring it up.
3. Certainly, many of you deserve commendation for all of your ministry.
4. How can we trust the Lord?
5. I was in an evangelism class in college, and the professor shared a story about a student who stuttered. In class, we always shared times when people received Christ. This student, who stuttered, had many opportunities to share Christ and experienced victories. On one occasion, he shared Christ with a motorcycle gang. It sounded scary. The professor asked the student’s partner how the student was doing with stuttering. The partner said, “When he is sharing the Gospel, he doesn’t stutter.”
6. Wow!!!
7. Do we trust the Lord in living the Christian life?
8. Do we trust the Lord in standing up for TRUTH?
The Lord is Sovereign; look at the big picture of Rahab and the Bible:
1. The Lord knew what would happen.
2. Nothing took God by surprise. Even though the first spies failed, the second did not. What did God do with Rahab?
3. Rahab was listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:31.
4. Rahab was used as an example of good works in James 2:25.
5. In Matthew 1:5, Rahab is listed as an ancestor of Jesus.
6. In Matthew 1:4-5, it shows that Rahab became the wife of Salmon, whose son was Boaz.
7. Boaz became Ruth’s husband (Ruth 4:13).
8. Boaz was the grandfather of Jesse, who was the father of David, the second King of Israel.
9. We never know what God is doing, do we? But God is at work.

Conclusion:

How can God use our faith today? How can God use our faith today for tomorrow?

Think about that. I can leave this place and share Jesus with someone, and they can change their life. Really.

Greg Stier, founder and leader of the youth convention Dare2Share, and a widely sought-after speaker, writes about taking his son and his friends to share the Gospel with people at a mall. He then recounts a story of his own time sharing the Gospel:

I’ve seen God do some unbelievable miracles in the context of “stranger danger” evangelism. Almost 20 years ago I gave a drunk guy named Kevin a brand new More Than a Carpenter book after fruitlessly trying to share Jesus with him and his drinking buddies. Between the F-bombs, he promised to read it. Ten years later he walked into my office and threw that now marked up edition of Josh McDowell’s classic book on my desk. He said, “I read it. I trusted in Jesus. And now I carry 40 of those in the trunk of my car to hand out to the young people I meet.”

I would have totally missed that opportunity if I could only share the Gospel with him in the context of a relationship. The only reason I shared the message is because God put him and his two drunk friends on my heart as I walked past them at a shopping mall. I saw them there, obviously drunk, and God just moved in me to tell these complete strangers about Jesus.

It seemed like a complete bomb at the time. I remember thinking to myself that I just wasted that perfectly good book on a guy who will never read it. Boy was I wrong! Who knows how many will be in heaven as a result of us scattering seeds of hope wherever we go? God knows! And someday, on the other side of eternity, we will meet them and be shocked at the difference all those conversations made!

Another blessing, especially of taking teenagers out to share the good news with strangers, is that they are forced to rely on God.

How are we relying on God today?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

This is from the Archaeological Study Bible. ↑

By Faith, Moses

Posted on October 11, 2026 by sarhodes

We are in a sermon series on prayer and faith.

Timothy Keller shares:

Thomas Oden, who teaches philosophical theology over here at Drew University, has a fascinating little article in which he says this is how the human heart works. He says, first, every person is goal-oriented. You can’t live if you don’t have something to look forward to. Secondly, all goals compete, so you can’t live unless you choose one goal as the center of value by which all other goals are judged, one bottom line by which all other goals are evaluated. Thirdly, he says if you choose a finite center of value, you’re always anxious.

I’ll even quote him. The way he puts it if I can find it quickly, he says, “Anxiety becomes neurotically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite values …” He goes on. He says, “Suppose my center of value is my health or my political party [bad year] or sexual attractiveness or financial productivity. If my center of value is any of these things, when these things are under threat, and they always are if I think about it, I am shaken to the depths. Therefore, I try not to think in order to keep my peace.”

Do you see what he’s saying? He was saying if you choose anything but God, anything but an infinite source of value, center of value, you’re shakable, and Moses figured that out. He says, “I will be as durable as the thing I love most in life. If I decide the most important thing is I have to have somebody to love me, I will do whatever it takes to get somebody to love me. I’d like to obey the Ten Commandments, but if I have to disobey the Ten Commandments to get somebody to love me, that’s the center of my value.”^{^[1]}

So, where is our faith? Is our confidence in God amighty?

So, now, let’s look at Moses’s faith.

My theme is: Be like Moses, trust in God over fleeting pleasures of sin, look forward to the eternal reward, look to Jesus.

By faith, Moses’s parents (Hebrews 11:23).
1. “By faith” is repeated five times regarding Moses and his parents (Hebrews 11:23-30).
2. Hebrews 11:23 (ESV)
3. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
4. We can see this in Exodus 2:2.
5. We know what was going on. They were supposed to kill male babies, but they hid Moses.
By faith, Moses refuses to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter (Hebrews 11:24).
1. Why did Moses refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter?
2. He chose to endure ill treatment rather than the pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11:25).
3. Hebrews 11:24–25 (ESV)
4. ²⁴By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
5. He was raised and, to some extent, could claim to be from the house of Pharaoh.
6. We see this in Exodus 2:10 and Exodus 2:11-25, which describe his identification with the Hebrew people.
7. Moses preferred to identify with the Hebrew people.
8. This meant being mistreated, but he chose that rather than fleeting pleasures of sin.
9. Notice how the author describes sin as “fleeting.”
10. It seems that Moses could have stayed in Egypt and clung to the Egyptian upbringing, but that would mean worthless sin.
Moses looked to the reward, considering the suffering for Christ greater than the wealth of Egypt (Hebrews 11:26).
1. Hebrews 11:26 (ESV)
2. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
3. This completely follows Exodus 2:11 and continues through Exodus 3.
4. He was willing to suffer reproach, that is, disappointment, disapproval.
5. Notice how the author says he would suffer this for Christ, even though Jesus had not come yet.
6. He still suffered for Christ, as Jesus is outside of time. Jesus was active in the Old Testament, and suffering for the Lord is suffering for Christ.
7. One source shares:
8. What does Christ have to do with Moses’s rejection of Egypt? The storyline of Scripture rests squarely on the promise of a coming Messiah. The author of Hebrews demonstrates that Moses’s mistreatment ultimately pointed to Jesus, the very Messiah who would come to redeem his people. Moses himself wrote that a prophet would come who was greater than he and who would fulfill God’s promises (Deut 18:15–22). The covenant promises, in which these Old Testament saints believed, all find fulfillment in Jesus (2 Cor 1:20). Moses, therefore, was looking for the One who would redeem Israel, and the reproach he endured because he identified with the Israelites bore witness to the reproach Christ would bear for his people.^{^[2]}
By faith, Moses leaves Egypt (Hebrews 11:27).
1. Hebrews 11:27 (ESV)
2. ²⁷By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
3. This is all in Exodus 2:11 and Exodus 3.
4. He chose not to fear the king because he focused on the One Who Is invisible. This connects with Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
5. He was focused on Yahweh.
6. One source shares:
7. Note the parallel with Joseph. Moses, like Joseph, knew that Egypt was not his home; it was not the promised land. He left because he believed God’s promises to Israel.
8. Verse 27 is a reminder of a basic biblical principle: we must decide whose anger we fear more—the anger of the world and its governing authorities, or the anger of the Lord, the One who will judge the living and the dead. Moses clearly understands who God is: the Lord, sovereign over all. Thus, Moses did not fear Pharaoh. Instead, he followed God.^{^[3]}
9. He kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood (Hebrews 11:28).
10. Hebrews 11:28 (ESV)
11. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
12. Moses had to trust in the Lord as the Passover was established. This was in Exodus 12:1-32. God was going to kill the firstborn, but for those with lamb’s blood sprinkled on the doors, they would be spared.
13. As one source shares:
14. The substitution pictured in the Passover foreshadowed the final perfect Lamb who would be slain for the forgiveness of those who put his blood on the doorpost of their hearts by faith (Isa 53:7; Matt 27:14; Acts 8:26–40). Led by Moses, the Israelites kept the Passover, not doubting that God would keep his promise to them. The death of the firstborn son would have ended the covenant promise to Abraham. But Israel’s firstborn were protected. Why? Because Moses did not waver in availing himself of the substitutionary sacrifice God provided. He trusted God to be faithful.^{^[4]}
15. I like how Tim Keller looks at this idea:
16. In your effort to get rid of this idea of the wrath of God, in order to come up with a more loving concept of God, you have come up with a less loving concept of God. Don’t you know? What did he do there for you? The reason the destroyer did not go in to the doors where there was blood was because the destroyer saw the blood had already been shed. The sword had already come down. Destruction had already happened, so the destroyer didn’t go in. It was the wrath that had already fallen that turned away the destroyer.
17. God never takes two payments for the same sin. One payment has to be made. When Jesus Christ was on the cross, it got dark outside, but that was nothing like the darkness that happened inside his heart. A lot of people want to know what happened on the cross. What was so bad? If you don’t understand him as the Lamb of God, if you don’t understand what he did on the cross was he took the wrath of God … I’ll tell you what happened on the cross. The destroyer, the wrath of God, came to his door and went in.^{^[5]}
18. By faith, he crossed the Red Sea (Hebrews 11:30).
19. Hebrews 11:29 (ESV)
20. ²⁹By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
21. This jumps ahead to Exodus 14:10-31.
22. Imagine the faith this would take. They had to walk into the water and believe, have faith, that the sea would not fall back on them.
23. It took faith to walk through the Red Sea, with walls of water on each side (Ex. 14:10–31), relying only on God’s promise (Ex. 14:1–4, 15–18).^{^[6]}
Applications:
1. Moses’s parents had faith as they trusted the Lord with their son.
2. Do we trust the Lord with our children? God can keep our children safe.
3. Moses chose mistreatment with the Israelites. Can we choose to identify with Christ, even if things don’t go as well for us? Can we do the right thing? Can we have integrity? Can we tell the truth? Can we have biblical ethics? Can we put Christ first?
4. Do we trust Jesus as greater and the rewards of Jesus as worth waiting for?
5. Moses chose mistreatment rather than sin in Egypt. Wow!
6. Piper helps us apply this:
7. At first, lust begins to trick me into feeling that I would really miss out on some great satisfaction if I followed the path of purity. But then I take up the sword of the Spirit and begin to fight.
8. I read that it is better to gouge out my eye than to lust (Matthew 5:29).
9. I read that if I think about things that are pure and lovely and excellent, the peace of God will be with me (Philippians 4:8–9).
10. I read that setting the mind on the flesh brings death, but setting the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace (Romans 8:6).
11. I read that lust wages war against my soul (1 Peter 2:11), and that the pleasures of this life choke out the life of the Spirit (Luke 8:14).
12. But best of all, I read that God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11), and that the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8).^[7]
13. Can we trust Jesus in uncharted territory? They walked the Red Sea, trusting God would hold the water back.
14. Are any of you in a Red Sea experience now? Maybe you are trusting the Lord step-by-step, not knowing how, but trusting the Lord is guarding your future.

This is all about faith, about trust. We see that the people smeared the blood on the doorpost. A lamb was slain to keep them alive.

What do we do with our sin?

Tim Keller:

The glory of God is not that his mercy doesn’t need payment, but his mercy makes the payment. God is not like these ancient gods where you had to sacrifice to them to turn aside their wrath, like Agamemnon in The Iliad. He’s not getting good winds. He can’t get to Troy, so what does he do? He sacrifices his daughter. The gods say, “Okay, I’m appeased,” and then they let him go.^{^[8]}

However, in the Christian view, God makes His own payment. Jesus took our place on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21).

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
R. Albert Mohler Jr., Exalting Jesus in Hebrews (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 189. ↑
R. Albert Mohler Jr., Exalting Jesus in Hebrews (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 189. ↑
R. Albert Mohler Jr., Exalting Jesus in Hebrews (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 190. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2381. ↑
Excerpt from “Future Grace” pages 335-336. Piper, John. Solid Joys devotional, July 23.

https://www.desiringgod.org/solid-joys/how-to-defy-sinful-desire?utm_campaign=Daily%20Email&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=91594934&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9CHEZ88bDKcBClp1CrGtH-FSxAMwp0VQ3QdnIQLJ0dkDEYPOb4cAUL98kVSC5cHPbT6Lu_rsVfHulCVBR4BhKXd26jLw&utm_content=91594934&utm_source=hs_email ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

By Faith, Joseph (Heb. 11:22; Gen. 50:22-26)

Posted on October 4, 2026 by sarhodes

In 1986, a Christian worker named Steve Saint was traveling through the country of Mali when his car broke down. Stranded and alone, Steve tried to rent a truck, despite warnings that he wouldn’t survive in the Sahara Desert. After he failed to find a truck, in his fear and discouragement, Steve’s thoughts ran to his father, Nate Saint, a former missionary in Ecuador. When Steve was only five, natives speared to death his dad and four other missionaries. Now, thirty years later, Steve found himself questioning his father’s death. Steve reflected, “I couldn’t help but think the murders were capricious, an accident of bad timing.”

When Steve asked some locals directions to a church, a few children led him to a tiny mud- brick house with a poster on the wall showing wounded hands covering a cross. A man in flowing robes introduced himself as Nouh Af Infa Yatara. Nouh started sharing with Steve about his faith in Christ. After becoming a Christian, his family disowned him. His mother even put a sorcerer’s poison in Nouh’s food at a family feast. He ate the food but suffered no ill effects.

When Steve asked Nouh why he was willing to pay such a steep price for following Christ, he simply said, “I know God loves me and I’ll live with him forever.” But Steve pressed, “Where did your courage come from?” Nouh explained that when he was young, a missionary gave him books about Christians who had suffered for their faith. Then he added, “My favorite was about five young men who risked their lives to take God’s good news to people in the jungles of Ecuador. The book said they let themselves be speared to death, even though they had guns and could have killed their attackers!”

Utterly shocked, Steve said, “One of those men was my father.” Now Nouh felt stunned. “Your father?” he exclaimed. Then Nouh told Steve that God had used the death of those five brave missionaries to help him, a young Muslim who had become a Christian, hold on to his faith.

God is in control. God works in all things, even in tragedy. Maybe we could say, especially in tragedy.

Today, let’s talk about Joseph and his faith. If you know Joseph from the Old Testament, he had quite a roller coaster ride. In Genesis chapter 37, it is written that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. From seventeen to thirty years old, Joseph was in slavery and/or prison in Egypt (Genesis 37:2 and 41:46). After his imprisonment, he became second-in-command over all of Egypt, and God used him to rescue the people of Egypt and Israel. God preserved Israel through Joseph.

Now, we come to the end of the book of Genesis and Joseph’s final recorded words. First, let’s read:

Hebrews 11:22 (ESV)

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

Now, turn to:

Genesis 50:22–26 (ESV)

²²So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. ²³And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own. ²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” ²⁵Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” ²⁶So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

My theme and application are that we can learn to trust God through Joseph.

What can we learn from Joseph’s faith and blessings?

God has visited us as Joseph said He would (verse 24).
1. Do you see that in verse 24: ²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
2. This is the first time Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned together in this way. God promised the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they never saw its fulfillment. Now they are in Egypt. What are they to do? Joseph tells them that God will come to their aid and that they will leave Egypt.
3. We learn trust from Joseph. Joseph was essentially the Secretary of State of the nation of Egypt. He was highly revered. He could have trusted in Egypt, but he did not. Joseph still clung to God’s promises and had faith in the Promised Land.
4. I think Joseph had his own royal chariot and cooks, and he was close to the Pharaoh, but he didn’t trust in that.
5. God did come to their aid.
We can make an indirect application that God has come to our aid as well.
1. God came to Israel’s aid some 430 years later and blessed the world through Jesus Christ.
2. We can trust the same promise Joseph trusted.
3. Remember: Immanuel: God with us (Matthew 1:23).
We have been redeemed.
1. We are given the promise of the Promised Land, though we are not there yet. In Joseph’s context, the people had not yet been redeemed from slavery or given the Promised Land, yet Joseph prophesied this (verse 24).
2. Sometimes we have promises, but we must wait for them.
3. Joseph promised his brothers that they would go to the promised land, but they had to be patient.
4. Now, they could wait patiently and comfortably because, at that point, the Pharaoh was friendly toward the Hebrews. Eventually, Exodus 1 tells us the Pharaoh was no longer friendly toward the Hebrews, but they still had to wait.
5. As they waited, we must wait patiently for Jesus’s coming Kingdom on earth. They waited; we must wait. We have a promise that Jesus is coming for us, as He came for the Hebrews. Right now, we are comfortable in the United States, but remember, this is not the Promised Land. Someday we may not be comfortable, and that will remind us that this is not the world God intended. It is coming. In other parts of the world, people are uncomfortable and persecuted for their faith. In other places, they are hungry and without food and clothing. Even in the U.S., some of these things are happening. This reminds us that this is not the world God intended. Remember, don’t forget, God is coming back for us through Jesus. This is not the Promised Land.
6. Joseph had faith that God would return for them, and so must we.
Look to the Kingdom.
1. Although Joseph could have had an elaborate burial in Egypt, he chose the Promised Land.
2. No matter what this world can offer us, we must look to the Kingdom of Heaven.
3. Think of all that Joseph could have had in Egypt.
4. You’ve seen the pyramids, right?
5. I think he could have had that kind of burial. He could have been buried in a pyramid with gold. That is not what he chose. He chose the Promised Land.
6. We must trust in God’s promises, not this world.
God is in control; we can trust Him.
1. We can trust God’s promise as Joseph did.
2. My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty. There’s nothing my God can’t do. We’ll come back to that.
3. When life is falling apart, as it was for Joseph, we can trust Him.
4. When we care for elderly parents, we can trust God.
5. When we lay family members and friends in the grave, we can have hope in the Resurrection and in life (John 11:25).
6. When we care for sick children, we can trust God and look to a time without sickness (Rev. 21).
7. When we don’t know where to turn, we can turn to God in prayer (James 5:16).
8. When dealing with children and grandchildren who are constantly getting into trouble, we can hope in Jesus, who can turn lives around (2 Cor. 5:17 and 21).
9. When you yourself are struggling with sin and addiction, you can turn to Jesus, who has promised to help (Matt. 11:28; John 4:14; 2 Cor. 5:17 and 21; Gal. 2:20).
10. When the world is falling apart and you are afraid to turn on the news, we can look forward to the Promised Land (Rev. 21).

Joseph faced hard times, but God was in control. We may face hard times, yet God is in control. Trust Him as Joseph did. Trust His promises.

My God is so big, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do

The mountains are His, the rivers are His
The stars are His handiwork too
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do, hey, hey

My God is so great, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do

Repeat after me: God is in control, God is in control.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

By Faith, Jacob

Posted on September 27, 2026 by sarhodes

By Faith, Jacob (Heb 11:21; Gen 48)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 27, 2026

Tony Evans writes:

Somebody has come up with a great concept—putting playrooms in doctors’ offices. Many parents bring their kids to the doctor because they are sick and they need the doctor to see them. The playrooms are designed to distract the children from the pain of their problem until their problem gets fixed. The playroom gives them joy in a bad situation.

That’s the way God works. Even though things may not be going the way we want them to be on the outside, God has designed a “playroom” in our soul. In the midst of our circumstances, His joy can distract us from our pain or discomfort, until He makes provision for our change or healing.^{520,^[1]}

So, how does your faith make you feel? Does trusting in God make you happy? Does God make you happy? Without your faith, would you be unhappy? I don’t believe all Christians are happy and joyful all the time. But I like to believe that being reminded of God’s promises will encourage and equip us for both good times and bad. I want to believe that returning to God’s promises will give us renewed hope.

Today, I want to look at a passage that will once again take us back to Genesis. We will look at Jacob and how he blessed his son and two of his grandsons. In this blessing, he was both prophetic and trusting in God’s promises.

My theme and application:

Jacob blesses both of Joseph’s sons, trusting in God’s promises. We can also have faith by trusting in God’s promises.

Recall that we introduced Jacob last Sunday. At that time, he was not yet married. He was a conniving man who stole his brother’s birthright. Yet this demonstrated God’s sovereignty. God oversaw everything, and God’s will came to pass.

Now, years later, Jacob is 147 years old and has a large family. He has 13 children, 12 of whom are sons.

Read with me:

Hebrews 11:21–22 (ESV)

²¹By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. ²²By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

I heard about a pastor who said:

On one of my pastoral visits, I had just stepped inside a hospital elevator and punched the button for the fifth floor when a young pregnant woman slipped in beside me.

Noticing she glanced at the button panel, but didn’t press a button for another floor, I asked, “Number five?”

“Heavens no!” she gasped. “It’s only my first!”^[2]

Well, it was her first, but Jacob had 13 children. A lot has happened to Jacob in the last few years. Now, here he is, and he is grateful.

The Abrahamic Covenant continues:
1. God made a promise to Abraham, and that promise was still being fulfilled. The promise is called the Abrahamic covenant, first recorded in Genesis 12:1-3; let’s turn there.
2. Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)
3. Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And 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. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4. Now, turn over to Genesis 13:14–18 (ESV)
5. ¹⁴The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, ¹⁵for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. ¹⁶I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. ¹⁷Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” ¹⁸So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
6. Now, this covenant is again repeated in Genesis 15:18–21 (ESV)
7. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
8. Once again, now turn over to Genesis 17:6 (ESV) ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
9. These are God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants; understand that Christians are grafted into these promises (Romans 11:17-24; Galatians 3:15-29 (especially 29); 4:1-6; 21-31 (especially 28)).
10. Jacob knew these promises, and God, who is sovereign and in control, was going to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant even through Jacob, who was conniving. God fulfills his promises even through you and me.
11. So, we come to Genesis 48, where Jacob is about to die and will bless his children and grandchildren.
Let’s look at the blessing:
1. Turn to Genesis 48:15–16 (ESV) ¹⁵And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
2. This blessing predicts the future in a manner similar to the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob and Esau in Genesis 27.
3. How can anyone predict the future?
4. In 1995, an American scientist named Clifford Stoll boldly predicted that the Internet would be just another passing fad. He wrote an article for Newsweek titled “The Internet? Bah!” Here’s what Stoll said in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio:
5. I expect the value of the Internet for communications in general isn’t very high. I don’t think it will ever replace face to face meetings and real rallies—things that get commitment and involvement from people. Rather, it induces a very shallow … involvement and as such, I think it’s grossly over-promoted and there’s a great deal of hyperbole surrounding it.
6. I think it’s grossly oversold and within two or three years people will shrug and say, ‘”Uh yep, it was a fad of the early 90’s and now, oh yeah, it still exists but hey, I’ve got a life to lead and work to do. I don’t have time to waste online.” Or, “I’ll collect my email, I’ll read it, why should I bother prowling around the Worldwide Web …” simply because there’s so little of value there.
7. Ten years later, in a 2006 TED talk, Stoll reflected on his failed predictions and said, “If you really want to know about the future, don’t ask a technologist, a scientist, a physicist. No! Don’t ask somebody who’s writing code. No, if you want to know what society’s going to be like in 20 years, ask a kindergarten teacher.”^[3]
8. I like the last line. Ask a kindergarten teacher!
9. Or, God. God knows the future and had already given future promises to Jacob. Jacob personally heard God’s promise.
10. Turn over to Genesis 28:13: And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.
11. Jacob knew God’s promise, and he clung to it as he blessed. Next, he blessed two of his grandsons. He blessed the younger one first.
12. Turn back to Genesis 48:17–22 (ESV) ¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” ²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’ ”
13. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. ²²Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”
14. Jacob knew God’s promises and blessed accordingly. This was faith, trusting in God.
Okay, now it is for us to trust in the promises of God as well. Have faith like Jacob.
1. God has promises in Scripture, and we must trust in them.
2. We must trust that the Lord is our Light and our Salvation. Whom shall we fear? (Psalm 27:1)
3. We must trust that we can look to the hills, for our help comes from the Lord (Psalm 121).
4. We must trust that the Lord is our Shepherd (Psalm 23).
5. We must trust Phil. 4:4-13: We are to pray with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, and then there is peace that passes understanding. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.
6. We must trust James 4:7: when we submit to God, we can resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
7. We must take John 3:16–18 (ESV) as a text about security and trust:
8. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
9. We must hold fast to the promise of Rev. 21 and the new Jerusalem.
10. We must hold fast to the promise that, absent from the body, we are present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).
11. As Jacob remained true to the promises when giving this prophetic blessing, so we must cling to the promises of Scripture.

Close:

Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin know endurance better than most. For 111 days, they ran the equivalent of two marathons a day in order to cross the entire Sahara Desert on foot. They touched the waters at Senegal and then made their way through Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, and Egypt to touch the waters of the Red Sea. Along the way, the trio faced blazing afternoons of over 100 degrees, jarring, freezing nights, sandstorms, tendonitis, violent sickness, and the usual aches, pains, and blisters. But the biggest challenge they faced can be summed up in one word: water. Finding it in its purest, cleanest form gets to be a bit of a chore while in the middle of nowhere!

Crossing the Saharan Desert on foot is an amazing accomplishment. But just as commendable are these marathon finishers:

• Christians who finish their lives still growing, still serving.
• Husbands and wives who stay faithful to each other “until death do us part.”
• Young people who preserve their virginity until marriage, in spite of crushing peer pressure.
• Pastors who stay passionate about ministry until their last breath.
• Church members who weather the rougher patches and remain joyful, loving, and faithful.^[4]

Let’s pray

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 174. ↑
Preston A. Taylor, Hondo, Texas. Christian Reader, “Lite Fare.” ↑
Molly Bloom, “The Internet will be a fad, claimed scientist in ’95,” MPR News (2-16-12) ↑
Jon R. Mutchler, Ferndale, Washington; source: Anna Johnson, “3 ultra-athletes run across Sahara,” USA Today (2-20-07) ↑

By Faith, Isaac’s blessing of Jacob and Esau (Hebrews 11:20; Genesis 27:27-29, 39, and following verses)

Posted on September 20, 2026 by sarhodes

In Toy Story 3, Andy, the owner of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and other toys, prepares to leave for college. At the end of the movie, he decides to give his toys to a young girl named Bonnie.

The scene starts with Andy entering the front gate of Bonnie’s home and showing her the box of toys. Andy tells her, “I’m Andy. Someone told me you’re really good with toys. These are mine, but I’m going away now, so I need someone really special to play with them.” Then as Andy proceeds to hand the toys to Bonnie, he introduces them by saying something special about each one.

He begins with his toy cowgirl Jessie: “This is Jessie—the roughest, toughest cowgirl in the whole West. She loves critters, but none more’n her best pal, Bullseye.”

Andy then hands Bonnie his toy Tyrannosaurus, Rex, “the meanest, most terrifying dinosaur who ever lived.”

For the Potato Heads, Andy says, “The Potato Heads—Mister and Missus. You gotta keep em together cause they’re madly in love.”

Slinky the Dog “is as loyal as any dog you could want.”

Andy blesses Hamm, the Pig, by saying, “He’ll keep your money safe, but he’s also one of the most dastardly villains of all time, Evil Dr. Pork Chop!”

Buzz Lightyear is “the coolest toy ever. Look, he can fly and shoot lasers. He’s sworn to protect the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg!”

Finally, for his pal Woody, Andy says, “He’s been my pal as long as I can remember. He’s brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, he’ll never give up on you—ever. He’ll be there for you, no matter what.”^[1]

It seems as though Andy is giving a benediction, a blessing regarding the toys.

Today, we continue our walk through Hebrews 11 and come to verse 20. For the next two weeks, we will look at blessings. Today, we look at Isaac and the blessings he gave Jacob and Esau. This is an insightful passage, and the longer I read it, the more it revealed to me. I have read this passage repeatedly, but until now it never stood out to me how God’s sovereignty came through and how Isaac had faith.

My theme:

Isaac blessed his two sons in faith, and Isaac’s blessings are prophetic.

Application:

God is sovereign; we can trust Him. This means that we can have faith in Him.

Hebrews 11:20 (ESV)

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

Now, I must start by summarizing this event in the Old Testament.
1. If you want to follow along, which I recommend you do, please turn to Genesis 27. I will be summarizing the passage.
2. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of how the blessings came about, but the reality is that in these blessings we see a great God. God was, and is, over everything. God’s plan was accomplished. God had determined that the older would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), and the blessings show that.
3. This narrative has four main characters.
4. We have Isaac, and he is the dad. He is the son of Abraham and Sarah.
5. We have Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother and Isaac’s wife.
6. We have two sons: Esau, the oldest, and Jacob, the youngest.
7. We have some backstory that you must be aware of:
8. In Genesis 25:23, Rebekah is told that the older will serve the younger.
9. In Genesis 25:25, we see the birth of the two boys.
10. In Genesis 25:33-34, Esau, very hungry, sells his birthright to his brother. This meant that his younger brother now had the right to the firstborn blessing.
11. In Genesis 25:28, Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
12. In Genesis 26:34-35, Esau took wives from among the foreign women, which made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
13. In Genesis 27, there is a major account of Jacob deceiving Esau to steal the blessing. Jacob had already paid for the blessing, but he now takes it. I suppose Esau was not really going to give it to him. As I shared, Isaac should have known that the firstborn’s blessing belonged to Jacob, the younger, as God had declared. Yet Isaac was not obeying God. Do you see how God works? Do you see that God’s will comes to pass in the end?
14. In Genesis 27:
15. Verses 1-4: Isaac calls Esau and tells him to go hunt some game so they can eat and he will give him the blessing.
16. Rebekah has overheard Isaac’s plan, but she loves Jacob more. So, she has her own plan. Jacob will take a few young goats, have them slaughtered, and have Rachel prepare them. Jacob will go to his father, Isaac, pretend to be Esau, and steal the blessing. Isaac’s eyesight is failing, so this should not be an issue. Jacob will wear Esau’s clothes and use goat skin to make himself feel hairy like Esau (Genesis 27:5-17).
17. The plan works, and Jacob is blessed (Genesis 27:18-29).
18. Esau returns, upset that the blessing was stolen. Isaac and Esau are beyond upset. Esau receives the secondary blessing (Genesis 27:30-38).
The blessing of Jacob is prophetic:
1. Genesis 27:28–29 (ESV) May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
2. Isaac’s blessing included four elements: agricultural prosperity (v^[2]. 28)—even as he had done for Isaac (26:12); international respect and success (27:29); a command directing Jacob to be master over the entire clan; and the transference of the protective provision of cursing and blessing that God had once given Jacob’s grandfather Abraham (12:3).^{^[3]}
3. He should never have given this to Esau, since he knew what God had said at the birth in Genesis 25:23.
4. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. This is from Genesis 12:3 given to Abraham.
5. Later, Esau entered the room, upset that the blessing was stolen.
6. Isaac then gives Esau a blessing.
7. Genesis 27:39–40 (ESV) ³⁹Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.
8. Everything in this chapter is a mess, but God’s will comes through. His will was for Jacob to be the chosen one.
9. Some insight that Tim Keller gives:
10. Many years ago, when I first started reading the Book of Genesis, it was very upsetting to me. Here are all these spiritual heroes—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—and look at how they treat women. They engage in polygamy, and they buy and sell their wives. It was awful to read their stories at times. But then I read Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative. Alter is a Jewish scholar at Berkeley whose expertise is ancient Jewish literature. In his book he says there are two institutions present in the Book of Genesis that were universal in ancient cultures: polygamy and primogeniture. Polygamy said a husband could have multiple wives, and primogeniture said the oldest son got everything—all the power, all the money. In other words, the oldest son basically ruled over everyone else in the family. Alter points out that when you read the Book of Genesis, you’ll see two things. First of all, in every generation polygamy wreaks havoc. Having multiple wives is an absolute disaster—socially, culturally, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and relationally. Second, when it comes to primogeniture, in every generation God favors the younger son over the older. He favors Abel, not Cain; Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau. Alter says that you begin to realize what the Book of Genesis is doing—it is subverting, not supporting, those ancient institutions at every turn.
11. When I read Alter’s book, I then reread the Book of Genesis and loved it. And then it hit me: What if when I was younger, I had abandoned my trust in the Bible because of these accounts in Genesis? What if I had drop-kicked the Bible and the Christian faith, missing out on a personal relationship with Christ—all because I couldn’t understand the behavior of the patriarchs? The lesson is simple: Be patient with the text. Consider the possibility that it might not be teaching what you think it’s teaching.^[4]
Did you notice God’s sovereignty in these events?
1. Some of you need to read this and be encouraged.
2. Be encouraged that you are never too far gone for God to use you. God wants to use you and will do so if you give Him the chance.
3. You may think I am afraid I will mess up what God is doing. You won’t.
4. Follow the Lord, live for Him, and things will be ok.
5. Look, God worked in this mess, and He wants to work in your life.
6. We see this in this chapter. God works in messy situations. You will not thwart God’s plan. However, you ought to be part of God’s plan.
Apply the faith of Isaac to your life.
1. How was Isaac faithful? Let me get back to this. Isaac was faithful in that he trusted God to fulfill His promises.
2. These promises come from the Abrahamic Covenant. The original promise of the Abrahamic Covenant began in Genesis 12:1-3, then in Genesis 13:14-18, then in Genesis 15:18-21, and then in Genesis 17:6. These promises concerned blessing the descendants so they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Isaac trusted God regarding the blessing.
3. Do we trust God’s promises?
4. God’s promises are found in His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Do we trust them?
5. Do we trust the promise of the Gospel: 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
6. 2 Cor. 5:21: God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Close:

Trust God’s Word, which contains His promises; Isaac did. In trusting we have faith.

Don’t run from God and don’t think you are too far gone. God is working through you. You will not thwart God’s plan.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Toy Story 3, Scene 33, “Goodbye Andy,” 1:28:55 to 1:32:05; Submitted by Derek Chin, Portland, Oregon ↑
v. verse ↑
Robert D. Bergen, “Genesis,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 50. ↑
Tim Keller, in the sermon “Literalism” (available on PreachingToday.com on 5-17-10) ↑

By Faith: Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15)

Posted on September 13, 2026 by sarhodes

We are talking about stepping out in faith.

Last week we talked about Abraham. Now, we transition to Sarah.

J.D. Greear writes:

What will you do when you realize that the foundations of your life aren’t as permanent as you thought?

Before D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones became one of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century, he had been a promising young medical doctor, trained at the best British medical school and the protégé of the most well-known surgeon at St. Bart’s Hospital in London. Just as he was reaching the apex of his medical career, one of his colleagues, another rising star, was dating a young woman who unexpectedly got sick and died.

A few days later, the man appeared at Lloyd-Jones’ door and asked to sit with him by the fire. They sat there for two hours, in silence, as the man kept his gaze on the fire. Lloyd-Jones’ friend had seen the joy of his life taken from him—and he had no response.

This encounter changed the trajectory of Lloyd-Jones’ life. Seeing the vanity of all human greatness, he left medicine to become a preacher, reasoning that even the best medicine, valuable as it is, cannot stop death.

Our perceptions and best wisdom are always in flux. Everything is crumbling, no matter what it is. Tim Keller once said that many seek the Lord after realizing their “cities” have no foundation. Like Lloyd-Jones’ friend, they encounter some crisis so acute that they aren’t equipped to handle it. It feels like the ground itself is giving way under their feet.

We all need a city with a lasting foundation. Hebrews 11 tells us that’s what Abraham realized (Hebrews 11:10). When God blessed him, he called Abraham away from what was familiar and secure to an unknown place where the only thing Abraham had left was to depend on him. Abraham knew all about the impermanence of this life.^[1]

And… Sarah was with him. Sarah had been by his side. So, let’s talk about Sarah.

Let’s read:

Hebrews 11:11–12 (ESV)

¹¹By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. ¹²Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Let’s put this passage in context.
1. In verses 1-8, Abraham receives visitors (Genesis 18:1-8).
2. The Lord himself and two angels visit Abraham near Hebron (Genesis 18:1-3).^{^[2]}
3. Then we see Abraham ministering to his heavenly visitors (Gen. 18:4–8): Abraham prepares a meal of veal, cheese curds, milk, and bread for his visitors.^{^[3]}
Now, we see the reaction of Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15).
1. The details (Gen. 18:9–10): In her tent, Sarah overhears the Lord’s promise concerning the birth of Isaac.^{^[4]}
2. Genesis 18:9-10:⁹They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” ¹⁰The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
3. Now the angels and the 3^rd man, likely the preincarnate Christ, ask him where Sarah is.
4. Sarah was listening at the tent door.
5. Verse 11 says they were old and advanced in years. Sarah was past childbearing (literally, the manner of women).
6. Sarah laughs in unbelief (verses 11-12):
7. Genesis 18:11-12: ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”
8. Her laugh is a laugh in disbelief, a lack of faith.^[5] It says that she laughed to herself.
9. Keil and Delizsch: Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen. 17:17), and without receiving any reproof. For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb. 11:11).^{^[6]}
10. It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” V^[7]T 24 (1974): 454–73.^{^[8]}
11. However, Timothy Keller makes the case that she is referring to sexual pleasure. He shares: What does this pleasure mean?” Right away I used to think (and you probably would think too) she is saying, “I am very old. I’m past the age of childbearing. Am I supposed to have the pleasure of a son? That’s not what she thinks. That’s not what she is saying, because the word for pleasure is sexual pleasure. Right away what she thinks about it is the fact is, “Abraham and I aren’t even having sex.”^[9]
12. NET: Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.^{^[10]}
13. Is anything too hard for the Lord (verses 13-14):
14. Genesis 18:13-14:
15. ¹³The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
16. I love how the Lord questions; this is the Lord.
17. The Lord asks why she laughs.
18. The denial: in fear, Sarah denies that she laughed in unbelief.
19. Genesis 18:15: ¹⁵But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
20. I love how the Lord responds, “But you did laugh!”
Applications of faith:
1. We all must trust God with our children and grandchildren as Sarah did.
2. First, notice that the Bible does not gloss over the sins of the people. Sarah had faith issues as far as her being the mother. But she did trust God’s major plan.
3. If you go back to Genesis 12, we read that Abraham was to be the father of nations. Sarah trusted God but did not know how this was to happen. In Genesis 17:17, we find out that this was to happen through her womb. Sarah, being 90 years old, was to have a child.
4. But we can look ahead and see that Sarah’s child was born in Genesis 21:2 and named Isaac, which means “Laughter.”
5. This was somewhere around 2000 B.C., and then when Hebrews was penned some 2000 years later, Sarah is remembered for her faith.
6. She trusted God.
7. Sarah had watched everyone else raise children, and now it was her turn. The Bible says in verse 14: “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?”
8. How are we doing with trusting the Lord? How are we doing with trusting the Lord with our children on a day-to-day basis? How about even after they are grown?
9. In that manner, we are best to remember that God’s faithfulness is unending and we must trust Him, who can do all things, with our children.
10. Some Scripture:
11. Psalm 89:1-2 (and the rest of the Psalm) are about God’s faithfulness.
12. Psalm 91:1-4 compares God’s faithfulness to an eagle sheltering us under His Wings.
13. Psalm 100:5 is about God’s faithfulness.
14. Psalm 108:4: God’s faithfulness reaches to the skies.
15. Psalm 143:1: O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. (from New International Version)
How do we have faith? How do we trust God?
1. Pray and talk to God. We must live with Jesus.
2. Have silent time before the Lord. Read Scripture and listen. Meditate/ruminate on passages. Worship the Lord.
3. Prayer partners are important (Ecc. 4:12; Prov. 27:17).
4. Lean on your church family for help.
5. Read testimonies of those who stood strong in faith in difficult times.
6. Pray for a faith that is head and heart.
7. Go to the Bible and read the Scripture passages on faithfulness.
8. Talk with a small group or prayer partner, or me. Talk with a Christian counselor.
9. For those going through tough times, I would welcome the chance to listen and pray with you.

I have used this story before, but I believe it is worth sharing again.

I love the story of the lumberjack who was preparing to cut down every tree in a certain section of a mountain forest. Just before he began, he noticed a bird building its nest atop one of the trees. Not wanting to harm the bird or its young, the lumberjack took a mallet and pounded on the base of the tree until the bird flew to another tree and began to build its nest there. But since the lumberjack knew that tree was coming down too, he repeated the process with that tree. So the bird moved to a third tree, which the lumberjack knew was coming down also, so he did it again.

He knew that every tree in this part of the forest was coming down, so the lumberjack and the bird repeated this dance a half dozen times, until the bird, highly annoyed, flew away and built its nest on the side of a rock face. The bird probably never understood why the lumberjack attacked each tree he attempted to build his nest in, but the lumberjack’s motive was not cruelty, but compassion. The lumberjack knew that every tree in the forest was about to come down, and he wanted the bird to build its nest in a place axes couldn’t touch it.^[11]

What to Do When the World Around You Crumbles. February 3, 2025; By J.D. Greear.

https://jdgreear.com/what-to-do-when-the-world-around-you-crumbles/ ↑
H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Ge 18:1–3. ↑
Ibid, Ge 18:4–8. ↑
Ibid, Ge 18:9–10. ↑
Dr. Rydelnik, Open Line on Moody Radio 08.14.2021 ↑
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 1 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 146. ↑
VT Vetus Testamentum (a journal) ↑
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ge 18:12. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ge 18:14. ↑
What to Do When the World Around You Crumbles. February 3, 2025; By J.D. Greear.

https://jdgreear.com/what-to-do-when-the-world-around-you-crumbles/ ↑

By Faith, Abraham

Posted on September 6, 2026 by sarhodes

I heard a good illustration from Chuck Swindoll:

My older brother, Orville, was never a wealthy man, but he was wonderfully generous with what he had. He never held back from the Lord . . . and that is still true! It was this overabundance of faith that led him to be a missionary for more than thirty years in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Just before that, he had done some short-term mission work in Mexico and had come north to gather his wife, Erma Jean, and the kids for the long trip down into the far reaches of South America.

Before leaving, they stopped off for a quick visit with our parents in Houston. Now, you have to appreciate the kind of man my father was. Look up the word responsible in the dictionary, and his picture is there! To him, risks are for those who fail to plan. Responsible people leave nothing to chance. As far as he was concerned, faith is something you exercise when your three backup plans fall through and you have run out of all other options. My father was a believer, but he never understood the life of faith. Not really.

My brother, on the other hand, was stimulated by faith. He has lived his entire adult life on the raw edge of faith. To him, life doesn’t get exciting until God, and God alone, can get us through some specific challenge. That drove our dad nuts!

Orville pulled up to the house in an old Chevy sedan on four of the slickest tires I had ever seen. My father always inspected tires when we came to visit. I wondered how long it would take for him to say something. I’m sure Orville did too. Not very is the answer.

After a great supper of good ol’ collard greens and corn bread, onions and red beans, my mother and sister went into the kitchen, leaving my father at one end of the table, Orville at the other, and me sitting on one side. Then it started.

“Son, how much money do you have for your long trip?”

“Oh, Dad, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna be fine.”

Before he could change the subject, my father pressed the issue, “Answer me! How much money do you have in your wallet?”

Orville smiled and shrugged as he said, “I don’t have any in my wallet.”

I sat silent, watching this verbal tennis match.

“Nothing in your wallet? How much money do you have? You’re gettin’ ready to go down to South America! How much money you got?”

With that, my brother smiled, dug into his pocket, pulled out a quarter, set it on its edge on his end of the table, then gave it a careful thump. It slowly rolled past me all the way to my father’s end of the table and fell into his hand. Dad said, “A quarter? That is all you’ve got?”

Orville broke into an even bigger smile and said, “Yeah. Isn’t that exciting!”

That was not the word my father had in mind. After a heavy sigh and a very brief pause, Dad shook his head and said, “Orville, I just don’t understand you.”

My brother grew more serious. Looking Dad in the eyes, he answered without blinking, “No, Dad, you never have.”

I don’t know how he actually made the trip to their destination . . . or how he and Erma Jean took care of all their little kids, but they never went hungry. And they served in Buenos Aires and traveled to other parts of the world for more than three decades. My father was a man who emerged through the Great Depression, lived in fear of poverty his whole life, seldom took a risk, and never experienced the joy of trusting God that made my brother smile so big that day.^[1]

That faith, the faith that Swindoll’s brother, Orville, had, is the same faith Abraham had. Abraham is certainly the father of our faith.

We are here because of Abraham. Our Christian heritage goes back to Abraham.

Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. He followed God in faith, not knowing where he was going, but he was blessed, and he blessed the world.

I want to turn to Hebrews 11:8-10 to talk about Abraham’s faith.

Today’s challenge:

Abraham had faith in following God, not knowing where God was leading him. So let’s follow Abraham’s example and have faith in God about our future.

Remember that God is in control.

God is in control—repeat after me.

Hebrews 11:8–10 (ESV)

⁸By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Now, let’s read Genesis 12:1-3:

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And 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. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

First, we see the pilgrimage of faith; this is separation from the world.
1. This has to do with Abraham’s willingness to follow the Lord. He was willing to follow the Lord in uncharted territory.
2. Let me set the context.
3. In Genesis chapters 1-2, God creates everything. Then there is the fall. So, we have chapters 3-11, and these chapters are about degeneration. Things are getting bad. The world is going to hell. God destroys the world with the flood. Now, beginning in chapter 12, we have the regeneration.
4. God will begin to regenerate the world through Abraham’s line.
5. Abraham lived in Ur.
6. He then goes to Haran before getting to the area of the promised land.
7. Of course, if you read the rest of Genesis, he travels quite a bit.
8. So, think about it: you are, let’s say, seventy-five years old and you hear from God. I don’t know how God spoke to Abraham, but He did. Imagine that God speaks to you.
9. God says, I want you to go to Malaysia to serve on the mission field. It may make no sense to you. You are comfortable here. God just tells you to go.
10. Or suppose that all of your family is close by. Your children and grandchildren live nearby, but God calls your son or daughter to Malaysia. This means they are going overseas, and so are your grandchildren. They are going to be missionaries.
11. Suppose God calls your family to Iran, Egypt, or Iraq as missionaries. You see, this is what is going on for Abraham.
12. I bet there are many family and friends that he never, NEVER saw or talked to again.
13. No letters, no email, no Skype, no phone.

The following were the 12 obstacles that Abraham encountered in his faith journey:

1. Sarai was barren and incapable of producing an heir (11:30).

2. Abram had to leave the Promised Land, which God had told him he would inherit (12:10).

3. Abram’s life was in danger in Egypt (12:11–20).

4. Abram’s nephew (heir?) Lot separated from Abram over a land dispute (ch. 13).

5. Abram entered a war and could have died (14:1–16).

6. Abram’s life was in danger from retaliation in the Promised Land (15:1).

7. God ruled Eliezer out as Abram’s heir (15:2–3).

8. Hagar, pregnant with Abram’s son (heir?), departed (16:6).

9. Abimelech threatened Sarai’s reputation and child (heir?) in Gerar (ch. 20).

10. Abram had two heirs (21:8–11).

11. God commanded Abram to slay his heir (ch. 22).

12. Abram could not find a proper wife for his heir (24:5).

“… the narrator has skillfully woven this material together in such a way as to involve the reader/listener in a drama of increasing tension between, on the one hand, the promise of Yahweh that Abram would have an heir and, indeed, would become the father of many nations, and, on the other, the threat to the fulfillment of this promise by a series of crises.”^{68^[2]0,^[3]}

Then we see the patience of faith—the ability to wait and endure without ever entering into possession of the promised land.
1. Abraham reached the promised land but never owned it. We read in Genesis 23:1-20 that Abraham bought land to bury Sarah. But he did not live to see Israel take possession of it.
2. Abraham did not get to see but two sons.
3. Abraham never saw the nation that his descendants would become.
4. God’s promise to Abraham, which he waited on:
5. There are seven elements in this promise—seven—suggesting fullness and completeness (cf. 2:2–3): (1) God promised to create “a great nation” through Abram. (2) God promised to “bless” Abram. (3) Abram’s “name” would live on after his lifetime (“I will make your name great”). (4) Abram was (commanded) to “be a blessing” to others. (5) God would “bless those who bless[ed]” Abram. (6) And God would “curse those who curs[ed]” Abram. (7) “All the families of the earth [would] be blessed” through Abram and his descendants.^{^[4]}
Perseverance of faith: the positivity of faith, the focus on heaven that causes us to have a certain indifference to things in this life because we’re looking to that glory to come.
1. Repeat after me. God is in control. God is in control.
2. Consider that Abraham was looking towards a city that God would design.
3. We are looking to the city of God.
4. We are looking towards the New Jerusalem.
5. We are looking towards a time when God makes all things new and right (Rev. 21).
6. Now, some two thousand years after Abraham: The writer of Hebrews referred to “Abraham” 10 times in total; his example is especially helpful for those tempted to abandon faith in God. Only two other books mention him more: Luke (15 times) and John (11 times).
How do we apply this?
- - 1. We must be willing to trust God to lead us to uncharted territory as Abraham was willing.
    2. We must be willing to sacrifice income, time, talent, and location to serve the Lord.
    3. We must be willing to move for the Lord.
    4. We must be willing to change occupations for the Lord.
    5. We must be willing to prayerfully consider mission trips, local or foreign. This may be uncharted territory.
    6. We must be willing to serve somewhere new in the community: hospice, nursing home ministry, etc.
    7. We must be willing to talk to someone about Jesus. This is uncharted territory in many ways.
    8. We must be willing to step out.
    9. We must be willing to trust God with our future. We must trust God with the unknown.

Close:

The future can be scary, can’t it? I think the future can be very scary.

When I was in high school, I had many friends who were called to the mission field. Several of them are serving overseas now. I did not want to be called to missions. I was trying to be sensitive to the Lord’s will, but I was not interested. But now I realize I am called to missions as well. In like manner, I must trust God as Abraham did. I like comfort zones, but I must trust God.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, “Ragged-Edge Faith and Reckless Generosity,” Insights (May 2007): 1-2. Copyright © 2007, Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide ↑
⁶⁸⁰ Helyer, p. 80. See Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, p. 90, for a diagram of the chiastic structure of the Abraham narrative. ↑
Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ge 11:27. ↑
Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ge 12:2. ↑

By Faith, Enoch (Hebrews 11:5-6; Genesis 5:21-24)

Posted on August 30, 2026 by sarhodes

By Faith, Enoch (Hebrews 11:5-6; Genesis 5:21-24)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on August 30, 2026

One thing I enjoy doing is going for walks with my kids. Sometimes Meagan comes along, but it depends on how her legs are feeling. Oftentimes, in late summer or early fall, we have great seasons for walks. We take the dog with us and walk to the Poland library and back, or we choose another route. When we are out walking, we have opportunities for conversation and fellowship. We are in a sermon series on faith, focusing on the people of faith in Hebrews 11. We come to Enoch.

Who can tell me something about Enoch?

Anyone, tell me something about Enoch?

J. D. Greear shares:

I once heard a preacher say that it was almost like Enoch and God were out for a walk one night. And as they walked along, God said, “You know, Enoch, my place is closer to here than yours, so why don’t you come on up and stay with me?” And God walked him right on up into heaven. That’s amazing.^[1]

Theme:

Enoch walked with God.

Application: Walk with God.

That is my simple challenge for the day. I challenge you to learn from Enoch and walk with God.

Let’s start by reading the texts:

Hebrews 11:5–6 (ESV)

⁵By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Genesis 5:21–24 (ESV)

²¹When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. ²²Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. ²⁴Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

First, let’s talk about who Enoch was? Or, I guess I could say “is” because he never really died.
1. Timothy Keller shares:
2. If you’re a careful student of this passage, you will notice for the very first time, by faith … Because all the case studies start that way. By faith Abel. By faith Enoch. By faith Noah. By faith Abraham. By faith Moses. Every one of the case studies starts by faith, and in every case, by faith is connected to an active verb.
3. By faith Abel offered. By faith Noah built. By faith Abraham obeyed. But in Enoch’s situation, it’s a passive verb. By faith Enoch was taken by God. In other words, this verse does not tell us what Enoch did by faith that caused God to take him. He did something by faith, but we’re not told what it was by faith. It was because of this thing he did by faith that God took him.^{^[2]}
4. This is an account I could easily skip over, and maybe you have as well. Think about it. God just took him! That is cool, isn’t it? Don’t ever miss these amazing events in the Bible.
5. Remember, this is the fifth chapter of Genesis; we are still early on.
6. Enoch was a descendant of the godly line of Seth.
7. There was also an ungodly line of Cain.
8. He was the seventh generation from Adam (Jude 14 says).
9. By the way, these genealogies are important because they form the genealogy of Christ Jesus.
10. This was also a time when people were living very long lives. By the way, other ancient Near Eastern texts attribute even longer lives to earlier generations; for example, the Sumerian King List mentions kings who reign—interestingly, before a flood—for periods of 28,800, 36,000, and 43,200 years.
11. I think the other dates are inflated to make the kings seem greater. I do believe the Biblical numbers are accurate. I don’t think they dated differently, or not by that much. I think the world was different before the flood.
12. We also learn from this genealogy that people lived nearly a thousand years. And so there wasn’t much death, which meant the population increased at an amazingly rapid rate. This genealogy is also here, not only to show us the time involved and the expansion of the population, but it is here to show us the reign of death. Eight times in this chapter, you will read, “and he died; and he died; and he died.” This is the reign of death. This is the judgment of sin.
13. If you do the math, Adam was still alive when God took Enoch.
14. Enoch’s son Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived.
15. Jude 14 lists Enoch as one who prophesied. This comes from an apocryphal book that says that he called out wickedness. He said, “The Lord is coming, and He’s coming with many thousands of His holy ones, and He’s going to execute judgment, and it’s going to fall on all the ungodly with all their ungodly deeds done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” He was a judgmental preacher.
Second, let’s talk about “walking” with God.
1. The Moody Commentary shared some technical details about the grammar of Gen. 5:22-24 and then concludes: the point clearly emerges that, although sin prevented Adam and Eve from experiencing the prefall ideal of “strolling” (mithallekh) in most intimate physical proximity to God, the possibility still remains open for human beings to experience that more fundamental spiritual proximity to God.^{^[3]}
2. To walk with God meant to have a relationship with God. This meant fellowship and communion, which led to Divine Favor.
3. Timothy Keller shares:
4. Some years ago, I was reading a book about the history of labor and management fights and strikes and all the stresses of that in the Pittsburgh area, in the steel mills and in the coal mines. One interesting thing I remember reading was the workers would talk about a bad mill and a good mill like this. They would say in the bad mill the managers do not walk with the workers, but in the good mills, they would say, “They walk with us.” See, that’s exactly how the Bible uses the word. The word walk means no longer adversaries, no longer hostile, reconciled.
5. When Genesis 5 tells us Enoch walked with God, it tells us something amazing. We’re reconciled with God. Now why do we need peace with God, and how does it come by faith? First of all, why do we need it? Because we’re at war. Just the fact that Enoch walked with God means he is one of the great heroes of the faith now. Walking with God is such an incredibly important thing because we’re at war with him.^{^[4]}
6. Sin brought estrangement with God.
7. Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:2; Hab. 1:13; Numbers 32:23; Romans 3:23
8. We need Jesus. We need to be reconciled to God.
9. We can walk with God today because of Jesus.
10. Turn to 2 Cor. 5:17 and 21:
11. Verse 17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
12. Verse 21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Let’s apply:
1. The Bible often describes the Christian life as a walk. Walking is natural.
2. What will it take for us to walk, or continue walking, with God?
3. Enoch walked with God. We must try our best to walk with God.
4. It seems that “walk” refers to a relationship with God or to pleasing God. We must aim to please God. We must aim to be in communion with God.
5. The Bible Knowledge Commentary calls “walk” the Biblical expression for fellowship and obedience that result in Divine Favor. We have fellowship with God because of the Holy Spirit. We must praise Him for that sweet fellowship.
6. We are reconciled to God through the cross. We must walk with Him.
7. The response is Romans 12:1-2.
8. Enoch did not have to run with God. The life he lived is considered a walk. This is natural. This is not something out of the ordinary. We must understand that the Christian life is walking with God, as God created us to walk. He created us to walk with Him.
9. Enoch walked with God for 365 years, as the Scriptures say; he stuck with it. We must live our lives walking with God, all our lives. We must finish strong.
10. Enoch prophesied according to Jude 14: he called out the Truth. We must also speak the truth.
11. Hebrews 11:6: We cannot please God without faith. We must have faith as Enoch had faith.
  - 1. We must hold true to the promises in the Bible.
    2. We must hold the Bible in reverence.
    3. We must trust the Gospel.
    4. We must seek God’s conviction and follow Him.

Close:

Keller shares:

This is God, the Lord God, the Lord of the universe. If the 93 million miles from the earth to the sun were contracted into the thickness of a single piece of paper, then the diameter of just the Milky Way would be a stack of paper 310 miles high. The Milky Way is just one little speck, one little dust speck in the vast universe.

This God created all that and holds it together with the word of his power, and this One every evening would come to us and say, “Let’s take a walk. Let’s go for a walk. I want to hear what’s on your heart, and I want to tell you what’s on my heart.” Walking with God, and yet we’re shown the minute human beings disobeyed God, they couldn’t stand intimacy with infinity anymore.^{^[5]}

Yet, because of Jesus, we can walk with God again. We are yearning for more. We are yearning for Jesus.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

How to Be an “Enoch” in Your Generation. November 25, 2024. By J.D. Greear.

https://jdgreear.com/how-to-be-an-enoch-in-your-generation/ ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, eds., “Genesis,” in The Moody Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 55. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

By Faith intro (Heb 11:1-3): By Faith Abel (Heb. 11:4; Gen. 4:1-8)

Posted on August 23, 2026 by sarhodes

We are going to look at Hebrews 11, often called the “Hall of Faith,” the “Triumphs of Faith,” or “Faith in Action.” We are going to look at a verse and then talk about the person. We are going to get into the Old Testament. We will look at Abel, then Enoch, Noah, and many more people in the Old Testament. Sometimes we will have to wonder, “How in the world did this guy or gal get into this list in the New Testament?’ To that, we must remember that God uses imperfect people to accomplish His will.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a film version of C. S. Lewis’s book by the same name. In this scene, the children who have once again been summoned to Narnia—Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan —team up with King Caspian aboard the royal ship, The Dawn Treader.

During their journey, Lucy, the youngest of the children, encounters a book titled The Book of Incantations. This mysterious book boldly promises to provide “an infallible spell to make you the beauty you’ve always wanted to be.” Despite her vibrant faith in Aslan (who represents Christ), Lucy has always struggled with a deep wound: she feels inferior to and jealous of her beautiful older sister Susan. Tempted by her desire to become more beautiful, Lucy speaks the spell. Suddenly, a mirror appears on the page directly across from the spell. As Lucy looks into the mirror, she realizes her face has been transformed into her sister’s. She decides to tear out the page and hide it.

Later, in a dream, Lucy pulls out the page of the mirror and recites the words at the top, “Make me she, whom I’d agree, holds more beauty over me.” Suddenly, in the dream, the spell works to transform Lucy into her sister Susan. However, by being transformed into her sister, Lucy discovers that she never existed.

As Lucy stands before the mirror, horrified, Aslan appears, and the film has the following conversation:

“Lucy,” says Aslan.

“Aslan,” she replies.

“What have you done, child?”

“I don’t know. That was awful.”

“But you chose it, Lucy,” he tells her.

“I didn’t mean to choose all that,” Lucy answers. “I just wanted to be beautiful like Susan. That’s all.”

Aslan tells her, “You wished yourself away, and with it much more. Your brothers and sister wouldn’t know about Narnia without you, Lucy. You discovered it first—remember?”

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy says sadly.

“You doubt your value,” says Aslan. “Don’t run from who you are.”^[1]

The Theme:

By Faith Able presented a more acceptable sacrifice.

Application:

Are we religious or righteous? Do we serve God out of duty or because we are pursuing righteousness?

Read with me:

Hebrews 11:1–3 (ESV)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Let’s look at the context.
1. Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who have faced persecution. They are now considering turning their back on Jesus.
2. Hebrews is a sermon-type letter.
3. The writer gives expository sermons on various Old Testament passages.
4. Now, we come to this magnum opus passage on faith.
Let’s talk about Cain and Abel.
1. Genesis 4:1–7 (ESV)
2. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ²And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.”
3. Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.
4. Adam and Eve have another son and name him Abel. There is no mention of a time lapse, so it is possible that these two boys are twins. I imagine, though I cannot prove it, that they grow up together. I imagine that they work together. I imagine that they played games together, wrestled, and shared a tent or bedroom. We do not know what it was like back then, but I imagine that, as brothers, they were together a lot. Later, we read that Adam and Eve had many other children (Genesis 5:3), so they had other people to hang out with. We also know that when Cain is banished in Genesis 4:13-14, he is concerned about others killing him, so there were many others. Still, I imagine these two boys are brothers, and there might have been a bond when they were young. It seems they were also the first two boys of Adam and Eve. It seems they were the first two children of creation.
5. Abel was a shepherd.
6. Cain was a farmer.
7. These were common professions. I read, “Both professions were known in early society; sheepherding and agriculture provided an occasion for a natural rivalry. The Sumerian tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu depicts a rivalry between the shepherd god and the farmer god over marriage to a woman, but it ends in a peaceful resolution.”
8. In Genesis 46:32 and 47:3, the Israelites were shepherds.
9. In Genesis 4:3-5, we see their sacrifice and how it worked out and did not work out.
10. Cain brought a sacrifice of the ground. Abel brought a blood sacrifice.
11. Later, there were grain sacrifices under Israelite law, so that was not something Cain did wrong.
12. We read here that Abel brought the first fruits of his flock. I think this is key. Abel did not pick the lame or smaller animal; no, the sacrifice was one of the firstborns. It was as if Abel were saying, “God, I love you so much, I am making this sacrifice.”
13. Cain and Abel knew God’s pleasure and displeasure with the sacrifice immediately. That is interesting. How did they know? I read that maybe a fire came down from Heaven and consumed Abel’s sacrifice. That did happen in the Old Testament.
14. They made the sacrifice, and Cain was mad that God did not show pleasure in his sacrifice. Cain’s face changed. He was angry. I see this in verse 5.
15. In the next few verses, God speaks to Cain.
16. That is where we have the illustration of sin crouching at the door, and the desire of sin is to overtake you.
17. Cain ignores this and kills his brother.
18. Genesis 4:8–10 (ESV)
19. ⁸Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
20. Cain was jealous.
21. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book Being and Nothingness, has a chapter called “The Look.” In it, he says there’s nothing worse than a stare, because if someone sees you who you cannot see, if you cannot control people’s knowledge of you, it destroys you. It utterly destroys you. It’s easy for people to say, “Oh, that’s just not true of me. No, no, no. I happen to know who I am, and I don’t care what people think about me.” Sartre says that’s silly.
22. He says if there’s anybody who sees you who you can’t see, if there’s anybody who absolutely has access to knowledge, and you can’t be selective about what people see of you, and you can’t provide certain things and keep certain things back, you’re destroyed. Why? Because fundamentally, we know we’re not acceptable. We never just go in. We always bring offerings. We always have to hide and cover up who we are.^{^[2]}
What is an acceptable sacrifice today?
1. Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice and that begs the question, what is acceptable today?
2. Don’t go slaughtering your pet. Jesus is the only sacrifice.
3. Jesus came and died for us.
4. However, we must respond, and we must not respond to Jesus out of duty but love and devotion to Him.
Now, let’s talk about religion vs. righteousness. These are applications which I made personal.
1. These must all fall under one major application of religious versus righteous.
2. The religious person goes to God and serves God out of pure duty.
3. The righteous person goes to God and serves Him out of love.
4. The religious person thinks that he/she can earn Heaven by duty.
5. The righteous person accepts Christ’s righteousness, surrendering to Him.
6. It seems that Abel’s sacrifice was not pure duty, but pure love.
7. This means that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Matt. 22:37-40).
8. We must love the Lord with all our being.
9. We must give God our love in devotion and sacrifice.
10. 1 Cor. 10:31 is fitting: eating and drinking, in everything, we must do them to the glory of the Lord. We must do them to love the Lord.
11. Abel gave the first fruits. We must not give God our last, but our first.
12. This applies to money. This means that we must give God our first in money.
13. This applies to our energy as well. We must not wait until we are tired to read devotions and pray. We must give Him our best time.
14. We must not stay out late on Saturday night or up late and fall asleep in worship.
15. We must give God our best.
16. We must prepare for our time with God and prepare for worship.
17. Abel seemed to have an attitude that was not only duty but faith in loving God. We must have an attitude of faith in loving and committing to God. We must ask God to take away our constant drive to make our relationship with Him a mere duty rather than a relationship.
18. Hebrews 12:24: The blood of Abel was a temporary sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice is forever. We must trust Jesus.
19. Jesus accepts us by His grace.
20. We don’t need to be thin-skinned.
21. We don’t need to be jealous.
22. We can have our worth in Jesus. We serve for the applause of One.

Close:

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Thousands of years later, Abel was remembered.

Trust Christ’s righteousness, and we will live for eternity with Him in paradise.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Fox 2000 Pictures, 2010), directed by Michael Apted, chapter 13; 0:50:19—0:51:12; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a film version of C. S. Lewis’s book by the same name. In this scene, the children who have once again been summoned to Narnia—Lucy, Edmund, and Edmund—team up with King Caspian aboard the royal ship, The Dawn Treader.

As Lucy stands before the mirror, horrified, Aslan appears, and the film has the following conversation:

The Theme:

By Faith Able presented a more acceptable sacrifice.

Application:

Are we religious or righteous? Do we serve God out of duty or because we are pursuing righteousness?

Read with me:

Hebrews 11:1–3 (ESV)

Let’s look at the context.
1. Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who have faced persecution. They are now considering turning their back on Jesus.
2. Hebrews is a sermon-type letter.
3. The writer gives expository sermons on various Old Testament passages.
4. Now, we come to this magnum opus passage on faith.
Let’s talk about Cain and Abel.
1. Genesis 4:1–7 (ESV)
2. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ²And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.”
3. Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.
4. Adam and Eve have another son and name him Abel. There is no mention of a time lapse, so it is possible that these two boys are twins. I imagine, though I cannot prove it, that they grow up together. I imagine that they work together. I imagine that they played games together, wrestled, and shared a tent or bedroom. We do not know what it was like back then, but I imagine that, as brothers, they were together a lot. Later, we read that Adam and Eve had many other children (Genesis 5:3), so they had other people to hang out with. We also know that when Cain is banished in Genesis 4:13-14, he is concerned about others killing him, so there were many others. Still, I imagine these two boys are brothers, and there might have been a bond when they were young. It seems they were also the first two boys of Adam and Eve. It seems they were the first two children of creation.
5. Abel was a shepherd.
6. Cain was a farmer.
7. These were common professions. I read, “Both professions were known in early society; sheepherding and agriculture provided an occasion for a natural rivalry. The Sumerian tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu depicts a rivalry between the shepherd god and the farmer god over marriage to a woman, but it ends in a peaceful resolution.”
8. In Genesis 46:32 and 47:3, the Israelites were shepherds.
9. In Genesis 4:3-5, we see their sacrifice and how it worked out and did not work out.
10. Cain brought a sacrifice of the ground. Abel brought a blood sacrifice.
11. Later, there were grain sacrifices under Israelite law, so that was not something Cain did wrong.
12. We read here that Abel brought the first fruits of his flock. I think this is key. Abel did not pick the lame or smaller animal; no, the sacrifice was one of the firstborns. It was as if Abel were saying, “God, I love you so much, I am making this sacrifice.”
13. Cain and Abel knew God’s pleasure and displeasure with the sacrifice immediately. That is interesting. How did they know? I read that maybe a fire came down from Heaven and consumed Abel’s sacrifice. That did happen in the Old Testament.
14. They made the sacrifice, and Cain was mad that God did not show pleasure in his sacrifice. Cain’s face changed. He was angry. I see this in verse 5.
15. In the next few verses, God speaks to Cain.
16. That is where we have the illustration of sin crouching at the door, and the desire of sin is to overtake you.
17. Cain ignores this and kills his brother.
18. Genesis 4:8–10 (ESV)
19. ⁸Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
20. Cain was jealous.
21. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book Being and Nothingness, has a chapter called “The Look.” In it, he says there’s nothing worse than a stare, because if someone sees you who you cannot see, if you cannot control people’s knowledge of you, it destroys you. It utterly destroys you. It’s easy for people to say, “Oh, that’s just not true of me. No, no, no. I happen to know who I am, and I don’t care what people think about me.” Sartre says that’s silly.
22. He says if there’s anybody who sees you who you can’t see, if there’s anybody who absolutely has access to knowledge, and you can’t be selective about what people see of you, and you can’t provide certain things and keep certain things back, you’re destroyed. Why? Because fundamentally, we know we’re not acceptable. We never just go in. We always bring offerings. We always have to hide and cover up who we are.^{^[2]}
What is an acceptable sacrifice today?
1. Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice and that begs the question, what is acceptable today?
2. Don’t go slaughtering your pet. Jesus is the only sacrifice.
3. Jesus came and died for us.
4. However, we must respond, and we must not respond to Jesus out of duty but love and devotion to Him.
Now, let’s talk about religion vs. righteousness. These are applications which I made personal.
1. These must all fall under one major application of religious versus righteous.
2. The religious person goes to God and serves God out of pure duty.
3. The righteous person goes to God and serves Him out of love.
4. The religious person thinks that he/she can earn Heaven by duty.
5. The righteous person accepts Christ’s righteousness, surrendering to Him.
6. It seems that Abel’s sacrifice was not pure duty, but pure love.
7. This means that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Matt. 22:37-40).
8. We must love the Lord with all our being.
9. We must give God our love in devotion and sacrifice.
10. 1 Cor. 10:31 is fitting: eating and drinking, in everything, we must do them to the glory of the Lord. We must do them to love the Lord.
11. Abel gave the first fruits. We must not give God our last, but our first.
12. This applies to money. This means that we must give God our first in money.
13. This applies to our energy as well. We must not wait until we are tired to read devotions and pray. We must give Him our best time.
14. We must not stay out late on Saturday night or up late and fall asleep in worship.
15. We must give God our best.
16. We must prepare for our time with God and prepare for worship.
17. Abel seemed to have an attitude that was not only duty but faith in loving God. We must have an attitude of faith in loving and committing to God. We must ask God to take away our constant drive to make our relationship with Him a mere duty rather than a relationship.
18. Hebrews 12:24: The blood of Abel was a temporary sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice is forever. We must trust Jesus.
19. Jesus accepts us by His grace.
20. We don’t need to be thin-skinned.
21. We don’t need to be jealous.
22. We can have our worth in Jesus. We serve for the applause of One.

Close:

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

Thousands of years later, Abel was remembered.

Trust Christ’s righteousness, and we will live for eternity with Him in paradise.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Fox 2000 Pictures, 2010), directed by Michael Apted, chapter 13; 0:50:19—0:51:12; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

The Cost of Discipleship: Jesus Must Be Our Complete Treasure (Matt. 19:16-30)

Posted on August 16, 2026 by sarhodes

The Cost of Discipleship: Jesus Must Be Our Complete Treasure (Matt. 19:16-30)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes on Sunday, August 16, 2026

Joke-

A husband sitting alone in the kitchen on their anniversary tells his touched wife how he remembers the day her father caught them in a car and gave him a choice: marry her or spend 20 years in prison. Wiping a tear, he sighs, “I would have gotten out today!”

What do we desire?

What do we crave?

This message is not so much about money as where our treasure is.

What is most important?

Jesus changes us- He is our treasure.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy Lord of the Rings… something very odd happens at the end. The heroes are very carefully marked out as very, very pedestrian, ordinary, normal kinds of persons, but the essence of the story of the book is these two heroes go off with and ally themselves with a high, noble, angelic-like race of beings. With the help of those beings, they fight and get glory and honor in many battles and ordeals and adventures.

In triumph, they return back to their homeland, which they love and for whose freedom they fought, for whose protection they fought, but they discover they have been changed. Something has changed. They find they still love their land, and they fought to win their land, they fought to protect their land, but they realize now they don’t belong. You see these high angelic beings they made alliances with had come from a high, immortal paradise kind of land far beyond the Western Seas.

Now our heroes return to their homeland, which they love so much, and they find the life force of that high, immortal land beyond the Western Seas has entered into them. Here’s the paradox of it. When they come back, they realize the new greatness of heart they have that enables them now to be leaders amongst their countrymen has also changed them so they don’t feel like they belong there.

They realize now their hearts are over the sea. They realize they’re restless now in their homeland. The paradox is there’s a new greatness that has come into their lives from that land. [this is the case for us as Christians, the more we grow in Christ, the more we don’t fit in society.] They laugh louder than other people; they laugh louder than their peers. They cry more deeply. They see further into the future, and they remember the wisdom of the past better because in a sense they have been taken out of their land. They have a perspective that is greater than the time and place of the people who have lived all their lives in that country.

They’re recognized by their peers as having a certain greatness of spirit, and they’re made into their leaders. Yet at the same time their peers and their friends can no longer understand them because now they’re very strange. They’re always walking off to the ocean, standing on the ocean, and the sound of the waves sinks deep into their hearts. They sit there for hours, and everybody says, “What’s wrong with them? Why do they get comfort? Why do they get strength from doing something like that?”

In other words, they love their homeland, but now their relationship to their homeland has become complex. The citizenship of their hearts, the rootedness of their soul, no longer is there; it’s over the sea. They live great lives in their homeland, and they become great leaders. In a sense their relationship with the other people they love who have not had the same experiences has been turned into something very complex.^{^[1]}

A few months ago, I read this from John Piper:

Fifty-five years ago this month, I was sitting in a seminary commencement service like this one, ready to receive my degree. One of my professors was giving the address. The title of his message was this: “Remember the Rich Young Man.” And to help us remember, he gave each of us a one-dollar bill. I don’t recall whether it was his suggestion or not, but I took that one-dollar bill home and said to Noël, “I want to keep this in front of me for the rest of my life.” So, she decoupaged [the art or craft of decorating objects with paper cut outs] it for me and it has been visible in my study for 55 years, wherever we have lived.

That message and that dollar bill and its presence with me for five-and-a-half decades have been a great service to me. How many thousands of times have I looked up and seen this dollar bill and heard the voice of Jesus:

John, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Don’t want to be rich! Don’t want to be rich! A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Make your life count. But not this way. Not money. Give every ounce of energy you have to spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples in my name. I’ll meet every need you have. I’ll be with you. But not if you want to be rich. Remember the rich young man.^[2]

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

It means He must be our complete treasure.

Again, Jesus uses money as an example; we are using money as an example, but the bottom line is- what is our treasure? What do we crave?

My theme today is:

Jesus must be our complete treasure.

Outline adapted from the Outline Bible^[3]:

Context
1. What is going on in this chapter?
2. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem.
3. He explains the sanctity of marriage (Matthew 19:3-12). Then, He blesses the children (Matthew 19:13-15).
4. Then, we have the Rich Young Ruler.
5. Starting in the next chapter, Jesus will describe the Kingdom of Heaven.
6. Let’s talk about discipleship.
Jesus speaks concerning riches (Matthew 19:16–26): Jesus meets with a rich young ruler and is asked a question by his disciples.
1. Jesus and the ruler (Matthew 19:16–22)
2. Matthew 19:16 (ESV)
3. ¹⁶And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
4. Notice, the ruler is confused. He thinks all he has to do is perform good deeds.
5. Greek traditions also reported aristocratic young men who wanted to study under a famous teacher but were too spoiled to carry out what the teacher demanded.^{^[4]}
6. As Christians, is eternal life about being good?
7. Is eternal life about earning our way to heaven?
8. No, but the cost of our eternal life is much more than being good (John 3:16-18).
9. Now, Jesus responds:
10. Matthew 19:17 (ESV)
11. ¹⁷And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
12. Notice how Jesus responds with a principle. The principle is that there is only One Who Is Good. God is the only One Who Is good.
13. Tony Evans: In other words, to be good Jesus would have to be God. And since he is God incarnate, he has the authority to answer the man’s question.^{^[5]}
14. Jesus instructs him to keep God’s commandments.
15. Now, the ruler responds inquiring of which commandments he is to keep.
16. Matthew 19:18–19 (ESV)
17. ¹⁸He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
18. Honoring your father and mother is out of order from the others. Did Jesus know the young man had not kept that one?
19. The ruler says that he has obeyed these commandments.
20. Matthew 19:20 (ESV)
21. ²⁰The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”
22. He seems very confident, doesn’t he?
23. Jesus will now go deeper.
24. NET: While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command—to give away all he had—revealed that internally he loved money more than God.^{^[6]}
25. The Savior’s conclusion (Matthew 19:21): “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor.… Then come, follow me.”
26. Perfect has the idea of completely whole, or mature (Matthew 5:48).
27. Matthew 19:21 (ESV)
28. ²¹Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
29. Jesus tells how he can be perfect.
30. Go and sell all he possesses…
The sorrowing ruler (Matthew 19:22): He turns away with sadness, not willing to give up his wealth.
1. Matthew 19:22 (ESV)
2. ²²When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
3. The young man had great possessions. He leaves sorrowfully.
4. Yet, Jesus doesn’t chase him down.
5. Jesus doesn’t change the standard.
6. Jesus doesn’t lighten the load.
Jesus and the disciples (Matthew 19:23–26)
1. Matthew 19:23 (ESV)
2. ²³And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
3. Now, Jesus talks to the disciples.
4. The rich young ruler has left, and Jesus addresses the disciples.
5. Jesus teaches them that it is difficult to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
6. Matthew 19:24 (ESV)
7. ²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
8. So, we see this allegory.
9. A camel represented the largest animal they had at that time. The eye of a needle represented the smallest opening found in a home.
10. What a picture. Can you imagine a camel going through the eye of a needle?
11. If so, then that is how a rich man enters the Kingdom of Heaven.
12. As Jesus said, we should collect “treasures in heaven,” for they cannot be destroyed, stolen, or lost (Matthew 6:20).^{^[7]}
13. I believe Jesus used images like this to help convey the lesson.
14. Matthew 19:25 (ESV)
15. ²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
16. Given the description Jesus gave, this makes sense.
17. Who can be saved?
18. Matthew 19:26 (ESV)
19. ²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
20. Notice the description: Jesus looked at them.
21. I think this is emphasizing that Jesus wants to make a point.
22. Jesus is making eye contact.
23. This is not possible without Divine intervention.
24. For the wealthy to shift their primary allegiance to God is humanly impossible, but with God all things are possible, as evidenced by the conversions of rich men like Joseph of Arimathea (27:57) and Zacchaeus (Luke 19:9–10).^{^[8]}
25. We need outside help to be saved.
26. Romans 6:23 (ESV)
27. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus speaks concerning rewards (Matthew 19:27–30)
1. Peter speaks up: Matthew 19:27 (ESV)
2. ²⁷Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
3. Peter seems concerned. Jesus had told the rich young ruler to sell everything he owned and follow Him.
4. Peter says that they have left everything.
5. Peter was a fisherman (Matthew 4:18-20). They left everything.
6. Peter asks what they will have.
7. The Kingdom of God reverses the kingdom of man:
8. Matthew 19:28–30 (ESV)
9. ²⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
10. There is a lot in verse 28. What does it mean? The disciples will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
11. Jesus teaches a principle.
12. This is a significant promise because it shows that the disciples were not only the foundation of the Church (Eph 2:20–22) but also the leaders of the remnant of Israel (Rm 11:1–6). Jewish believers have this unique status as members both of the Church and Israel. This promise was probably made only to the twelve as a unique group, but the N^[9]T indicates that all believers will participate with Christ in His judgment of the earth (Mt 25:21; Rm 16:20; 1Co 6:2; Rv 2:26–27; 3:21).^{^[10]}
13. In verse 29, Jesus says that Christians will inherit. It is an inheritance, not a reward.
14. Those who have left things behind for Him will have a great reward.
15. In verse 30, we have the line: “The first in this world will be last in eternal life.” Those last in this world will be first in eternal life.
16. The statement in context states that God’s grace extends to those who approach God in childlike trust (vv^[11]. 13–15).^{^[12]}

Tim Keller helps us:

He comes to Jesus and says, “I’ve been a good person. Is there anything I’ve left out?” Jesus says, “Yeah, one thing.” Then he says, “Sell everything you have, give it away, and then you’ll have treasures in heaven.” What he said there will make no sense to you unless you understand the principle of this text, the principle we’re getting across now. You might say, “Oh my gosh! He’s trying to say you have to sell all of your goods in order to be saved?” No, he’s not. Instead, he’s saying, “My dear young man,” whom he loved. Remember what the text says? He looked at the man and confronted him because he loved him.

He says, “My dear, you have a lot of money, and yet you have nothing. It’s all going to burn up. If you could only see that if you have me you have everything. You could have my record. You could have my forgiveness. Unless you see that my dying love is your real treasure, unless you see that, frankly, salvation and eternal life is not a matter of doing or adding one more thing to your good life but rather it’s a matter of throwing it all over and trusting wholly in me, until you see that if you have me you have everything, you cannot inherit eternal life.” Jesus is saying, “If you understood that I am eternal life, your attitude toward your money would be very different.”^{^[13]}

Piper concluded his message with this:

In that same commencement service 55 years ago, there was another professor. He had a degree from a prestigious European university. We met at his house several times. I took a couple of courses from him. When I left school, I heard later that he was beginning to invest in the stock market. He was eventually consumed with a passion for wealth. And he walked away. Today he’s not a believer. He doesn’t even believe in God, with his doctorate in theology.

What’s going to keep you on the Calvary road with Jesus — who loved you and gave himself for you — living a life of joyful simplicity, lavish generosity, heavenly-mindedness? The answer is this: God will keep you. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). And one of the means he might use to keep you is a plaque hanging on your wall: “Remember the Rich Young Man.”^[14]

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
June 3, 2026

Graduates, Remember the Rich Young Man

To the Class of 2026

Commencement Address | Bethlehem College and Seminary | Minneapolis; Jude 3, 2026

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/graduates-remember-the-rich-young-man ↑
H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Mt 19:16–30. ↑
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mt 19:16. ↑
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 901. ↑
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Mt 19:20. ↑
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 901. ↑
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1862. ↑
NT New Testament ↑
Michael G. Vanlaningham, “Matthew,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1489. ↑
vv. verses ↑
Michael G. Vanlaningham, “Matthew,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1489. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Graduates, Remember the Rich Young Man

To the Class of 2026

Commencement Address | Bethlehem College and Seminary | Minneapolis; Jude 3, 2026

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/graduates-remember-the-rich-young-man ↑

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