Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3: Hebrews eleven, Verses seventeen through nineteen. I'm continuing in my
Speaker 3: series called you know what, God bless you.
Speaker 1: You're my best friend. Can you give me a hull?
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. What's your name?
Speaker 3: Man? Oh, that made me so happy?
Speaker 1: You love it? I love you. What's your name?
Speaker 4: Say it?
Speaker 1: Toston Torston?
Speaker 3: Torsten Ah Torston the Usher? Now I ask you something, Torstan.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like God has called you to be
Speaker 3: an usher?
Speaker 1: Definitely? Yeah, he said, definitely. I love it so much.
Speaker 1: Do you have the calling of ushing? I hope? Okay,
Speaker 1: so this you're going.
Speaker 3: To love this tourist And I'm going to talk today
Speaker 3: a little bit about how God calls us all to
Speaker 3: do some things, and then he calls some to do
Speaker 3: certain things. And in the theology of it, you have
Speaker 3: the universal calling of God and then the particular calling
Speaker 3: of God and there are some things that God has
Speaker 3: not called us all to do right, and thank God
Speaker 3: for that. Today we're going to talk about a man
Speaker 3: named Abraham. God called him to have a baby at
Speaker 3: age one hundred. How many thank God that God has
Speaker 3: not called us all.
Speaker 1: Tstan so so.
Speaker 3: So we're going to talk about today how God has
Speaker 3: called us all, and that includes you in the South.
Speaker 1: We say God called y'all. God called y'all.
Speaker 3: And in Hebrews chapter eleven, he's giving the whole hall
Speaker 3: of faith to all these heroes, and he brings up Abraham.
Speaker 3: And I'll show you in a few moments where God
Speaker 3: called his name twice, because that's the theme of the series. Simon, Simon, Moses, Moses, Martha, Martha.
Speaker 1: What other ones have I done?
Speaker 3: Jacob, Jacob, I've been studying all seven of them, so
Speaker 3: I'm mixed up.
Speaker 1: Which ones I've done.
Speaker 3: Saul, Saul, Paul, Paul, And this week is going to
Speaker 3: be Abraham Abraham. But I want to go back through
Speaker 3: the lens of Hebrews eleven. We're given a list of
Speaker 3: all of these amazing things that God called people to do,
Speaker 3: and they are particular things, so that we're not all
Speaker 3: going to lead a nation like Moses did. I don't
Speaker 3: want to who would want to be the president of
Speaker 3: this country ever for any reason whatsoever. And you may say, well,
Speaker 3: God doesn't call me the preacher to sing, I don't
Speaker 3: want to do those things. Well, there are some things
Speaker 3: that God has called us all to be kind. God
Speaker 3: has called us all to be patient. God has called
Speaker 3: us all to be forgiving. God has called us all
Speaker 3: to be generous. God has called us all to have faith.
Speaker 3: God has called us all to be more than conquerors.
Speaker 3: God has called us all to be agents of healing,
Speaker 3: the light of the world, the salt of the earth.
Speaker 3: And we're given this example of Abraham to help us
Speaker 3: with that. Look at Hebrews chapter eleven, verse seventeen. By
Speaker 3: faith Abraham when God tested him, When God tested him,
Speaker 3: I want you to remember that God tested him. When
Speaker 3: God tested him, he offered Isaac as a sacrifice. That
Speaker 3: was the son that he waited till he was one
Speaker 3: hundred to half.
Speaker 1: He who had embraced.
Speaker 3: The promises, was about to sacrifice his one and only
Speaker 3: son verse eighteen, even though God had said to him,
Speaker 3: it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
Speaker 1: Now that's really heavy, and I've.
Speaker 3: Been saving the sermon because I was intimidated to preach
Speaker 3: it because it's honestly a very disturbing story in the Bible,
Speaker 3: where God told Abraham, take your son that you love
Speaker 3: and offer him to me as a sacrifice, and moving
Speaker 3: beyond the differences in that time period when child sacrifice
Speaker 3: was acceptable in the culture, it is still a very
Speaker 3: very difficult story for us to reader to talk about.
Speaker 1: But we're going to talk about it today.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about it today through a certain
Speaker 3: lens because look what it says in Hebrews, chapter eleven,
Speaker 3: verse nineteen. It says Abraham reasoned that God could even
Speaker 3: raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking,
Speaker 3: he did receive Isaac back from death. And we know
Speaker 3: that this is a shadow of another son thousands of
Speaker 3: years later who would be sacrificed for our sin, and
Speaker 3: Abo did not have to kill his son. Is a
Speaker 3: prefigure of a father who would go through with it
Speaker 3: but raise him from the dead. But Abraham didn't know
Speaker 3: that story yet, and so sometimes we are having to
Speaker 3: live in experiences that we have no frame of reference for.
Speaker 3: And that's what I want to talk to you a
Speaker 3: little bit about today. It's a simple message, but a
Speaker 3: profound truth that the Lord showed me. This message is
Speaker 3: about a certain moment in your life that you will
Speaker 3: come to from time to time, not just once, but
Speaker 3: many times. And I'm calling the message when God says
Speaker 3: let go. When God says let go, because sometimes he will.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he will.
Speaker 3: Tell you you're holding it too tightly, and God will say
Speaker 3: let go. Sometimes he'll tell you this is through and
Speaker 3: you can't do anything about it, and he'll say let go.
Speaker 3: And we want to talk today about what to do
Speaker 3: when God says let go.
Speaker 4: Father, your word with power and precision.
Speaker 3: Right now, I thank you in advance for the clarity
Speaker 3: that you will give me as I preach this word
Speaker 3: to your children. In Jesus' name. Amen, you may be
Speaker 3: seated when God says let go. Put that title in
Speaker 3: the comments. Please on YouTube. When God says let go,
Speaker 3: control freaks, buckle up. We're going to talk about when
Speaker 3: God says let go. Helicopter parents bring it in for
Speaker 3: a landing. For the next thirty forty forty five minutes.
Speaker 3: You can talk about when God says let go. Now,
Speaker 3: I need to go in very strongly from the beginning,
Speaker 3: So let's skip the part of the sermon where you
Speaker 3: fish your gum out of your purse and have to
Speaker 3: listen to what I say while I tell you a
Speaker 3: story that doesn't relate to anything.
Speaker 1: So you can get settled in.
Speaker 3: And let me just give you a principle right off
Speaker 3: the top, because I feel like there are some heavy
Speaker 3: situations people are carrying today and God is saying let go.
Speaker 3: When the Bible says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse seventeen,
Speaker 3: when Abraham was tested, the specific tints that the language
Speaker 3: uses of the New Testament, which is quin A Greek,
Speaker 3: is in present continual tints. So it doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: Abraham had one moment where his faith was tested and
Speaker 3: it was over. It's talking about how faith is tested
Speaker 3: with every step of faith that he took. When the
Speaker 3: Lord told him to go to a mountain and sacrifice
Speaker 3: his son, he didn't know that God would provide a
Speaker 3: ram in the bush and he wouldn't have to do it,
Speaker 3: so he was tested. Now, this is something I would
Speaker 3: love for you to write down. It's a little bit long,
Speaker 3: but I think is powerful. When your faith is being tested,
Speaker 3: there is something God has already taught taught you that
Speaker 3: he is calling you to trust in when your faith,
Speaker 3: not if, but when, when your faith is being tested,
Speaker 3: there is something that God has already taught you that
Speaker 3: he is calling you to trust in. God would not
Speaker 3: be giving you this test if he had not given
Speaker 3: you the lesson. He's a good teacher. He wouldn't put
Speaker 3: something in front of you that he didn't prep you for.
Speaker 3: So we learned to shift in these seasons of testing,
Speaker 3: to try to remember, God, what is it that you've
Speaker 3: already taught me that you are calling me to trust in?
Speaker 3: In this moment, let me say the whole sentence one
Speaker 3: more time. When your faith is being tested by a
Speaker 3: medical diagnosis, when your faith is being tested by a
Speaker 3: dry season in your own soul, when your faith is
Speaker 3: being tested by the way somebody is acting towards you,
Speaker 3: that's unfair, but you can't stop it. When your faith
Speaker 3: is being tested by doubts that just seem to keep
Speaker 3: coming and multiply in your mind. When not if your
Speaker 3: faith is being tested, you're in good company.
Speaker 4: The father of our faith, Abraham.
Speaker 3: Was tested, and when he was tested, not just once,
Speaker 3: but many times, there was something that God had already
Speaker 3: taught him that he was calling him to trust in.
Speaker 3: So if your faith is being tested, and it will
Speaker 3: be tested, and if it is not being tested today,
Speaker 3: let me see you at two PM when your faith
Speaker 3: is being tested.
Speaker 1: There is something that.
Speaker 3: God has already taught you that he is calling you
Speaker 3: to trust in. Because there's a big difference between him
Speaker 3: teaching it and me trusting it. And so this moment
Speaker 3: in your life is about asking, in God, what have
Speaker 3: you already taught me that you are calling me to
Speaker 3: trust in?
Speaker 1: Abraham?
Speaker 3: Abraham, Abraham and God have a track record. By the
Speaker 3: time he calls him to give his son back to God,
Speaker 3: that God, who gave him the son, says, give it
Speaker 3: back to me, which he has the right to do.
Speaker 1: Everything comes from him.
Speaker 3: But even in the midst of Abraham's confusion, there is
Speaker 3: a sense of continuity.
Speaker 1: For his calling.
Speaker 3: The thing about trust when I said, God is calling
Speaker 3: you to trust in something that he taught you.
Speaker 1: The thing about trust is that trust is everything.
Speaker 3: And the greatest way that I can exemplify this to
Speaker 3: you is through Hebrews chapter eleven, verse eight.
Speaker 1: God gives a.
Speaker 3: Little bit of a reminder about something that happened forty
Speaker 3: years earlier in Abraham's life that prepared him for this moment.
Speaker 1: Now. I want to look at you right now.
Speaker 3: Just because you don't feel ready for this moment doesn't
Speaker 3: mean you're not prepared for it. Just because you're surprised
Speaker 3: by it doesn't mean that you don't have the supply
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 1: Now. When Abraham was first.
Speaker 3: Getting started out in his journey of faith following Y'ahweh,
Speaker 3: he was seventy five years old.
Speaker 1: They lived a lot longer than by the way, you.
Speaker 3: Could have called it a midlife crisis, because he lived
Speaker 3: to be about one point fifty one sixty. And the
Speaker 3: Bible says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse eight, a reminder
Speaker 3: of something that happened when Abraham first got started. It
Speaker 3: says by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a
Speaker 3: place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and
Speaker 3: went even though he did not know where he was going.
Speaker 1: That's about the craziest thing I.
Speaker 3: Ever read in my life, y'all just sitting there looking
Speaker 3: at me like he went to the grocery store. I
Speaker 3: just told you, this man uprooted his entire life because
Speaker 3: of a god he had never heard from told him
Speaker 3: to go to a place that he wouldn't give him
Speaker 3: any details about, and there was no ways at on
Speaker 3: Abraham's iPhone negative thirty four. So we went and obeyed,
Speaker 3: even though he didn't know somebody say, even though, even
Speaker 3: though even though he didn't know where it was leading,
Speaker 3: he set out in faith. And the thing about this
Speaker 3: kind of trust in your life, my life, Abraham's life,
Speaker 3: Simon's life, Martha's life, Mary's life, Moses's life. When we
Speaker 3: go through all the people in the Bible, we get
Speaker 3: a panoramic view of the patterns that apply to all
Speaker 3: of us, kind of a sampler of what different people
Speaker 3: went through that they had to trust God with and
Speaker 3: steps that they took, and then we find ourselves following
Speaker 3: in those footsteps. And trust is a funny thing because
Speaker 3: the deeper the level of trust, the less the need
Speaker 3: for details. The deeper the level of trust, the less
Speaker 3: the need for details. Can I break it down. Holly
Speaker 3: went to get her nails done yesterday. I trust her.
Speaker 3: I didn't check my phone to see if she actually
Speaker 3: went to get her nails done. I didn't ask her
Speaker 3: how long she was going to be there. Who's going
Speaker 3: to be doing your nails. What kind of acrylic are
Speaker 3: you planning to get today? And are you going to
Speaker 3: pay for the extra twenty dollars thing where they put
Speaker 3: the little things on the things on top of the things.
Speaker 1: Because I trust.
Speaker 3: Her, she won't spend it if we don't have it,
Speaker 3: and she won't lie to me about it. If she does,
Speaker 3: she'd tell me I spent twenty I don't even have
Speaker 3: to ask her. Just go get your nails done. I
Speaker 3: trust her. This is not a marriage seminar. This is
Speaker 3: not a parenting seminar, but let's pretend like it is
Speaker 3: because it involves a father and a son with teenagers.
Speaker 1: How many of you have teenagers?
Speaker 3: When you trust your teenagers, you are delusional, just kidding.
Speaker 4: When you trust your teenagers.
Speaker 3: Because you know they can develop a t record, that
Speaker 3: you trust them, right, And if you have a teenager
Speaker 3: that you feel like you can trust as much as
Speaker 3: you can trust.
Speaker 1: Any person, including you, because some of.
Speaker 3: Y'all can't even trust the teenager that's still living in you.
Speaker 3: So how in the world would you completely trust your teenager?
Speaker 3: But when they have exemplified trustworthy behavior, even though they
Speaker 3: have a sinful nature, it changes things.
Speaker 1: If you don't trust your teenager.
Speaker 3: Every time they want to go somewhere, you need details.
Speaker 3: So they will ask you, can I go to the movies,
Speaker 3: and you will say I need some details. Somebody put
Speaker 3: it in the chest, say details. Tell your neighbor I
Speaker 3: need details.
Speaker 1: Tell them.
Speaker 3: If I don't trust you, I need details. So can
Speaker 3: I go to the movie? What movie? What theater? Who
Speaker 3: are some of the actors in the movies? So I
Speaker 3: can see if you really plan on seeing this movie?
Speaker 3: What time is it playing? Who else is going to
Speaker 3: be on your role? What seat are you sitting in?
Speaker 3: Show me a screenshot of those seats right now? Will
Speaker 3: there be popcorn involved? How much butter do you plan
Speaker 3: on pumping on that popcorn? Because the less I trust you,
Speaker 3: the more I need details. If I trust you, can
Speaker 3: I go to the movies?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 4: Be home at eleven thirty. We don't need the details if.
Speaker 3: We have the trust, and the deeper the level of trust,
Speaker 3: the less the need for details.
Speaker 1: The guy who started the.
Speaker 3: Church with me, he could walk up to me right
Speaker 3: in the middle of preaching right now and put a
Speaker 3: contract here and say I need you to sign this
Speaker 3: while you're preaching, and I would keep preaching and sign
Speaker 3: it and hand it back to him.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't ask him what it was about.
Speaker 3: Maybe you think I'm an idiot, but we've had experiences together.
Speaker 1: It would not matter what.
Speaker 3: That particular document said. It is through the now. The
Speaker 3: first time I met him, I needed details.
Speaker 5: Now, let me tell.
Speaker 3: Y'all something because I really want to set this frame
Speaker 3: so that we don't get lost in an epic story
Speaker 3: about killing your son or your daughter, which is not
Speaker 3: what the text is about. It's about trust. God is
Speaker 3: not calling you to kill your child, you might wish
Speaker 3: from time to time, but using humor just to lighten
Speaker 3: the mood so we don't get caught in something that
Speaker 3: we can't understand and contextualize in our day. This is
Speaker 3: about trust. The test that you're in right now is
Speaker 3: about trust. When we started the church, I have eight
Speaker 3: families who I asked to come with me. This was
Speaker 3: twenty years ago. Twenty one years ago. I said, I'm
Speaker 3: called to start a church, and I believe y'all are
Speaker 3: called to come with me. But here's all I told him.
Speaker 3: I said, we're going to start a church in a
Speaker 3: big city somewhere in America.
Speaker 1: That was the whole pitch.
Speaker 3: I had not read the sales books yet about how
Speaker 3: to sell people on your vision.
Speaker 4: And as a matter of fact, I didn't really.
Speaker 3: Want them to know what city we were going to
Speaker 3: because I didn't know yet.
Speaker 1: And I believe that God knew.
Speaker 3: And I didn't want them to make a commitment based
Speaker 3: on a city. I wanted them to make a commitment
Speaker 3: based on a calling. I didn't want them to commit
Speaker 3: if we were going to Miami because they liked warm weather.
Speaker 3: I wanted them to commit even if we went to Minnesota.
Speaker 3: But I didn't want to tell the Minnesota so that
Speaker 3: they would say yes and then they'd have to go
Speaker 3: to Minnesota, because I wanted to trick them into trusting God,
Speaker 3: not me.
Speaker 1: Because I look back on that, I think, my goodness, how.
Speaker 3: Did they trust so much when they were told so little?
Speaker 3: Somewhere in the United States of America. We couldn't have
Speaker 3: known we would be in such a wonderful city as Charlotte,
Speaker 3: North Carolina. We couldn't have known. And I'm not comparing
Speaker 3: y'all to Abraham. But even though they didn't know, they
Speaker 3: decided to go. Let's go, let's go do it. They said,
Speaker 3: we're young and dumb, let's go, might as well find
Speaker 3: out if God can use us.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 3: There's something invigorating even talking to you about me reliving those.
Speaker 1: Let's go moments of our faith.
Speaker 3: There's something exciting even just to remember, like, I don't
Speaker 3: even know what it means to start a powerful church,
Speaker 3: but I don't want to do it.
Speaker 4: Lord, let's go.
Speaker 3: And when God said to Abraham, let's go, Abraham didn't
Speaker 3: say there are a few things I need to know,
Speaker 3: which lets me now that trust is not only a
Speaker 3: product of time, it is a product of character. This
Speaker 3: was not Abraham's third time following God.
Speaker 1: It was his first.
Speaker 3: It's not like he had a list of things to
Speaker 3: point back to where. Well, God, you led me there
Speaker 3: and it worked out. You told me to take that
Speaker 3: job and I got a raise, and you told me
Speaker 3: to marry them and they turned out to be wonderful. No,
Speaker 3: this is God saying it's me, God, let's go. And
Speaker 3: when God says let's go, you can resist it, and
Speaker 3: you'll get more and more miserable.
Speaker 1: As you fight it.
Speaker 3: When God says let's go, it's time for you to
Speaker 3: leave this toxic state and forgive them and move on
Speaker 3: from what you've been holding them hostage about. When God
Speaker 3: says let let's go, and you won't move on past that.
Speaker 4: You will feel stuck in yourself.
Speaker 3: Until you obey the spoken word of the sovereign God.
Speaker 3: When God says let's go, you might not even get
Speaker 3: to ask him where. But if God can be trusted,
Speaker 3: then the deeper the level of the trust, the less
Speaker 3: the need for the details. So God says let's go,
Speaker 3: and you don't ask him where. You just say which
Speaker 3: shoes should I put on? Can I wear something with heels?
Speaker 3: Or should I wear something flat? When God says let's go,
Speaker 3: when he invites you into a new way of living,
Speaker 3: when he tells you it's time to pursue growth and
Speaker 3: stop staying stagnant in the grumblings of your past.
Speaker 1: When God says let's.
Speaker 3: Go, if you trust him enough, you won't even need
Speaker 3: the details. And by the way, the more that I
Speaker 3: trust you, the less details I need to give you too.
Speaker 1: If I don't trust you, I gotta tell you everything.
Speaker 3: But in my relationship with God, if I really trust him,
Speaker 3: why would I need to get him all the details
Speaker 3: of how he needs to leave me?
Speaker 1: And I want to live in this for a minute.
Speaker 3: I love y'all when y'all feel uncomfortable when I'm preaching.
Speaker 3: That's how I know I heard from God because there
Speaker 3: are some of you right now whose faith is being tested.
Speaker 3: But when your faith is being tested, realized that there's
Speaker 3: something that God already taught you that he is calling
Speaker 3: you to trust him in.
Speaker 1: And the deeper the level of trust. Notice I said deeper,
Speaker 1: not higher.
Speaker 3: The deeper the level of trust, the less the need
Speaker 3: for the details. How did Abraham trust so much when
Speaker 3: he was told so little? I'm gona close my eyes
Speaker 3: so y'all won't feel like I'm judging you when you
Speaker 3: answer this, raise your hand if you would have needed
Speaker 3: a little more detail than Abraham received in order to
Speaker 3: leave everything that you knew and set out, but he didn't.
Speaker 3: I give you the scripture again, and I can't believe
Speaker 3: those of you who did not raise your hand right there.
Speaker 3: You won't even go to a party if you don't
Speaker 3: see the entire guest list. Some of us won't even
Speaker 3: leave the house unless we plot out where all the
Speaker 3: bathrooms are going to be. You know, I got to
Speaker 3: know where, though, And if you drive a tesla, you
Speaker 3: got to know where every charging station is, or you
Speaker 3: can't drive that.
Speaker 1: So now, why what Abraham did?
Speaker 3: He obeyed and went, even though he did not know
Speaker 3: where he was going. Verse eight, He obeyed and went
Speaker 3: even though he did not know where he was going.
Speaker 3: He obeyed and went even though he did not know.
Speaker 3: Let's substitute something here. Let's say I must obey and
Speaker 3: go even though I don't know, and where it says
Speaker 3: where they are going.
Speaker 1: Just put whatever needs to go in that blank.
Speaker 3: If I don't know how God is going to do it,
Speaker 3: I don't need the details because my trust in Him
Speaker 3: is deeper than the details. So when God speaks to
Speaker 3: you and he says I want you to give this
Speaker 3: person some money, you don't need the details of why
Speaker 3: God wants you to give it if you trust him deeply.
Speaker 3: When you say, well, I can't trust them, I don't
Speaker 3: know if they're going to spend it on the right thing.
Speaker 3: It's not the depth of your trust in them that
Speaker 3: determines your level of generosity.
Speaker 1: You are called to be generous.
Speaker 3: I think I'm really calling on somebody today who needs
Speaker 3: to do it without the details. And I don't mean
Speaker 3: get in your car and drive until an angel speaks
Speaker 3: and then stop and get a motel room. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about going forward in what God is speaking to you,
Speaker 3: even though you don't know. A lot of times we
Speaker 3: get trapped in all of the details that we don't know,
Speaker 3: and we don't take.
Speaker 1: The steps that God has called us to take. There
Speaker 1: is a.
Speaker 3: Distinction between God and the devil, though. See, the devil
Speaker 3: doesn't test us, he tempts us. The devil tempts us
Speaker 3: outside of God's will. God tests us to bring us
Speaker 3: deeper into His will. It occurs to me today that
Speaker 3: the devil cannot test you. Only God can test you.
Speaker 3: The devil can tempt you not to trust God in
Speaker 3: this test, but God is the only one who can test.
Speaker 3: Can I preach a little while, Like we're preaching to
Speaker 3: people over the age of five years old. We need
Speaker 3: to make that distinction because otherwise you will get stuck
Speaker 3: in the even though and you'll never know.
Speaker 1: So there are amazing let's go moments that we have.
Speaker 3: There are amazing setout in faith moments, And maybe not
Speaker 3: like Abraham to that dramatic extent, but we can surely
Speaker 3: see the disciples having a let's go moment. Write that
Speaker 3: phrase down let's go. Moment they're exciting. Hey, follow me.
Speaker 3: I'll make you fishures of men. Well, what do we
Speaker 3: do about the boats? Just keep those and rent them
Speaker 3: out for a little while. But for the next three
Speaker 3: years you're gonna see amazing things.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 3: When God speaks to you and tells you to take
Speaker 3: a step of faith, and really, this time, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: put myself into this job. I'm not just gonna work
Speaker 3: here and take a check and quiet quit. I'm really
Speaker 3: gonna step up and lead in this job. When God says,
Speaker 3: let's go. Sometimes he doesn't have to move you from
Speaker 3: the place that you are. He wants to use you
Speaker 3: in the place that you are when you finally decide
Speaker 3: let's go. The disciples didn't move from Galilee when Jesus
Speaker 3: called them. They offered their boats so Jesus could use
Speaker 3: them in the place they already were.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 3: Sometimes God will tell you it's time for you to
Speaker 3: step into your adulthood.
Speaker 1: You have been in a.
Speaker 3: Season of childishness. Not childlike faith, but childishness. Long enough,
Speaker 3: let's go. I'm calling you up. Now you need to
Speaker 3: be a mentor. Now you need to be an example.
Speaker 3: Now you need to trust me to move forward by faith. Now,
Speaker 3: and I wonder is there anybody in here who trusts
Speaker 3: God enough that if he says, let's go, even though
Speaker 3: the arrows are flying, you've got the shield of faith.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the
Speaker 3: evidence of things not seen.
Speaker 4: Let's go. The weapon may be formed against me, but
Speaker 4: it will not prosper. Let's go.
Speaker 3: Take your stand in against the devil's schemes.
Speaker 4: You are not ignorant of his schemes.
Speaker 3: Let's go, devil. I don't want to smoke, but if
Speaker 3: you want to bring it, I know somebody who's gotta train.
Speaker 3: Let's sail sex Temple.
Speaker 4: Let's go, let's show. I don't want to raise this
Speaker 4: kid by myself, but if God didn't give me somebody
Speaker 4: else to.
Speaker 3: Race them with, he's my tactic partner. Let's go, and
Speaker 3: Abraham win fifteen hundred miles.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine fifteen.
Speaker 3: Hundred miles without an APP, without an huber, without a
Speaker 3: GPS coordinate feels like that sometimes, But they is the
Speaker 3: voice of God saying let's go. Notice he said let's go,
Speaker 3: let us go. I'm gonna do this with you. While
Speaker 3: I need the details.
Speaker 1: Let me give you.
Speaker 3: Another example, so I can make this so practical that
Speaker 3: but you will have no excuse either to obey it
Speaker 3: or disobey it when the Lord speaks it to you.
Speaker 3: When I go on a trip for ministry, if I
Speaker 3: go alone, I need every detail. But if somebody comes
Speaker 3: from the staff to support me, I don't need to
Speaker 3: know the details because I've got somebody with me that
Speaker 3: I can depend on, and if I can depend on you,
Speaker 3: I don't need details. So the process of my life
Speaker 3: and getting closer with God should not be necessarily that
Speaker 3: I understand more and more of where He's taking me.
Speaker 1: That's why we get.
Speaker 3: Confused when we run up on seasons that we didn't
Speaker 3: see coming, because we think that the depth of our
Speaker 3: faith in God will bring clarity about the details of
Speaker 3: where He's leading. But the deeper the trust, I said,
Speaker 3: the deeper the trust. Trust isn't always tall. You can't
Speaker 3: always see it. Sometimes it runs deep where you need
Speaker 3: it the most. And I believe that's how Abraham was
Speaker 3: able to say let's go and then after God spoke
Speaker 3: to him at age seventy five, leaving a metropolitan culture
Speaker 3: for a nomadic one, everything about his life seems to
Speaker 3: be going backwards when he sets out to follow God.
Speaker 3: Abraham wasn't moving on up. Y'll never even seen a
Speaker 3: TV set. But he followed God what seemed to be down,
Speaker 3: and then God spoke the promise. Now, I want to
Speaker 3: show you a very pivotal phrase in Hebrews eleven, verse
Speaker 3: eighteen is talking about how Abraham was tested. But when
Speaker 3: your faith is being tested, there's something that God has
Speaker 3: already taught you that he is calling you to trust in.
Speaker 3: And it says by faith Abraham verse eighteen. Please, even
Speaker 3: though God had said to him, it is through Isaac
Speaker 3: that your offspring will be reckon. So there's another Even
Speaker 3: though go back to verse seven, I'm gonna put this
Speaker 3: thing together for you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put the baloney right in the middle of
Speaker 1: the buns and smash it down.
Speaker 3: By Babe Abraham when called to go verse eight to
Speaker 3: a place he would later receive. This is delayed gratification faith.
Speaker 3: Even in his lifetime. He wouldn't see all of it,
Speaker 3: but he obeyed and went, even though he did not
Speaker 3: know where he was going. Now give me verse eighteen. Again,
Speaker 3: he offered his son, even though God had said to him.
Speaker 3: But go back to the verse before that, because it
Speaker 3: calls Abraham something very interesting. You know, he's called the
Speaker 3: father of faith, and he is His name means father
Speaker 3: of many nations. His name started as Abram, which means
Speaker 3: exalted father. But God changed his name to prepare him
Speaker 3: for his assignment, and he was called according to what
Speaker 3: he would carry.
Speaker 1: But when abrahm him received the promise that you will
Speaker 1: have a son, there was a problem.
Speaker 3: It says by faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered
Speaker 3: Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced everybody say embraced.
Speaker 3: Justin please circle the word embraced. He embraced the promises.
Speaker 3: And that sounds so simple, right, Like God promises you
Speaker 3: you're gonna make it, and you embrace it, and you say,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make it. God promises you this is going
Speaker 3: to work out for your good. You embrace it. It's
Speaker 3: going to work out. God promises you that he has
Speaker 3: someone for you, and you embrace the idea that God
Speaker 3: has someone from you. And the first thing we need
Speaker 3: to do before we embrace a promise from God is
Speaker 3: evaluate is it actually a promise from God?
Speaker 1: Or is it just a feeling?
Speaker 3: That we had, or an ideal that we had, but
Speaker 3: put it back up. It says he embraced the promise
Speaker 3: of God that you will have a son. Now, I
Speaker 3: want to point out to you that he embraced the
Speaker 3: promise not only for a nine month period, but for
Speaker 3: twenty five years between when God spoke it and when
Speaker 3: it happened.
Speaker 1: That's a long time.
Speaker 3: Twenty five years is certainly long enough to start questioning,
Speaker 3: did I really hear God right? Twenty five years was
Speaker 3: long enough for Abraham? Should I tell him the story
Speaker 3: about Hagar? Abraham's wife said, Hey, since our stuff isn't
Speaker 3: exactly coming together like we thought it would, here is
Speaker 3: my maid servant Hagar. Sleep with her and have a son.
Speaker 3: And Abraham said, hey, I'm the lord's servant. Whatever you
Speaker 3: need me to do, let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 3: Abraham is the let's go man. He said, let's go.
Speaker 3: They had a baby named Ishmael. It turned out to
Speaker 3: be a problem, had to throw him out. He became
Speaker 3: a nation to father of many nations. But even through
Speaker 3: the mistake, give it to me again, he embraced the promise.
Speaker 3: Bracing promises doesn't mean you won't make mistakes In the process.
Speaker 3: Embracing the promise doesn't mean you won't have days where
Speaker 3: you go, you know what, forget it.
Speaker 1: I don't even care anymore, nobody else does. Why should I.
Speaker 3: Embracing the promise doesn't mean that you never cry the tears.
Speaker 3: Embracing the promise doesn't mean you always understand the plan.
Speaker 3: He embraced the promise for twenty five years. He had
Speaker 3: to believe something that he couldn't see. For twenty five years,
Speaker 3: he held on to the promise. So now we've gone
Speaker 3: from let's go faith to hold on faith. And there
Speaker 3: are a few of you who are in this room
Speaker 3: who are in a season of hold on faith, holding.
Speaker 4: On to believe that you really could be free from
Speaker 4: this one day.
Speaker 3: Holding on to believe that it really could lift off
Speaker 3: of your family one day and it could get better,
Speaker 3: holding on to believe that.
Speaker 1: God is going to give you joy again.
Speaker 3: Abraham is a great model for us of this kind
Speaker 3: of faith, because no, we're not all going to be
Speaker 3: the father of many nations, and know we're not going
Speaker 3: to have babies at age one hundred, but there will
Speaker 3: be a season of your life where you will have
Speaker 3: to hold on to something God's folk. When everything you
Speaker 3: see and everything you feel is telling you a different story,
Speaker 3: you will point back to something God said and say,
Speaker 3: I still believe it. I still believe it. Somebody shout,
Speaker 3: I still believe it. Right now, my bank account is
Speaker 3: a liar, but God is true.
Speaker 4: I still believe He's a provider.
Speaker 3: Right now, there are things going through my mind that
Speaker 3: are telling me that it will never come.
Speaker 1: To pass, but I still believe it.
Speaker 3: There aren't a lot of people who believe in me
Speaker 3: right now, but God has called me, and.
Speaker 1: He is faithful to keep me.
Speaker 3: I still believe it in spite of everything I've gone through.
Speaker 3: Even because of some of the things I've gone through.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be going through so much if I wasn't
Speaker 3: carrying so much. And I still believe it. Feel like
Speaker 3: preaching to three people who need to hold on.
Speaker 4: Somebody shout, hold on, Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3: I'm holding on, sometimes barely by a fingernail, but I'm
Speaker 3: holding on. Sometimes I feel like free solo, like I'm
Speaker 3: about to plunge down to my bloody death, but I'm
Speaker 3: holding on.
Speaker 4: I'm climbing higher, I'm coming up, I'm.
Speaker 1: Moving through it.
Speaker 3: I'm progressing and advancing and the things of God. Even
Speaker 3: as my emotions are clawing at my feet, I still believing.
Speaker 3: But this message is not called when God says hold on,
Speaker 3: there are moments it's where you hold on. And then
Speaker 3: for Abraham, there was a season when God said, I
Speaker 3: know you're the one who said let's go when I
Speaker 3: told you to follow me fifteen hundred miles. I know
Speaker 3: you held on when you waited twenty five years for Isaac.
Speaker 3: And I know that this boy is the son that
Speaker 3: you love and you waited for. But the Bible says
Speaker 3: in Genesis twenty two, verse one, that God said to Abraham,
Speaker 3: take your son, your only son, Isaac, only son. I
Speaker 3: thought you had another one. Yeah, he threw that one out.
Speaker 3: This is the one that he had left. This is
Speaker 3: the one that God promised. And I would like to
Speaker 3: speak to you today about how sometimes we let go
Speaker 3: of things that are sins in our life.
Speaker 1: But that's not what this text is about.
Speaker 3: I would like to speak to you today about sometimes
Speaker 3: we need to let go of habits that are bad
Speaker 3: for us in our life. But this is not a
Speaker 3: text about quitting cigarettes and vapor. Don't worry, I'm not
Speaker 3: preaching about that today, I'm preaching about something deeper, because
Speaker 3: what do you do when God says I want my
Speaker 3: promise back, not because I don't intend to fulfill it,
Speaker 3: but because I'll fulfill it when I want to fulfill
Speaker 3: it how I want to fulfill it, And I need
Speaker 3: you to trust me. Now. If you don't have deep
Speaker 3: trust with God in this moment, you will need details.
Speaker 3: You start trying to control everything, You start trying to
Speaker 3: manipulate things. And that is why some of us are
Speaker 3: so stressed right now. Because there's a dream that you
Speaker 3: thought God gave you, and maybe he did, but there
Speaker 3: are details to that dream that are not being met
Speaker 3: on your deadline. You can't call him God and give
Speaker 3: him a deadline. The boss sets the deadline. I know
Speaker 3: what I thought I should have been by now, but
Speaker 3: it's not my deadline. Let me set you free with
Speaker 3: one sentence. I like to say one thing that makes
Speaker 3: it worth coming, even if you've been sleep the rest
Speaker 3: of the time I've been up here talking, it's not
Speaker 3: my deadline. If God waited until Abraham was one hundred
Speaker 3: to give him a baby, you think God's gonna do
Speaker 3: everything you want him to do within the first quarter
Speaker 3: of this year. What do you do when God says
Speaker 3: I want you to I want.
Speaker 4: You to hold on.
Speaker 1: I got I got I think it all.
Speaker 4: We kind of say this, I just got it.
Speaker 1: What do you do when he says, hold on to
Speaker 1: the promise, let go of the plan? What do you do?
Speaker 4: That's our question, right because some of us are really
Speaker 4: good at let's go, let's go. I'm a vision board
Speaker 4: let's go, got my goals.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 4: So you're really good at let's go. But I was
Speaker 4: looking for a way to.
Speaker 3: Illustrate this yesterday and I thought, God, if I don't
Speaker 3: illustrate it right, they won't hear what they need to hear.
Speaker 3: And I really want to speak to the person who
Speaker 3: is holding on so tight to their idea of life.
Speaker 1: And I'm praying about this.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about Abraham and Isaac in this crazy scene
Speaker 3: where he is about to take the life of his
Speaker 3: son because he doesn't know that God doesn't want to
Speaker 3: take Isaac. God wasn't taking Isaac. He was testing Abraham.
Speaker 3: And there's the let's go moment, there's the hold on moment.
Speaker 3: You will find yourself in both. But when God says
Speaker 3: let go, that can be hard. To hear, because this
Speaker 3: is something I think he wants me to have, but
Speaker 3: he's not doing it how I think he wants me
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 4: What to pray for?
Speaker 1: Would ask for?
Speaker 3: As I'm thinking praying about this illustration, I'm thinking I
Speaker 3: look in a book. But then bo runs over, our
Speaker 3: Boston Terrier runs over and he brings me a ball,
Speaker 3: and I first think, I don't have time to play
Speaker 3: fetch with you. Bo.
Speaker 6: I am working on a very important sermon for very
Speaker 6: important people about a very legendary Bible text, and it
Speaker 6: is a serious text, and I don't have time for
Speaker 6: this because I'm talking about let's go and let go
Speaker 6: and all of that.
Speaker 1: And he brings me the ball as if he is
Speaker 1: saying let's go.
Speaker 3: So I take the ball and I throw the ball,
Speaker 3: and as I'm throwing it, I remembered, Oh, this won't
Speaker 3: take long because bo is terrible at fetch. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you why he's terrible at fetch, because he's really
Speaker 3: good at let's go.
Speaker 1: He'll run and get it real quick.
Speaker 3: But once he's got it, he did not hear my
Speaker 3: sermon today called when God says let go, and he
Speaker 3: is better at retrieving it than he is at releasing it.
Speaker 3: So I can't get him to understand that we could
Speaker 3: do a lot more if you would say, let's go
Speaker 3: and then let go and get in the rhythm of
Speaker 3: retrieving and then returning and retrieving and releasing and I.
Speaker 4: Give it and you bring it back, and I give
Speaker 4: it and you bring it back.
Speaker 3: And now I understand why God will sometimes call us
Speaker 3: to bring him something that we thought he promised, so
Speaker 3: that he can clarify what he actually promised, so that
Speaker 3: he can do what he said he would do, not
Speaker 3: what I thought he would do, not what I wanted
Speaker 3: him to do, not on my deadline, but on his
Speaker 3: destined schedule for the per turp for which he intends
Speaker 3: my life to be a small little peace. So I
Speaker 3: want to tell every bowe in the room, let go,
Speaker 3: Let go. How can you say that this is important
Speaker 3: to me? How can you tell me to let go?
Speaker 1: I have to make some plans, don't lie. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: gotta make them, but don't hold them too tight that
Speaker 1: you choke them.
Speaker 3: Is it possible, I'm asking the question, Is it possible
Speaker 3: that your problem isn't that you don't hold on to
Speaker 3: what you think God told you you hold it too tight,
Speaker 3: because sometimes his timing is different than yours. I don't
Speaker 3: know who this is for, but the Lord really wants
Speaker 3: you to get this today, because he's saying, let go,
Speaker 3: let go. What would that journey have been like to
Speaker 3: the mountain region named Mariah. This is the same region
Speaker 3: where Jesus would die thousands of years later, where God
Speaker 3: would give his sign, different mountains, same region. Abraham had
Speaker 3: no context for that. And so what do you do
Speaker 3: when your faith is being tested but you have no precedence,
Speaker 3: no precedence. I wanted to call this message a promise
Speaker 3: with no precedence. In other words, I've never seen this before.
Speaker 3: I've never seen this before. I don't know how to
Speaker 3: do this. I don't know how to be a father
Speaker 3: of many nations. I don't know how to do this.
Speaker 3: And you got to lead your son to Isaac is
Speaker 3: fifteen by this time. By the way, he's a teenager.
Speaker 3: He's a teenager. We talked a little bit about teenagers
Speaker 3: in trust earlier, and now this teenager and watch the journey.
Speaker 3: There's a conversation that happens because they go three days.
Speaker 3: Remember Abraham was tested not in a moment, but in
Speaker 3: a process. The test of your faith will be continual.
Speaker 3: You'll be good one moment the next. Why are y'all
Speaker 3: so fake?
Speaker 1: Today?
Speaker 3: I said, you'll be tested one moment and your faith
Speaker 3: will be really, really good, and then it'll tank the
Speaker 3: next You are only one text message away from your
Speaker 3: trust in God tanking to an all time level.
Speaker 1: And that's true.
Speaker 3: Need I go further, and they're talking about it, and
Speaker 3: the further they get, the more questions Isaac has, because
Speaker 3: this is not the dad touch trust in the teenager.
Speaker 3: This is the teenager trusting the This thing is flipped.
Speaker 3: And so now Isaac is walking with Abraham and he
Speaker 3: doesn't know either. I should do a parenting seminar on this.
Speaker 3: What do you do when you're leading somebody and you
Speaker 3: don't know either?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Abraham's like, let me tell you about me and God.
Speaker 3: He doesn't give me many details because when they start walking,
Speaker 3: and I'm not cheapening the text by lightening the tone,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to bring you into it so that you
Speaker 3: can understand that God doesn't call us all to sacrifice
Speaker 3: our sons. He sacrificed his son for all of us,
Speaker 3: but he does call us all to trust in Him
Speaker 3: at times times where we can't understand, and they're walking
Speaker 3: three days, and then comes the point where they can't
Speaker 3: take the servants any further, because there will come a
Speaker 3: place where you get to a point with God where
Speaker 3: no one else can help you figure it out.
Speaker 1: I mean to a point. People can give you advice
Speaker 1: to appoint.
Speaker 3: People will give you wisdom, but don't worship their wisdom
Speaker 3: because their wisdom is based on their experience.
Speaker 1: And God has to show you some things for your life.
Speaker 3: And Genesis twenty two six says that Abraham took the
Speaker 3: wood get the picture, the wood for the burnt offering.
Speaker 1: And placed it on his son Isaac.
Speaker 3: Do we not see Jesus all the way in Genesis
Speaker 3: twenty two that he took the wood and put it
Speaker 3: on his son, and he himself carried the fire and
Speaker 3: the knife. As the two of them went on together,
Speaker 3: Isaac started to wonder a little bit, and he spoke up,
Speaker 3: and he said to his father Abraham, Father, yes, my son, Abraham.
Speaker 4: Replied, the fire in the water.
Speaker 5: Here.
Speaker 3: I'm doing an inventory. We got everything we need except
Speaker 3: one thing. Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
Speaker 3: In other words, I need some details, and Abraham answered God,
Speaker 3: he only said one thing, one thing, one thing that
Speaker 3: he had found to be true over fifteen hundred miles
Speaker 3: of traveling, one thing that he had found to be
Speaker 3: true when he went to Egypt to survive for a
Speaker 3: little while, One thing that he knew to be true,
Speaker 3: even though he didn't know where this was leading. God
Speaker 3: himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. And
Speaker 3: in this moment, we wonder was Abraham bluffing? Did he
Speaker 3: really know that that was going to happen, because that
Speaker 3: is what happens. It's not a lamb, but it's a
Speaker 3: ram because God isn't going to ever do it exactly
Speaker 3: like you think he is. But he says it like
Speaker 3: he knows that God himself will provide the lamb for
Speaker 3: the burnt offering, my son, And watch this. I get
Speaker 3: the picture here that Isaac has seen Abraham trust God before,
Speaker 3: he has seen his father trust God before. Why Because
Speaker 3: the deeper the trust, the less the need for details.
Speaker 3: Isaac told him God will provide, and the two of
Speaker 3: them went on together. He said, God will provide, and
Speaker 3: Isaac said, let's go. And so Isaac is saying, let's
Speaker 3: go while Abraham is letting him go, and the moment comes.
Speaker 1: Now, just lock in with me for a minute.
Speaker 3: When they reached the place God had told him about,
Speaker 3: not the place he knew in his mind, God showed him.
Speaker 1: When he got there, Abraham built an altar, which.
Speaker 3: Was a place of sacrifice, which was a place of death,
Speaker 3: which was a place of worship. He built an offer
Speaker 3: there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his
Speaker 3: son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top
Speaker 3: of what. I know how hard this is for us
Speaker 3: to get our minds around. That's why I was hesitant
Speaker 3: to preach it. But the one that I was most
Speaker 3: hesitant to preach in this whole series is the one
Speaker 3: that healed me the most, because what I saw in
Speaker 3: verse ten changed my life. He reached out his hand
Speaker 3: and he is he is reaching for the instrument, the knife,
Speaker 3: and he's wrapping his fingers around the knife, letting go
Speaker 3: of his son. And as he reached out his hand
Speaker 3: and took the knife to slay his son.
Speaker 1: But.
Speaker 3: The Angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham.
Speaker 3: He said it twice because he was holding the knife
Speaker 3: and he thought his son was about to die.
Speaker 1: And he didn't know what to make sense of it.
Speaker 3: But in the moment that he's holding the knife over
Speaker 3: his son, here comes the Angel at that moment saying, Abraham, Abraham,
Speaker 3: let go.
Speaker 4: God says, let go. At the very moment that Abraham Abraham.
Speaker 1: Thinks it's over.
Speaker 3: And when God said what he said, Abraham, Abraham, here
Speaker 3: I am, he replied verse twelve, do not lay a hand.
Speaker 4: On the boy.
Speaker 3: Somebody shout, let go, shout it again, let go, let go.
Speaker 3: I know you came this far thinking this was how
Speaker 3: it's gonna end.
Speaker 1: But the moment that the.
Speaker 3: Angel spoke, he said, don't lay a hand on the boy,
Speaker 3: don't do anything to him.
Speaker 4: Now I know that you fear God. And now that
Speaker 4: you've let him go, let go.
Speaker 3: Now that I know that I can trust you with
Speaker 3: what I taught you, that I can trust you that.
Speaker 4: You don't love it more than you love me.
Speaker 3: Now that I can trust you that you're embracing my promise,
Speaker 3: not your plan. Now that you have let go, because
Speaker 3: verse twelve, you have not withheld your son.
Speaker 1: You have let go of your son. Now let go
Speaker 1: of the knife.
Speaker 5: And God is so strategic that at the moment that
Speaker 5: Abraham was letting go of the knife, which is what
Speaker 5: he thought he had to do, at the moment that
Speaker 5: God said let go of the knife.
Speaker 3: Verse thirteen says he heard something other than the angel
Speaker 3: rustling in the background. Abraham looked up, and there in
Speaker 3: a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.
Speaker 3: And he went over and took the ram and sacrificed
Speaker 3: as a burnt offering instead.
Speaker 1: Of his son.
Speaker 3: Verse fourteen says, so Abraham called that place the place
Speaker 3: where he thought Isaac would die, that place, the place
Speaker 3: where he thought it was over, that place, the place
Speaker 3: he didn't even know he was going or what God
Speaker 3: would do, but he said he would provide, and he
Speaker 3: did provide, And he called that place the Lord will provide.
Speaker 3: It wasn't called the place where Isaac died. It was
Speaker 3: called the place where Jehovah.
Speaker 4: Provided Ben isa Claire, what glory to God. Let's rename
Speaker 4: this place.
Speaker 3: Now. This is for all of the people who are
Speaker 3: letting go of something that you thought would happen, letting
Speaker 3: go of the way.
Speaker 1: You thought somebody was supposed to change.
Speaker 3: Letting go of what you expected from yourself, letting go
Speaker 3: of what you thought God was like letting go of
Speaker 3: what you thought this season would include. This is for
Speaker 3: everybody who's letting go. At the moment that Abraham was
Speaker 3: letting go of the knife, the thicket was grabbing hold
Speaker 3: of the ram.
Speaker 4: What am I trying to say?
Speaker 1: God's got you.
Speaker 3: In this place. God's got you in this place. His
Speaker 3: name is Jehovah. He is Jehovah, Jirah. The Lord will
Speaker 3: provide for me.
Speaker 4: The Lord will provide for my family. The Lord will provide.
Speaker 1: For this church.
Speaker 4: Can't you see the angel.
Speaker 3: At the same moment that one angel is telling Abraham
Speaker 3: to let go of the knife, another angel is telling
Speaker 3: the thicket to grab a hold of the ram. Don't
Speaker 3: you see the timing of God what you call coincidence.
Speaker 3: But Abraham didn't know that. Abraham didn't know that he
Speaker 3: had to go not knowing, And so do you. But
Speaker 3: Hebrews chapter eleven, verse nineteen. Stay standing and hasten me
Speaker 3: to a close and rush me with pressure by standing up.
Speaker 3: If you stand up, I'll start rushing this sermon to
Speaker 3: a conclusion. And you can get the qdoba and sit
Speaker 3: around and eat something that ain't gonna last you for
Speaker 3: two hours of energy instead of getting this word from
Speaker 3: God that can save you from a decade of disappointment
Speaker 3: and break off generations of oppression.
Speaker 4: Walk of your family because my God is the home
Speaker 4: of Chira. When God is testing your faith, not the devil.
Speaker 3: When God is testing your faith, even if the devil
Speaker 3: brings the trial, the Lord will administer the test.
Speaker 4: When God is testing your faith, he already.
Speaker 1: Taught you something.
Speaker 3: Hebrews, Chapter eleven, verse nineteen, One more time. How did
Speaker 3: he make it up that mountain? How do I walk
Speaker 3: through this valley? How do I get through this season
Speaker 3: of uncertainty?
Speaker 1: How do I go not knowing? How do I show
Speaker 1: up not feeling it?
Speaker 3: How do I continue to embrace the promise while not
Speaker 3: holding it too tightly? The writer of Hebrews gives us
Speaker 3: a clue as to what to do when your faith
Speaker 3: is being tested and you know your God can be trusted.
Speaker 7: He said, Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.
Speaker 7: Now I thought about that thing, and I thought about
Speaker 7: that thing, and.
Speaker 3: I thought about how he reasoned that God could even
Speaker 3: raise the dead, even if it ends, God can bring
Speaker 3: a new beginning. He reasoned that God could raise the
Speaker 3: dead and It made me ask the question, at this
Speaker 3: point in history, when Abraham reason that God would raise
Speaker 3: him from the dead, had there ever been a resurrection
Speaker 3: recorded in the scriptures? And the answer is no, there
Speaker 3: is no recorded resurrection in the scriptures. By Genesis twenty two.
Speaker 3: I could understand if it said Peter reasoned that God
Speaker 3: could raise him from the dead because he saw that
Speaker 3: happen to his boss, so he had seen it before.
Speaker 3: But verse nineteen does not say Abraham remembered that God
Speaker 3: could even raise the dead. For him to remember, he
Speaker 3: would have had to have a previous experience. He would
Speaker 3: have had to have a precedence for the promise. But
Speaker 3: it doesn't say he remembered because it wasn't anything he'd
Speaker 3: ever seen before. So I wondered to myself, what was
Speaker 3: the reason that he believed. It doesn't even say he believed.
Speaker 3: To believe could mean that you think it could happen,
Speaker 3: but you don't know it could happen. It doesn't say
Speaker 3: he remembered, he had never seen it before. It doesn't
Speaker 3: say he believed. It says he reasoned. And that made
Speaker 3: me remember what Paul, who we preached about last week,
Speaker 3: said about Abraham, who we're preaching about this week. Watch
Speaker 3: God put the ram in the thicket. Watch God drop
Speaker 3: the knife and stage the ram. Watch God work all
Speaker 3: things together for good in your life.
Speaker 4: Watch God put the right person at the right place,
Speaker 4: at the right time to.
Speaker 3: Do the right thing, to give you the right Watch God,
Speaker 3: watch God. He reasoned, and I wondered why the Bible
Speaker 3: used the word he reasoned, until I remembered that Romans
Speaker 3: four nineteen says that Abraham, without weakening in his faith,
Speaker 3: faced the fact that his.
Speaker 4: Body was as good as dead. Since he was one.
Speaker 3: Hundred, it only stands to reason that his body isn't
Speaker 3: going to get the job done.
Speaker 4: So he says, it's as good as dead.
Speaker 1: And guess what.
Speaker 4: Sarah's womb was also dead.
Speaker 3: So I realized that although he had never seen the
Speaker 3: dead raised, he had seen somebody born from a dead place.
Speaker 3: I realized that I might not have ever seen this before.
Speaker 3: I might not have seen it, But how many kids
Speaker 3: testify I.
Speaker 7: See something like it.
Speaker 3: If you do where he brought me from, if you
Speaker 3: do what he brought me through, you do not understand
Speaker 3: the reason.
Speaker 1: The reason? The reason.
Speaker 4: Hot five three people say I got a reason. I
Speaker 4: got a reason. I got a reason. I got a reason.
Speaker 4: I got a reason, I got a reason.
Speaker 5: I'm not foolish his faith, and I say, pad.
Speaker 4: Substance.
Speaker 3: The reason I believe is because I've seen him. Do
Speaker 3: watch this something kind of like it. You ever seen
Speaker 3: the dead rays? No, But I saw a dead wound
Speaker 3: bring forth the baby. I saw something kind of like it.
Speaker 3: I never been through this challenge before, but I've been
Speaker 3: through something kind of like it. I never been in
Speaker 3: this place before, but I've been in something kind of
Speaker 3: like it. I never dealt with bad news quite like
Speaker 3: this before, but I've been through bad news that was
Speaker 3: kind of like it. I never thought a goliath before,
Speaker 3: but I thought something kind of like it. I never
Speaker 3: crossed over a red sea before, but nothing but my staff.
Speaker 3: But I've been through something kind of like it. And
Speaker 3: I came to tell you today that if you're being
Speaker 3: tested in your faith, God is telling you to trust
Speaker 3: him in something he already taught you. If Isaac came
Speaker 3: from a dead place, Abraham said God a raisin from
Speaker 3: a dead place. If he wants to, he can do
Speaker 3: what he wants to. I don't need the details, because
Speaker 3: the deeper the level of the trust the less the
Speaker 3: need for details.
Speaker 1: I reckon God can raise him.
Speaker 4: I hear Abram holler him back to the servants. We'll
Speaker 4: be back in a little.
Speaker 1: While, y'all.
Speaker 4: Because I don't know.
Speaker 3: What God's gonna do, but I've seen him do too much.
Speaker 3: I see them do too much. I see them do
Speaker 3: too much. Hey, when God tells you to release something,
Speaker 3: to let go. When God says let go, he's already
Speaker 3: got the ram in the bush.
Speaker 1: I want to show you one more thing. I want
Speaker 1: to show you one more thing. This blue.
Speaker 3: My mind put a mind blow emoji in the chat
Speaker 3: by Faith that this is gonna blow your life. When
Speaker 3: it said that, Abraham said to God, Let's go, even
Speaker 3: though I don't know. Let's go, even though I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's where you are right now. Let's go, even
Speaker 3: though I don't know I'm gonna take the first step.
Speaker 3: Let's go, even though I don't know I'm gonna call
Speaker 3: a therapist. Let's go, even though I don't know I'm
Speaker 3: saying I sorry. Let's go, even though I don't know
Speaker 3: I'm going to church today. Let's go, even though I
Speaker 3: don't know I'm reading my Bible this morre. Let's go
Speaker 3: even though I don't know when you say that, and
Speaker 3: then you hold on even though you don't see it,
Speaker 3: and then God says, I want you to bring this
Speaker 3: thing back to me.
Speaker 1: This is the process man, for my life.
Speaker 3: I just have to keep walking through my life with
Speaker 3: my kids, my dreams, my goals, my ambitions, my hang ups,
Speaker 3: my flaws like Abraham's walking with Isaac, and just say
Speaker 3: the Lord will provide, and keep giving it back to God.
Speaker 3: And so here's a good prayer. It's yours Lord, it's yours.
Speaker 3: He gave it to me by grace, so I'm going
Speaker 3: to finish it by faith. It's yours Lord. When I
Speaker 3: told you all to start the church with me, and
Speaker 3: I didn't tell you what city, how did you trust
Speaker 3: so much when I told you so little? And I
Speaker 3: realized that although you had never seen this plan, you
Speaker 3: knew the person.
Speaker 1: You saw me do some stuff.
Speaker 3: You saw me start Acchoir in college, you saw me
Speaker 3: start Acquir in Shelby.
Speaker 1: You saw me say what I was going to do
Speaker 1: and then do it.
Speaker 3: I'm not comparing myself to God. I'm using it as
Speaker 3: an antithetical analogy. If they trusted me that much seeing
Speaker 3: me do so little. How could we have seen God
Speaker 3: do so much and trust him so little? It came,
Speaker 3: I'm a dead place, he reasoned. So when the thicket
Speaker 3: started wrestling, Abraham looked up and saw a ram. But
Speaker 3: if you look at this in the ESV, which gives
Speaker 3: the exact word that is used when it says that
Speaker 3: there was a ram in the thicket, it gives you
Speaker 3: one meaning that I want to send you back to
Speaker 3: your house with.
Speaker 1: Today. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold
Speaker 1: behind him was a ram, caught in the thicket by
Speaker 1: his horns. Behind him what he needed was in a
Speaker 1: place he had already walked past.
Speaker 3: When your faith is being tested, there is something God
Speaker 3: has already taught you that he is calling you to
Speaker 3: trust him and take hold of.
Speaker 1: He took hold of it in the thicket when he
Speaker 1: walked by the thicket.
Speaker 3: Perhaps the ram wasn't there yet, But look back the
Speaker 3: moment that he let go, the bush took.
Speaker 1: Hold, and the ram was there. And he called that
Speaker 1: place the Lord will provide.
Speaker 3: Everyone's standing, heads bowed, eyes closed, no one moving. This
Speaker 3: place can be called the Lord will provide too. Please stand,
Speaker 3: if you're physically able it's our sign of respect to
Speaker 3: God that he is speaking, that this is holy ground.
Speaker 3: Turn your palms up to the Lord, like you're lifting
Speaker 3: your hands to receive from him. There's a ram in
Speaker 3: the thicket, there is honey in the rock, there is
Speaker 3: water in your wilderness. The Lord will provide. There's something
Speaker 3: God has already taught you, something you've already walked past,
Speaker 3: something you've already learned.
Speaker 1: And letting go in this season will not be easy,
Speaker 1: but oh it will be so so so relieving to you.
Speaker 3: Ball up your fist real tight, like your squeeze in something.
Speaker 3: Come on, real tight, like you're squeezing something, like you
Speaker 3: think it depends on you, like you gotta make it happen,
Speaker 3: like you got to figure everything out.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: When I say three, I want you to do what
Speaker 3: my sermon says. When God says one, two, three, let go,
Speaker 3: Let go and hold what God told you. But hold
Speaker 3: it with open hands. Because if He dresses the lilies
Speaker 3: with beauty and splendor, come on, how much more will
Speaker 3: he clothe you? How much more will He clothe you?
Speaker 3: Faith does not make a fist. Faith holds on with
Speaker 3: open hands. It's yours, Lord, It's yours Lord, this place,
Speaker 3: the place of surrender Jehovah Jirah. If he watches over
Speaker 3: every sparow, how much more does he love you? If
Speaker 3: he did not spare his son, but gave him up
Speaker 3: freely for us, If he gave us Jesus, how much
Speaker 3: more will he not freely give us all things pertaining
Speaker 3: to life and godliness.
Speaker 1: There's a ram in.
Speaker 3: The thicket, there's forgiveness in the thicket.
Speaker 1: There's grace in the thicket. There's joy in the thicket,
Speaker 1: and it won't run out. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.