Abraham: The Beginning of Faith. The Big Idea Our relationship with god is based upon and sustained by faith.

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1 Abraham: The Beginning of Faith The Big Idea Our relationship with god is based upon and sustained by faith. Session Aims In this session you will guide students to (1) understand they can relate to God only through faith; (2) deepen their faith in God by recapturing the amazing grace given in Christ Jesus; and (3) choose one way to express their faith this week. The Biggest Verse Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3) Text Genesis 12:1-9; Genesis 15:5-6 Begin by asking the students What kind of things do you have faith in? (God will probably be a first answer, but push them a little further. Tell them we have faith all the time. Then move to the next question.) How would you define faith? (A lot of times we describe it as believing in things that are crazy. But that is not a good definition. Read Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ) Now how would you define faith? (Faith is TRUSTING IN SOMETHING AND THEN ACTING BASED ON THAT TRUST) We use faith all the time even though we might not think about it or say it. When you came in you sat down on a chair and you had faith that the chair would support your body weight. You didn t have to test the chair by placing small weights on it until eventually you saw it held your weight. You just sat down on it, because you trusted and had faith that it would support you. You trusted it and so you acted by sitting down. What things do we trust in Christianity that we do not see, but act on? 1. God Exists we believe that even though we don t see God and though we have never personally met Jesus, we see the consequences of their work in the world. So even though we haven t personally seen them, we see by their effects that they are real. It is like air. Do you believe air exists? (Hopefully they say yes, haha.) But you can t see it with your own eyes.

2 You have both heard it exists because other people (scientists) have researched it and because you see the consequences of it all around. Take a piece of paper and crumple it on the table. Now blow it. Though we haven t seen wind we see what it does and know it exists. The same is with God and Jesus we haven t seen them personally but we know they exist because of what they have done. 2. God s Promises we believe that God has made promises to his people. The biggest promise of all is that if we put our FAITH (Our Complete Trust) in Jesus then we will start to be a new creation in this life, and we will completely be a new creation when we are raised to new life after we die or when Jesus returns. There is one man in Scripture that is constantly pointed an example of what it means to have great faith. His name is Abraham. So up to the point of Abraham sin was spiraling out of control. Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God and started sin off in the world. Then sin spread to their son, Cain. Cain didn t give God his best and killed his brother Abel. Later this dude named Lamech starts bragging that he has killed more people than Cain. Eventually everyone is infected by evil, and no one does what is right so God RESETS the world by wiping it all out except Noah and his wife and their three sons and their wives. But this doesn t get rid of all sin, because everyone is sinful, even Noah and their kids. Eventually people grow in knowledge and in technology and they build a big city and a great tower called Babel so that they could worship false gods. From Adam and Eve sin has spiraled out of control and people sin just keeps on snowballing until every person not only sometimes chooses the wrong sin, but until each person actually is drawn in by sin. Not only do we mess up sometimes, but we actually start to desire sin and think sin is good. But God doesn t give up on humanity. In fact, he starts a rescue mission with Abraham. Let s read about this man of faith Turn to Genesis 12:1-9 and 14:5-6 and read together God calls Abraham and what does he ask him to do? (Leave his land and his people behind) How would you feel if God told you to leave your home and your house? Your school? Most of your family? Everything you were familiar with and go off to another area? Does God tell Abram where he will be going before he leaves? (No God just says follow me and to trust the promise I will bring you to some land) Do you think you could have done what Abram did?

3 How does Abram display faith? (He TRUSTS that God will be faithful to his promises. And this FAITH leads him to ACT by him actually leaving the land) Some people think faith means believing that something exists. It is just an idea in the head and doesn t have anything to do with actions. Do you agree based on the story of Abram? Is faith head knowledge? Is it believing that something is true? (No, faith is not just belief that something exists. Faith starts with trusting that something is true, and then living according to that truth. Abram could have said yes God I believe that I can trust you and that you will give me land, but I am just going to stay here. If he did that he would not have had faith because he would not have trusted God enough to act.) Based on t he two passages, what does God all promise Abram? o Land (This is where we get the term Promised Land. The people of God will inherit land to live in) o Great Nation/Many Descendents (Abram has not yet had any children. So this would be a surprising promise. Also, having children was extremely important in the ancient world. People in that time did not yet understand any idea of eternal life. That would come later with the Greeks. Instead, a person lived on through the lives of their children. Gen. 15:5 promises to make his descendents as numerous as the stars.) o Great Name (Abram would be well known.) o God will Be On His Side and With His People God said he would bless those who bless Abram s descendents, and curse those who curse This is a way of saying that God was going to look after this people. o Bless the Whole Earth (a.k.a. Bless the nations) Abram was not going to be called so that only he would be blessed. But he was blessed so that he could bless others. The world that was cursed after Adam and Eve s Rebellion and the continuing rebellion of people was now going to be blessed through the descendents of Abram.) How does the last promise to bless the whole earth relate to the fall? (Because of the first humans deciding to rebel against God, sin (anything contrary to the will of God in word, deed, and action) spread to the whole world. Everyone in the world is drawn toward sin. But now God says he is going to write all the wrongs in the world, through Abraham and his descendents. The Rescue Mission starts here.) o (More to the answer above God is building relationships with people by being with Abraham and his descendents; God is building relationships between people by making Abraham a blessing to

4 other nations; and God is restoring people to creation, he is giving them the land. God says he will begin to undo the effects of sin by calling Abraham.) Draw the Creation Scene, Fall Scene, and then draw part of the Rescue scene. Draw the cross and then put Abe on the left side top of the cross. Then say through his descendents, the Israelites, God was planning on blessing the nations. They would be A light to the world. Scene 2 (The Fall) and Scene 3 (Rescue) Overlap. Sin is spread throughout the world, but God s control will start to grow. The diagram below helps to show that when God starts his rescue mission the world is still covered in sin. Sin does not all of a sudden stop and God is suddenly in control of everyting. Sin is very powerful and it needs a long powerful solution. Fall Sin is in Control Rescue God is in Control Abram (later called Abraham) and Sarai (later called Sarah) were very old. Too old for most people to have children. But God promised he would do the unthinkable. Give them a child. Through this child God would bring to reality all the promises to Abraham. Without this child, the promises could not be fulfilled if Abraham died without a child they would have no land to inherit, he wouldn t be able to have many descendents or become a great nation, his name would not be great if no one could pass on his story, God would not really bless Abraham if he promised him one thing and didn t give him what was promised, and the whole earth would not be able to be blessed if Abraham died without children. All the promises rested on Abraham and Sarah having a child. Eventually, God keeps his promise and gives them a child named Isaac. And then God provides Abraham another opportunity to grow in his faith. He asks Abraham to give up that child by sacrificing him to God. Read Genesis 22:1-19 What do you think God is trying to do by asking him to sacrifice his son? (God is trying to see if Abraham is only about the rewards or if he completely trusts that God will provide no matter what?) Why is Isaac so important? (Without him, Abraham, would not receive all the promises) Take some time to think and write down what you would consider most important to you Would you be willing to give it up to serve God if he called

5 you to, or would you hold onto it? Faith trusts that God knows what is best? Do you think God actually wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son? (No! Verse 1 says God was testing Abraham, not actually in need of a child sacrifice. And even though Abraham was going to sacrifice his Son God stopped him and provides a goat instead. God doesn t want killing, he wants FAITH. Abraham had such a strong faith in God that he could trust him with his one and only Son.) Each Person Think of One Question You Have About the Passage and Ask It (Remind them that no question is a stupid question. If you don t understand something, odds are others don t.) APPLY If you can play some Christian worship music on your phone and tell the students that God desires the same faith of Abraham for each one of them. Tell them that faith comes by (1) LETTING GO OF CONTROL OF OUR OWN LIFE, and (2) GIVING CONTROL TO GOD. Tell the students while the music is playing to read Hebrews 11:6 (help them find it if they are not able to). Tell them to take a blank piece of paper and explain that in order to be faithful people we need to do two things. Tell them that you will tell them the two steps. After you tell them one step, give them a little bit of time to write down their prayers to God. The first step of faith is to 1) Believe that God exists. Tell the group that this is the first step, and the first question for them to consider is: Do you believe God exists? Lead a quiet time of reflection, giving students a chance to search their hearts and see if they have that first connection to faith belief in a sovereign, personal God who has called them into a special relationship. Emphasize that it is not religion, but honest faith, that connects us to God. Ask them if they believe that God exists. Tell them God loves honesty, and so they can write whatever they want. 2) The second thing we must do to have faith is Believe that God rewards those who seek Him. Explain that this does not mean that a treasure chest of rubies will fall out of the sky, but it does mean that if we seek God honestly, He will reveal Himself to us. The reward of honest faith is a revelation of who He is. This leads to the second question for the group members to consider: If you believe that God exists, have you shown your faith by coming to God for forgiveness and salvation and acting out that

6 faith? If not, ask if they are willing to come now. Invite students to write down if they believe that God rewards those who seek him and how he rewards people. Then ask them to write in what ways their actions reflect their beliefs. Tell them if they haven t yet felt like they have put their faith fully in Jesus but would like to write: I want more Jesus on the bottom of their paper. Then invite students to hand in their paper at the end of class.