Sunday School, Abraham & Isaac - A True Test of Faith

It is so awesome to be here. Welcome to the roots.

This is your first time where it's all about Jesus.

We love God, we love people, we reach the lost,

and we make disciples. Today we have a really awesome

text and so I don't really want to waste any

time getting into it. But we are continuing today in

our summer series where we're going through some of the

most popular Bible stories contained in the Old Testament. A

lot of these are stories that if you grew up

in church, you were definitely familiar with.

You've definitely heard them before.

But the reason that we're doing this is because not

all of us did grow up in church, and so

maybe we have been yet to have been exposed to

some of these faith filled stories, these faith inspiring stories

from the Old Testament. So we're really excited to be

digging into them together. But also for those who did

grow up in church, which is probably a good amount

of us. And here the versions of these stories that

we did hear may have been more water down right,

they may have been missing some of the more intense details.

That would have been.

That that's actually in these stories, and so we want

to put these stories on full display. And show them

for all the true meaning that they have and in

their context, with the hopes that our faith would be

built up as we see the faith of those who

have gone before.

Us, and as we see the truth about just how amazing.

Our God is and will he He is, he was,

and he is still so good. So we've titled this

series simply Sunday School.

If you missed last week.

Or this is your first week joining us, this is

only our second week, so we haven't gone too deep

too quickly, so you can still catch up.

We have last week's message available. But last week we

looked at the story of Noah.

We looked at the story of no one saw how

it's not just a cute story about animals on a

boat and a rainbow, but in fact, it's actually the

truth about what our sin deserves, but God's mercy and

making a way of salvation for those who trust in him.

Right, it was pretty, it was it was a fun message.

It was it was It's a really cool story to

just see how rich the gospel was in that story.

And now this week we have another incredible Bible story

that this one's just kind of I don't know. This week,

I keep I was really excited because every time I

reread it go through I'm just like, this thing is

shopping with the gospel.

And so before we look at it or get into it,

I'm going to pray and we're going to start. That

sound good, awesome, Let's do that. Lord, God, we thank

you for this time to be gathered in your name.

We just asked that you would bless it, you'd bless

your word, that you would have our hearts prepared and

ready to receive what you have for us today. Help

us hear any rebukes, any encouragements. Lord God, help our

faith be built up in the good of who you are.

And so we just asked that you would help us

see you for all your glory and help us be

built up to look more like you because of it.

In Gee's name, everyone said, Amen.

All right. Do you guys like tests, Well, we're gonna

take one right now. I'm just kidding, how do you

guys do with tests? Good? So? So bad?

Because I can't stand them. I do not like tests.

They're way too much pressure. I remember getting doing my

testing for my driver's license, and I remember the pressure

of knowing someone was sitting there with their clipboard that's

the worst type of test. The person sitting right next

to you. You know, they're watching your every single move

and watching you. It's not fun. And I remember I

ended up getting DC points. I should have been one

hundred percent. I remember getting DOC points because I didn't

look over my left shoulder when I was taking a

left had a traffic light where there was a median.

Literally a car would have had to have been driving

the wrong direction. They're like, you never know, and I

was like, okay, whatever, dude. I also got docked points

because when I did my parallel parking, I backed in

and pulled forward so that I would be evenly between

the cones, and I got docked points for an unnecessary move.

It's ridiculous. I'm just gonna say that perfection comes at

a cost. I guess so I hate tests.

I hate tests because it feels like something that I

could normally do if no one else is watching, right.

I mean, that's why this is kind of tangent. Sorry.

Parallel parking like you go downtown Olympia and there's lots

of traffic. If no one's on the road, it's fine,

But as soon as you see all the traffic coming

behind you. It's just like I'll circle the block again

until there's not many cars, right. That's that's normally how

that goes. But it's it's with tests. There's things that

I feel like I could normally do, but with the

pressure of people watching, and I end up buckling under this.

Pres Sure, every time I go to the doctor for

my blood pressure it's too high. When I go to

the doctor for other problems I'm worried about, my blood

pressure is only like bordering high.

So I'm just saying it's it's fine. Pray for me.

But those are trivial tests in comparison to the tests

that God gave Abraham, a test that if we're honest,

I honestly don't think that there's any person in this

room that could or would pass this test.

Because many of us, as I.

Believe will be revealed to us today, have things that

we put before God in our lives, things that come first,

things that give that we give precedence and priority over God,

things that we withhold from God because we don't trust him.

But today we're going to see an example shown to us.

And my hope and prayer is that by the end

of today we will have our faithless hearts exposed where

we don't trust God, and that when we see the

faithful provision of God, that we will truly trust Him

with every area of our life. So, if you're taking

notes today, today's message is titled Abraham and Isaac a

True Test of Faith. But before we actually get into

our text today, we need some context of who this Abraham.

And Isaac are.

Now, if you've grown up in church, you probably are

very or more than familiar with Abraham or Isaac. Whereas

the children's song sings, Father Abraham had many sons, which

honestly is kind of a funny song to sing, being

that when we first meet Abraham he was a childless man.

He had no children, his wife was barren, and his

name was only Abram. When we first meet him, God

called to Abraham or Abram and called him from a

distant land and promised to make Abram into a great

nation and to give his offspring the land to which

he walked.

But after some time, the.

Lord comes to Abram, and Abram almost kind of starts,

I'd say, maybe somewhat reasonably so, starts kind of complaining

to God.

He's like, how do you keep calling me?

Blessed and saying, there's all these promises of what I'm

going to be, and I don't have any children.

I don't have an actual heir. He was still childless.

But then the Lord God makes a promise to Abram

and tells him to look at the stars in the sky,

and as many as there are stars, that so would

his offspring be. And here we see Abram believe God

and it be counted to him as righteousness, just like

we looked at last week. This is that was the moment,

But time still goes on. Abram keeps waiting and God keeps.

Assharing Abram of his promises.

Then he comes to Abram and changes his name to

Abraham because he would be the father of many nations.

At this point in the story, Abram had a little

slip up, if you want to call it that, by

taking some poor advice to have a child with the

servant of his wife, which was successful, but as.

You can imagine, went terrible for the family.

So Abram and his wife tried to find a shortcut

to God's promises, but God still had a different planned

in mine. God promises Abraham that his baron wife Sarah,

is going to have a child within the next year

and so fulfill the word that God had promised, which

to you and I sounds fine, sounds awesome, sweet, that's

really cool. But at this Abraham falls to the ground

and starts laughing because at this point he's one hundred

years old and his wife is ninety years old. So

God tells him that Sarah would have the child that

he promised, and that his name was to be Isaac.

He is the one that God would fulfill his promise through.

Isaac is the one whom God would make his covenant with.

And of course, because God is faithful to his promises, Sarah,

Abram's wife, conceives and gives birth to.

A baby as an old lady.

So are we kind of starting to get a picture

of who Abraham and Isaac are. This is very important

that we understand kind of what's going on.

Who are these people? Why is any of this relevant?

It's very important for the story that we're looking at

today because think about the joy that this would have

brought to Abraham and Sarah to have finally received this child.

Not only have has their lifelong desire been fulfilled, but

they've also seen God's goodness for his word, even in

the midst in the of these impossible circumstances, that they

have a child at such an old age.

It's truly incredible.

And anyone who's struggled to have children can imagine the

rejoicing it would have caused to have this finally become

a reality, the love that would be felt for this

long away child. And I mean, I think it's fair

for anyone who does have children. You know the way

that you already love your children, and how indescribable.

That love is.

So imagine even more after waiting ninety or one hundred years.

To finally receive this child.

What I'm trying to say is that you know that

this child was insanely loved, and so did God, which

brings us to our text today. Our story actually can

be found in Genesis chapter twenty two. If you would

turn there with me. If you do not have a Bible,

please go grab one. Take it for yourself out on

the resource desk out in the lobby if you're taking notes.

The first part we're going to see is the test.

The test.

Starting in verses one and two, it says, after these things,

God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham and he said,

here I am. He said, take your son, your only son,

whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and

offer him there as a burnt offering to one of

the mountains of which I tell you.

The tests that God brought.

To Abraham was to offer his only son as a

sacrifice to God, and not just any son, the true son,

This promised son, his one and only son by his

wife Sarah. The child have promised, the child through whom

the covenants and promises were to come through. God has

come to Abraham and told him to offer his son

as a sacrifice. Now, I know that God may have

come to you personally in various ways, mainly probably through

his word, and told you to do things, but I

know he's never asked you to do this. God has

told us to forsake our sin, to give up our

life and follow Him, and usually, honestly, that's hard enough,

as hard as it is, and most of us have.

I think tests may be going on in our lives

right now that we're not even aware of God.

I think if we were to put ourselves in his

shoes and God came to us and asked us to

do something like this, we know just how difficult that

would be. We know just how hard that that would be.

And if we're being honest with ourselves and looking at

this text, I think we should realize that also the

stakes aren't even as high when.

It comes to our own children.

Yes, we love them with everything, but I can guess

pretty well that the Lord doesn't have the same amount

of importance writing on your child or my child than

he does on Isaac. And I say that not trying

to make all the parents in the room hate me.

But what I'm trying to say is that God, because

of his promises, had everything writing on this child. These

If anything God had said didn't come to pass, not

only do you not get the Israelites, not only do

you not get Moses in the law, not only do

you not get Jesus. But worst of all, God becomes

a liar. That's why when I say it comes to

your child or my child, it's not the same. God

hasn't made promises about the destinies and roles of my

children and what they'll play in the history.

Of the world.

But God had made those promises to Abraham. So the

stakes are very high.

In this situation. But even with the stakes lower.

Let's be honest in this situation, how do you respond

to God? How would you just be honest?

Exactly right? God comes and asks you to sacrifice your

t to him. What do you do? But let's be

really real. I think most of.

Us would not only be confused, but I think we'd

be offended.

But I think that's.

Also because how quickly quickly we forget everything truly actually

belongs to God and not us. The Lord is the

one who gives, and the Lord is the one who

takes it away, and he has the right to do both.

I think most of us would high tail it the

opposite direction, with our child clutching our arms, thinking like no,

A lot of us, I think, even reading the story,

could feel bothered or worried about how this makes God look.

But I want to set you free.

I want to say you free because I was thinking

about this, and this is my conclusion, This is michael conclusion.

If you are wrestling with that at all, my conclusion

is I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't worry about it.

And I'll tell you why I wouldn't worry about it,

because Abraham didn't worry about it. Abraham didn't worry about it.

How do I know, because look at what Abraham does next.

In our text, he doesn't go on the run.

He obeys. We see this in verse three, says.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey

and took two of his young men with him and

his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the

burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of

which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham

lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

Then Abram said to his young men, stay here with

the donkey. I and the boy will go there and

worship and come again to you.

So Abraham he obeyed.

He gets up, he packs up and goes on the

three day journey with Isaac and the two young men. Now,

I think it's fair for us to speculate how Abraham

is feeling or like. We can speculate, but that's all

it is. Was he worried, was he concerned? We don't

really know what those three days looked like for Abraham.

But I think that ultimately we see where Abraham is

at in his thoughts because of the last thing that

he says there, the last thing he says when he

leaves them, leaves the young man behind. Did you catch that?

And look at that again? It says, stay here with

the donkey. I and the boy will go over there

and worship and come again to you.

Do you see it? Now?

Abraham believes that both are going to return despite everything.

Abraham's faith is. It is pretty insane, it's pretty incredible,

it's pretty wild, it's pretty big. But I think at

the same time, we just need to remember or realize

that Abraham has been through impossible circumstances before they had

this child, when they were one hundred and ninety after.

I mean, he's seeing God. There's a lot more than

Abraham's witness God do Abraham knows God, and Abraham believes God.

So I believe Abraham trusts God. And if that's not

proof enough, then let's keep going. Because we've been speaking

a lot from the point of view of Abraham and God.

What about Isaac? Right, Maybe we don't, Maybe we don't

think about Isaac in this story.

Maybe enough, Isaac, following his father's instruction, Isaac knows how

sacrifices work. But I don't think Isaac actually knows what's

going on here. So he makes a very solid observation

to his father by asking his dad a question as

they're walking up the mountain.

We see this in verse six. And Abraham took the

wood of the burnt.

Offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he

took in his hand the fire and the knife. So

they went both of them together, and Isaac said to

his father, Abraham, my father, He said, here, I.

Am my son. He said, behold the fire in the wood.

But where is.

The lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will

provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went both of them together. How about that one?

Are you convinced? Now? Do you see it?

Now? The little bit maybe more obvious in that one,

maybe a little bit more convinced of Abraham's faith in

this situation.

We all know that kids know how to ask questions, right.

We all know they can ask questions based on the

observations that they make, sometimes in public within earshot of

the people that they're making the observations about.

Right, You're like, still don't say that they're right there, But.

Abraham answer is, actually, how I believe every single one

of us should answer our children. He points Isaac to

God's character. He points Isaac to trust in God, that

God is trustworthy and faithful to provide, and so to

trust him. And how many of our interactions would be

better with our children if he would only point them

to God. Abraham doesn't try that grandstand. He points his

child to God. He doesn't make it about him, but

he actually shows his child how just how reliant both

of them are on God. Isaac wants to know where

the sacrifice is while he carries the wood intended for

him on his back. But we seen all the way

Abraham walked by faith and what God has asked of him.

So then they finally get to the moment of truth.

Abraham builds an altar, he lays out the wood, He

binds his son and lays him on the altar. And

I have two sons. I can't imagine this. I can't

fathom this. Abraham reaches out his hand and took the

knife to slaughter his one and only son, the son

whom he loved. Which, once again I think this is

a fair maybe observation.

To cut back to Isaac, like I.

Don't know what's going through his mind right now. But

Abraham goes to slaughter his son and offer him as

a sacrifice and justice. He's about to do that, an

angel cries out to Abraham see this in verse eleven.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from

heaven and said Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, here I am. He said, do not

lay your hand on the boy or do.

Anything to him. For now I know that you fear God.

Seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son,

from me. God asked Abraham to offer his only son,

and Abraham did not hesitate. God tested what truly came

first in Abraham's life. Was it Abraham's very own beloved son,

or was it God? God has or had given this

gift and promised to Abraham, but Abraham was still willing.

To offer and surrender it back to the Lord.

Abraham showed that God was still first. Abraham righteously feared

and loved the giver more than the gift.

We see this in the next two verses.

Or Abraham believed that God would provide, and God actually did,

and that's what we see next. Abraham lifted up his

eyes verse thirteen and looked and behold behind him was

a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, and

Abraham went and took the ram and offered up or

offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that.

Place the Lord will provide, as it is said to

this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall

be provided.

Abraham makes a point of it.

He recognizes that God has provided in a miraculous way,

and so he names the place the Lord will provide.

What we see in this story is that Abraham.

Believed God would provide, and so he obeyed by not

withholding his son. Isaac was spared and God provided the

sacrifice to be offered instead of Isaac. Abraham believed God

and God provided the sacrifice for his child, and God

only provided the sacrifice, but he once again blesses Abraham

for his faith driven obedience.

We see this in verse fifteen.

And the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a

second time from heaven and said, by myself I have.

Sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done.

This, and if not withheld your son, your only son,

I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply

your offspring as the stars of heaven, and as the

sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall

possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring

shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because

you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned with his

young man, and they arose and went together to Beersheba.

And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

To Lord goes on to once again assure his promises

made to Abraham about his future offspring. But here God

tells Abraham that because of his obedience, that in his

offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

But what's interesting is this promise also gets made at

a later time also to Isaac. So it's not just

about Isaac, and it's not just about who's to come

after or Isaac's children, because the offspring that God was

referring to had over a thousand years left to pass

before he would ever show up. And though they had

yet to know how long it would actually take before

that promise would be fulfilled, I know that they still

believed God all the more because God had time and

time again already shown that he was good for his word.

And we actually know by looking back through history that

God did keep his word. God sent this offspring, born

of a virgin, God's only son whom he loved, who would,

just like Abraham's son, carry the wood on his back

up a hill for his own sacrificial death. But instead

of this one and only son being spared, he would

actually give his life as a sacrifice in the place

for all those who would believe in him. That though

every single one of us is born a sinner, every

single one of us is in rebellion to God.

Though we go day by day, hour by.

Hour, withholding our lives from God, living as if we

are God, as if we make the rules, as if

we know what's best, living like everything is about us,

that everything's all about us instead of it being all

about Him. That even we children of wrath, born and

dead in our sins, awaiting the judgment to come where

God will pour out his wrath on our sinful, wicked,

rebellious lives, that even we can become chill of Abraham,

that we can have our death sentence taken and instead

have a lamb provided that will take our place for

our sins and punishment. That is the lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world. That's Jesus Christ.

He's the offspring. And we can where we're told that

those who have faith like Abraham become children of Abraham.

We see this in Glatians three seventh through nine. Says

know then that it is those of faith who are

sons of Abraham in the scripture, for seeing that God

would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand

to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along

with Abraham, the man of faith, that by faith we

are saved from our sins.

Made right in the eyes of God. They are blessed

along Abraham.

By faith. Abraham passed this test. Abraham believed God would

provide and so obeyed by not withholding his son. And

if you want to know, actually the extent of that

he believed.

This is kind of cool, This is fun.

We might not even see this in there, but if

you've read Hebrews before, we looked at this last week,

because Hebrews has this really cool list in chapter eleven

about all these people who had really big faith and

lots of pretty cool stuff happened in their life. We

looked at it last week because Noah was one of

those people. But not too long after you get to

Abraham and he actually has a couple different things. And

regarding this encounter that we've read today, Hebrews actually has

something to say about this.

It's pretty interesting.

Hebrews eleven seventeen says by faith, Abraham, when he was tested,

offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises,

was in the act of offering up his only son,

of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring

be named. He considered that God was able even to

raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking.

He did receive him back. How cool is that Abraham

believed that even.

If Isaac did die, that God was just gonna raise

him back to life. Why Because God has always and

will always be good for his word. Because God is

always good for his promises, we should always trust him

and always trust him to provide, which leads me to

our main point for today. And if I could get

the man to come up, please and thank you. Our

main point is that faith that God will provide should

lead us to withhold nothing from him. Faith that God

will provide should lead us to withhold nothing from him.

Or here's kind of another way that we can think

about this. Whatever you're withholding from God is withholding you

from Him.

Meaning what.

If we put something else first, If we have something

else as the first priority in our life, if there's

something that comes before God, you've made that thing God,

You've made that thing an idol. You say you get

first place in my life. People turn all kinds of

good things into idols all the time. Good things aren't bad,

but we turn them into idols. We turn money, experiences, love, spouses,

your own life, in this case, your own children. We

take those things in our life that we love and

we make them what we love most. And this thing

ought not to be because when we do put them

in the place where only God should be, we make

them an idol. Whatever you're withholding from God is an idol.

Whatever you won't give to God is an idol. You'd

rather have it more than him. But as we see

in this story, God doesn't tell us we can't have

things that are worth loving, things that are great.

God is totally okay with us having those things.

But God tells us that if we make that thing

into an idol, he's going to tell us to sacrifice it.

If we turn that thing into something that we love

more than him, he is going to rightly tell us

to give that thing up, offer it up to him,

sacrifice it back to him. He's the one who gave

you the gift in the first place, and for our good,

the Lord he keeps an eye on us when we

start to love that thing a little too much, a

little bit more than we should. I think that the

Lord is completely right in telling us to offer it

back up to him, because it's going to show us.

It's going to reveal who and what truly has our hearts.

We can tell what we've made an idol by what

we're unwilling to give to God. But what we see

is that Abraham fears God most. He doesn't fear what

his family is going to say about how he spends

this time on a Sunday instead of with them. He

doesn't fear what others are going to think when he

changes his sinful habits to pursue holiness. He doesn't hesitate

to obey the Lord because he fears God most. God

is in his proper place in Abraham's life. So I

think it's really fair if we look at the story

and then ask ourselves, is God in the proper place

in your life? Do you know God? Do you believe God?

Do you trust God? Abraham knew God was good for

his word, and even though the ask or the circumstances

were hard to understand, he didn't let that get in

the way of believing and obeying the Lord. So what

are you withholding from God? What do you need to

surrender to Him? And no matter what it is a sin,

maybe that you're committing that you continue to commit. Maybe

it's your sinning because God has told you to do something.

God has told you to give something up that is

in and of itself a good thing, and you've just

been disobedia you won't do it. You love it more.

It has first priority no.

Matter what it is. We can run to him.

We don't have to run the other way him, even

if we've been doing this for a long time, or like,

he's going to be really mad because I've been saying

no for such a long time. But guess what, His

grace and his patience is so much greater, so much greater.

We know that the Lord has given us Jesus as

a sacrifice to save us from our sins. And because

of that, we don't have to stay in them. We've

been called out of them, We've been saved from them.

And I think even more when we look at the

story and we think how it reflects the Gospel a lot.

There's a lot there.

There's a lot of really really cool things there. When

we think about how God the Father.

Didn't withhold his one and only son, whom he loved,

from us.

When we truly think about how the Lord laid down

his life for us, that he withheld nothing from us,

that should free us up even more to withhold nothing

from him. He was willing to give us everything.

I believe that this is actually what we use this

verse a lot. It's a great verse in Romans twelve one.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as.

A living sacrifice, holy.

And acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. But

we do that in view of God's mercy. We look

at what He's done, and that's what the fuel is

to live our lives under him. We recognize that God

gave us, or God gave everything so that we can

have everything in him. Now I believe that we should

give everything so that God would be glorified in everything

in us. God makes it so clear if that if

we put him first, if we seek Him first, that

we can have full assurance that the rest of our

needs will be provided for.

We don't have to worry.

Now, that's not to say that we're always going to

know what God's plan is, because we don't.

Most of the time.

In our day to day and year by year, we

have no idea what God's plan for our life is.

It's actually kind of funny that if you think about it,

like people are like, what's your five year plan? Ask

yourself that five years ago, is that this is this

what you pictured?

Probably not.

There's probably a lot of things that have changed that

you had no control over it.

They just happened. You're like, I'm rolling with it. But

the question is, has this been a rough five years

for you or peaceful five years for you?

Have you been trusting that the Lord was going to

provide or even screaming at him, I thought you were

supposed to provide?

What is this? What is this? What is this? What

is happening.

We don't know, but we do know that God is

always faithful to provide when we believe. Sometimes, even in

spite of when we don't believe, God's just that good.

He's like, yeah, you aren't really trusting me right now,

but I'll still I'm still with you.

God is so good, He's so faithful even though we

are so faithless. We don't get to decide what God's

plan looks like, but we will trust God and his plan,

knowing that it's good that He works all things for

the good of those who love him, who are called

according to his purposes.

Because here's the deal.

Abraham was prepared to see Isaiah dead, but on the

flip side of that, he was also prepared to see

God do something awesome.

He didn't know what it was gonna be.

He's like, well, I guess if I'm gonna kill him,

I guess he's coming back to life. And that's not

It wasn't just because it was wishful thinking. It's because

he knows God was good for his word. He's like, well,

he said it was this, He said it was him,

So regardless of what happens to him, God's bigger.

God can do it. God will make a way.

If I'm one hundred years old and he tells me

I'm gonna have a kid, sure, okay, he tells me

that this same kid, I'm to.

Offer him and sacrifice him. And he's the one.

He hasn't had children yet, he's not even married yet,

but he's supposed to be the one. But Abraham believed

God's gonna figure it out. God is always good for

his word, and because of that, we can always have

faith that He will provide.

We don't know what that will look like, but we

can trust that He will provide.

Whether it be providing just for our daily needs, providing

a way out of temptation, or most importantly, providing the

only way of salvation from our sins. Our faith that

God will provide should lead us to withhold nothing from him.

So today I would implore you, implore myself to stop

wasting time.

There's literally no need. He's so good. Stop wasting time.

Waste no more time, and offer to the Lord whatever

he's calling you to surrender. Now. See, this is the

hard part. I could know what that is for me,

I have no idea what that is for you. But

you know he is faithful.

He is good for his word and his promises are

sure and lasting. We know that he will provide, and

you can surrender to him knowing that he will provide.

There are countless times in my life that I can

think of where the Lord has shown his faithfulness, and

I can imagine that there's times in your own life

that you can imagine that you know that He was

there for you, that he was walking with you, that

he was showing his way of provision in ways that

you're like, I don't know how we got here, but man.

It was you. It was only you, and it's only

ever been you.

But even with all the countless, faithless or faithful acts

of God.

We forget. We just forget.

We do not remember. We need to remember those times.

We need to make markers, notes, dates. I don't know

what you need to do, journal if you need to.

God did something awesome today, and keep a book of it,

name of Hill after it if you have to. That's

what they raham decided to do. That's what that one's

called the Lord will provide. We need those reminders in

our life, especially in the seasons where we're unsure, when

maybe we're getting those asks of us that were like,

this is too much, this is beyond me, this is

bigger than me. But what if we did have a book,

what if we did have notes or something that helped

us remind ourselves of God's past faithfulness, God's past provision.

How much could that maybe.

Just help us breathe and remind us to continue to persevere,

to continue to trust him, continue on the journey, to

just be obedient and believe him for his goodness and

who he is, those things that won't let us forget,

and how we should trust him and withhold nothing from

Him that He asks of us. So let us truly

trust that God will provide, and let that free us

to withhold nothing from Him any longer. Amen, All right,

would you guys stand to your feet,