The sermon opens with two readings — Hebrews 11:1-6 and Genesis 25:1-11 — the latter being the final passage in a lengthy expository series on the life of Abraham. Genesis 25 records Abraham's death at 175 years, his last acts of giving all he owned to Isaac while sending the sons of his concubines away with gifts to the east, and his burial by Isaac and Ishmael in the cave of Machpelah. The preacher observes that even Abraham, the father of the faithful, eventually died — yet God's covenant faithfulness continues through his descendants and ultimately reaches the church today. In these final years Abraham shows a settled, no-longer-wavering faith: he confidently gives the inheritance to Isaac alone, recognizing him — not the sons of Keturah or Hagar — as the child of promise announced back in Genesis 21. This resolved confidence, entrusting his whole household and its future to God's word, is why Paul calls believers in Christ children of Abraham.

Yet Abraham died without seeing many of God's promises fulfilled: descendants as numerous as the stars, though only Isaac existed; and the land of Canaan, though he owned only a single burial plot. Hebrews 11 explains that Abraham endured by faith — "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." The sermon turns to unpack this second half of the definition: what does it mean for faith to be evidence of what is unseen?

Drawing on Hebrews 11:3 ("by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible") alongside Romans 1:20 ("his invisible attributes... have been clearly perceived... in the things that have been made"), the preacher argues that faith functions as a kind of spiritual sight: it looks at visible creation and perceives, behind it, the invisible hand and word of God. Illustrations include the fine-tuned distance between the earth and the sun, Michael Behe's concept of "irreducible complexity," and the "Powers of Ten" film's zoom outward from a family picnic to galaxies and inward to living cells, each revealing staggering complexity. Faith, the sermon insists, is not mere positive thinking or wishfully claiming unseen outcomes; it is a genuine, God-given perception — likened to viewing a hidden 3D "stereogram," where only those who learn to look past the surface see the picture within. Unbelievers, blinded by sin as Paul describes elsewhere, see only "the way it is" and stop at chance or coincidence; believers, given spiritual sight, perceive the Creator's hand and word behind all things — including, as with Abraham, the unfolding of their own lives.

The sermon then returns to Hebrews 11:8 and 13: Abraham obeyed and went out "not knowing where he was going," and all these people of faith died "not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar." Believers today likewise experience some fulfilled promises and tastes of God's faithfulness already, while much remains unseen and future — yet, resting on what God has already shown, they continue to trust and obey amid trials, temptations, and a world that reduces everything to luck or naturalistic explanation.

The sermon's climax is Hebrews 11:6: "without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." Two things are required: first, believing that God exists — not as one being among many but as the eternal, self-existent "I AM," sovereign and incomparable; second, believing that God rewards those who earnestly seek him — not seeking his gifts, but seeking him. An illustration about a grandfather who pays his grandchildren for visiting warns against loving God's blessings more than God himself; true faith moves beyond wanting healing to wanting the Healer, beyond wanting blessing to wanting the One who blesses — delighting in God himself as the greatest good of the gospel, echoing John Piper's "God is the Gospel." Even so, enjoying God's good gifts — food, drink, and the created world he freely offers — is not wrong but a means through which believers taste and give thanks for his greater grace, just as hunger and thirst were built into creation so that people would understand what it means to hunger and thirst after righteousness and be satisfied in Christ. A closing anecdote about a lifelong pastor, asked the secret of decades of faithful ministry, ends with a single answer: doing everything to please God. That, the sermon concludes, is the life of faith — trusting God's promises, perceiving his hand behind all things, and pursuing him above all else, as shown across the whole trajectory of Abraham's life and marked afresh in the church's baptisms, confirmations, and professions of faith on this day.

Bible Verses Used

• Hebrews 11:1: Defines faith as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" — the sermon's controlling text.

• Hebrews 11:3: Faith perceives that the visible universe was made by God's invisible word, grounding the sermon's teaching that faith is a kind of spiritual sight.

• Hebrews 11:6: The sermon's climax — without faith it is impossible to please God; one must believe he exists and rewards those who earnestly seek him.

• Hebrews 11:8: Abraham obeyed and went out not knowing his destination, illustrating faith that acts without seeing the outcome.

• Hebrews 11:13: The saints died without receiving what was promised, having only seen and greeted it from afar, modeling the believer's present tension between fulfillment and hope.

• Romans 1:20: God's invisible eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived through what has been made, paralleling Hebrews 11:3's link between the seen and the unseen.

• Genesis 25:1-11: Records Abraham's final acts and death, closing the sermon series on his life and prompting reflection on faith that endures without seeing every promise fulfilled.