One of a minister’s most difficult problems is being able to stay with the basics. We use faith to get saved and then try to use something else for the rest of our lives and ministry. This genealogy is filled with names of people who lived and died and nothing more is said about them. Their greatest accomplishment is that they lived long enough to have children who could pass on the spiritual DNA to their children. Why did the Bible explode into such a great presentation when it got to Abraham? He started and finished his life with faith that led to obedience.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to look back a few hundred years at our spiritual family tree?

Who were all the people who lived and proclaimed the message which was passed from generation to generation until it reached us? Some of them contacted large quantities of lives. Others only lived long enough to keep the message heading down through time to reach us. If we really want to be one of those who contacts large quantities of people, then we need to be touched by Jesus’ training.

All those whose lives were touched by Jesus’ training and then responded in continuing, obedient faith, were people who had a great impact on those around them. This next passage we are going to study, shows how much Jesus lived His life in total obedience. When the God of the universe puts such value on obedience, it should inspire us to seek it with all our hearts.