Here is the teaching outline for SUNDAY NITE LIVE. Join us at 6 PM EST.
Romans 4:17-22 AMP
17 As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.
18 [For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be.
19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah's [deadened] womb.
20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God,
21 Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.
22 That is why his faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God).
1. Seeing things as they as can and will be and not as they are right now.
Sir Winston Churchill said:
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
Numbers 23:19 AMP
“God is not a man, that He should tell or act a lie, neither the son of man, that He should feel repentance or compunction [for what He has promised]. Has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?”
Romans 4:17 MSG
“When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do.”
Hebrews 11:1 AMP
“NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
2. Our hope for the future is not based on “what you perceive with your natural senses.”
Psalm 130:5 NLT
“I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word.”
Psalm 39:7 NLT
“And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.”
Psalm 25:5 NLT
“Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”
Psalm 94:19 NLT
“When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.”
“When doubts filled <<Your Name>>’s mind, your comfort gave <<Your Name>> renewed hope and cheer.”
Job 11:18 NLT
“Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety.”
Proverbs 23:18 NLT
“You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed.”
Romans 15:13 AMP
“May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.”
3. It’s not what the tests show or what the doctor says but rather what the Great Physician says.
Romans 4:19 MSG
“Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up.”
4. Decide to never question or doubt what the Word of God says.
Romans 4:20 CEV
“But Abraham never doubted or questioned God's promise. . .”
Mark 11:23
“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever…shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”
Romans 14:23 AMP
“But the man who has doubts. . .does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful].”
5. When you give credit where credit is due you will grow stronger.
Romans 4:20 AMP
“. . . he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.”
Romans 4:20 TLB
“But Abraham never doubted. He believed God, for his faith and trust grew ever stronger, and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened.”
“He praised God for this blessing even before it happened.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
Acts 12:23 GWT
“Immediately, an angel from the Lord killed Herod for not giving glory to God. . .”
6. Knowing that God is able to meet your every need.
2 Corinthians 9:8 AMP
“And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].”
Ephesians 3:20 AMP
“Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].”
Matthew 9:28 says:
“And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.”
Romans 10:17
For “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
7. When you know that God will do what He says He will do. . .you are accepted as a person of strong faith.
Romans 4:21
“And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”
Romans 4:22 CEV
“So God accepted him.”
1 Corinthians 4:20 NLT
“For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.”
2 Thessalonians 1:11 in NLT
“So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.”
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Harold Herring