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Welcome to Day 2271 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.\nThis is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom\nHebrews-19 Faithful Walks Worth Following \u2013 Daily Wisdom\nPutnam Church Message \u2013 09/10/2023\n\nFaithful Walks Worth Following - Hebrews 11:8-22\n\nWe continue our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Last week, we studied the \u201cApplication of Faith\u201d by Common People with Uncommon Faith. This week, we will extend these thoughts as we observe Faithful Walks Worth Following. Our focus today will be on the patriarchs of the nation of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.\n\nLet\u2019s read Hebrews 11:8- 22.\n\nFaith in Action\n\nBy faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,\xa0obeyed and went,\xa0even though he did not know where he was going.\xa0By faith he made his home in the promised land\xa0like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents,\xa0as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.\xa0For he was looking forward to the city\xa0with foundations,\xa0whose architect and builder is God.\xa0And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age,\xa0was enabled to bear children\xa0because she\xa0considered him faithful\xa0who had made the promise.\xa0And so from this one man, and he as good as dead,\xa0came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.\n\nAll these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised;\xa0they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,\xa0admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.\xa0People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.\xa0If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.\xa0Instead, they were longing for a better country\u2014a heavenly one.\xa0Therefore God is not ashamed\xa0to be called their God,\xa0for he has prepared a city\xa0for them.\n\nBy faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.\xa0He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,\xa0\xa0even though God had said to him, \u201cIt is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.\u201d\xa0Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead,\xa0and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.\n\n\xa0By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.\n\nBy faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph\u2019s sons,\xa0and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.\n\nBy faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.\n\nI remember reading a story in the 1970s about two preachers in a backwoods mountain community who died in a self-inflicted test of faith. Based on Mark 16:18, it seems they were determined to prove the strength of their faith to their congregation by handling snakes and drinking poison. If I recall correctly, they had survived bites from both copperheads and rattlesnakes in the past. This time, they increased the stakes by drinking strychnine\u2014a common ingredient in rat poison! Needless to say, those men failed that test of faith. A few hours after...