Heroes - Week 3: Abraham — Great Leaders Are Formed, Not Born

Well, hey family, it's another beautiful month, and then we got another amazing series that is just right for you.

Have you ever looked at people in the Bible and wondered, wow, how did God use them?

They did some great things, they had great faith in God.

Truth of the matter is, we call them heroes of the faith, not because they're supernatural or they've done everything right.

We call them heroes of the faith because they continue to trust God despite difficult circumstances.

And I believe you got a hero on the inside of you as well.

So, this series this month, I guarantee you, is gonna help you see that if God can use people that he used in the Bible that have had all of their flaws, all of their complications, and God can do some great things through you as well.

So I'm excited for what God's gonna say today.

But I also want to tell you that we got some exciting things happening around here at Impact because this is open enrollment for Impact Christian Academy, our school.

So if you have a pre-K student all the way through 12th grade, we believe Impact Christian Academy is the right environment to help nurture your child, to grow them into the purpose that God has for their lives.

So if you want more information, go to icajax.com and we'd love to have you on a tour where you take the exam to have your child be a part of this community.

And let's take a listen to today's message.

Happy Father's Day to everybody.

Am I coming through?

Am I coming through?

I can't hear me.

Okay, good, good, good, good.

Happy Father's Day.

And speaking of Father's Day, um, if you're here for the first time, I'm not our pastor, I'm not Bishop Davis, but his father came into town from Detroit, so we gave him the day off to me.

We're gonna spend time with his day.

Awesome.

And can we just thank God for our worship team?

That was really good in worship today.

So grateful for all that they are doing.

And uh, if you're online, we just love to welcome you to Impact Church Online.

So many of you, not just in Jacksonville, but all around the world, uh, consider this your church home.

So we're so glad that you're with us as well today.

So um we've been looking at the lives of some of our biblical heroes.

We've been a series called Heroes, and uh, we've been looking at the lives of various people from the Bible.

I don't even like to say characters because they weren't just characters, they were real people who really lived.

And we look at their lives, we call them heroes, not because they did everything right, but because God ultimately made everything right utilizing their lives.

Um, they had the good, the bad, the ugly, and yet God took all of those things and he changed it so we could learn from it.

Uh, they probably won't have this scripture on the screen, but Romans 15 4 told us that everything that was written in the past was written for us to learn from.

And then it says in that verse, in the end of the verse, it says, so that we can endure with hope.

And today I want to talk about somebody who epitomized the idea of hope.

We're gonna talk about Abraham on Father's Day, Father Abraham, and I am one of them.

Let's just praise.

Come on, where's Pastor Wayne at?

I'll be trying to tell him I can lead the choir.

But you know, Father's Day, we we're often thinking about our fathers.

Um, you know, what what they'd meant to us, maybe if they weren't there, uh the mistakes they made, the victories they had.

Um, but I think when we learn about Abraham today, we don't just have to look at him as a father, but we can also learn some powerful leadership lessons from Abraham and uh lessons that apply to anybody who leads.

So maybe you're in here and you lead one of our dream teams, maybe you lead in corporate America, maybe you lead uh the espresso maker at my favorite coffee shop.

God bless you if that's you, because just so grateful.

But we all have some sort of influence on people's lives, and I think there's some lessons we could learn from Abraham today to make us better influencers, right?

Everybody today wants to be an influencer.

Can I tell you that's not a YouTube thing, that's not a social media thing.

God made you an influencer from the beginning.

Amen.

He said, You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.

If that's not an influencer, I don't know what is.

But the thing about Abraham and the thing about all of us is Abraham was not perfect.

Anyone in here, not perfect.

Okay, like three-quarters of you over there didn't raise your hand.

So I'm gonna talk.

Do you have to service?

Check your secret.

But uh Abraham wasn't perfect.

He lied, he doubted, uh, he made costly mistakes.

It's interesting if you really go back and study the beginning of his life.

He was a moon worshiper, and then he was impotent, meaning he he wasn't gonna be able to have any kids, and yet God ended up calling him, creating a nation out of him, and he gets known not just as the father of our faith, but he gets known as the friend of God and the father of many nations.

And so uh great leaders, here's a quote for you great leaders are not born.

This should be good news to all of us.

Great leaders are not born, but they are formed in the hidden places where pressure, pain, responsibility, and obedience do their quiet work.

Okay, we don't like that, right?

Obedience.

But notice I didn't say that character and leadership is formed in answered prayer or in blessings or in likable posts, but it's in consistency, it's in showing up, it's in pain, it's in pressure, it's in obedience.

Eugene Peterson, who wrote the message Bible, he's got a book and he calls this thought a long obedience in the same direction.

You want to get formed, you want, I'm just waiting for God to use me.

I'm just waiting for him to call me.

He's just waiting for you to be uh to be transformed, he's just waiting for you to obey some things, he's just waiting for you to be consistent.

He's called you, but he needs you to go through the process like Abraham did.

Amen.

And so, Genesis chapter 12, we could see Abraham's call.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And and and if you if you're new to the things of God, you may not know this because the Bible's gonna call him Abram initially.

God later will change his name to Abraham.

We don't have time to teach all of that, but I didn't want uh anybody who's new to be confused.

It says the Lord had said to Abram, leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family and go to the land that I will show you.

Notice what's happening here.

God didn't say go to point A or go to point B.

He just said go.

And it's not until after you go that he begins to show you.

So Abraham's like, go where?

Just go.

I'm gonna show you, but just go.

So it's a process.

I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

When God does something great for you, just know it's for others.

Say others.

God said, Leave your relatives, and Abram left most of them.

It's interesting, he decided not to part ways with Lot.

And there's probably a number of reasons why God says, I'm gonna make you a great nation.

He's 75 years old, so he obviously doesn't have any kids at this point.

He thinks, well, I'm not naturally gonna have kids, so maybe he thought Lot was gonna be his heir, and maybe he thought Lot was gonna be part of the family and part of the promise, and it was gonna be like his adopted son.

And Lot's dad had already died, who was uh so Abraham was technically his uncle, so his nephew, and so it's kind of like a son to him.

But but instead of doing the hard right thing and leaving everybody, Abraham just partially obeyed God.

He did what was mostly right.

Now I know this is 8 o'clock, so nobody does what's mostly right here.

We all do the hard right, but that 10 o'clock crowd, they you'll talk to them later.

You can tell the 10 o'clock crowd this that partial obedience is polite disobedience.

That was the problem with King Saul.

Samuel shows up, God told Saul to take out the whole nation, wipe out everything, and Saul kept some of it back in the name of God.

Samuel, like, what's that sound I hear?

It sounded like the bleeding of sheep in my ears.

And Saul was like, he used good religious language.

Oh, I kept some of the prosperity back so I could offer it to God.

What he was doing, he was being politely disobedient, and I'll tell you how that shows up in our lives today.

Sometimes we say things like, I'll uh we'll say, Hey, maybe you shouldn't uh operate your lifestyle like that.

Well, you know, God hasn't dealt with me with that yet.

Or we might ask somebody to do something and they'll say, Yeah, God just hasn't led me there yet.

But can I tell you small obedience precedes big obedience?

And a lot of times we're saying that we hadn't heard God's voice on it, but can I tell you God's voice is always quiet when Bibles are closed?

Yeah.

And so partial obedience and delayed obedience is disobedience.

Great leaders aren't born, we said, they are formed.

And Abraham's partial obedience is going to cause some unnecessary problems down the road.

We'll come back to that in a minute, but God will use the bumps, he'll use the the misalignment uh to ultimately bring the best for his glory.

And our time today is too short to do a whole study on Abraham's life, especially when there's libraries written about it.

But I'd love to give you three leadership points that maybe you could put into your own life that'll work right in your house with your family, with your job, the dream team, your small group, wherever you have influence at.

And we can learn from Abraham, and maybe we can make some decisions now that are right so that we don't have to have the bumps and the hiccups that Abraham had.

Are you with me?

The first point I want to give you today about Abraham and leadership is great leaders, say great leaders.

Great leaders, value alignment.

I didn't say you say that, I just said it's a great leader.

But amen.

I like initiative.

Let's look at Genesis chapter 13, verses 5 through 7.

Genesis 13:5–7

Lot, so that's his nephew, right?

Lot was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle and many tents.

But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all of their flocks and herds living so close together.

So disputes broke out between the children's ministry and the student ministry.

I mean, between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsman of Lot.

You see, Abram found himself in a position that you might find yourself in when you lead a company or you lead a team or even uh maybe your family.

See, Abraham realizes now he took Lot with him when he wasn't supposed to, but then Abraham has this epiphany that he needs what we call will alignment.

Will alignment is God had already revealed his will, but Abraham got out of alignment when he said yes to Lot and he should have said no.

And and and and and all this time, Abram is watching Lot flourish, and you know it's getting harder and harder to be like, yeah, eventually I gotta let this boy go.

And it looks good, right?

Because he's probably making Abram some money.

Lot isn't lazy, he's not a bad employee, he's not a bad relative, he's not rebellious, he's not incompetent.

The Bible says Lot was blessed, Lot was successful, he was capable, and he just was not supposed to be attached to Abram's assignment.

And you have to look sometimes, just because somebody else has everything going on that you admire doesn't mean they're supposed to be attached to your assignment.

And this isn't in my notes, but I'll tell you why.

Because sometimes then those people will be able to take credit for where you went.

That's a lesson you'll learn from Abraham later on.

They want to, the king of Sodom wants to bless him, and he said, No, I can't take nothing from you because you'll say you made Abraham rich.

And you'll you'll be with somebody who's really successful and looking good, but 10 years down the road, they'll say, Yeah, I got them there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So some of the most difficult leadership decisions are not between good and bad, but they're between right and almost right.

And that's really tough, right?

Here's a quote for you Effort won't fix misalignment.

Time won't fix misalignment.

Better coaching won't fix misalignment.

Only alignment fixes misalignment.

Uh, Pastor Krishan talked about this last night, but you can think about your car.

I was already thinking about this.

If you have uh if your car is out of alignment, it begins to cause other problems to happen.

Eventually, when you're out of alignment, you get problems that are more costly down the road.

And even if you go fix those other things, guess what?

Eventually, you still have to get the car aligned.

And and you can you can be gone and out of fellowship and you can leave church for a few weeks, a few months, a few years, you can go live your best life and make some decisions that either get you in debt or maybe have a child out of wedlock or whatever the case may be, but you still have to eventually get back in alignment, and you're not gonna be free from the repercussions of those decisions along the way.

Yet God is so good, He will use them for his glory.

And so we know that great leaders value alignment.

The next thing I want you to know about Abraham that we can learn is great leaders value people over possessions.

Oh, we just got a few amens on that.

But like, no, I like my house, I like my car.

I was driving to church this morning.

I promise you, I saw six boats on the way here.

They was, I was like, Happy Father's Day.

Y'all enjoying your day, and yet you're here in the house of God.

Give yourselves a hand for that.

And no condemnation to them.

Pope it rains.

No, no, don't do that.

Don't do that.

I don't.

But great leaders value people over possession, say people.

So Genesis chapter 13.

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

Finally.

Hmm, see, it should have happened already.

Finally, Abraham was like, okay, this is too much.

He said to Lot, let's not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen.

After all, we're close relatives.

You know, you can you can you can disconnect a relationship and do it in love.

You don't it don't have to be bitter.

It don't have to be, it don't have to be, we don't talk to each other anymore.

It's just we our our our our missions go in different directions, that's all.

The whole countryside is open to you.

Take your choice.

Now, now Abraham made Lot rich, but he's given Lot the choice.

Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate.

If you want the land to the left, then I'll take the land on the right.

And if you prefer the land on the right, I'll go left.

Abraham was the leader, he was the elder, he was the boss, he was the patriarch.

He had every right to make whatever decision he wanted to make because Lot is rich because of Abraham.

Abraham's not rich because of Lot.

Yet instead of demanding his rights, Abraham prioritized relationship over possessions.

He gives Lot first choice.

Now it sounds good in the story, but when you have to put it into practice, that's a whole nother thing, right?

And if some of us will read, be like, Well, that's Old Testament.

Well, I got something for you.

Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Don't be selfish, don't try to impress others.

Be humble.

Now, this next part, just everybody put your fingers in your ears.

Thinking of others better than yourselves.

I was talking to someone recently, and uh she said, my wife, she said, uh, she's not here.

So she's like, maybe this means it.

It's how you think about people.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You think of others, you prefer others better than yourselves.

Thank you for the one, amen.

Don't look out for only your own interest, but take an interest in others too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

And you know the best way to see the attitude of Christ?

It's in marriage.

This is how we're supposed to see the attitude of Christ.

Because Ephesians doesn't simply say, wives, submit yourselves to your husbands and respect them, but it goes on to say, and husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

And how did Christ love the church?

He looked these twelve disciples in the eye who would run from him and deny him and wash their feet.

Judas sat at the table and ate too, and then he died for them.

And this is the attitude of Christ.

So Andy Stanley says that love is a race to the back of the line.

And so anytime in marriage, you are more concerned about your needs than you are the needs of the mission of the marriage.

You will always get out of alignment, you will always become selfish, you will always put your possessions over the people God has asked you to steward life with.

You get mighty quiet in here.

The attitude of Christ means I have to die daily.

It means that I prefer you over me, whatever benefits you first.

I'd be quiet too.

It's tough.

But watch this.

Abraham demonstrated loyalty and concern for his staff.

He was in tune with their working conditions.

He's like, man, this isn't good for all of us.

Abraham was getting rich.

He could have just let the fights go on and look good.

But instead, he's got to make the tough decision.

He realized there's not enough space for everybody to flourish.

So he chooses the hard right.

He makes a tough sacrifice and he parts ways with his nephew for the good of everybody, not just himself.

You know why?

Because people are often willing to sacrifice for a leader when they know what the leader has already sacrificed for them.

You know, I was talking to some of my staff this week.

It just challenged, like, let's not forget the people who will go to war and fight for us and with us.

And so, you know what happens in the following chapter, Lot finds himself in some trouble.

He finds himself kidnapped and captured in the land that he took.

And you know what Abram did?

Abram didn't like say, yeah, well, that's his business now.

Abram got his staff.

He said, Let's go help Lot out.

I know y'all used to fight, but let's go back and get Lot.

Let's go help him and make sure that he's set up for success.

One of the things I love about our pastor and some of the other um pastors that are here can attest to this.

There's people who have left our church and something will happen.

And Bishop will be like, hey, go check on them.

Oh, they're in the hospital, go see them.

Oh, they have a need, send this check over to them.

And never advertise it from the pulpit.

But that's what great leaders do.

Great leaders prefer uh uh prefer people over possessions.

That's why a couple of our core values here at Impact Church is one is we have people over procedure, and then two, we ask our leaders to walk slowly through the crowd because people are our mission.

Great leaders understand that people are never interruptions to the mission.

We always understand that people are the mission.

Isn't that the the if you if you've read the story of the Good Samaritan?

Wasn't that the difference between the priest and the Levite and the Samaritan?

The priest and the Levite were more focused on procedure, and the Samaritan was more focused on people because he knew people were the mission.

Great leaders do the hard right.

Great leaders do the hard right.

That means that I don't take a hard right when I see trouble.

It means that I'm not only gonna do the hard thing, I'm gonna do it the right way, even if it costs me.

Abraham successfully navigated this challenge with Lot.

He splits with Lot, he goes and rescues Lot, he makes sure Lot's set up again.

But leadership tests rarely get easier because you see, Lot's technically just his nephew, right?

At this point, Abraham realizes that Lot is not the heir to his promise.

And so the the the I'm sorry to tell you this, but the more intense leadership tests that you pass, the tougher ones are gonna come.

God isn't like, oh, you passed that test, good job.

Just take it easy from now on.

God is like, okay, now you pass that test, I've got a tougher one for you to pass.

And so they usually, what happens is they usually hit closer to home.

I think one of the things is men on Father's Day, we talk about this in my uh my small group a lot, my cigar small group, we're a men's group.

Most of us are fathers, most grown men.

One thing we always talk about is the hard thing.

Uh it's it's easier sometimes to stay at work.

Sometimes it's easier to uh do extra hours on the job and uh get out and cut the grass and do all of the things because we don't want to have to go inside and do the hard work.

Don't want to have it's easier to have a uh a disagreement with our boss than it is with our spouse sometimes.

Thank you for the one amen.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

All of y'all brothers, please counsel me afterwards.

My wife told me just like three or four weeks ago, she said, it's amazing in life you run towards conflict every chance you get.

As soon as you come home, you don't want to have any conflict.

I'm like, nah, it should be a place of peace.

No one problems.

Peace.

But you see, what happened is as years passed, God fulfilled his promise to Abraham, and Isaac was born.

And if you don't know the story, that sounds like good news.

Oh, Abraham got his son.

Well, that's his second son, technically, because Abraham made a compromise a few years later at the suggestion of his wife, but he still knows better.

He sleeps with a woman named Hagar and has a son named Ishmael.

But the problem is you can't get rid of Ishmael.

Ishmael is gonna stay with you for the rest of your life.

And that's what I talked about earlier.

So there's some decisions you can make now that you may not see the repercussions of till later on in life.

Maybe it's additional spending on their credit card, maybe it's holding back from the IRS, maybe it's having a uh a relationship that you shouldn't have, and you don't realize until years later how those things can catch up with you.

And so Hagar didn't disappear.

In fact, Hagar still lives with him and Sarah, and we just came out of a series called Complicated.

How many y'all know that was complicated?

We would call that today baby mama drama.

And so Abraham finds himself facing one of the most painful decisions in his life because sometimes the hardest leaders leadership decisions aren't the ones that impact your ministry or your business or your friendships, but they're the ones that impact your home.

Let's look at Genesis 21.

When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, isn't it interesting?

Last week Bishop talked about the weaning process that Samuel went through with Hannah.

Abraham Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion.

But Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar, making fun of her son Isaac.

So she turned to Abraham and demanded, get rid of the slave woman and her son.

He's not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac, I won't have it.

And this upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son.

But Ishmael was his son, but not her son.

But God told Abraham, do not be upset over the boy and your servant.

Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son whom through your descendants will be counted, but I will also make a nation of descendants of Hagar's son, because he's your son too.

Verse 11 says that this upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son, and every parent understands this verse.

Every husband understands this verse, every under leader would understand this verse.

Abraham was facing a decision where there was no easy way out.

But knowing what the right thing is can be very difficult sometimes.

Making right decisions can be very painful sometimes when so many wrong choices have turned the situation upside down.

Sometimes, like we said, a bad decision can take time to manifest, and you don't think it's any big deal.

And sometimes what we like to say is, Well, God will forgive me, and the grace is there, and you're absolutely right.

God will forgive you and grace is there.

You know what the grace is there for you?

The grace is there for you to go through the repercussions of decisions that we've made that we shouldn't have.

When we've all made them, nobody's pointing a finger at you today.

We've all made bad decisions.

There's things I still carry from my past.

I'm free from them, but when I think about them, I'm like, ah, how did this impact others?

How did this slow my growth?

And uh this is what Abraham's gotta think.

But here's a good quote for you: great leaders don't make uh decisions without divine direction.

See, Abraham was a good leader.

We could see he was famous, he was successful, he had not only prospered himself, he prospered a lot, but he needed to go from good to great.

And now he couldn't make decisions on his own.

He couldn't make decisions at the suggestion of somebody else.

Great leaders don't make decisions without divine direction.

In other words, the children of Israel learn if the cloud doesn't move, we don't move.

Elijah learns that if the brook isn't dry, we're gonna stay here until God says elsewhere.

I know it looks good over there, but God hasn't said move, so I'm not gonna move.

When I move, you move.

Well, y'all need Jesus going here.

But what I love about God is he has an amazing way of cutting through the emotion of a situation.

How many of you know that's some there's some of those decisions, especially when they come home, they have emotion attached to them.

Abraham and Sarah were both upset.

But for different reasons.

God saw what was underneath their anger there.

There was fear underneath the anger, and that that's that's so true.

So many of us, sometimes we get angry because we're fearful.

And well, I ain't scared of nobody.

No, we're we're fearful of what the result will be, is if we don't make the decision ourselves, or if we trust uh the process into someone else's hands, or uh, what if I didn't really hear God in this?

And so Sarah, her anger and her fear is for Isaac because that's her son.

But for Abraham, his fear is for Ishmael because that's also his son.

And so what happens is God addresses both fears so that they can come into agreement and that their family can move forward in faith.

It was a hard decision, but with God's direction, it was the right decision.

Sometimes doing the hard things means having a difficult conversation.

Sometimes it means setting a boundary, sometimes it means correcting a child, sometimes it means protecting your family even if it cost you everything.

Sometimes it means apologizing even if your intentions were right.

I mean, you know, you can have right intentions and still do make the wrong decision.

I thought I was this what I was trying to do, but I missed it.

It's okay.

You know, and so sometimes the hard decision is maybe you don't take the promotion because your family needs you more than you need the money.

Maybe you have to ask a leader not to serve on your team, even though you need the help desperately.

But around here, we care for your soul more than we do your serve.

So we don't want you to just show up when it's time for you to serve, but then you never sit down and get the word here.

And so we might have to make that difficult decision, but it benefits the whole family when we're all healthy.

Amen.

Here's a quote for you Doing the hard right takes faith in God to make right what we cannot.

It takes God to make things right.

Abraham teaches us that leadership is not measured by how many people applied your decisions, leadership is measured by your willingness to obey God when obedience costs you something.

And here's our last point today great leaders build trust over time.

This is the greatest test of Abraham's life in Genesis 22.

God instructs him to offer his son as a sacrifice.

Now, last week we learned Hannah just offered her son by just dropping him off at the church.

But God said, No, I want you to sacrifice your only living son, and that'll seem strange to some of us, and God probably wouldn't ask most of us.

But Abraham's gonna be called the friend of God.

The only way you really become good friends with somebody is to go through some things with them, to understand what they've been through.

So Abraham will put Isaac on the altar, and yes, God will pause Abram's hand, but he's able to tell Abraham, now you know what I'm gonna go through.

About 4,000 years from now, when I put my son on the cross, except I won't hold my hand back.

Genesis 22.

So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders, just like the cross will go on Jesus' shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife.

And as the two of them walked together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, Father, yes, my son, Abraham replied, We have fire, we have wood, but where's the sheep for the burnt offering?

This is weird.

We've done this before.

Something's missing, dad.

Abraham answered, God will provide a sheep.

It's gonna take 4,000 years, but he'll provide a sheep, my son.

And they both walked together.

And when they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it.

Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on the top of the wood.

And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.

And at that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham.

Yes, Abraham replied, Here I am.

It's almost like he was expecting.

Like, I'm gonna get ready to do it, I'm gonna do it, but he's gonna call me anytime.

He's gonna call me anytime.

Abraham, yes, God.

But this is because he's gotten into alignment.

Don't lay a hand on the boy, the angel said.

Don't hurt him in any way.

For now I know that you truly fear God.

You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.

Now think about this.

Isaac's a teenager.

We know he's already been weaned.

Uh, we've already sent Ishmael off, and Abraham's over a hundred years old.

A teenager should be able to overpower a hundred-year-old man, right?

Unless that man Jackie Chan.

But the rest of them, you know.

But he doesn't because there was trust built there.

Isaac trusted his dad because this trust had been built over the years and he knew the character of his father, but that only comes by spending time with the father to have trust in the character of the father, even when he's asking you to do the tough thing.

Trust cannot be demanded, it can only be earned.

And you know, you've said to people, I need you to trust me on this.

I don't know if I can trust you.

You could trust me.

No, no, no.

You earn trust.

It's not, it's not earned through one action, but it's earned through consistency, through integrity, through sacrifice, through faithfulness over time.

I love this passage of scripture.

Proverbs 24:10 says this.

Proverbs 24:10

It says, if you fail under pressure, your strength is too small.

You know, that's not condemnation, that's an invitation to grow.

How do you get stronger?

You work out, you show up, you stay consistent, you obey in the little things.

You start obeying the little things.

God said, Okay, now I got some medium things.

And as you obey in the medium things, God said, I got some big things.

And as you obey in the big things, and God says, I can trust you with the grand thing.

Because look at this quote: the trust you need in a crisis is built long before the crisis arrives.

So sometimes an emergency happens, sometimes it could be something as simple.

I don't know how I'm gonna pay my mortgage this month.

Those are real problems.

But if you make the right decisions now and spend time with the Father now, when the crisis arrives, it's so much easier to trust him instead of trying to go make decisions that seem good, but they're not great or they're not right.

Abraham was not perfect, but he kept trusting God, and he would learn from his mistakes.

And over time, the people around him learned they could trust the man who trusted God.

Sometimes people are young in their faith and they don't know how to put their trust in God yet.

But your consistency can help them make the right decision.

You showing up when you don't feel like it, you showing up when it's raining, you showing up when you would rather be out with the boys, you showing up for your sons, you showing up for your daughters.

That consistency will help someone self help set someone else free.

So many people, young guys, tell me, you're such a great dad, and I want to learn from you.

I'm like, you don't know if I'm a great dad.

But they they see me because they've seen me, and you can be seen when you stay consistent with the Father.

But here's the thing about Abraham.

Like I said, he's called the friend of God, and he's called the friend of God, nobody else's scripture is, only Abraham's called the friend of God, and you know, I know we sang that Israel Houghton song back there.

I am the friend of God.

But Abraham was his God's friend because he went through some things, and even on the bad days, he knew how to go back to God.

And God was trying to teach Abraham a lesson about what he would go through someday.

And maybe you're in here and you're like, man, this sounds good.

I just got dragged here for Father's Day, or I came as a uh just a visit today.

I don't know where my relationship with God is at.

I don't know if I could ever do the Abraham thing.

Abraham didn't know if he could ever do the Abraham thing.

God just said, Go and I will show you.

And today is your day.

If you don't know Jesus, today's a day where you can just take the first step.

Because God already took the first step.

Because when Abraham walked up that hill with Isaac, he got up there.

There was a ram.

There was a ram stuck in the bush.

God had already provided in that relationship, that thing, that that's that purpose that you sent, you're like, I don't think I could be consistent with it.

You don't have to be, you just have to take the first step.

And if you take the first step, you'll realize he already took the first step.

He met you there in a place called Calvary.

And if you want me to pray with you today, if you want to know Jesus, if you want to know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who showed himself faithful again and again and again through a whole lineage of people that made mistake after mistake after mistake, yet the Bible calls them our heroes because they just kept trusting God in spite of their imperfections.

I want to pray with you today, if that's you.

So in a second, I'll ask everybody to bow their head.

And when I do, if you want me to pray with you, if you say, I just want to take that step of faith, I just want to see what's gonna happen.

I'll say yes to God today, and then I'll see where he takes me from there.

I'll pray with you.

When you bow your head, I'll ask you to grab this white card that says say yes to Jesus on it.

And you'll grab that, and I'll just have you slip it up so I can see.

We're not gonna ask you to stand up.

We won't call you into another room.

This is between you and God.

If you're in the overflow room, same thing.

If you're online, follow the directions.

But all you got to do in a second is you'll raise this is your first step.

Go.

Go where?

Just go, I'll show you.

That's what God does.

He says, I'll show you every step of the way.

If you let me, I'll show you.

So everybody bow your heads right now.

Everybody close your eyes.

So if you're in this room and you want me to pray for you today, grab that little white card that says say yes to Jesus.

On the count of three, I'll ask you to slip up your hand just so I can see it and I know who I'm praying for.

This is your day.

He took the first step, and he'll take every first step after this if you'll take one today.

One, two, three.

Who am I praying for?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who else?

Thank you.

I see you back there.

Thank you.

Who else?

Thank you.

One of the greatest Father's Day gifts you can give yourself is to get a father.

Who else?

Anyone else?

In the overflow online?

Now I want everybody together to pray this.

Say, Dear Jesus, I take the step because you took the step.

You took the first step.

So I ask you to save me, I ask you to cleanse me.

Ask you to forgive me.

Help me to trust you.

But I believe because of your first step, I am right now born again.

Thank you for these examples.

And let my life be an example to someone else.

Jesus' name.

Amen.

Put your hands together, Impact Church.

Did you just make a decision for Jesus?

Welcome to the family.

We're so excited.

Trust me, we're clapping for you.

And we believe that you've made an important decision today.

We'd like to help you on your journey.

So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.

It's going to take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.

But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you on the journey ahead.

If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.

We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.

Now, let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.

And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our first weekend service every month.

And you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen.

Sign up for that.

I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, or any of our ministers would.

If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still going to watch our service.

But download that book, it's free.

We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.

Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.

If you're just checking this out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.

But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values.

And so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.

You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.

Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.

It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here.

And there's a lot of events on there as well.

But you can give through that app.

It's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.

Well, we're so excited you joined us today.

Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.