April 6, 2025 • 65 mins
Is your faith being tested? If you’ve been waiting on the details of what God has next, remember that God doesn’t give a test without a lesson first, so if He’s calling you to let go of something, you can trust He’s already provided you with what you’ll need to take that step.
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
Hebrews 11, verses 17-19
Hebrews 11, verse 8
Genesis 22, verses 1-2, 6-14
Romans 4, verse 19
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hebrews eleven, Verses seventeen through nineteen. I'm continuing in my
series called you know what, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You're my best friend. Can you give me a hull?
I appreciate that. What's your name?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Man? Oh, that made me so happy?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You love it? I love you. What's your name?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Say it?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Toston Torston?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Torsten Ah Torston the Usher? Now I ask you something, Torstan.
Do you feel like God has called you to be
an usher?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Definitely? Yeah, he said, definitely. I love it so much.
Do you have the calling of ushing? I hope? Okay,
so this you're going.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
To love this tourist And I'm going to talk today
a little bit about how God calls us all to
do some things, and then he calls some to do
certain things. And in the theology of it, you have
the universal calling of God and then the particular calling
of God and there are some things that God has
not called us all to do right, and thank God
(01:39):
for that. Today we're going to talk about a man
named Abraham. God called him to have a baby at
age one hundred. How many thank God that God has
not called us all.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Tstan so so.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So we're going to talk about today how God has
called us all, and that includes you in the South.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
We say God called y'all. God called y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And in Hebrews chapter eleven, he's giving the whole hall
of faith to all these heroes, and he brings up Abraham.
And I'll show you in a few moments where God
called his name twice, because that's the theme of the series. Simon, Simon, Moses, Moses, Martha, Martha.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
What other ones have I done?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Jacob, Jacob, I've been studying all seven of them, so
I'm mixed up.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Which ones I've done.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Saul, Saul, Paul, Paul, And this week is going to
be Abraham Abraham. But I want to go back through
the lens of Hebrews eleven. We're given a list of
all of these amazing things that God called people to do,
and they are particular things, so that we're not all
going to lead a nation like Moses did. I don't
want to who would want to be the president of
(02:51):
this country ever for any reason whatsoever. And you may say, well,
God doesn't call me the preacher to sing, I don't
want to do those things. Well, there are some things
that God has called us all to be kind. God
has called us all to be patient. God has called
us all to be forgiving. God has called us all
(03:11):
to be generous. God has called us all to have faith.
God has called us all to be more than conquerors.
God has called us all to be agents of healing,
the light of the world, the salt of the earth.
And we're given this example of Abraham to help us
with that. Look at Hebrews chapter eleven, verse seventeen. By
faith Abraham when God tested him, When God tested him,
(03:37):
I want you to remember that God tested him. When
God tested him, he offered Isaac as a sacrifice. That
was the son that he waited till he was one
hundred to half.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
He who had embraced.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
The promises, was about to sacrifice his one and only
son verse eighteen, even though God had said to him,
it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now that's really heavy, and I've.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Been saving the sermon because I was intimidated to preach
it because it's honestly a very disturbing story in the Bible,
where God told Abraham, take your son that you love
and offer him to me as a sacrifice, and moving
beyond the differences in that time period when child sacrifice
was acceptable in the culture, it is still a very
(04:27):
very difficult story for us to reader to talk about.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
But we're going to talk about it today.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
We're going to talk about it today through a certain
lens because look what it says in Hebrews, chapter eleven,
verse nineteen. It says Abraham reasoned that God could even
raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking,
he did receive Isaac back from death. And we know
that this is a shadow of another son thousands of
(04:54):
years later who would be sacrificed for our sin, and
Abo did not have to kill his son. Is a
prefigure of a father who would go through with it
but raise him from the dead. But Abraham didn't know
that story yet, and so sometimes we are having to
live in experiences that we have no frame of reference for.
(05:16):
And that's what I want to talk to you a
little bit about today. It's a simple message, but a
profound truth that the Lord showed me. This message is
about a certain moment in your life that you will
come to from time to time, not just once, but
many times. And I'm calling the message when God says
let go. When God says let go, because sometimes he will.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Sometimes he will.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Tell you you're holding it too tightly, and God will say
let go. Sometimes he'll tell you this is through and
you can't do anything about it, and he'll say let go.
And we want to talk today about what to do
when God says let go.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Father, your word with power and precision.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Right now, I thank you in advance for the clarity
that you will give me as I preach this word
to your children. In Jesus' name. Amen, you may be
seated when God says let go. Put that title in
the comments. Please on YouTube. When God says let go,
(06:29):
control freaks, buckle up. We're going to talk about when
God says let go. Helicopter parents bring it in for
a landing. For the next thirty forty forty five minutes.
You can talk about when God says let go. Now,
I need to go in very strongly from the beginning,
So let's skip the part of the sermon where you
(06:52):
fish your gum out of your purse and have to
listen to what I say while I tell you a
story that doesn't relate to anything.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So you can get settled in.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And let me just give you a principle right off
the top, because I feel like there are some heavy
situations people are carrying today and God is saying let go.
When the Bible says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse seventeen,
when Abraham was tested, the specific tints that the language
uses of the New Testament, which is quin A Greek,
(07:21):
is in present continual tints. So it doesn't mean that
Abraham had one moment where his faith was tested and
it was over. It's talking about how faith is tested
with every step of faith that he took. When the
Lord told him to go to a mountain and sacrifice
his son, he didn't know that God would provide a
(07:42):
ram in the bush and he wouldn't have to do it,
so he was tested. Now, this is something I would
love for you to write down. It's a little bit long,
but I think is powerful. When your faith is being tested,
there is something God has already taught taught you that
he is calling you to trust in when your faith,
(08:08):
not if, but when, when your faith is being tested,
there is something that God has already taught you that
he is calling you to trust in. God would not
be giving you this test if he had not given
you the lesson. He's a good teacher. He wouldn't put
(08:33):
something in front of you that he didn't prep you for.
So we learned to shift in these seasons of testing,
to try to remember, God, what is it that you've
already taught me that you are calling me to trust in?
In this moment, let me say the whole sentence one
more time. When your faith is being tested by a
(08:55):
medical diagnosis, when your faith is being tested by a
dry season in your own soul, when your faith is
being tested by the way somebody is acting towards you,
that's unfair, but you can't stop it. When your faith
is being tested by doubts that just seem to keep
coming and multiply in your mind. When not if your
(09:16):
faith is being tested, you're in good company.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
The father of our faith, Abraham.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Was tested, and when he was tested, not just once,
but many times, there was something that God had already
taught him that he was calling him to trust in.
So if your faith is being tested, and it will
be tested, and if it is not being tested today,
let me see you at two PM when your faith
(09:44):
is being tested.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
There is something that.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
God has already taught you that he is calling you
to trust in. Because there's a big difference between him
teaching it and me trusting it. And so this moment
in your life is about asking, in God, what have
you already taught me that you are calling me to
trust in?
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Abraham?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Abraham, Abraham and God have a track record. By the
time he calls him to give his son back to God,
that God, who gave him the son, says, give it
back to me, which he has the right to do.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Everything comes from him.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
But even in the midst of Abraham's confusion, there is
a sense of continuity.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
For his calling.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
The thing about trust when I said, God is calling
you to trust in something that he taught you.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
The thing about trust is that trust is everything.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And the greatest way that I can exemplify this to
you is through Hebrews chapter eleven, verse eight.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
God gives a.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Little bit of a reminder about something that happened forty
years earlier in Abraham's life that prepared him for this moment.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Now. I want to look at you right now.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Just because you don't feel ready for this moment doesn't
mean you're not prepared for it. Just because you're surprised
by it doesn't mean that you don't have the supply
for it.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Now. When Abraham was first.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Getting started out in his journey of faith following Y'ahweh,
he was seventy five years old.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
They lived a lot longer than by the way, you.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Could have called it a midlife crisis, because he lived
to be about one point fifty one sixty. And the
Bible says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse eight, a reminder
of something that happened when Abraham first got started. It
says by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a
place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and
(11:37):
went even though he did not know where he was going.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
That's about the craziest thing I.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Ever read in my life, y'all just sitting there looking
at me like he went to the grocery store. I
just told you, this man uprooted his entire life because
of a god he had never heard from told him
to go to a place that he wouldn't give him
any details about, and there was no ways at on
Abraham's iPhone negative thirty four. So we went and obeyed,
(12:08):
even though he didn't know somebody say, even though, even
though even though he didn't know where it was leading,
he set out in faith. And the thing about this
kind of trust in your life, my life, Abraham's life,
Simon's life, Martha's life, Mary's life, Moses's life. When we
go through all the people in the Bible, we get
(12:29):
a panoramic view of the patterns that apply to all
of us, kind of a sampler of what different people
went through that they had to trust God with and
steps that they took, and then we find ourselves following
in those footsteps. And trust is a funny thing because
the deeper the level of trust, the less the need
(12:49):
for details. The deeper the level of trust, the less
the need for details. Can I break it down. Holly
went to get her nails done yesterday. I trust her.
I didn't check my phone to see if she actually
went to get her nails done. I didn't ask her
(13:12):
how long she was going to be there. Who's going
to be doing your nails. What kind of acrylic are
you planning to get today? And are you going to
pay for the extra twenty dollars thing where they put
the little things on the things on top of the things.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Because I trust.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Her, she won't spend it if we don't have it,
and she won't lie to me about it. If she does,
she'd tell me I spent twenty I don't even have
to ask her. Just go get your nails done. I
trust her. This is not a marriage seminar. This is
not a parenting seminar, but let's pretend like it is
because it involves a father and a son with teenagers.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
How many of you have teenagers?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
When you trust your teenagers, you are delusional, just kidding.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
When you trust your teenagers.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Because you know they can develop a t record, that
you trust them, right, And if you have a teenager
that you feel like you can trust as much as
you can trust.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Any person, including you, because some of.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Y'all can't even trust the teenager that's still living in you.
So how in the world would you completely trust your teenager?
But when they have exemplified trustworthy behavior, even though they
have a sinful nature, it changes things.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
If you don't trust your teenager.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Every time they want to go somewhere, you need details.
So they will ask you, can I go to the movies,
and you will say I need some details. Somebody put
it in the chest, say details. Tell your neighbor I
need details.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Tell them.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
If I don't trust you, I need details. So can
I go to the movie? What movie? What theater? Who
are some of the actors in the movies? So I
can see if you really plan on seeing this movie?
What time is it playing? Who else is going to
be on your role? What seat are you sitting in?
Show me a screenshot of those seats right now? Will
(15:10):
there be popcorn involved? How much butter do you plan
on pumping on that popcorn? Because the less I trust you,
the more I need details. If I trust you, can
I go to the movies?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Be home at eleven thirty. We don't need the details if.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
We have the trust, and the deeper the level of trust,
the less the need for details.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
The guy who started the.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Church with me, he could walk up to me right
in the middle of preaching right now and put a
contract here and say I need you to sign this
while you're preaching, and I would keep preaching and sign
it and hand it back to him.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I wouldn't ask him what it was about.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Maybe you think I'm an idiot, but we've had experiences together.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It would not matter what.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
That particular document said. It is through the now. The
first time I met him, I needed details.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Now, let me tell.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Y'all something because I really want to set this frame
so that we don't get lost in an epic story
about killing your son or your daughter, which is not
what the text is about. It's about trust. God is
not calling you to kill your child, you might wish
from time to time, but using humor just to lighten
(16:25):
the mood so we don't get caught in something that
we can't understand and contextualize in our day. This is
about trust. The test that you're in right now is
about trust. When we started the church, I have eight
families who I asked to come with me. This was
twenty years ago. Twenty one years ago. I said, I'm
called to start a church, and I believe y'all are
(16:48):
called to come with me. But here's all I told him.
I said, we're going to start a church in a
big city somewhere in America.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
That was the whole pitch.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I had not read the sales books yet about how
to sell people on your vision.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
And as a matter of fact, I didn't really.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Want them to know what city we were going to
because I didn't know yet.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And I believe that God knew.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
And I didn't want them to make a commitment based
on a city. I wanted them to make a commitment
based on a calling. I didn't want them to commit
if we were going to Miami because they liked warm weather.
I wanted them to commit even if we went to Minnesota.
But I didn't want to tell the Minnesota so that
(17:35):
they would say yes and then they'd have to go
to Minnesota, because I wanted to trick them into trusting God,
not me.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Because I look back on that, I think, my goodness, how.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Did they trust so much when they were told so little?
Somewhere in the United States of America. We couldn't have
known we would be in such a wonderful city as Charlotte,
North Carolina. We couldn't have known. And I'm not comparing
y'all to Abraham. But even though they didn't know, they
(18:07):
decided to go. Let's go, let's go do it. They said,
we're young and dumb, let's go, might as well find
out if God can use us.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
There's something invigorating even talking to you about me reliving those.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Let's go moments of our faith.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
There's something exciting even just to remember, like, I don't
even know what it means to start a powerful church,
but I don't want to do it.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Lord, let's go.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
And when God said to Abraham, let's go, Abraham didn't
say there are a few things I need to know,
which lets me now that trust is not only a
product of time, it is a product of character. This
was not Abraham's third time following God.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It was his first.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's not like he had a list of things to
point back to where. Well, God, you led me there
and it worked out. You told me to take that
job and I got a raise, and you told me
to marry them and they turned out to be wonderful. No,
this is God saying it's me, God, let's go. And
when God says let's go, you can resist it, and
you'll get more and more miserable.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
As you fight it.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
When God says let's go, it's time for you to
leave this toxic state and forgive them and move on
from what you've been holding them hostage about. When God
says let let's go, and you won't move on past that.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You will feel stuck in yourself.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Until you obey the spoken word of the sovereign God.
When God says let's go, you might not even get
to ask him where. But if God can be trusted,
then the deeper the level of the trust, the less
the need for the details. So God says let's go,
(19:58):
and you don't ask him where. You just say which
shoes should I put on? Can I wear something with heels?
Or should I wear something flat? When God says let's go,
when he invites you into a new way of living,
when he tells you it's time to pursue growth and
stop staying stagnant in the grumblings of your past.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
When God says let's.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Go, if you trust him enough, you won't even need
the details. And by the way, the more that I
trust you, the less details I need to give you too.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
If I don't trust you, I gotta tell you everything.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
But in my relationship with God, if I really trust him,
why would I need to get him all the details
of how he needs to leave me?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And I want to live in this for a minute.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I love y'all when y'all feel uncomfortable when I'm preaching.
That's how I know I heard from God because there
are some of you right now whose faith is being tested.
But when your faith is being tested, realized that there's
something that God already taught you that he is calling
you to trust him in.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
And the deeper the level of trust. Notice I said deeper,
not higher.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
The deeper the level of trust, the less the need
for the details. How did Abraham trust so much when
he was told so little? I'm gona close my eyes
so y'all won't feel like I'm judging you when you
answer this, raise your hand if you would have needed
a little more detail than Abraham received in order to
leave everything that you knew and set out, but he didn't.
(21:37):
I give you the scripture again, and I can't believe
those of you who did not raise your hand right there.
You won't even go to a party if you don't
see the entire guest list. Some of us won't even
leave the house unless we plot out where all the
bathrooms are going to be. You know, I got to
know where, though, And if you drive a tesla, you
got to know where every charging station is, or you
(21:58):
can't drive that.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So now, why what Abraham did?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
He obeyed and went, even though he did not know
where he was going. Verse eight, He obeyed and went
even though he did not know where he was going.
He obeyed and went even though he did not know.
Let's substitute something here. Let's say I must obey and
go even though I don't know, and where it says
(22:26):
where they are going.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Just put whatever needs to go in that blank.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
If I don't know how God is going to do it,
I don't need the details because my trust in Him
is deeper than the details. So when God speaks to
you and he says I want you to give this
person some money, you don't need the details of why
God wants you to give it if you trust him deeply.
When you say, well, I can't trust them, I don't
(22:51):
know if they're going to spend it on the right thing.
It's not the depth of your trust in them that
determines your level of generosity.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You are called to be generous.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I think I'm really calling on somebody today who needs
to do it without the details. And I don't mean
get in your car and drive until an angel speaks
and then stop and get a motel room. I'm talking
about going forward in what God is speaking to you,
even though you don't know. A lot of times we
(23:26):
get trapped in all of the details that we don't know,
and we don't take.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
The steps that God has called us to take. There
is a.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Distinction between God and the devil, though. See, the devil
doesn't test us, he tempts us. The devil tempts us
outside of God's will. God tests us to bring us
deeper into His will. It occurs to me today that
the devil cannot test you. Only God can test you.
(23:56):
The devil can tempt you not to trust God in
this test, but God is the only one who can test.
Can I preach a little while, Like we're preaching to
people over the age of five years old. We need
to make that distinction because otherwise you will get stuck
in the even though and you'll never know.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So there are amazing let's go moments that we have.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
There are amazing setout in faith moments, And maybe not
like Abraham to that dramatic extent, but we can surely
see the disciples having a let's go moment. Write that
phrase down let's go. Moment they're exciting. Hey, follow me.
I'll make you fishures of men. Well, what do we
do about the boats? Just keep those and rent them
(24:40):
out for a little while. But for the next three
years you're gonna see amazing things.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
When God speaks to you and tells you to take
a step of faith, and really, this time, I'm gonna
put myself into this job. I'm not just gonna work
here and take a check and quiet quit. I'm really
gonna step up and lead in this job. When God says,
let's go. Sometimes he doesn't have to move you from
the place that you are. He wants to use you
in the place that you are when you finally decide
(25:08):
let's go. The disciples didn't move from Galilee when Jesus
called them. They offered their boats so Jesus could use
them in the place they already were.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Sometimes God will tell you it's time for you to
step into your adulthood.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
You have been in a.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Season of childishness. Not childlike faith, but childishness. Long enough,
let's go. I'm calling you up. Now you need to
be a mentor. Now you need to be an example.
Now you need to trust me to move forward by faith. Now,
and I wonder is there anybody in here who trusts
God enough that if he says, let's go, even though
(25:46):
the arrows are flying, you've got the shield of faith.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the
evidence of things not seen.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Let's go. The weapon may be formed against me, but
it will not prosper. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Take your stand in against the devil's schemes.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
You are not ignorant of his schemes.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Let's go, devil. I don't want to smoke, but if
you want to bring it, I know somebody who's gotta train.
Let's sail sex Temple.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Let's go, let's show. I don't want to raise this
kid by myself, but if God didn't give me somebody
else to.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Race them with, he's my tactic partner. Let's go, and
Abraham win fifteen hundred miles.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Can you imagine fifteen.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Hundred miles without an APP, without an huber, without a
GPS coordinate feels like that sometimes, But they is the
voice of God saying let's go. Notice he said let's go,
let us go. I'm gonna do this with you. While
I need the details.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Let me give you.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Another example, so I can make this so practical that
but you will have no excuse either to obey it
or disobey it when the Lord speaks it to you.
When I go on a trip for ministry, if I
go alone, I need every detail. But if somebody comes
from the staff to support me, I don't need to
know the details because I've got somebody with me that
I can depend on, and if I can depend on you,
(27:28):
I don't need details. So the process of my life
and getting closer with God should not be necessarily that
I understand more and more of where He's taking me.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
That's why we get.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Confused when we run up on seasons that we didn't
see coming, because we think that the depth of our
faith in God will bring clarity about the details of
where He's leading. But the deeper the trust, I said,
the deeper the trust. Trust isn't always tall. You can't
always see it. Sometimes it runs deep where you need
(28:03):
it the most. And I believe that's how Abraham was
able to say let's go and then after God spoke
to him at age seventy five, leaving a metropolitan culture
for a nomadic one, everything about his life seems to
be going backwards when he sets out to follow God.
Abraham wasn't moving on up. Y'll never even seen a
(28:28):
TV set. But he followed God what seemed to be down,
and then God spoke the promise. Now, I want to
show you a very pivotal phrase in Hebrews eleven, verse
eighteen is talking about how Abraham was tested. But when
your faith is being tested, there's something that God has
already taught you that he is calling you to trust in.
(28:49):
And it says by faith Abraham verse eighteen. Please, even
though God had said to him, it is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckon. So there's another Even
though go back to verse seven, I'm gonna put this
thing together for you.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I'm gonna put the baloney right in the middle of
the buns and smash it down.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
By Babe Abraham when called to go verse eight to
a place he would later receive. This is delayed gratification faith.
Even in his lifetime. He wouldn't see all of it,
but he obeyed and went, even though he did not
know where he was going. Now give me verse eighteen. Again,
he offered his son, even though God had said to him.
(29:37):
But go back to the verse before that, because it
calls Abraham something very interesting. You know, he's called the
father of faith, and he is His name means father
of many nations. His name started as Abram, which means
exalted father. But God changed his name to prepare him
for his assignment, and he was called according to what
he would carry.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
But when abrahm him received the promise that you will
have a son, there was a problem.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
It says by faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered
Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced everybody say embraced.
Justin please circle the word embraced. He embraced the promises.
And that sounds so simple, right, Like God promises you
you're gonna make it, and you embrace it, and you say,
(30:24):
I'm gonna make it. God promises you this is going
to work out for your good. You embrace it. It's
going to work out. God promises you that he has
someone for you, and you embrace the idea that God
has someone from you. And the first thing we need
to do before we embrace a promise from God is
evaluate is it actually a promise from God?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Or is it just a feeling?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
That we had, or an ideal that we had, but
put it back up. It says he embraced the promise
of God that you will have a son. Now, I
want to point out to you that he embraced the
promise not only for a nine month period, but for
twenty five years between when God spoke it and when
(31:09):
it happened.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
That's a long time.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Twenty five years is certainly long enough to start questioning,
did I really hear God right? Twenty five years was
long enough for Abraham? Should I tell him the story
about Hagar? Abraham's wife said, Hey, since our stuff isn't
exactly coming together like we thought it would, here is
(31:33):
my maid servant Hagar. Sleep with her and have a son.
And Abraham said, hey, I'm the lord's servant. Whatever you
need me to do, let's go.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Abraham is the let's go man. He said, let's go.
They had a baby named Ishmael. It turned out to
be a problem, had to throw him out. He became
a nation to father of many nations. But even through
the mistake, give it to me again, he embraced the promise.
Bracing promises doesn't mean you won't make mistakes In the process.
Embracing the promise doesn't mean you won't have days where
(32:07):
you go, you know what, forget it.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I don't even care anymore, nobody else does. Why should I.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Embracing the promise doesn't mean that you never cry the tears.
Embracing the promise doesn't mean you always understand the plan.
He embraced the promise for twenty five years. He had
to believe something that he couldn't see. For twenty five years,
(32:35):
he held on to the promise. So now we've gone
from let's go faith to hold on faith. And there
are a few of you who are in this room
who are in a season of hold on faith, holding.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
On to believe that you really could be free from
this one day.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Holding on to believe that it really could lift off
of your family one day and it could get better,
holding on to believe that.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
God is going to give you joy again.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Abraham is a great model for us of this kind
of faith, because no, we're not all going to be
the father of many nations, and know we're not going
to have babies at age one hundred, but there will
be a season of your life where you will have
to hold on to something God's folk. When everything you
see and everything you feel is telling you a different story,
(33:30):
you will point back to something God said and say,
I still believe it. I still believe it. Somebody shout,
I still believe it. Right now, my bank account is
a liar, but God is true.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
I still believe He's a provider.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Right now, there are things going through my mind that
are telling me that it will never come.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
To pass, but I still believe it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
There aren't a lot of people who believe in me
right now, but God has called me, and.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
He is faithful to keep me.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I still believe it in spite of everything I've gone through.
Even because of some of the things I've gone through.
I wouldn't be going through so much if I wasn't
carrying so much. And I still believe it. Feel like
preaching to three people who need to hold on.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Somebody shout, hold on, Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I'm holding on, sometimes barely by a fingernail, but I'm
holding on. Sometimes I feel like free solo, like I'm
about to plunge down to my bloody death, but I'm
holding on.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I'm climbing higher, I'm coming up, I'm.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Moving through it.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I'm progressing and advancing and the things of God. Even
as my emotions are clawing at my feet, I still believing.
But this message is not called when God says hold on,
there are moments it's where you hold on. And then
(35:02):
for Abraham, there was a season when God said, I
know you're the one who said let's go when I
told you to follow me fifteen hundred miles. I know
you held on when you waited twenty five years for Isaac.
And I know that this boy is the son that
you love and you waited for. But the Bible says
(35:25):
in Genesis twenty two, verse one, that God said to Abraham,
take your son, your only son, Isaac, only son. I
thought you had another one. Yeah, he threw that one out.
This is the one that he had left. This is
the one that God promised. And I would like to
speak to you today about how sometimes we let go
of things that are sins in our life.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
But that's not what this text is about.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I would like to speak to you today about sometimes
we need to let go of habits that are bad
for us in our life. But this is not a
text about quitting cigarettes and vapor. Don't worry, I'm not
(36:13):
preaching about that today, I'm preaching about something deeper, because
what do you do when God says I want my
promise back, not because I don't intend to fulfill it,
but because I'll fulfill it when I want to fulfill
it how I want to fulfill it, And I need
(36:33):
you to trust me. Now. If you don't have deep
trust with God in this moment, you will need details.
You start trying to control everything, You start trying to
manipulate things. And that is why some of us are
so stressed right now. Because there's a dream that you
thought God gave you, and maybe he did, but there
(36:54):
are details to that dream that are not being met
on your deadline. You can't call him God and give
him a deadline. The boss sets the deadline. I know
what I thought I should have been by now, but
(37:15):
it's not my deadline. Let me set you free with
one sentence. I like to say one thing that makes
it worth coming, even if you've been sleep the rest
of the time I've been up here talking, it's not
my deadline. If God waited until Abraham was one hundred
to give him a baby, you think God's gonna do
(37:36):
everything you want him to do within the first quarter
of this year. What do you do when God says
I want you to I want.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
You to hold on.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
I got I got I think it all.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
We kind of say this, I just got it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
What do you do when he says, hold on to
the promise, let go of the plan? What do you do?
Speaker 4 (37:59):
That's our question, right because some of us are really
good at let's go, let's go. I'm a vision board
let's go, got my goals.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
So you're really good at let's go. But I was
looking for a way to.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Illustrate this yesterday and I thought, God, if I don't
illustrate it right, they won't hear what they need to hear.
And I really want to speak to the person who
is holding on so tight to their idea of life.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
And I'm praying about this.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I'm thinking about Abraham and Isaac in this crazy scene
where he is about to take the life of his
son because he doesn't know that God doesn't want to
take Isaac. God wasn't taking Isaac. He was testing Abraham.
And there's the let's go moment, there's the hold on moment.
You will find yourself in both. But when God says
(38:47):
let go, that can be hard. To hear, because this
is something I think he wants me to have, but
he's not doing it how I think he wants me
to do it.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
What to pray for?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Would ask for?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
As I'm thinking praying about this illustration, I'm thinking I
look in a book. But then bo runs over, our
Boston Terrier runs over and he brings me a ball,
and I first think, I don't have time to play
fetch with you. Bo.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
I am working on a very important sermon for very
important people about a very legendary Bible text, and it
is a serious text, and I don't have time for
this because I'm talking about let's go and let go
and all of that.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And he brings me the ball as if he is
saying let's go.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
So I take the ball and I throw the ball,
and as I'm throwing it, I remembered, Oh, this won't
take long because bo is terrible at fetch. And I'll
tell you why he's terrible at fetch, because he's really
good at let's go.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
He'll run and get it real quick.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
But once he's got it, he did not hear my
sermon today called when God says let go, and he
is better at retrieving it than he is at releasing it.
So I can't get him to understand that we could
do a lot more if you would say, let's go
(40:19):
and then let go and get in the rhythm of
retrieving and then returning and retrieving and releasing and I.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Give it and you bring it back, and I give
it and you bring it back.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
And now I understand why God will sometimes call us
to bring him something that we thought he promised, so
that he can clarify what he actually promised, so that
he can do what he said he would do, not
what I thought he would do, not what I wanted
him to do, not on my deadline, but on his
(40:57):
destined schedule for the per turp for which he intends
my life to be a small little peace. So I
want to tell every bowe in the room, let go,
Let go. How can you say that this is important
to me? How can you tell me to let go?
Speaker 1 (41:17):
I have to make some plans, don't lie. Yeah, you
gotta make them, but don't hold them too tight that
you choke them.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Is it possible, I'm asking the question, Is it possible
that your problem isn't that you don't hold on to
what you think God told you you hold it too tight,
because sometimes his timing is different than yours. I don't
know who this is for, but the Lord really wants
you to get this today, because he's saying, let go,
(41:47):
let go. What would that journey have been like to
the mountain region named Mariah. This is the same region
where Jesus would die thousands of years later, where God
would give his sign, different mountains, same region. Abraham had
no context for that. And so what do you do
when your faith is being tested but you have no precedence,
(42:13):
no precedence. I wanted to call this message a promise
with no precedence. In other words, I've never seen this before.
I've never seen this before. I don't know how to
do this. I don't know how to be a father
of many nations. I don't know how to do this.
And you got to lead your son to Isaac is
fifteen by this time. By the way, he's a teenager.
(42:35):
He's a teenager. We talked a little bit about teenagers
in trust earlier, and now this teenager and watch the journey.
There's a conversation that happens because they go three days.
Remember Abraham was tested not in a moment, but in
a process. The test of your faith will be continual.
You'll be good one moment the next. Why are y'all
(42:56):
so fake?
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Today?
Speaker 3 (42:59):
I said, you'll be tested one moment and your faith
will be really, really good, and then it'll tank the
next You are only one text message away from your
trust in God tanking to an all time level.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And that's true.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Need I go further, and they're talking about it, and
the further they get, the more questions Isaac has, because
this is not the dad touch trust in the teenager.
This is the teenager trusting the This thing is flipped.
And so now Isaac is walking with Abraham and he
doesn't know either. I should do a parenting seminar on this.
What do you do when you're leading somebody and you
(43:35):
don't know either?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Abraham's like, let me tell you about me and God.
He doesn't give me many details because when they start walking,
and I'm not cheapening the text by lightening the tone,
I'm trying to bring you into it so that you
can understand that God doesn't call us all to sacrifice
our sons. He sacrificed his son for all of us,
but he does call us all to trust in Him
(44:03):
at times times where we can't understand, and they're walking
three days, and then comes the point where they can't
take the servants any further, because there will come a
place where you get to a point with God where
no one else can help you figure it out.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I mean to a point. People can give you advice
to appoint.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
People will give you wisdom, but don't worship their wisdom
because their wisdom is based on their experience.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
And God has to show you some things for your life.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
And Genesis twenty two six says that Abraham took the
wood get the picture, the wood for the burnt offering.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
And placed it on his son Isaac.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Do we not see Jesus all the way in Genesis
twenty two that he took the wood and put it
on his son, and he himself carried the fire and
the knife. As the two of them went on together,
Isaac started to wonder a little bit, and he spoke up,
and he said to his father Abraham, Father, yes, my son, Abraham.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Replied, the fire in the water.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
Here.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I'm doing an inventory. We got everything we need except
one thing. Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
In other words, I need some details, and Abraham answered God,
he only said one thing, one thing, one thing that
he had found to be true over fifteen hundred miles
(45:35):
of traveling, one thing that he had found to be
true when he went to Egypt to survive for a
little while, One thing that he knew to be true,
even though he didn't know where this was leading. God
himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. And
in this moment, we wonder was Abraham bluffing? Did he
(45:59):
really know that that was going to happen, because that
is what happens. It's not a lamb, but it's a
ram because God isn't going to ever do it exactly
like you think he is. But he says it like
he knows that God himself will provide the lamb for
the burnt offering, my son, And watch this. I get
the picture here that Isaac has seen Abraham trust God before,
(46:20):
he has seen his father trust God before. Why Because
the deeper the trust, the less the need for details.
Isaac told him God will provide, and the two of
them went on together. He said, God will provide, and
Isaac said, let's go. And so Isaac is saying, let's
go while Abraham is letting him go, and the moment comes.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Now, just lock in with me for a minute.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
When they reached the place God had told him about,
not the place he knew in his mind, God showed him.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
When he got there, Abraham built an altar, which.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Was a place of sacrifice, which was a place of death,
which was a place of worship. He built an offer
there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his
son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top
of what. I know how hard this is for us
to get our minds around. That's why I was hesitant
to preach it. But the one that I was most
hesitant to preach in this whole series is the one
that healed me the most, because what I saw in
(47:21):
verse ten changed my life. He reached out his hand
and he is he is reaching for the instrument, the knife,
and he's wrapping his fingers around the knife, letting go
of his son. And as he reached out his hand
and took the knife to slay his son.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
But.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
The Angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham.
He said it twice because he was holding the knife
and he thought his son was about to die.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
And he didn't know what to make sense of it.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
But in the moment that he's holding the knife over
his son, here comes the Angel at that moment saying, Abraham, Abraham,
let go.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
God says, let go. At the very moment that Abraham Abraham.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Thinks it's over.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
And when God said what he said, Abraham, Abraham, here
I am, he replied verse twelve, do not lay a hand.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
On the boy.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Somebody shout, let go, shout it again, let go, let go.
I know you came this far thinking this was how
it's gonna end.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
But the moment that the.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Angel spoke, he said, don't lay a hand on the boy,
don't do anything to him.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Now I know that you fear God. And now that
you've let him go, let go.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
Now that I know that I can trust you with
what I taught you, that I can trust you that.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
You don't love it more than you love me.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
Now that I can trust you that you're embracing my promise,
not your plan. Now that you have let go, because
verse twelve, you have not withheld your son.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
You have let go of your son. Now let go
of the knife.
Speaker 5 (49:27):
And God is so strategic that at the moment that
Abraham was letting go of the knife, which is what
he thought he had to do, at the moment that
God said let go of the knife.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Verse thirteen says he heard something other than the angel
rustling in the background. Abraham looked up, and there in
a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.
And he went over and took the ram and sacrificed
as a burnt offering instead.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Of his son.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
Verse fourteen says, so Abraham called that place the place
where he thought Isaac would die, that place, the place
where he thought it was over, that place, the place
he didn't even know he was going or what God
would do, but he said he would provide, and he
did provide, And he called that place the Lord will provide.
(50:25):
It wasn't called the place where Isaac died. It was
called the place where Jehovah.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
Provided Ben isa Claire, what glory to God. Let's rename
this place.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Now. This is for all of the people who are
letting go of something that you thought would happen, letting
go of the way.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
You thought somebody was supposed to change.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
Letting go of what you expected from yourself, letting go
of what you thought God was like letting go of
what you thought this season would include. This is for
everybody who's letting go. At the moment that Abraham was
letting go of the knife, the thicket was grabbing hold
of the ram.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
What am I trying to say?
Speaker 1 (51:15):
God's got you.
Speaker 3 (51:16):
In this place. God's got you in this place. His
name is Jehovah. He is Jehovah, Jirah. The Lord will
provide for me.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
The Lord will provide for my family. The Lord will provide.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
For this church.
Speaker 4 (51:39):
Can't you see the angel.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
At the same moment that one angel is telling Abraham
to let go of the knife, another angel is telling
the thicket to grab a hold of the ram. Don't
you see the timing of God what you call coincidence.
But Abraham didn't know that. Abraham didn't know that he
(52:02):
had to go not knowing, And so do you. But
Hebrews chapter eleven, verse nineteen. Stay standing and hasten me
to a close and rush me with pressure by standing up.
If you stand up, I'll start rushing this sermon to
a conclusion. And you can get the qdoba and sit
around and eat something that ain't gonna last you for
two hours of energy instead of getting this word from
God that can save you from a decade of disappointment
(52:25):
and break off generations of oppression.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
Walk of your family because my God is the home
of Chira. When God is testing your faith, not the devil.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
When God is testing your faith, even if the devil
brings the trial, the Lord will administer the test.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
When God is testing your faith, he already.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
Taught you something.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Hebrews, Chapter eleven, verse nineteen, One more time. How did
he make it up that mountain? How do I walk
through this valley? How do I get through this season
of uncertainty?
Speaker 1 (53:02):
How do I go not knowing? How do I show
up not feeling it?
Speaker 3 (53:06):
How do I continue to embrace the promise while not
holding it too tightly? The writer of Hebrews gives us
a clue as to what to do when your faith
is being tested and you know your God can be trusted.
Speaker 7 (53:17):
He said, Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.
Now I thought about that thing, and I thought about
that thing, and.
Speaker 3 (53:30):
I thought about how he reasoned that God could even
raise the dead, even if it ends, God can bring
a new beginning. He reasoned that God could raise the
dead and It made me ask the question, at this
point in history, when Abraham reason that God would raise
him from the dead, had there ever been a resurrection
(53:53):
recorded in the scriptures? And the answer is no, there
is no recorded resurrection in the scriptures. By Genesis twenty two.
I could understand if it said Peter reasoned that God
could raise him from the dead because he saw that
happen to his boss, so he had seen it before.
(54:14):
But verse nineteen does not say Abraham remembered that God
could even raise the dead. For him to remember, he
would have had to have a previous experience. He would
have had to have a precedence for the promise. But
it doesn't say he remembered because it wasn't anything he'd
(54:36):
ever seen before. So I wondered to myself, what was
the reason that he believed. It doesn't even say he believed.
To believe could mean that you think it could happen,
but you don't know it could happen. It doesn't say
he remembered, he had never seen it before. It doesn't
say he believed. It says he reasoned. And that made
(54:57):
me remember what Paul, who we preached about last week,
said about Abraham, who we're preaching about this week. Watch
God put the ram in the thicket. Watch God drop
the knife and stage the ram. Watch God work all
things together for good in your life.
Speaker 4 (55:16):
Watch God put the right person at the right place,
at the right time to.
Speaker 3 (55:21):
Do the right thing, to give you the right Watch God,
watch God. He reasoned, and I wondered why the Bible
used the word he reasoned, until I remembered that Romans
four nineteen says that Abraham, without weakening in his faith,
(55:44):
faced the fact that his.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
Body was as good as dead. Since he was one.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
Hundred, it only stands to reason that his body isn't
going to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (55:57):
So he says, it's as good as dead.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
And guess what.
Speaker 4 (56:01):
Sarah's womb was also dead.
Speaker 3 (56:05):
So I realized that although he had never seen the
dead raised, he had seen somebody born from a dead place.
I realized that I might not have ever seen this before.
I might not have seen it, But how many kids
(56:25):
testify I.
Speaker 7 (56:27):
See something like it.
Speaker 3 (56:29):
If you do where he brought me from, if you
do what he brought me through, you do not understand
the reason.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
The reason? The reason.
Speaker 4 (56:43):
Hot five three people say I got a reason. I
got a reason. I got a reason. I got a reason.
I got a reason, I got a reason.
Speaker 5 (56:56):
I'm not foolish his faith, and I say, pad.
Speaker 4 (57:03):
Substance.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
The reason I believe is because I've seen him. Do
watch this something kind of like it. You ever seen
the dead rays? No, But I saw a dead wound
bring forth the baby. I saw something kind of like it.
I never been through this challenge before, but I've been
through something kind of like it. I never been in
(57:29):
this place before, but I've been in something kind of
like it. I never dealt with bad news quite like
this before, but I've been through bad news that was
kind of like it. I never thought a goliath before,
but I thought something kind of like it. I never
crossed over a red sea before, but nothing but my staff.
But I've been through something kind of like it. And
(57:49):
I came to tell you today that if you're being
tested in your faith, God is telling you to trust
him in something he already taught you. If Isaac came
from a dead place, Abraham said God a raisin from
a dead place. If he wants to, he can do
(58:13):
what he wants to. I don't need the details, because
the deeper the level of the trust the less the
need for details.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I reckon God can raise him.
Speaker 4 (58:33):
I hear Abram holler him back to the servants. We'll
be back in a little.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
While, y'all.
Speaker 4 (58:39):
Because I don't know.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
What God's gonna do, but I've seen him do too much.
I see them do too much. I see them do
too much. Hey, when God tells you to release something,
to let go. When God says let go, he's already
(59:01):
got the ram in the bush.
Speaker 1 (59:06):
I want to show you one more thing. I want
to show you one more thing. This blue.
Speaker 3 (59:13):
My mind put a mind blow emoji in the chat
by Faith that this is gonna blow your life. When
it said that, Abraham said to God, Let's go, even
though I don't know. Let's go, even though I don't know.
Maybe that's where you are right now. Let's go, even
though I don't know I'm gonna take the first step.
Let's go, even though I don't know I'm gonna call
a therapist. Let's go, even though I don't know I'm
saying I sorry. Let's go, even though I don't know
(59:34):
I'm going to church today. Let's go, even though I
don't know I'm reading my Bible this morre. Let's go
even though I don't know when you say that, and
then you hold on even though you don't see it,
and then God says, I want you to bring this
thing back to me.
Speaker 1 (59:47):
This is the process man, for my life.
Speaker 3 (59:50):
I just have to keep walking through my life with
my kids, my dreams, my goals, my ambitions, my hang ups,
my flaws like Abraham's walking with Isaac, and just say
the Lord will provide, and keep giving it back to God.
And so here's a good prayer. It's yours Lord, it's yours.
He gave it to me by grace, so I'm going
to finish it by faith. It's yours Lord. When I
(01:00:22):
told you all to start the church with me, and
I didn't tell you what city, how did you trust
so much when I told you so little? And I
realized that although you had never seen this plan, you
knew the person.
Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
You saw me do some stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
You saw me start Acchoir in college, you saw me
start Acquir in Shelby.
Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
You saw me say what I was going to do
and then do it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
I'm not comparing myself to God. I'm using it as
an antithetical analogy. If they trusted me that much seeing
me do so little. How could we have seen God
do so much and trust him so little? It came,
I'm a dead place, he reasoned. So when the thicket
(01:01:06):
started wrestling, Abraham looked up and saw a ram. But
if you look at this in the ESV, which gives
the exact word that is used when it says that
there was a ram in the thicket, it gives you
one meaning that I want to send you back to
your house with.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Today. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold
behind him was a ram, caught in the thicket by
his horns. Behind him what he needed was in a
place he had already walked past.
Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
When your faith is being tested, there is something God
has already taught you that he is calling you to
trust him and take hold of.
Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
He took hold of it in the thicket when he
walked by the thicket.
Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
Perhaps the ram wasn't there yet, But look back the
moment that he let go, the bush took.
Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Hold, and the ram was there. And he called that
place the Lord will provide.
Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Everyone's standing, heads bowed, eyes closed, no one moving. This
place can be called the Lord will provide too. Please stand,
if you're physically able it's our sign of respect to
God that he is speaking, that this is holy ground.
Turn your palms up to the Lord, like you're lifting
your hands to receive from him. There's a ram in
(01:02:33):
the thicket, there is honey in the rock, there is
water in your wilderness. The Lord will provide. There's something
God has already taught you, something you've already walked past,
something you've already learned.
Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
And letting go in this season will not be easy,
but oh it will be so so so relieving to you.
Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Ball up your fist real tight, like your squeeze in something.
Come on, real tight, like you're squeezing something, like you
think it depends on you, like you gotta make it happen,
like you got to figure everything out.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
When I say three, I want you to do what
my sermon says. When God says one, two, three, let go,
Let go and hold what God told you. But hold
it with open hands. Because if He dresses the lilies
(01:03:38):
with beauty and splendor, come on, how much more will
he clothe you? How much more will He clothe you?
Faith does not make a fist. Faith holds on with
open hands. It's yours, Lord, It's yours Lord, this place,
(01:04:05):
the place of surrender Jehovah Jirah. If he watches over
every sparow, how much more does he love you? If
he did not spare his son, but gave him up
(01:04:26):
freely for us, If he gave us Jesus, how much
more will he not freely give us all things pertaining
to life and godliness.
Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
There's a ram in.
Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
The thicket, there's forgiveness in the thicket.
Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
There's grace in the thicket. There's joy in the thicket,
and it won't run out. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevation dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hebrews eleven, Verses seventeen through nineteen. I'm continuing in my
series called you know what, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You're my best friend. Can you give me a hull?
I appreciate that. What's your name?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Man? Oh, that made me so happy?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
You love it? I love you. What's your name?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Say it?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Toston Torston?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Torsten Ah Torston the Usher? Now I ask you something, Torstan.
Do you feel like God has called you to be
an usher?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Definitely? Yeah, he said, definitely. I love it so much.
Do you have the calling of ushing? I hope? Okay,
so this you're going.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
To love this tourist And I'm going to talk today
a little bit about how God calls us all to
do some things, and then he calls some to do
certain things. And in the theology of it, you have
the universal calling of God and then the particular calling
of God and there are some things that God has
not called us all to do right, and thank God
(01:39):
for that. Today we're going to talk about a man
named Abraham. God called him to have a baby at
age one hundred. How many thank God that God has
not called us all.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Tstan so so.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
So we're going to talk about today how God has
called us all, and that includes you in the South.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
We say God called y'all. God called y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And in Hebrews chapter eleven, he's giving the whole hall
of faith to all these heroes, and he brings up Abraham.
And I'll show you in a few moments where God
called his name twice, because that's the theme of the series. Simon, Simon, Moses, Moses, Martha, Martha.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
What other ones have I done?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Jacob, Jacob, I've been studying all seven of them, so
I'm mixed up.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Which ones I've done.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Saul, Saul, Paul, Paul, And this week is going to
be Abraham Abraham. But I want to go back through
the lens of Hebrews eleven. We're given a list of
all of these amazing things that God called people to do,
and they are particular things, so that we're not all
going to lead a nation like Moses did. I don't
want to who would want to be the president of
(02:51):
this country ever for any reason whatsoever. And you may say, well,
God doesn't call me the preacher to sing, I don't
want to do those things. Well, there are some things
that God has called us all to be kind. God
has called us all to be patient. God has called
us all to be forgiving. God has called us all
(03:11):
to be generous. God has called us all to have faith.
God has called us all to be more than conquerors.
God has called us all to be agents of healing,
the light of the world, the salt of the earth.
And we're given this example of Abraham to help us
with that. Look at Hebrews chapter eleven, verse seventeen. By
faith Abraham when God tested him, When God tested him,
(03:37):
I want you to remember that God tested him. When
God tested him, he offered Isaac as a sacrifice. That
was the son that he waited till he was one
hundred to half.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
He who had embraced.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
The promises, was about to sacrifice his one and only
son verse eighteen, even though God had said to him,
it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now that's really heavy, and I've.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Been saving the sermon because I was intimidated to preach
it because it's honestly a very disturbing story in the Bible,
where God told Abraham, take your son that you love
and offer him to me as a sacrifice, and moving
beyond the differences in that time period when child sacrifice
was acceptable in the culture, it is still a very
(04:27):
very difficult story for us to reader to talk about.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
But we're going to talk about it today.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
We're going to talk about it today through a certain
lens because look what it says in Hebrews, chapter eleven,
verse nineteen. It says Abraham reasoned that God could even
raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking,
he did receive Isaac back from death. And we know
that this is a shadow of another son thousands of
(04:54):
years later who would be sacrificed for our sin, and
Abo did not have to kill his son. Is a
prefigure of a father who would go through with it
but raise him from the dead. But Abraham didn't know
that story yet, and so sometimes we are having to
live in experiences that we have no frame of reference for.
(05:16):
And that's what I want to talk to you a
little bit about today. It's a simple message, but a
profound truth that the Lord showed me. This message is
about a certain moment in your life that you will
come to from time to time, not just once, but
many times. And I'm calling the message when God says
let go. When God says let go, because sometimes he will.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Sometimes he will.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Tell you you're holding it too tightly, and God will say
let go. Sometimes he'll tell you this is through and
you can't do anything about it, and he'll say let go.
And we want to talk today about what to do
when God says let go.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Father, your word with power and precision.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Right now, I thank you in advance for the clarity
that you will give me as I preach this word
to your children. In Jesus' name. Amen, you may be
seated when God says let go. Put that title in
the comments. Please on YouTube. When God says let go,
(06:29):
control freaks, buckle up. We're going to talk about when
God says let go. Helicopter parents bring it in for
a landing. For the next thirty forty forty five minutes.
You can talk about when God says let go. Now,
I need to go in very strongly from the beginning,
So let's skip the part of the sermon where you
(06:52):
fish your gum out of your purse and have to
listen to what I say while I tell you a
story that doesn't relate to anything.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So you can get settled in.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And let me just give you a principle right off
the top, because I feel like there are some heavy
situations people are carrying today and God is saying let go.
When the Bible says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse seventeen,
when Abraham was tested, the specific tints that the language
uses of the New Testament, which is quin A Greek,
(07:21):
is in present continual tints. So it doesn't mean that
Abraham had one moment where his faith was tested and
it was over. It's talking about how faith is tested
with every step of faith that he took. When the
Lord told him to go to a mountain and sacrifice
his son, he didn't know that God would provide a
(07:42):
ram in the bush and he wouldn't have to do it,
so he was tested. Now, this is something I would
love for you to write down. It's a little bit long,
but I think is powerful. When your faith is being tested,
there is something God has already taught taught you that
he is calling you to trust in when your faith,
(08:08):
not if, but when, when your faith is being tested,
there is something that God has already taught you that
he is calling you to trust in. God would not
be giving you this test if he had not given
you the lesson. He's a good teacher. He wouldn't put
(08:33):
something in front of you that he didn't prep you for.
So we learned to shift in these seasons of testing,
to try to remember, God, what is it that you've
already taught me that you are calling me to trust in?
In this moment, let me say the whole sentence one
more time. When your faith is being tested by a
(08:55):
medical diagnosis, when your faith is being tested by a
dry season in your own soul, when your faith is
being tested by the way somebody is acting towards you,
that's unfair, but you can't stop it. When your faith
is being tested by doubts that just seem to keep
coming and multiply in your mind. When not if your
(09:16):
faith is being tested, you're in good company.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
The father of our faith, Abraham.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Was tested, and when he was tested, not just once,
but many times, there was something that God had already
taught him that he was calling him to trust in.
So if your faith is being tested, and it will
be tested, and if it is not being tested today,
let me see you at two PM when your faith
(09:44):
is being tested.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
There is something that.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
God has already taught you that he is calling you
to trust in. Because there's a big difference between him
teaching it and me trusting it. And so this moment
in your life is about asking, in God, what have
you already taught me that you are calling me to
trust in?
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Abraham?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Abraham, Abraham and God have a track record. By the
time he calls him to give his son back to God,
that God, who gave him the son, says, give it
back to me, which he has the right to do.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Everything comes from him.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
But even in the midst of Abraham's confusion, there is
a sense of continuity.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
For his calling.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
The thing about trust when I said, God is calling
you to trust in something that he taught you.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
The thing about trust is that trust is everything.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And the greatest way that I can exemplify this to
you is through Hebrews chapter eleven, verse eight.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
God gives a.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Little bit of a reminder about something that happened forty
years earlier in Abraham's life that prepared him for this moment.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Now. I want to look at you right now.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Just because you don't feel ready for this moment doesn't
mean you're not prepared for it. Just because you're surprised
by it doesn't mean that you don't have the supply
for it.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Now. When Abraham was first.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Getting started out in his journey of faith following Y'ahweh,
he was seventy five years old.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
They lived a lot longer than by the way, you.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Could have called it a midlife crisis, because he lived
to be about one point fifty one sixty. And the
Bible says in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse eight, a reminder
of something that happened when Abraham first got started. It
says by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a
place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and
(11:37):
went even though he did not know where he was going.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
That's about the craziest thing I.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Ever read in my life, y'all just sitting there looking
at me like he went to the grocery store. I
just told you, this man uprooted his entire life because
of a god he had never heard from told him
to go to a place that he wouldn't give him
any details about, and there was no ways at on
Abraham's iPhone negative thirty four. So we went and obeyed,
(12:08):
even though he didn't know somebody say, even though, even
though even though he didn't know where it was leading,
he set out in faith. And the thing about this
kind of trust in your life, my life, Abraham's life,
Simon's life, Martha's life, Mary's life, Moses's life. When we
go through all the people in the Bible, we get
(12:29):
a panoramic view of the patterns that apply to all
of us, kind of a sampler of what different people
went through that they had to trust God with and
steps that they took, and then we find ourselves following
in those footsteps. And trust is a funny thing because
the deeper the level of trust, the less the need
(12:49):
for details. The deeper the level of trust, the less
the need for details. Can I break it down. Holly
went to get her nails done yesterday. I trust her.
I didn't check my phone to see if she actually
went to get her nails done. I didn't ask her
(13:12):
how long she was going to be there. Who's going
to be doing your nails. What kind of acrylic are
you planning to get today? And are you going to
pay for the extra twenty dollars thing where they put
the little things on the things on top of the things.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Because I trust.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Her, she won't spend it if we don't have it,
and she won't lie to me about it. If she does,
she'd tell me I spent twenty I don't even have
to ask her. Just go get your nails done. I
trust her. This is not a marriage seminar. This is
not a parenting seminar, but let's pretend like it is
because it involves a father and a son with teenagers.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
How many of you have teenagers?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
When you trust your teenagers, you are delusional, just kidding.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
When you trust your teenagers.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Because you know they can develop a t record, that
you trust them, right, And if you have a teenager
that you feel like you can trust as much as
you can trust.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Any person, including you, because some of.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Y'all can't even trust the teenager that's still living in you.
So how in the world would you completely trust your teenager?
But when they have exemplified trustworthy behavior, even though they
have a sinful nature, it changes things.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
If you don't trust your teenager.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Every time they want to go somewhere, you need details.
So they will ask you, can I go to the movies,
and you will say I need some details. Somebody put
it in the chest, say details. Tell your neighbor I
need details.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Tell them.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
If I don't trust you, I need details. So can
I go to the movie? What movie? What theater? Who
are some of the actors in the movies? So I
can see if you really plan on seeing this movie?
What time is it playing? Who else is going to
be on your role? What seat are you sitting in?
Show me a screenshot of those seats right now? Will
(15:10):
there be popcorn involved? How much butter do you plan
on pumping on that popcorn? Because the less I trust you,
the more I need details. If I trust you, can
I go to the movies?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Be home at eleven thirty. We don't need the details if.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
We have the trust, and the deeper the level of trust,
the less the need for details.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
The guy who started the.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Church with me, he could walk up to me right
in the middle of preaching right now and put a
contract here and say I need you to sign this
while you're preaching, and I would keep preaching and sign
it and hand it back to him.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I wouldn't ask him what it was about.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Maybe you think I'm an idiot, but we've had experiences together.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It would not matter what.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
That particular document said. It is through the now. The
first time I met him, I needed details.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Now, let me tell.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Y'all something because I really want to set this frame
so that we don't get lost in an epic story
about killing your son or your daughter, which is not
what the text is about. It's about trust. God is
not calling you to kill your child, you might wish
from time to time, but using humor just to lighten
(16:25):
the mood so we don't get caught in something that
we can't understand and contextualize in our day. This is
about trust. The test that you're in right now is
about trust. When we started the church, I have eight
families who I asked to come with me. This was
twenty years ago. Twenty one years ago. I said, I'm
called to start a church, and I believe y'all are
(16:48):
called to come with me. But here's all I told him.
I said, we're going to start a church in a
big city somewhere in America.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
That was the whole pitch.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I had not read the sales books yet about how
to sell people on your vision.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
And as a matter of fact, I didn't really.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Want them to know what city we were going to
because I didn't know yet.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And I believe that God knew.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
And I didn't want them to make a commitment based
on a city. I wanted them to make a commitment
based on a calling. I didn't want them to commit
if we were going to Miami because they liked warm weather.
I wanted them to commit even if we went to Minnesota.
But I didn't want to tell the Minnesota so that
(17:35):
they would say yes and then they'd have to go
to Minnesota, because I wanted to trick them into trusting God,
not me.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Because I look back on that, I think, my goodness, how.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Did they trust so much when they were told so little?
Somewhere in the United States of America. We couldn't have
known we would be in such a wonderful city as Charlotte,
North Carolina. We couldn't have known. And I'm not comparing
y'all to Abraham. But even though they didn't know, they
(18:07):
decided to go. Let's go, let's go do it. They said,
we're young and dumb, let's go, might as well find
out if God can use us.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
There's something invigorating even talking to you about me reliving those.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Let's go moments of our faith.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
There's something exciting even just to remember, like, I don't
even know what it means to start a powerful church,
but I don't want to do it.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Lord, let's go.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
And when God said to Abraham, let's go, Abraham didn't
say there are a few things I need to know,
which lets me now that trust is not only a
product of time, it is a product of character. This
was not Abraham's third time following God.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It was his first.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's not like he had a list of things to
point back to where. Well, God, you led me there
and it worked out. You told me to take that
job and I got a raise, and you told me
to marry them and they turned out to be wonderful. No,
this is God saying it's me, God, let's go. And
when God says let's go, you can resist it, and
you'll get more and more miserable.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
As you fight it.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
When God says let's go, it's time for you to
leave this toxic state and forgive them and move on
from what you've been holding them hostage about. When God
says let let's go, and you won't move on past that.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You will feel stuck in yourself.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Until you obey the spoken word of the sovereign God.
When God says let's go, you might not even get
to ask him where. But if God can be trusted,
then the deeper the level of the trust, the less
the need for the details. So God says let's go,
(19:58):
and you don't ask him where. You just say which
shoes should I put on? Can I wear something with heels?
Or should I wear something flat? When God says let's go,
when he invites you into a new way of living,
when he tells you it's time to pursue growth and
stop staying stagnant in the grumblings of your past.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
When God says let's.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Go, if you trust him enough, you won't even need
the details. And by the way, the more that I
trust you, the less details I need to give you too.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
If I don't trust you, I gotta tell you everything.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
But in my relationship with God, if I really trust him,
why would I need to get him all the details
of how he needs to leave me?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And I want to live in this for a minute.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
I love y'all when y'all feel uncomfortable when I'm preaching.
That's how I know I heard from God because there
are some of you right now whose faith is being tested.
But when your faith is being tested, realized that there's
something that God already taught you that he is calling
you to trust him in.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
And the deeper the level of trust. Notice I said deeper,
not higher.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
The deeper the level of trust, the less the need
for the details. How did Abraham trust so much when
he was told so little? I'm gona close my eyes
so y'all won't feel like I'm judging you when you
answer this, raise your hand if you would have needed
a little more detail than Abraham received in order to
leave everything that you knew and set out, but he didn't.
(21:37):
I give you the scripture again, and I can't believe
those of you who did not raise your hand right there.
You won't even go to a party if you don't
see the entire guest list. Some of us won't even
leave the house unless we plot out where all the
bathrooms are going to be. You know, I got to
know where, though, And if you drive a tesla, you
got to know where every charging station is, or you
(21:58):
can't drive that.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So now, why what Abraham did?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
He obeyed and went, even though he did not know
where he was going. Verse eight, He obeyed and went
even though he did not know where he was going.
He obeyed and went even though he did not know.
Let's substitute something here. Let's say I must obey and
go even though I don't know, and where it says
(22:26):
where they are going.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Just put whatever needs to go in that blank.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
If I don't know how God is going to do it,
I don't need the details because my trust in Him
is deeper than the details. So when God speaks to
you and he says I want you to give this
person some money, you don't need the details of why
God wants you to give it if you trust him deeply.
When you say, well, I can't trust them, I don't
(22:51):
know if they're going to spend it on the right thing.
It's not the depth of your trust in them that
determines your level of generosity.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You are called to be generous.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I think I'm really calling on somebody today who needs
to do it without the details. And I don't mean
get in your car and drive until an angel speaks
and then stop and get a motel room. I'm talking
about going forward in what God is speaking to you,
even though you don't know. A lot of times we
(23:26):
get trapped in all of the details that we don't know,
and we don't take.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
The steps that God has called us to take. There
is a.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Distinction between God and the devil, though. See, the devil
doesn't test us, he tempts us. The devil tempts us
outside of God's will. God tests us to bring us
deeper into His will. It occurs to me today that
the devil cannot test you. Only God can test you.
(23:56):
The devil can tempt you not to trust God in
this test, but God is the only one who can test.
Can I preach a little while, Like we're preaching to
people over the age of five years old. We need
to make that distinction because otherwise you will get stuck
in the even though and you'll never know.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So there are amazing let's go moments that we have.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
There are amazing setout in faith moments, And maybe not
like Abraham to that dramatic extent, but we can surely
see the disciples having a let's go moment. Write that
phrase down let's go. Moment they're exciting. Hey, follow me.
I'll make you fishures of men. Well, what do we
do about the boats? Just keep those and rent them
(24:40):
out for a little while. But for the next three
years you're gonna see amazing things.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
When God speaks to you and tells you to take
a step of faith, and really, this time, I'm gonna
put myself into this job. I'm not just gonna work
here and take a check and quiet quit. I'm really
gonna step up and lead in this job. When God says,
let's go. Sometimes he doesn't have to move you from
the place that you are. He wants to use you
in the place that you are when you finally decide
(25:08):
let's go. The disciples didn't move from Galilee when Jesus
called them. They offered their boats so Jesus could use
them in the place they already were.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Sometimes God will tell you it's time for you to
step into your adulthood.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
You have been in a.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Season of childishness. Not childlike faith, but childishness. Long enough,
let's go. I'm calling you up. Now you need to
be a mentor. Now you need to be an example.
Now you need to trust me to move forward by faith. Now,
and I wonder is there anybody in here who trusts
God enough that if he says, let's go, even though
(25:46):
the arrows are flying, you've got the shield of faith.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the
evidence of things not seen.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Let's go. The weapon may be formed against me, but
it will not prosper. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Take your stand in against the devil's schemes.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
You are not ignorant of his schemes.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Let's go, devil. I don't want to smoke, but if
you want to bring it, I know somebody who's gotta train.
Let's sail sex Temple.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Let's go, let's show. I don't want to raise this
kid by myself, but if God didn't give me somebody
else to.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Race them with, he's my tactic partner. Let's go, and
Abraham win fifteen hundred miles.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Can you imagine fifteen.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
Hundred miles without an APP, without an huber, without a
GPS coordinate feels like that sometimes, But they is the
voice of God saying let's go. Notice he said let's go,
let us go. I'm gonna do this with you. While
I need the details.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Let me give you.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Another example, so I can make this so practical that
but you will have no excuse either to obey it
or disobey it when the Lord speaks it to you.
When I go on a trip for ministry, if I
go alone, I need every detail. But if somebody comes
from the staff to support me, I don't need to
know the details because I've got somebody with me that
I can depend on, and if I can depend on you,
(27:28):
I don't need details. So the process of my life
and getting closer with God should not be necessarily that
I understand more and more of where He's taking me.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
That's why we get.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Confused when we run up on seasons that we didn't
see coming, because we think that the depth of our
faith in God will bring clarity about the details of
where He's leading. But the deeper the trust, I said,
the deeper the trust. Trust isn't always tall. You can't
always see it. Sometimes it runs deep where you need
(28:03):
it the most. And I believe that's how Abraham was
able to say let's go and then after God spoke
to him at age seventy five, leaving a metropolitan culture
for a nomadic one, everything about his life seems to
be going backwards when he sets out to follow God.
Abraham wasn't moving on up. Y'll never even seen a
(28:28):
TV set. But he followed God what seemed to be down,
and then God spoke the promise. Now, I want to
show you a very pivotal phrase in Hebrews eleven, verse
eighteen is talking about how Abraham was tested. But when
your faith is being tested, there's something that God has
already taught you that he is calling you to trust in.
(28:49):
And it says by faith Abraham verse eighteen. Please, even
though God had said to him, it is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckon. So there's another Even
though go back to verse seven, I'm gonna put this
thing together for you.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I'm gonna put the baloney right in the middle of
the buns and smash it down.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
By Babe Abraham when called to go verse eight to
a place he would later receive. This is delayed gratification faith.
Even in his lifetime. He wouldn't see all of it,
but he obeyed and went, even though he did not
know where he was going. Now give me verse eighteen. Again,
he offered his son, even though God had said to him.
(29:37):
But go back to the verse before that, because it
calls Abraham something very interesting. You know, he's called the
father of faith, and he is His name means father
of many nations. His name started as Abram, which means
exalted father. But God changed his name to prepare him
for his assignment, and he was called according to what
he would carry.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
But when abrahm him received the promise that you will
have a son, there was a problem.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
It says by faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered
Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced everybody say embraced.
Justin please circle the word embraced. He embraced the promises.
And that sounds so simple, right, Like God promises you
you're gonna make it, and you embrace it, and you say,
(30:24):
I'm gonna make it. God promises you this is going
to work out for your good. You embrace it. It's
going to work out. God promises you that he has
someone for you, and you embrace the idea that God
has someone from you. And the first thing we need
to do before we embrace a promise from God is
evaluate is it actually a promise from God?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Or is it just a feeling?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
That we had, or an ideal that we had, but
put it back up. It says he embraced the promise
of God that you will have a son. Now, I
want to point out to you that he embraced the
promise not only for a nine month period, but for
twenty five years between when God spoke it and when
(31:09):
it happened.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
That's a long time.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Twenty five years is certainly long enough to start questioning,
did I really hear God right? Twenty five years was
long enough for Abraham? Should I tell him the story
about Hagar? Abraham's wife said, Hey, since our stuff isn't
exactly coming together like we thought it would, here is
(31:33):
my maid servant Hagar. Sleep with her and have a son.
And Abraham said, hey, I'm the lord's servant. Whatever you
need me to do, let's go.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Abraham is the let's go man. He said, let's go.
They had a baby named Ishmael. It turned out to
be a problem, had to throw him out. He became
a nation to father of many nations. But even through
the mistake, give it to me again, he embraced the promise.
Bracing promises doesn't mean you won't make mistakes In the process.
Embracing the promise doesn't mean you won't have days where
(32:07):
you go, you know what, forget it.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I don't even care anymore, nobody else does. Why should I.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Embracing the promise doesn't mean that you never cry the tears.
Embracing the promise doesn't mean you always understand the plan.
He embraced the promise for twenty five years. He had
to believe something that he couldn't see. For twenty five years,
(32:35):
he held on to the promise. So now we've gone
from let's go faith to hold on faith. And there
are a few of you who are in this room
who are in a season of hold on faith, holding.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
On to believe that you really could be free from
this one day.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Holding on to believe that it really could lift off
of your family one day and it could get better,
holding on to believe that.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
God is going to give you joy again.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Abraham is a great model for us of this kind
of faith, because no, we're not all going to be
the father of many nations, and know we're not going
to have babies at age one hundred, but there will
be a season of your life where you will have
to hold on to something God's folk. When everything you
see and everything you feel is telling you a different story,
(33:30):
you will point back to something God said and say,
I still believe it. I still believe it. Somebody shout,
I still believe it. Right now, my bank account is
a liar, but God is true.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
I still believe He's a provider.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Right now, there are things going through my mind that
are telling me that it will never come.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
To pass, but I still believe it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
There aren't a lot of people who believe in me
right now, but God has called me, and.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
He is faithful to keep me.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I still believe it in spite of everything I've gone through.
Even because of some of the things I've gone through.
I wouldn't be going through so much if I wasn't
carrying so much. And I still believe it. Feel like
preaching to three people who need to hold on.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Somebody shout, hold on, Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I'm holding on, sometimes barely by a fingernail, but I'm
holding on. Sometimes I feel like free solo, like I'm
about to plunge down to my bloody death, but I'm
holding on.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
I'm climbing higher, I'm coming up, I'm.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Moving through it.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I'm progressing and advancing and the things of God. Even
as my emotions are clawing at my feet, I still believing.
But this message is not called when God says hold on,
there are moments it's where you hold on. And then
(35:02):
for Abraham, there was a season when God said, I
know you're the one who said let's go when I
told you to follow me fifteen hundred miles. I know
you held on when you waited twenty five years for Isaac.
And I know that this boy is the son that
you love and you waited for. But the Bible says
(35:25):
in Genesis twenty two, verse one, that God said to Abraham,
take your son, your only son, Isaac, only son. I
thought you had another one. Yeah, he threw that one out.
This is the one that he had left. This is
the one that God promised. And I would like to
speak to you today about how sometimes we let go
of things that are sins in our life.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
But that's not what this text is about.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I would like to speak to you today about sometimes
we need to let go of habits that are bad
for us in our life. But this is not a
text about quitting cigarettes and vapor. Don't worry, I'm not
(36:13):
preaching about that today, I'm preaching about something deeper, because
what do you do when God says I want my
promise back, not because I don't intend to fulfill it,
but because I'll fulfill it when I want to fulfill
it how I want to fulfill it, And I need
(36:33):
you to trust me. Now. If you don't have deep
trust with God in this moment, you will need details.
You start trying to control everything, You start trying to
manipulate things. And that is why some of us are
so stressed right now. Because there's a dream that you
thought God gave you, and maybe he did, but there
(36:54):
are details to that dream that are not being met
on your deadline. You can't call him God and give
him a deadline. The boss sets the deadline. I know
what I thought I should have been by now, but
(37:15):
it's not my deadline. Let me set you free with
one sentence. I like to say one thing that makes
it worth coming, even if you've been sleep the rest
of the time I've been up here talking, it's not
my deadline. If God waited until Abraham was one hundred
to give him a baby, you think God's gonna do
(37:36):
everything you want him to do within the first quarter
of this year. What do you do when God says
I want you to I want.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
You to hold on.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
I got I got I think it all.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
We kind of say this, I just got it.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
What do you do when he says, hold on to
the promise, let go of the plan? What do you do?
Speaker 4 (37:59):
That's our question, right because some of us are really
good at let's go, let's go. I'm a vision board
let's go, got my goals.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Let's go.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
So you're really good at let's go. But I was
looking for a way to.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Illustrate this yesterday and I thought, God, if I don't
illustrate it right, they won't hear what they need to hear.
And I really want to speak to the person who
is holding on so tight to their idea of life.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
And I'm praying about this.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
I'm thinking about Abraham and Isaac in this crazy scene
where he is about to take the life of his
son because he doesn't know that God doesn't want to
take Isaac. God wasn't taking Isaac. He was testing Abraham.
And there's the let's go moment, there's the hold on moment.
You will find yourself in both. But when God says
(38:47):
let go, that can be hard. To hear, because this
is something I think he wants me to have, but
he's not doing it how I think he wants me
to do it.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
What to pray for?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Would ask for?
Speaker 3 (39:01):
As I'm thinking praying about this illustration, I'm thinking I
look in a book. But then bo runs over, our
Boston Terrier runs over and he brings me a ball,
and I first think, I don't have time to play
fetch with you. Bo.
Speaker 6 (39:18):
I am working on a very important sermon for very
important people about a very legendary Bible text, and it
is a serious text, and I don't have time for
this because I'm talking about let's go and let go
and all of that.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
And he brings me the ball as if he is
saying let's go.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
So I take the ball and I throw the ball,
and as I'm throwing it, I remembered, Oh, this won't
take long because bo is terrible at fetch. And I'll
tell you why he's terrible at fetch, because he's really
good at let's go.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
He'll run and get it real quick.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
But once he's got it, he did not hear my
sermon today called when God says let go, and he
is better at retrieving it than he is at releasing it.
So I can't get him to understand that we could
do a lot more if you would say, let's go
(40:19):
and then let go and get in the rhythm of
retrieving and then returning and retrieving and releasing and I.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Give it and you bring it back, and I give
it and you bring it back.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
And now I understand why God will sometimes call us
to bring him something that we thought he promised, so
that he can clarify what he actually promised, so that
he can do what he said he would do, not
what I thought he would do, not what I wanted
him to do, not on my deadline, but on his
(40:57):
destined schedule for the per turp for which he intends
my life to be a small little peace. So I
want to tell every bowe in the room, let go,
Let go. How can you say that this is important
to me? How can you tell me to let go?
Speaker 1 (41:17):
I have to make some plans, don't lie. Yeah, you
gotta make them, but don't hold them too tight that
you choke them.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Is it possible, I'm asking the question, Is it possible
that your problem isn't that you don't hold on to
what you think God told you you hold it too tight,
because sometimes his timing is different than yours. I don't
know who this is for, but the Lord really wants
you to get this today, because he's saying, let go,
(41:47):
let go. What would that journey have been like to
the mountain region named Mariah. This is the same region
where Jesus would die thousands of years later, where God
would give his sign, different mountains, same region. Abraham had
no context for that. And so what do you do
when your faith is being tested but you have no precedence,
(42:13):
no precedence. I wanted to call this message a promise
with no precedence. In other words, I've never seen this before.
I've never seen this before. I don't know how to
do this. I don't know how to be a father
of many nations. I don't know how to do this.
And you got to lead your son to Isaac is
fifteen by this time. By the way, he's a teenager.
(42:35):
He's a teenager. We talked a little bit about teenagers
in trust earlier, and now this teenager and watch the journey.
There's a conversation that happens because they go three days.
Remember Abraham was tested not in a moment, but in
a process. The test of your faith will be continual.
You'll be good one moment the next. Why are y'all
(42:56):
so fake?
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Today?
Speaker 3 (42:59):
I said, you'll be tested one moment and your faith
will be really, really good, and then it'll tank the
next You are only one text message away from your
trust in God tanking to an all time level.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
And that's true.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Need I go further, and they're talking about it, and
the further they get, the more questions Isaac has, because
this is not the dad touch trust in the teenager.
This is the teenager trusting the This thing is flipped.
And so now Isaac is walking with Abraham and he
doesn't know either. I should do a parenting seminar on this.
What do you do when you're leading somebody and you
(43:35):
don't know either?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Abraham's like, let me tell you about me and God.
He doesn't give me many details because when they start walking,
and I'm not cheapening the text by lightening the tone,
I'm trying to bring you into it so that you
can understand that God doesn't call us all to sacrifice
our sons. He sacrificed his son for all of us,
but he does call us all to trust in Him
(44:03):
at times times where we can't understand, and they're walking
three days, and then comes the point where they can't
take the servants any further, because there will come a
place where you get to a point with God where
no one else can help you figure it out.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I mean to a point. People can give you advice
to appoint.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
People will give you wisdom, but don't worship their wisdom
because their wisdom is based on their experience.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
And God has to show you some things for your life.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
And Genesis twenty two six says that Abraham took the
wood get the picture, the wood for the burnt offering.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
And placed it on his son Isaac.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Do we not see Jesus all the way in Genesis
twenty two that he took the wood and put it
on his son, and he himself carried the fire and
the knife. As the two of them went on together,
Isaac started to wonder a little bit, and he spoke up,
and he said to his father Abraham, Father, yes, my son, Abraham.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Replied, the fire in the water.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
Here.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I'm doing an inventory. We got everything we need except
one thing. Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
In other words, I need some details, and Abraham answered God,
he only said one thing, one thing, one thing that
he had found to be true over fifteen hundred miles
(45:35):
of traveling, one thing that he had found to be
true when he went to Egypt to survive for a
little while, One thing that he knew to be true,
even though he didn't know where this was leading. God
himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. And
in this moment, we wonder was Abraham bluffing? Did he
(45:59):
really know that that was going to happen, because that
is what happens. It's not a lamb, but it's a
ram because God isn't going to ever do it exactly
like you think he is. But he says it like
he knows that God himself will provide the lamb for
the burnt offering, my son, And watch this. I get
the picture here that Isaac has seen Abraham trust God before,
(46:20):
he has seen his father trust God before. Why Because
the deeper the trust, the less the need for details.
Isaac told him God will provide, and the two of
them went on together. He said, God will provide, and
Isaac said, let's go. And so Isaac is saying, let's
go while Abraham is letting him go, and the moment comes.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Now, just lock in with me for a minute.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
When they reached the place God had told him about,
not the place he knew in his mind, God showed him.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
When he got there, Abraham built an altar, which.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Was a place of sacrifice, which was a place of death,
which was a place of worship. He built an offer
there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his
son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top
of what. I know how hard this is for us
to get our minds around. That's why I was hesitant
to preach it. But the one that I was most
hesitant to preach in this whole series is the one
that healed me the most, because what I saw in
(47:21):
verse ten changed my life. He reached out his hand
and he is he is reaching for the instrument, the knife,
and he's wrapping his fingers around the knife, letting go
of his son. And as he reached out his hand
and took the knife to slay his son.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
But.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
The Angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham.
He said it twice because he was holding the knife
and he thought his son was about to die.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
And he didn't know what to make sense of it.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
But in the moment that he's holding the knife over
his son, here comes the Angel at that moment saying, Abraham, Abraham,
let go.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
God says, let go. At the very moment that Abraham Abraham.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Thinks it's over.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
And when God said what he said, Abraham, Abraham, here
I am, he replied verse twelve, do not lay a hand.
Speaker 4 (48:33):
On the boy.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Somebody shout, let go, shout it again, let go, let go.
I know you came this far thinking this was how
it's gonna end.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
But the moment that the.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Angel spoke, he said, don't lay a hand on the boy,
don't do anything to him.
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Now I know that you fear God. And now that
you've let him go, let go.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
Now that I know that I can trust you with
what I taught you, that I can trust you that.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
You don't love it more than you love me.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
Now that I can trust you that you're embracing my promise,
not your plan. Now that you have let go, because
verse twelve, you have not withheld your son.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
You have let go of your son. Now let go
of the knife.
Speaker 5 (49:27):
And God is so strategic that at the moment that
Abraham was letting go of the knife, which is what
he thought he had to do, at the moment that
God said let go of the knife.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Verse thirteen says he heard something other than the angel
rustling in the background. Abraham looked up, and there in
a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.
And he went over and took the ram and sacrificed
as a burnt offering instead.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Of his son.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
Verse fourteen says, so Abraham called that place the place
where he thought Isaac would die, that place, the place
where he thought it was over, that place, the place
he didn't even know he was going or what God
would do, but he said he would provide, and he
did provide, And he called that place the Lord will provide.
(50:25):
It wasn't called the place where Isaac died. It was
called the place where Jehovah.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
Provided Ben isa Claire, what glory to God. Let's rename
this place.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Now. This is for all of the people who are
letting go of something that you thought would happen, letting
go of the way.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
You thought somebody was supposed to change.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
Letting go of what you expected from yourself, letting go
of what you thought God was like letting go of
what you thought this season would include. This is for
everybody who's letting go. At the moment that Abraham was
letting go of the knife, the thicket was grabbing hold
of the ram.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
What am I trying to say?
Speaker 1 (51:15):
God's got you.
Speaker 3 (51:16):
In this place. God's got you in this place. His
name is Jehovah. He is Jehovah, Jirah. The Lord will
provide for me.
Speaker 4 (51:29):
The Lord will provide for my family. The Lord will provide.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
For this church.
Speaker 4 (51:39):
Can't you see the angel.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
At the same moment that one angel is telling Abraham
to let go of the knife, another angel is telling
the thicket to grab a hold of the ram. Don't
you see the timing of God what you call coincidence.
But Abraham didn't know that. Abraham didn't know that he
(52:02):
had to go not knowing, And so do you. But
Hebrews chapter eleven, verse nineteen. Stay standing and hasten me
to a close and rush me with pressure by standing up.
If you stand up, I'll start rushing this sermon to
a conclusion. And you can get the qdoba and sit
around and eat something that ain't gonna last you for
two hours of energy instead of getting this word from
God that can save you from a decade of disappointment
(52:25):
and break off generations of oppression.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
Walk of your family because my God is the home
of Chira. When God is testing your faith, not the devil.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
When God is testing your faith, even if the devil
brings the trial, the Lord will administer the test.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
When God is testing your faith, he already.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
Taught you something.
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Hebrews, Chapter eleven, verse nineteen, One more time. How did
he make it up that mountain? How do I walk
through this valley? How do I get through this season
of uncertainty?
Speaker 1 (53:02):
How do I go not knowing? How do I show
up not feeling it?
Speaker 3 (53:06):
How do I continue to embrace the promise while not
holding it too tightly? The writer of Hebrews gives us
a clue as to what to do when your faith
is being tested and you know your God can be trusted.
Speaker 7 (53:17):
He said, Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.
Now I thought about that thing, and I thought about
that thing, and.
Speaker 3 (53:30):
I thought about how he reasoned that God could even
raise the dead, even if it ends, God can bring
a new beginning. He reasoned that God could raise the
dead and It made me ask the question, at this
point in history, when Abraham reason that God would raise
him from the dead, had there ever been a resurrection
(53:53):
recorded in the scriptures? And the answer is no, there
is no recorded resurrection in the scriptures. By Genesis twenty two.
I could understand if it said Peter reasoned that God
could raise him from the dead because he saw that
happen to his boss, so he had seen it before.
(54:14):
But verse nineteen does not say Abraham remembered that God
could even raise the dead. For him to remember, he
would have had to have a previous experience. He would
have had to have a precedence for the promise. But
it doesn't say he remembered because it wasn't anything he'd
(54:36):
ever seen before. So I wondered to myself, what was
the reason that he believed. It doesn't even say he believed.
To believe could mean that you think it could happen,
but you don't know it could happen. It doesn't say
he remembered, he had never seen it before. It doesn't
say he believed. It says he reasoned. And that made
(54:57):
me remember what Paul, who we preached about last week,
said about Abraham, who we're preaching about this week. Watch
God put the ram in the thicket. Watch God drop
the knife and stage the ram. Watch God work all
things together for good in your life.
Speaker 4 (55:16):
Watch God put the right person at the right place,
at the right time to.
Speaker 3 (55:21):
Do the right thing, to give you the right Watch God,
watch God. He reasoned, and I wondered why the Bible
used the word he reasoned, until I remembered that Romans
four nineteen says that Abraham, without weakening in his faith,
(55:44):
faced the fact that his.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
Body was as good as dead. Since he was one.
Speaker 3 (55:51):
Hundred, it only stands to reason that his body isn't
going to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (55:57):
So he says, it's as good as dead.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
And guess what.
Speaker 4 (56:01):
Sarah's womb was also dead.
Speaker 3 (56:05):
So I realized that although he had never seen the
dead raised, he had seen somebody born from a dead place.
I realized that I might not have ever seen this before.
I might not have seen it, But how many kids
(56:25):
testify I.
Speaker 7 (56:27):
See something like it.
Speaker 3 (56:29):
If you do where he brought me from, if you
do what he brought me through, you do not understand
the reason.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
The reason? The reason.
Speaker 4 (56:43):
Hot five three people say I got a reason. I
got a reason. I got a reason. I got a reason.
I got a reason, I got a reason.
Speaker 5 (56:56):
I'm not foolish his faith, and I say, pad.
Speaker 4 (57:03):
Substance.
Speaker 3 (57:06):
The reason I believe is because I've seen him. Do
watch this something kind of like it. You ever seen
the dead rays? No, But I saw a dead wound
bring forth the baby. I saw something kind of like it.
I never been through this challenge before, but I've been
through something kind of like it. I never been in
(57:29):
this place before, but I've been in something kind of
like it. I never dealt with bad news quite like
this before, but I've been through bad news that was
kind of like it. I never thought a goliath before,
but I thought something kind of like it. I never
crossed over a red sea before, but nothing but my staff.
But I've been through something kind of like it. And
(57:49):
I came to tell you today that if you're being
tested in your faith, God is telling you to trust
him in something he already taught you. If Isaac came
from a dead place, Abraham said God a raisin from
a dead place. If he wants to, he can do
(58:13):
what he wants to. I don't need the details, because
the deeper the level of the trust the less the
need for details.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I reckon God can raise him.
Speaker 4 (58:33):
I hear Abram holler him back to the servants. We'll
be back in a little.
Speaker 1 (58:37):
While, y'all.
Speaker 4 (58:39):
Because I don't know.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
What God's gonna do, but I've seen him do too much.
I see them do too much. I see them do
too much. Hey, when God tells you to release something,
to let go. When God says let go, he's already
(59:01):
got the ram in the bush.
Speaker 1 (59:06):
I want to show you one more thing. I want
to show you one more thing. This blue.
Speaker 3 (59:13):
My mind put a mind blow emoji in the chat
by Faith that this is gonna blow your life. When
it said that, Abraham said to God, Let's go, even
though I don't know. Let's go, even though I don't know.
Maybe that's where you are right now. Let's go, even
though I don't know I'm gonna take the first step.
Let's go, even though I don't know I'm gonna call
a therapist. Let's go, even though I don't know I'm
saying I sorry. Let's go, even though I don't know
(59:34):
I'm going to church today. Let's go, even though I
don't know I'm reading my Bible this morre. Let's go
even though I don't know when you say that, and
then you hold on even though you don't see it,
and then God says, I want you to bring this
thing back to me.
Speaker 1 (59:47):
This is the process man, for my life.
Speaker 3 (59:50):
I just have to keep walking through my life with
my kids, my dreams, my goals, my ambitions, my hang ups,
my flaws like Abraham's walking with Isaac, and just say
the Lord will provide, and keep giving it back to God.
And so here's a good prayer. It's yours Lord, it's yours.
He gave it to me by grace, so I'm going
to finish it by faith. It's yours Lord. When I
(01:00:22):
told you all to start the church with me, and
I didn't tell you what city, how did you trust
so much when I told you so little? And I
realized that although you had never seen this plan, you
knew the person.
Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
You saw me do some stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
You saw me start Acchoir in college, you saw me
start Acquir in Shelby.
Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
You saw me say what I was going to do
and then do it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
I'm not comparing myself to God. I'm using it as
an antithetical analogy. If they trusted me that much seeing
me do so little. How could we have seen God
do so much and trust him so little? It came,
I'm a dead place, he reasoned. So when the thicket
(01:01:06):
started wrestling, Abraham looked up and saw a ram. But
if you look at this in the ESV, which gives
the exact word that is used when it says that
there was a ram in the thicket, it gives you
one meaning that I want to send you back to
your house with.
Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Today. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold
behind him was a ram, caught in the thicket by
his horns. Behind him what he needed was in a
place he had already walked past.
Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
When your faith is being tested, there is something God
has already taught you that he is calling you to
trust him and take hold of.
Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
He took hold of it in the thicket when he
walked by the thicket.
Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
Perhaps the ram wasn't there yet, But look back the
moment that he let go, the bush took.
Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Hold, and the ram was there. And he called that
place the Lord will provide.
Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Everyone's standing, heads bowed, eyes closed, no one moving. This
place can be called the Lord will provide too. Please stand,
if you're physically able it's our sign of respect to
God that he is speaking, that this is holy ground.
Turn your palms up to the Lord, like you're lifting
your hands to receive from him. There's a ram in
(01:02:33):
the thicket, there is honey in the rock, there is
water in your wilderness. The Lord will provide. There's something
God has already taught you, something you've already walked past,
something you've already learned.
Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
And letting go in this season will not be easy,
but oh it will be so so so relieving to you.
Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Ball up your fist real tight, like your squeeze in something.
Come on, real tight, like you're squeezing something, like you
think it depends on you, like you gotta make it happen,
like you got to figure everything out.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
When I say three, I want you to do what
my sermon says. When God says one, two, three, let go,
Let go and hold what God told you. But hold
it with open hands. Because if He dresses the lilies
(01:03:38):
with beauty and splendor, come on, how much more will
he clothe you? How much more will He clothe you?
Faith does not make a fist. Faith holds on with
open hands. It's yours, Lord, It's yours Lord, this place,
(01:04:05):
the place of surrender Jehovah Jirah. If he watches over
every sparow, how much more does he love you? If
he did not spare his son, but gave him up
(01:04:26):
freely for us, If he gave us Jesus, how much
more will he not freely give us all things pertaining
to life and godliness.
Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
There's a ram in.
Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
The thicket, there's forgiveness in the thicket.
Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
There's grace in the thicket. There's joy in the thicket,
and it won't run out. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevation dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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