Equipped 2026: "Following in the Footsteps of Our Father of Faith" by Jet Warren

If you've got your Bibles, you know, turn with me to Hebrews 11. That's where we'll

be spending most of our time today. Why do we call Abraham the father of our

faith? We all know Abraham was a literal father. He's got countless descendants. I

mean, as early as Genesis 15.5, God promised Abraham that his offspring would

be numbered as many as the stars. The Apostle Paul even emphasized this in

Romans 4, 17, and 18, calling him the father of many nations. So Abraham was a

father in the truest sense. He became a great nation, just like God promised back

in Genesis 12.2. However, there's something much more significant, I think.

He's also a father in the figurative and the spiritual sense. He's a spiritual

pattern for everyone who seeks to be right with God. Returning to Romans 4,

according to verse 11, he's the father of all who believe. When we trust and we

obey as he did, we are considered Abraham's children. It was the will of

God to make him the father of the circumcised, who were not merely

circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

Abraham had before he was circumcised. So why do we call Abraham the father of our

faith? Because he serves as an original model for us to follow. When we walk by

faith, we walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham. Think about what it means

to follow in someone's footsteps. It means you're not looking at the horizon,

you're looking at where the person ahead of you stepped. You're trusting that they

knew the way. Abraham is called our father in faith because he left a trail

of footprints through the wilderness of the unknown. As humans, we often spend our

lives trying to build permanent monuments to ourselves. We want to be

remembered, we want to be secure, we want to be comfortable. It's a natural desire.

But Abraham's life, it teaches us a different rhythm. It teaches us the

rhythm of a pilgrim. Today, I want to look at three specific footprints Abraham

left for us to follow. The footprint of trust, the footprint of a traveler, and

the footprint of sacrifice. The first footprint that I want to look at is the

footprint of trust. To follow in the footsteps of Abraham, our father in faith,

is to recognize one fundamental truth that should dictate every single

decision we make. This world is not all that there is. As we stand and we sing

that old song, this world is not my home, I'm just passing through, we're

articulating the very theology that Abraham lived out in the wilderness.

Today, I want to examine the pattern of faith found in Hebrews 11. I want to see

if our lives truly match the footsteps of the one who came before us. Hebrews 11

8 tells us that by faith, Abraham obeyed when he 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. Consider the weight of these words. He went out not knowing. In our human

nature, we want the blueprint before we even start building. We always want God

to explain the why, the how, the when, but the biblical pattern of faith is much

simpler than that, but also a lot more demanding. It's the pattern of hearing

and obeying. Abraham didn't know where he was going, and the beauty of his faith

is he didn't have to know. Why? It doesn't matter where you go, it only matters that

you're faithful wherever you are. Faith isn't about having all the answers, it's

about trusting the one who does. Sometimes God calls us to a task or a

conversation, or he brings about a change in our lives where we can't always

see the outcome. We ask, Lord, why? Where is this leading? And the example of

Abraham tells us that it doesn't matter where it leads as long as you're

following the Master's voice. Are you waiting for a sign or certainty before

you obey a clear command of Scripture? Abraham didn't need a map, he needed a

mandate. Moving on to verse 9, we see the second footprint that we must follow. The

footprint of a traveler. This is a lifestyle choice that defines the child

of God. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land,

living in tents. Abraham lived in the very land God had promised him, yet he

lived there as a foreigner. He didn't build a fortress, he pitched a tent. This

is a profound indication that Abraham understood his residency. A tent is

temporary. You don't pour a concrete foundation for a tent. You don't spend

your entire life's fortune decorating a tent. You live in a tent because you're

on your way somewhere else. Abraham didn't put down roots in the soil of

this world, he stayed mobile for God because he was anticipating the eternal

city that was built and designed by him. According to Hebrews 11, 13 through 16,

these all died in faith, not having seen the things promised, not having received the

things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having

acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who

speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been

thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had

opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a

heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he

has prepared a city for them. We must ask ourselves, are we too settled in this

life? The text says in verse 14 that people who live like this make it very

clear that we are seeking a homeland. Is it very clear to your neighbors, to your

co-workers, to your family, that you aren't, that you're seeking a home that

isn't on the map? If we want God to be the forerunner of our faith, it will be

evident by how we worship, by how we live. When we gather to worship in spirit and

in truth, it should be a rehearsal for our true home. If we spend all of our

energy, all of our money, all of our time trying to make our tent look like a

permanent mansion, we have forgotten that we are just pilgrims passing through.

This world is not my home. I am looking for a city whose builder and whose

maker is God. The third and the final footstep that I want us to look at is

the footstep of sacrifice. This is the most challenging part of the pattern. If

we were to follow in the footsteps of our father of faith, we must

look at verses 17 through 19. By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered

Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his

one and only son. Even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that

your offspring will be reckoned, Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the

dead. And so, in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.

Abraham was willing to make the necessary sacrifice, just as Isaac was

willing to be led to the altar. We all have something in our lives that we hold

dear. Sometimes even stuff that God himself gave us. But the test of faith

is whether we trust the gift or the give or more. What's your Isaac today? What

is that thing that keeps you from truly serving the Lord with your whole heart?

For some, it's the phone in our pockets. We often spend more time in them than we

do in the scrolls of Scripture. For others, it's social media, where we seek

the approval of men rather than the approval of God. For others, it's sports.

Some, it's jobs. Some, it's hobbies. But these, there's so many things that seem

to take away priority over the assembly of the saints. Abraham was willing to

give up his only son, his special son of promise, because as verse 19 says, he

considered that God was even able to raise him from the dead. Abraham's faith

was so deep that he trusted that God could raise his son from the dead before

the cross was even a reality. He knew that you could never lose something when

you give something to God. If we want to be called children of Abraham, we must be

willing to lay our idols on the altar and trust that God's promises are better

than our possessions. Consider the tension he lived in throughout his life.

Abraham was quite literally a man holding the title father of many nations

while staring into the sky wondering where God's promise was for decades. Yet

as I mentioned before, Romans tells us he did not waver through unbelief. He looked

at his own aged body and the barrenness of Sarah's womb and he decided that he

trusted the word of the Lord more than himself. This is the heart of Abraham's

covenant. God asked us to trade our certainty for his presence. He calls us

to step out into the unknown, trusting that the one who has counted the stars

has already paved the way for us. To have the faith of Abraham is to believe that

God is a promise keeper. As we conclude, I want everyone to look at their own feet.

Are we walking in the steps of faith that our father of Abraham had? Are we

willing to go where God says to go even though we might not know the destination?

Are we living as tent people or have we become foundation people in a world

that is only passing away? If we want to follow in the footsteps of the father of

our faith, we must believe and trust in the promises that God has made. He

promised a home, John 14 3. He promised us a Savior, Philippians 3 20. He promised

that our labor in the Lord is never in vain, 1st Corinthians 15 58. I invite you

to consider your residency. If you've been living as if this world is your

permanent home, it's time to pull up the stakes and start walking towards the

city of God. The journey begins when you put on Christ in baptism to begin your

life as a pilgrim. The invitation is always open. Let us walk as Abraham

walked, not by sight but by faith.

Say thank you to both of our speakers, to Jett and Luke. Thank you to their

parents for the work they put into them and the congregations that they

represent and thank you for being present for these lessons. Jett just

talked about walking by faith and that's what I need you to do, okay? I'm about to

tell you four different sessions that start in the next two minutes and there

won't be a session in the auditorium but there'll be four different panels, one

for ladies, one for young people in the barn, and the others will be in 114 and

129 and so you can make your way there. If you on the way want to greet these

young men and tell them what a great job they did, we stand dismissed and have a

good time choosing your next session.