Wisdom for the Heart
Stephen Davey will help you learn to know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and apply it to your life as he teaches verse-by-verse through books of the Bible. Stephen is the president of Wisdom International, which provides radio broadcasts, digital content, and print resources designed to make disciples of all nations and edify followers of Jesus Christ.
Wisdom for the Heart
Like Father Like Son
A bold promise with no map changed Abraham’s life—and it can reframe ours. We dive into Romans 4 to show how justification rests not on pedigree or performance but on faith in the risen Christ, and we press that theology into everyday decisions where obedience often arrives before explanations. Along the way, we challenge the modern habit of waiting for perfect clarity, make peace with imperfection as we “press on,” and adopt a realistic view of hardship as the training ground where faith grows stronger.
We explore seven grounded lessons from Abraham: trust the promise when it feels too good to be true, obey without a full briefing, expect resistance after courageous steps, and redefine faithfulness as many small acts rather than a single heroic moment. A vivid illustration with the Washington Monument reframes salvation as a gift you cannot buy but, in Christ, already possess. Then a quiet story about a seventy-year-old new believer who made tea for homesick students shows how steadfast, ordinary love can lead many to Jesus over time. Through Scripture, poetry, and practical examples, we invite you to become the kind of person others can safely imitate—visible light in a culture short on models.
If you’ve been waiting for more details before you move, this conversation is your nudge to take the next faithful step. Listen to be equipped, encouraged, and challenged to exchange a grand gesture for a roll of quarters and to treat daily choices as holy ground. If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find the show.
Stephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback
Abraham, I'm gonna make you a father of nations. Did Abraham comprehend that? No. Abraham, all of the world will be blessed by your seed. Did he fully comprehend the gospel of the coming Messiah? No. Maybe the reason there aren't more Christians imitating Abraham in faith and obedience is because too many of us are waiting for more information. The Church of Jesus Christ just might be filled with mediocre Christians because we will not surrender our lives to God unless he explains what he plans to do with us.
SPEAKER_00:We use it to describe the similarities people have with their parents. There's a man in the Bible we refer to as Father Abraham. Since there's a sense in which Abraham is our father, that means there are some ways we should resemble him. A moment ago, Stephen commented on Abraham's faith. Even though Jesus had not yet come and there was much about the gospel Abraham couldn't understand, his faith in God was absolute. That's one of the ways we should resemble him. There's more, and Stephen will explore that right now.
SPEAKER_01:After observing the American culture for a number of years, one author wrote these rather piercing, convicting words. He wrote, I am confused as to why so many people live so badly. There is little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities, we do not have saints. Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of righteousness gets headlines. If, on the other hand, we look around for what it means to be a mature person, we don't find much. Holy people aren't easy to pick out. No journalist will ever interview them, no talk show will ever feature them. They're not admired, they're not looked up to, they do not set trends, there isn't any cash value at them. At the end of the year, when magazines are compiling the list for the ten best dressed celebrities, the ten most beautiful women, the ten most eligible men, at year's end no one ever compiles a list of the ten best lived lives. The truth is our society is devoid of models. The pedestals are empty. You look around on the campus, you look among the faculty, you look throughout the corporate hallways, you look through the stands at a game or in the local grocery store, and it is true, you will find little to admire and even less to imitate. Is there anything about our actions or our words that are worth imitating, that are worth repeating? Jesus Christ commanded his disciples, be a light and shine before men that they may see your good works. You could say, that they may see your holy lives and glorify my Father who is in heaven. I like the way Paul Gilbert put it in his famous little poem. He said, You are writing a gospel, a chapter every day, by the deeds that you do, by the words that you say. Men read what you write, whether faithless or true. Say, what is the gospel according to you? Another anonymous poet put the same idea a little differently when he wrote, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. Obviously, he wasn't a preacher. I'd rather one would walk with me than merely show the way. The eye is a better pupil and much sharper than the ear. Fine counsel might confuse me, but examples always clear. The lectures you deliver may be very wise and true, but I'd rather get my lesson by observing what you do. We have been observing Father Abraham now through several studies in Romans chapter 4, and for the first time, we're specifically told that what was written for him was written for us to imitate. And as we have watched Father Abraham through the video lens of Scripture, we have seen so many things. Well, I want to give you, as we just remember together, seven things that I hope will encourage you. Seven things that we're not only to learn, but to imitate and to believe. And we have been taught very clearly by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 4 that salvation is not based on who you are, it is based on who you know that is Jesus Christ. It is not based upon what you do, it is based upon what that one has done for you. Would you go back to the latter part of this chapter, and let's start with verse 22. Therefore, Paul writes, also it was reckoned to Abraham's righteousness. Now, not for his sake only was it written that it was reckoned or credited to him, but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, he who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. In other words, salvation is not based on who you are, it is based on who you know. This living Lord who was delivered up for our transgressions, who was raised from the dead for our justification. If you go back in the same chapter to verse five, he speaks even clearer to that point. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is reckoned as righteousness. It's credited as righteousness, not by works then, but by what you believe. Just as verse 6, David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works. Salvation is based upon belief in this one that we know as our living Lord. I came across an illustration delivered by Gary Tolbert, a pastor, who told the story about a boy who'd come with his parents to see the sites and monuments of Washington, D.C., and it made me remember doing the same with our family. If you've ever been there, you've seen the sites, the memorials. It's an incredible visit. Well, when they were there, the little boy was taking it all in, and they got to the Washington Monument, and he just stood there, you know, gazing at this magnificent architectural reminder of our great history and that forefather George Washington. And he was just mesmerized, and he looked at it a long time, and then he noticed a guard standing down near the base of it, and he walked up to the guard and he said rather confidently to the guard, I'd like to buy that. And the guard leaned out and he said, Excuse me. And the little boy kind of puffed his chest at. He said, motioning toward the Washington monument, I'd like to buy that. And the guard said, Well, how much money do you have? The little boy was ready for this. Little negotiator pulled out a quarter, and he said, 25 cents. The guard said, I'm sorry, son, that's not enough. And the boy said, I thought you'd say that. And he reached into his other pocket and he pulled out nine pennies. And it was all that he owned, 34 cents, and he held it up to the guard. And the guard wisely squatted down, looked the little boy in the eyes, and he said, Son, there are some things you need to understand. First of all, you don't have enough money to buy this thing. 34 cents, 34 million dollars wouldn't be enough to buy the Washington monument. But you need to also know, son, that the monument is not for sale anyway. But you also need to know that if you're a citizen of the United States of America, son, the Washington monument already belongs to you. You know what we can learn from Father Abraham? Justification, forgiveness, eternal life with God in heaven cannot be purchased. But when you come to faith in the One who is perfect, you discover by placing your faith in him that these things are yours. All of them. So the first lesson, and arguably the most important lesson we can learn from Romans 4 in the life of Abraham is salvation doesn't depend upon who you are, but upon who you know. Lesson number two, you can believe God's promises even if they seem too good to be true. I imagine heading through the Arabian desert, heading southwest to his new home where he'd never been, never seen it, just the word of God. He must have scratched his head in the middle of the desert thinking, what in the world is God up to? The point was then, and the point is still today, God happens to know what he is up to. Lesson number three, you should obey God's commands even without a good explanation. Abraham, God said in Genesis chapter 12, I'm gonna make you a father of nations. Did Abraham comprehend that? No. Abraham, all of the world, will be blessed by your seed. Did he fully comprehend the gospel of the coming Messiah? No. Maybe the reason there aren't more Christians imitating Abraham in faith and obedience is because too many of us are waiting for more information. We're waiting for a better explanation. Some are waiting perhaps for a little better condition for following him. The church of Jesus Christ just might be filled with mediocre Christians because we will not surrender our lives to God unless he explains what he plans to do with us. That's why I think we ought to learn the lesson again that we obey God's commands even without a good explanation. Not only does the Lord not give us much of an explanation about what he's going to do in the lives of others, so also God doesn't fully explain his plans regarding our lives either. He says to us simply, you follow me. Here's another lesson. People of great faith aren't perfect. Aren't you glad we've never been told to imitate perfection? Even the great apostle Paul, and we would say without hesitation that this was a man of faith. Even Paul once wrote to believers these encouraging words in Philippians 3. Not that I have arrived or have already become perfect, but I press on. I love that. Not that I've arrived, don't ever come up to that conclusion, that wrong conclusion. Not that I am perfect. Evidently the rumor was that Paul had arrived, that Paul was perfect, that nobody could ever experience intimacy with God like Paul could because Paul had arrived. He was there. So Paul, in an attempt to squouch the rumor, says, Oh, listen, don't think I've arrived. I'm not perfect. But I am pressing on. I am progressing. Being a man or woman of faith is on the job training. It's more of a goal than it is a destination. You don't learn obedience tucked away in a classroom. You don't learn faith in an auditorium. You learn it by living it out there. I want you to know that learning to walk physically is a lot easier than walking spiritually, isn't it? Why do you think the Apostle Paul and Peter, John and James and all of them, Jude, all stressed, keeping on? Paul would urge, walk in the spirit. Why? Because they weren't. Because it's easy not to. Walk in the spirit and not according to the flesh. What believer ever learned to walk in the spirit by staying down after the hundredth try and saying, this thing about walking in the spirit, I'm going to give it three more times, and if I don't get it, that's it. Those who get up and go again, by the grace of God, are learning that wonderful truth by their gracious and patient spirit teacher that failure in the Christian life is never fatal. Lesson number five. And I've got to throw this one in. Stepping out in faith will probably mean the start of real problems. We just have to be realistic here today, okay? You want to live a life of faith? I want to tell you it's going to be the start of real problems. While submitting to the sovereignty of God is the only life where true fulfillment is found at the same time, you step out in faith and wham, you be prepared for the challenges of life like never before. The Christian life is this challenge of deep and low and long valleys, and there are periodic, joyful, exhilarating mountaintops, and sometimes the two can be distanced by only a matter of minutes. Consider the account of Jesus Christ. He is following the will of his father. He's being announced in his public ministry, and he is being baptized by the Old Testament prophet John as an act of allegiance to the Old Testament message of John. And as he's being immersed in the water by John the baptizer, you remember the story tells us that a dove came from heaven. It was the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and then there was this voice, and it was heard. It was the Father's voice saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The amazing thing is that right after that incredible description of the triune God working in the same scene at the same time in human history, Jesus is immediately led from there where? Into the wilderness for a time of celebration. No, for a time of testing. You would think, and I would too, that if I heard a voice from heaven, it was the Father saying, I'm really proud of you and I love you, that that would mean life got a little easier. It meant for him life got a lot harder. Abraham obeyed God and left his home and everything related to it. And you would think that God, because he was faithful to do that, would smooth it all out, but wham! Famine in the land. We learn from watching Abraham that initial obedience to God is the starting point. It is not the final destination. We have the misconception that deciding to live for Christ is the beginning and the ending. The truth is, once you're on it, you discover the path of faith is certainly not a descending hill upon which you can coast. That's not faith, that's fantasy. It is an ascending hill, and it is a struggle and a challenge where God works in the character of the believer's life, the muscle and the ligament of faith. So you need to be ready. When you say, Lord, I want you to develop in my life patience. That is not the end of it. Irritating things begin to happen. And God says, I'm going to answer your prayer and develop in your life patience. So you say, Lord, I want to be a man or a woman of faith. What do you think that means? Difficult situations will be used to develop those muscles of faith in your life. I have been reading the New Testament epistles of Paul from the paraphrase by Eugene Peterson. It's called the Message. I've been reading along the letters to two young pastors, Timothy and Titus, and I came to one particular text this week, and it just jarred my thinking, and I wanted to insert it here. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, he paraphrases this verse very vividly. He paraphrases it this way: Anybody who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble. Isn't that great? There is no getting around it. By the way, this is an accurate paraphrase of the original text in 2 Timothy 3.12. Anybody who wants to live a guy of life will suffer persecution. Here it is. Anybody who lives all out for Jesus Christ is in for a lot of trouble. You're not going to find that verse on a poster with eagles flying over snow-capped mountains, put on somebody's office for motivation. You know, that verse is not hanging in anybody's kitchen. Anybody who lives all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble. But you're probably like me, you're thinking that's my themed verse. I like that verse. And isn't it encouraging that when you do live all out for Jesus Christ, you discover that he promised trouble, challenge, difficulty, stretching times. It's a great verse. Like Abraham, when you live all out for God, just know that may be the start of some real problems. Lesson number six. The life of faithfulness is not one decision, but many. It comes closely on the heels of what we've already talked about. Living a life of faith for God would be easy, and all of us would do it. And all of us would live that way if it was just related to one decision. We'd make it today, wouldn't we? But it isn't. It's the kind of decision you make every day. Who are you going to live for? Who are you going to walk with? Who are you going to please? Whose life will you imitate? Who will you emulate? Fred Craddock told a story, an insightful parable on the Christian life, and I shared it a number of years ago and came across it again as I was studying this week. And I thought it applied here to this particular lesson. He wrote these interesting words. To give our life for Christ appears glorious. To pour ourselves out for others, to pay the ultimate price of sacrifice, I'll do it. I'm ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. The problem is we think that giving our all to the Lord is like taking a$10,000 bill and laying it on the altar and saying, okay, Lord, here's everything I've got. Take it all and use it. But the Lord hands us back the$10,000 bill and he says, I want you to go to the bank and I want you to exchange it for quarters. And therein lies the faithfulness of the Christian life. As you walk with God, you put out 25 cents here and 25 cents there, sharing the gospel, forgiving an enemy, giving food to someone hungry, pulling some weeds, painting the house of a widow, parking cars on Sunday. I added those words. And these, greeting newcomers, listening to teenagers, putting out chairs, teaching children stories and songs, rocking little ones in the nursery, making phone calls for ministries, stuffing inserts into communiques, manning the lights during the services, and on and on. I'll stop my words and go back to his. Usually giving our life to Christ is not a glorious thing. It is done in glorious acts. 25 cents at a time. The life of faithfulness is not summed up in one heroic act, but by many simple, ordinary, maybe even mundane acts of obedience and character in faith. Lesson number seven. How many of us would love to be listed in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11? We would all love to die as faithful men and women. Well, we live as faithful men and women. Here's what the writer of Hebrews 11, verse 8 says, by faith Abraham, when he was called, he obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. See, that's how you become known as Abraham was known, willing to risk and change and being willing to serve, being willing to follow after God. And don't forget, according to his biography, in the book of Genesis, Abraham was asked to leave his society. He was asked to leave his stability. He was asked to leave his security, and he left it all. How could he do that? By sheer faith in the promise of God's word. That God would provide. You have the same promise too. May I remind you that you've actually done something similar to Abraham many times over. You've exercised faith in somebody's word. When you purchase that car, you exercised faith in the word of the salesman that it would get you out of the parking lot at home. When you purchased that home, you exercised courage and faith in the word of those that everything worked. From the electrical outlets to the fact the roof was sealed and there wasn't anything strange in the basement. You placed faith in their promise. For you guys in here who are married, you proposed. You said, you told her those words, something like, I love you and I will take care of you for the rest of my life. And she believed you. You think about it. Based on your word alone, you told her you loved her, you wanted to marry her, you wanted to take care of her, and she placed sheer faith in your word, and she altered her life around your promise. That's amazing. We don't deserve it. Do we, men? Amen? You know, I give you chances periodically, and you blow every one of them. We don't deserve it, do we, men? Amen. Heard a few sopranos in there. You know, that's what Abraham did. He altered his life around the promise of God. Sheer faith. You want to be known as a person of faith, obedience and courage? You want to imitate Abraham? Do you want people to say, you remind me of Abraham? Wouldn't that be great? You like father, like son. You want to be a person of faith, obedience, and courage? You have to, at some point in your life, exhibit faith and exhibit courage and exhibit obedience. He went out, not knowing where he was going. But God was leading, and that was enough for him. Sam Camelson, who is the vice president of a missions organization, told the story of a 70-year-old lady who'd come to faith in Christ. New believer, 70 years of age. Had been reached by the church and her community. She had started coming, trusted Christ. She came up to her new pastor one day and she said, Pastor, I believe God's calling me into the ministry. I believe he has something for me to do. What should I do about it? And he said, Well, I think you ought to go home and pray about it. Which is what pastors say when they don't know an answer. They just go home and you pray about it. See what happens. It's actually good advice. She did. She went home and began to pray. It seemed that God was impressing on her heart to do a particular thing. She went down to the drugstore, she bought a batch of three by five cards, and she wrote on every one of those cards these words. Homesick, come to my home for tea at four. She lived in Melbourne, near the University of Melbourne, and then she took those cards after she had written on all of them, and she went around the university, posting them on bulletin boards and in dormitory hallways on bulletin boards and all over. She finished, she went home. Those cards were all over that campus. Homesick? Come to my home for tea at four. The next day, four o'clock rolled around. Nobody came. She had prepared tea. The second day, nobody came. The third, no one came. She prepared tea. The fifth day, the seventh, the tenth, eleventh, the twelfth, no one came. The fourteenth day, she prepared tea. The fifteenth day! An Indonesian student was standing on her porch. She invited him in. He was ready to talk. And she was ready to listen. And she served him the tea. Afterward, he went back to the campus and he told everybody, you know, he said, I've met somebody just like my grandmother. You gotta see her. And God opened a ministry door for her where she shared the gospel, and many of them trusted Christ as Savior over tea. For ten years she did that, and the Lord took her home. And this pastor tells the story that when she died, there were no less than 70 pallbearers, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, Pakistani, international students who'd come to her home and found the Lord as she served them tea and told them the gospel. Here was a lady who was willing to live like Abraham, imitating his faith, being willing to be used. And in that particular chapter of her life, all she could do, really, and that's what God holds us accountable to. What can you do? All she could do was make some tea and listen. And point people to Jesus Christ. She replicated his obedience. She shared passion for the one that Paul concludes this great chapter with saying, This is the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. This is the one who was delivered up so we could be forgiven of our transgressions. This was the one who was raised from the dead so we could be saved. We could be redeemed, we could be forgiven, we could be justified, so that we could be sons and daughters, not just of Abraham, but sons and daughters of God through faith in this one who was all worthy to be obeyed, to be followed, to be loved, to be adored.
SPEAKER_00:This message is called Like Father, Like Son. And it comes from the series entitled Father Abraham. If you missed any of the previous eight messages, we have them available for you to listen to free of charge on our website. Go to wisdomonline.org. If you'd like the Father Abraham series as a set of compact discs, call us today at 866-48 Bible. On tomorrow's broadcast, Stephen begins a series called Unwrapping the Perfect Gifts. Learn about the gifts that God gives you tomorrow here on Wisdom for the Heart.