What is faith? Where does it come from? What does a life of faith look like? The story of Abraham from the book of Genesis will answer these questions.
HOPE Episode 96 Friend of God part 1 (Originally aired April 9th/10th, 2011)
Almost three years ago, Pastor Tom Hendrikse started a series of sermons from the life of Abraham that he called “Friend of God.” This sermon series turned out to be one of the more important ones in the life of our church, as it established firmly in the minds of the family at Rio what a life of faith looked like, and just how much God valued a life lived that way. This series was also a long one, preached in sections over the course of two years. We’ll be doing something similar to that on this broadcast. For scheduling reasons, we can’t always start Pastor Tom’s current series at the same time he does. To deliver them without breaks, we have to have something else IN the breaks. And that’s where we’ll have this amazing series, Friend of God. So it’ll take us some time to get through it all. Once all the episodes have been fully produced, we’ll put it up on our web site where you can listen to or download the entire thing at once. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this powerful series and find it as foundational in your own transforming life as we did.
The date of these sermons does put us back in that era we call “the dark ages before we fixed the sound board.” We’ve worked hard to remove the clipping and humming from the recordings, but if you notice that things aren’t as pristine as they usually are, we just wanted you to know it’s not your radio.
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HOPE Episode 96 Friend of God 1 (12.8 MiB, 56 hits)
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HOPE Episode 97 Friend of God part 2 (Originally aired April 16th/17th, 2011)
This week we’ll be listening to another message from the series Tom Hendrikse preached on the life of Abraham, a series we called Friend of God. When you examine the entire story of Abraham’s life, you see the clearest picture in the Bible of what a life of faith looks like. In today’s message, God is first calling Abraham to go out from the county where he has been living. Like many of us, Abraham has a difficult start on this life of faith, frequently doubting God and heading off on his own. That SHOULD reassure us, because we’ll see over time how Abraham learns to trust God no matter what, and WE can learn the same thing also. Each of the messages in this series examines a different aspect of that learning process. We trust you will benefit from each one of them, as we continue to bring them to you in between Pastor Tom’s current series.
As we join Tom this week, he’s explaining to us how God, speaking through Moses, has organized the book of Genesis to tell us stories that reveal God’s nature and inspire our faith.
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HOPE Episode 97 Friend of God 2 (12.8 MiB, 36 hits)
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HOPE Episode 101 Friend of God part 3 (Originally aired May 14th/15th, 2011)
As we find ourselves once again in that space between a series that just concluded and one that has yet to begin, we have the privilege of listening to another one of the messages from the series Abraham, Friend of God. This series of messages began in 2008 and wasn’t concluded until the fall of 2009. Now we took some breaks and came back to it, but this is a series of messages that I can only describe as epic. In today’s message, we learn how God grows our faith through separation. Separation from what, you ask? Good question…and one that Tom Hendrikse will answer for you if you spend the next half hour with us.
I’d like to invite you to correspond with us. We enjoy hearing from our listeners. It’s a great encouragement to find out that God is using these radio messages in your lives. Our email address is moc.hcruhcatsivoirnull@epoh.
The story of Abraham and his nephew Lot is a powerful one about choice and faith. If you’ve been around church for a while, you no doubt recognize Lot’s name from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. But that’s the story of the DESTRUCTION of those two cities. What we’ll read today is the story of how Lot came to live there in the first place. Once you understand what Lot’s choice meant, you MIGHT not be so surprised at how the entire thing turned out.
Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12, where we’ll have a brief refresh of God’s call to Abraham, and then we’ll follow along in chapter 13.
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HOPE Episode 101 Friend of God 3 (12.8 MiB, 37 hits)
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HOPE Episode 102 Friend of God part 4 (Originally aired May 21st/22nd, 2011)
Today we have another message in a series we called Abraham, Friend of God. Tom Hendrikse makes the point that the book of Genesis covers THOUSANDS of years in its first 12 chapters, then slows to a crawl, relatively speaking, and takes 13 chapters to cover just about 100 years of this man’s life. That should give you an idea of just how important the life of Abraham was, as an example of a life of faith. Furthermore, Moses doesn’t dig in and cover those 100 years in day by day detail. Moses takes pictures from Abraham’s life and displays them for us, each time showing us something else about faith.
We come now to Genesis chapter 14, where Abraham rescues his nephew Lot. Now Lot, if you recall from last week, had split from Abraham because their two households were so big they could no longer live together. Abraham offered Lot a choice. Which part of the promised land, which God promised to Abraham by the way, would Lot like to have? Lot, his nephew that he brought along with him and who has become wealthy because of that, so Lot who really owes Abraham everything. Lot chose what was clearly the most fertile and prosperous part of the land…Abraham could have the rest. A nice guy, that Lot.
And yet, when some marauding kings came blasting into town and took Lot captive, along with all the wealth from the city of Sodom where Lot lived, Abraham gets word of it. He came and rescued Lot, and the wealth of Sodom to boot.
Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 14 and let’s join Tom now for part four of Abraham, Friend of God.
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HOPE Episode 102 Friend of God 4 (12.8 MiB, 36 hits)
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HOPE Episode 109 Friend of God part 5a (Originally aired July 16th/17th, 2011)
Today we have the privilege of returning to a series of messages that Tom Hendrikse told me were his favorite out of all the hundreds he has preached. It’s a series based on the life of Abraham that we called “Friend of God.” The story of the life of Abraham takes up many chapters in the book of Genesis, so it’s both lengthy and important. As a result, this series was preached in a number of mini-series at Rio, and this week we’re picking back up after one of those breaks in between. As it happens, that’s what we’re doing on this broadcast as well. We’ve been enjoying Tom’s current messages for a number of weeks, but now as we are between series, we have the chance to hear more from Friend of God.
Today’s message is the first part of the fifth message in the series, and we’ll have the second part for you next week. We’ll start by reviewing where we’ve been so far in Abraham’s life, and summarizing the lessons we’ve learned about the life of faith, thus far. Whether you’re just joining us for the first time or you listen every week, you’ll find today’s message useful.
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HOPE Episode 109 Friend of God 5a (12.8 MiB, 32 hits)
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HOPE Episode 110 Friend of God part 5b (Originally aired July 23rd/24th, 2011)
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HOPE Episode 110 Friend of God 5b (12.8 MiB, 33 hits)
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HOPE Episode 114 Friend of God part 6 (Originally aired August 20th/21st, 2011)
We’re in that time period between message series at Rio right now, and if you’re a regular listener you know that means we get to reach back into the archives and bring forward into the present one of Pastor Tom’s favorite sermons. Of late, we’ve been working our way through “Abraham, Friend of God” when we’ve had these opportunities, and today we’re going to hear the sixth message in the series. Tom has described the story of Abraham as a series of lessons on what a life of faith looks like, with each look in both asking and answering a question. Today’s question is “how do I know you will keep your promises, God?” That’s a relevant question, is it not? The answer is, by the dividing of the bodies. What in the world do I mean by that? Well, if you’ll give us the next 30 minutes, Tom Hendrikse will explain it to you. In the radio biz, we call that a “tease.” If I’ve done it correctly, you’ll still be here when I come back to say goodbye.
Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 15 and let’s join Tom now for more of “Abraham, Friend of God.”
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HOPE Episode 114 Friend of God 6 (12.8 MiB, 31 hits)
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HOPE Episode 115 Friend of God part 7 (Originally aired August 27th/28th, 2011)
This week we’re listening to another of Tom’s messages from the life of Abraham, a series we called “Friend of God.” The story of Abraham in Genesis is the story of a life of faith. What is faith? Where does it come from? What does a life lived by faith look like? Abraham starts poorly, but finishes well, and along the way there is PLENTY for us to learn. The story fits together like a puzzle, with each vignette being one piece of the big picture. Today’s puzzle piece asks the question “What circumstance does a life of faith most often place us in?” The answer is …waiting. Almost everything about faith and a life of faith, in fact, involves waiting. That’s certainly counter-cultural, isn’t it? In our instant on, always connected society where we’re plugged in 24/7, there isn’t much patience for waiting. That’s why THIS message is so powerful. If you receive it and let it shape your expectations, it’ll make all the difference in the world.Open your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 16 and let’s join Tom for part seven of “Abraham, Friend of God.”
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HOPE Episode 115 Friend of God 7 (12.8 MiB, 28 hits)
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HOPE Episode 116 Friend of God part 8 (Originally aired September 3rd/4th, 2011)
Today we present another of Tom’s messages from the life of Abraham, a series we called “Friend of God.” The story of Abraham from the book of Genesis is composed in such a way as to present a series of “look ins” to the lives of Abraham and his wife Sarah. Each time we check in on them, years have passed. And each time we check in on them, there is another lesson waiting for us about the life of faith. This time, the question that Moses, the writer of Genesis, asks and answers is “What kind of faith pleases God?” The answer is resurrection faith. Faith that brings life from the dead. But today’s message has a twist. Something you aren’t expecting. What about Ishmael? What do I mean by that? Well, sit down and get comfortable for the next 30 minutes and we’ll let Tom explain.Open your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 17 and let’s join Tom for part eight of “Abraham, Friend of God.”
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HOPE Episode 116 Friend of God 8 (12.8 MiB, 27 hits)
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HOPE Episode 117 Friend of God part 9 (Originally aired September 10th/11th, 2011)
We’re continuing with a series we called “Friend of God,” which explores the life of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Tom Hendrikse has described the manner in which Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, organized the story of Abraham as being like puzzle pieces. Each new chapter from Abraham’s life is another piece of the puzzle, asking and answering another question about the life of faith, a life for which Abraham is held up as the example. The question we’re considering today is what you heard in the opening of the show. What is God’s disposition toward those of us who have authentic faith in His Son, Jesus Christ? Is God the jolly Santa in the sky, or is He more like Oscar the Grouch – never happy unless everyone else is miserable? Let’s find out.Open your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 18 and let’s join Tom for part nine of “Abraham, Friend of God.”
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HOPE Episode 117 Friend of God 9 (12.8 MiB, 28 hits)
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HOPE Episode 118 Friend of God part 10 (Originally aired September 17th/18th, 2011)
We’re continuing with a series we called “Friend of God,” which explores the life of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Tom Hendrikse has described the manner in which Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, organized the story of Abraham as being like puzzle pieces. Each new chapter from Abraham’s life is another piece of the puzzle, asking and answering another question about the life of faith, a life for which Abraham is held up as being the example. The question we’re considering today is what you heard in the opening of the broadcast. What is God’s disposition toward those who do not believe as we do? Furthermore, those who do not look like we do, act like we do, live like we do, raise children like we do, VOTE like we do, or are attracted to the same genders we are? We can pretty much assume that God will act in a way that is equal parts patient and merciful, but still righteous. How about US, though? That’s really what we want to know, isn’t it? How does God say that WE ought to be toward those who do not know God, and live like it?We have the answer to that question in today’s story about a very famous, or infamous I suppose, city: Sodom. Every time we 21st Century citizens think we’ve cornered the market on sin, we ought to remind ourselves that if it involved selfishness, the pursuit of fleeting pleasure, and a party, the Sodomites did it first, and better, or, I guess, worse. Surely God’s fury toward Sodom is barely contained, and Abraham is cheering Him on. Right? Unfortunately, that’s how a lot of people who call themselves Christians believe God wants to act, but the truth is something else entirely.
Open your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 18 and let’s join Tom for part ten of “Abraham, Friend of God.”
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HOPE Episode 118 Friend of God 10 (12.8 MiB, 29 hits)
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HOPE Episode 119 Friend of God part 11 (Originally aired September 24th/25th, 2011)
We’ve been studying the life of Abraham from the book of Genesis. Moses, the writer of Genesis, organized the story of Abraham’s life into what Tom Hendrikse has described as a series of lessons on the life of faith. Today’s message concerns Abraham’s nephew Lot and the city of Sodom. We’ve already seen Abraham’s bargain with God, to save the city if ten righteous people could be found, and I don’t suppose it’s a spoiler to say that there won’t be. But, the good news is, God is also a deliverer. He saves His people from the destruction that He will someday pour out on sin. That doesn’t mean we who are God’s people can escape our bad decisions with no consequences, however. We met Lot several messages back and watched as he made choices that show he trusts more in his own wealth to provide than he does in God. This week and next, we will see the very painful consequences of those choices, even as Lot himself is saved from destruction.
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HOPE Episode 119 Friend of God 11 (12.8 MiB, 34 hits)
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HOPE Episode 120 Friend of God part 12 (Originally aired October 1st/2nd, 2011)
We’ve been spending time looking at the life of Abraham, whose story is an example of a life of faith. It’s written down carefully by Moses, organized into vignettes that give us lessons on what real, authentic faith looks like when it’s present in someone’s life. The first act of faith Abraham showed was to leave his home in the land of Ur and set out in search of a land that God said would be given to him. We’ve been watching this unfold in the life of Abraham and his wife Sarah, but there is a side story, a “mini series” as Tom calls it, regarding Abraham’s nephew, Lot.
Lot departs from Ur with Abraham, which tells us that Lot also shared Abraham’s faith in God. Lot was with Abraham when Abraham ran away to Egypt, and when he returned. Like Abraham, Lot had become very wealthy in Egypt. The promised land wouldn’t be big enough for the both of them. Abraham offered Lot a choice, and Lot chose to go live in the prosperous valley regions. When we next encounter Lot, he is living in the city of Sodom, a city God planned to destroy because of its wickedness. What happened then was the subject of LAST week’s message, so if you missed it, send us an email and we’ll work out the best way to get you a copy of it. At the end of the story, Lot, his wife, and his two daughters were fleeing from Sodom, heading to Zoar. God had preserved Lot, in spite of the horrific decisions Lot had made.
Today we come to the inglorious end of Lot’s life, which quite frankly winds up in an incredibly tragic and utter ruin. That’s scary, because Lot was a believer. There are consequences to our decisions, and we can’t outrun our mistakes. God won’t always protect us from ourselves. But that’s not the end of the story. The end of the story is one of the most WONDERFUL expressions of God’s astounding grace and redeeming power. You do not want to miss the last half of today’s message. Especially if you’re someone who is struggling under the burden of sexual sin and bad decisions. Today’s message is one of HOPE for you.
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HOPE Episode 120 Friend of God 12 (12.8 MiB, 33 hits)
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HOPE Episode 121 Friend of God part 13 (Originally aired October 8th/9th, 2011)
We’ve been engaged in a study of the life of Abraham as told by Moses in the book of Genesis. Tom’s already pointed out to us that Moses writes more about Abraham’s life than he did the history of the world up until Abraham. Abraham’s life is an example of real faith. Now that begs a question, doesn’t it? Just what exactly IS “real faith?” Well, I’m glad you asked, since that is the subject of today’s message. This week, we arrive at the point in the story where Isaac is born. Isaac, the son of promise, the child who was promised to Abraham by God twenty five years earlier. Real faith, you see, is believing that God CAN do what He’s promised and that God WILL keep His promises. But first, there is a point we must reach. A point where we realize that we’re not going to have any part in this promise, that it’s all of God and none of us.
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HOPE Episode 121 Friend of God 13 (12.8 MiB, 32 hits)
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HOPE Episode 122 Friend of God part 14 (Originally aired October 15th/16th, 2011)
Abraham is one of the key figures in the Old Testament and we’ve been studying the record of his life given to us by Moses in the book of Genesis. Tom Hendrikse has explained to us several times that Moses doesn’t tell us everything about Abraham. We don’t even meet Abram, as he’s called then, until he is 75 years old. And we have just snapshots of his life over the next nearly 100 years. Why does Moses do this? Because his purpose in writing it down wasn’t to give us a biography of Abraham. Moses knew that Abraham was the father of the Jewish race, but more importantly was the spiritual father of all who would have faith in God. What Moses intends to do is teach us what faith is, and what faith looks like in the lives of those who possess it.
Today we have a sort of odd, quirky story of an encounter between Abraham and the king of the city-state where he’s been living, Abimilech. We’ve met Abimilech before, when Abraham first came to the area and misled Abimilech into believing that Abraham’s wife Sarah was merely his sister. Abimilech took Sarah to be his wife, God intervened, and Abimilech learned two things about Abraham. First, Abraham had a direct connection to his God, a God more powerful than Abimilech’s, and two, this prophet God would on occasion lie if it suited his purposes to do so. That’s led us to today’s story, which as I said is rather quirky. It seems like a simple business transaction, but if you give us the next half hour, Tom Hendrikse will explain why it’s much more than that, and is in fact an amazingly profound lesson about faith.
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HOPE Episode 122 Friend of God 14 (12.8 MiB, 29 hits)
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HOPE Episode 123 Friend of God part 15 (Originally aired October 22nd/23rd, 2011)
For months now, we’ve come together each week and listened as Tom brought us a message from one scene after another out of the life of Abraham, as written down by Moses in the book of Genesis, in the Old Testament. Moses wrote the story this way because he didn’t intend to create a biography of Abraham. If fact, he didn’t even pick up the story until Abraham was 75 years old. What we have are snapshots of a life of faith, from its beginning, through its challenges and growth, into maturity. Today we reach the climax of the story. We have a couple more messages left, a sort of epilogue to the story, but make no mistake about it, today’s story about Abraham, Isaac, and a sacrifice is where this all comes to its peak. It’s a dramatic and moving passage of Scripture, and a powerful message about sacrifice and faith.
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HOPE Episode 123 Friend of God 15 (12.8 MiB, 29 hits)
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HOPE Episode 124 Friend of God part 16 (Originally aired October 29th/30th, 2011)
We’ve been engaged for quite a while in this study of the life of Abraham. It’s the story of a life of authentic faith, and from it we’ve learned what real faith looks like in the lives of those who possess it. Today, in what is the next to the last message in the series, we observe how someone with real faith deals with one of life’s most final realities, the death of a loved one. In today’s message, Abraham’s beloved wife Sarah dies. What is the response of faith to the death of someone close to us? Do we weep and mourn? How do we move on? Abraham’s example will answer those questions. It’s our prayer that someone listening today who is is carrying such wounds in their heart will find a healing balm in this message. The original recording of this message was damaged so the audio isn’t perfect this week. We’re sorry about that and wanted you to know that it’s not your radio.
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HOPE Episode 124 Friend of God 16 (12.8 MiB, 24 hits)
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HOPE Episode 125 Friend of God part 17 (Originally aired November 5th/6th, 2011)
Today we come to the conclusion of the longest running sermon series, and hence the longest running radio series, of Tom’s ministry to date. We have moved steadily through the life of Abraham, as written down for us by Moses in the book of Genesis, in the Old Testament. From Abraham, we’ve learned one lesson after another about genuine faith, and about what that genuine faith looks like when it shows up in someone’s life. Time after time, we’ve been asked to compare our faith with Abraham’s, because it was with Abraham that we identified in the stories. Not so today. In this final story from Abraham’s life, there are four characters: a father, a son, a servant, and a bride. We’ll see ourselves in two of those positions, and here’s a hint — it won’t be the father or the son. This message is a fitting conclusion to a wonderful series, and if you missed any of them you can get them online at our web site, riovistachurch.com.
Open your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 24 and let’s join Tom for part seventeen, and the conclusion, of “Abraham, Friend of God.”
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HOPE Episode 125 Friend of God 17 (12.8 MiB, 24 hits)
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