The Lord Will Provide

Oh, crossing family, it is so good to be with you this

weekend. I want to welcome those of you

joining at our campuses, those of you watching online and

inside. Quick reminder, next weekend,

many of our locations are going to be having additional weekend

services, which means that it might affect your normal service

times. So make sure you find out when

those are. And as we always do, make sure

you're bringing somebody, you're parking far away, and if

possible, try to avoid the services that are going to be

packed at your location. For more insight into that, our

campus pastors will be able to inform you where they think the

the biggest group of people is going to be.

And if there's any way for you to continue to be evangelistic

to your friends and invite them and make usage of our other

services, we would greatly appreciate it.

Between all of our campuses, we're going to have 44 physical

services with six additional services online for a total of

50 weekend experience, which is crazy.

It's going to be a long 1 and I'm praying that this will be

the largest opportunity in the history of our church for people

to hear the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ.

I specifically if you want to join me, I've been praying that

over 16,000 people in our region will join us next weekend.

And so if you want to add that to your prayer list, I would

love it. Well, if you have, you have made

it officially to the not so official last weekend of the

sermon series. Next week, kind of for those who

will be joining our church for the first time or the first time

in a long time for our Easter services, it'll feel like an

elevated Easter weekend. I'm incredibly excited about the

sermon that I get to share with each and every single one of you

and what it'll mean for them. But this is kind of like some

inside information for you, which is why I'm so glad you're

here. For the last couple of years,

last three, I've been attacking Easter from the edges.

I did one on Zacchaeus which is an Easter E message.

We did the Power of the story Easter E message.

Then we did a real weird one if you remember the chasing shades

one where everything was yellow and I couldn't see for a week.

This year I am doing a full on up the middle Easter message

that will be a perfect message for everybody to hear no matter

where they are on their spiritual journey.

And for those of you who have gone through this sermon series

with us on Easter, it will feel like a culmination of absolutely

everything we've learned through this series.

And so I'm incredibly excited to preach it.

I wrote it a couple weeks back, and I've just got to preach all

these other sermons to get to the next one that I'm fired up

about. But today's message, today's

message dovetails very closely with where we left off from last

week's message. So if you missed last week's

message, I try to remind you guys this as often as I can.

There's all kinds of places that our team puts the sermon when

we, you know, after the weekend. And so if you miss and you

didn't catch it or you weren't watching online, you can go to

wherever those, you know, you can go to.

Yeah, whatever those are places are, you can go there and it'll,

you know, go to either of those three.

OK, let's stay off of Facebook, you crazy people.

All right, now, quick recap. God has made a promise multiple

times to Abraham and Sarah, this couple, that they would be the

father and mother of a nation, that their offspring would be as

numerous as the sands on the earth and the stars in the sky.

And there's only two problems. The 1st is that Sarah is barren.

She has had no children. And the second problem is that

they are old. How old?

Well, Abraham is 100, Sarah is 90.

Not a lot of pregnant people in that demographic.

And what I want to do today, before we jump any further into

the message, is I actually want to do something kind of special.

We want to find and honor a very incredible man and woman at our

church this weekend. So here's one way you do.

Stop listening to me for just a little bit.

Pull out your phone. Can't believe I'm saying this.

I want you to open up your crossing app.

And the very first message that you should find is for you to

tell us your birthday. I want you to go ahead, open it

up. This is for everybody.

Enter your birthday because there's a church.

We want to celebrate you every time it's your birthday, whether

you're young or not young. But more importantly, let me

tell you what my target on the wall is.

We want to find the oldest male and the oldest female in

attendance at the crossing this weekend.

Just like Abraham and Sarah made huge sacrifices for the

generations that would come after them, your commitment to

being a part of our church is probably the most beautiful

expression of one of our core values.

One of our core values as a church is downward.

For those of you who don't know what that is, is we will gladly

give up the things we love for a generation we love even more.

And by being a part of this church, you are modeling this

core value for the rest of us. And so we want to celebrate the

oldest male in attendance and the oldest female in attendance.

And here's our gift to you. You will get to walk right past

the line at your location to the very front.

And you will get a free drink from the coffee every week for

the rest of 2026 at our church. But you got to go through the

channels, all right? And then what our staff would

like to do at whatever location wins, they would like to make a

social media post with you and celebrate you because you mean

so much to the future of this church.

And so we want to honor you. So everybody young and old,

enter your birthday. And then if you need to help

those around you who might be less tech savvy, because I don't

want some 42 year old person to be the one who wins.

OK, so I'm trying to say, OK. And if you if you, if you're a

person who you haven't figured it out and it's a bit of a hill,

but you're going, I'm pretty sure I could be the winner.

Make sure you swing by our next step booth and they will help

you out if if you're having some tech problems.

All right, now back to Abraham and Sarah.

He's 100, she's 90. And from their perspective, God

was taking way too much time between when He made the promise

and when He kept the promise, from when He said the promise

and when He made good on the promise.

And so last week we learned that they took matters into their own

hands and in doing so made a mess of it.

However, eventually their long-awaited dreams came true

and Sarah gave birth to a son and she gave him the name Isaac.

For just a second. Feel the weight of this.

Decades of hoping, decades of waiting, decades of prayers,

decades of pain. Nobody has ever waited longer

for a child than Sarah waited for Isaac.

And in a moment it is all laid to rest as they hold the

fulfillment of that promise in their arms, their long-awaited

son. That's where we pick up in the

story Genesis 22 verse one. Sometime later, God tested

Abraham. He said to him, Abraham, here I

am, Abraham replied, Now this is messy because you just read that

and you went, hold on a second. God tests us.

Yeah, he does. Now, I don't want you to confuse

tempting and testing. Tempting occurs when Satan or

our flesh prompt us to sin. Testing occurs when God prompts

us to trust. Let me drill down on this for a

little bit. Scripture actually speaks to

this. If you were to go to the book of

James, later when you get home, there's James chapter 1 verses 2

James 1:2

and four, and James chapter 1, verses 13 and 15, and they

James 1:13

actually push this out. Let's look at it together.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever

you face trials of many kinds because you know that the

testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and

complete, not lacking anything. That is what testing does.

This is what tempting does. When tempted.

No one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be

tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

But each person that's you and me is tempted.

How when they are dragged away by their own evil desires and

enticed, then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin,

and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death.

Testing leads to growth. Temptation leads to death.

Testing is from God, temptation is from Satan and from our

flesh. So what is this test for

Abraham? What do you think it's going to

be? Let me help prepare you.

I want you for just a second to think what is the thing that you

love the most, desire the most, cherish the most?

The thing the person that matters to you the most in the

whole world. This is not a time for you to

fake it and come up with some weak, silly Sunday school

answer. Be honest with yourself.

What is this thing? Because if you are honest about

what this thing is, this sermon will be an incredible blessing.

If you're not honest about what this thing is in your life, you

might miss the power of the moment we're on right now.

Maybe it's your marriage, or maybe it was your marriage and

you're like, Nope, not anymore. It's my kids.

Maybe it's your success. Maybe it's your reputation.

What's your thing? What do you think Abraham and

Sarah would have said if they were asked this question?

I think you know the answer. They would have said Isaac.

And in some ways that's not a bad answer, but it's the wrong

1. You see, for many of us, the

thing that you said is probably a good thing.

The thing that you thought of is probably a good thing.

Your marriage should matter. Your kids should matter.

Your reputation should matter. But if the thing you have is not

in the right place or in the right order, the good thing can

become a bad thing. So God tests Abraham Genesis

Genesis 22:2

chapter 22 verse 2. Then God said take your son,

your only son whom you love. These words are highlighted

differently than all the rest. All impact that in a little bit

whom you love. Isaac, go to the region of

Moriah, sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain.

I will show you. I want you to hold on to those

words because it'll all make sense later on in the message.

They're Easter eggs. Well, yeah, they're Easter eggs

both figuratively and literally. Just hold on to those words.

Now, that being said, some of your going, Clayton, that verse

is a lot to take in. Yeah.

Did did God just tell Abraham to go and sacrifice his son?

Yeah. Did God just tell Abraham to

kill his son? Yeah.

And no. You got to wait till the end of

the sermon. It'll make more sense.

Here's what I mean. Yes.

And the fact that God is checking to see where God stands

in Abraham's life. Am I the thing that you hold on

to the most? Am I the most important thing,

or is it the thing that I've given you?

This is a test. And at the same time, as you'll

see by the end of the story, God was not asking him to kill his

son because as you'll see, God never had any intention of

Abraham to do this, as you'll see when the story unfolds.

In fact, you'll learn something about Abraham in this story that

will hopefully forever shape you and mold you as you grow in your

relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the test.

Do you love me more than your son?

God is asking Abraham the question, Am I first?

It's one thing to say that God's first in your life.

It's an altogether different thing to live like He is first

in your life. God has repeatedly commanded and

called His people to keep Him in the first place in their lives.

And as we said earlier, good things placed in the wrong spot

can become bad things or bad places for them to be.

Is God #1 in your life? Was He the answer to your

question that I asked at the beginning?

Is he number one in your life when it comes to your

priorities? Does he come first in your work

life, your home life, your parenting, your finances?

And if God is not first, the Bible says that we are

committing idolatry. That means that we are

worshipping something or someone other than God.

And when you're not worshipping God, bad things happen.

And so Abraham has just heard a hard thing from God.

And how does he respond? The very next verse, Genesis 22,

Genesis 22:3

verse 3, Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his

donkey. He took with him two of his

servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for

the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him

about. This is the very next verse.

Can I be honest with you? If we weren't reading about

Abraham and we were worried about Clayton, there'd be a lot

of verses between when God said for me to do something and me

getting around to doing it. Chapters books like who, how,

when is he ever going to do the thing that God asked him to do?

But look at all the activity in Abraham's life.

The very next verse, he got up early the next day, loaded the

donkey, cut the wood, took the servants and set out for the

place that God directed. One of the ways that you can

measure your spiritual maturity is how long does it take you

from God saying it to you doing it?

Because what that is an indicator of is your faith.

You see, the currency of the Kingdom of God is faith, and

faith is what happens when what you believe in your mind makes

it into your heart and manifests in your feet.

And a lot of Christians, quotation marks never get around

to their feet. And a faith that does not move

you does not save you. That's why when we do our

Discovery Bible studies as a church, we end with something to

do. Jesus is the one who says that

we are to not simply be hearers of the Word.

Hearers of the word is good, but we are to be doers of the Word.

What kind of comfort is it to your wife for you to go?

You know, listen, adultery is bad.

It is not ideal. I'm going to keep doing it.

Well, baby, that's does. I don't think you know what it's

not a good thing means. What good is it to your boss for

you to look at him and go? Listen, I need you to be honest.

I need you to know that me stealing is bad.

I also need you to know I'm going to keep doing it.

You'd go, that's a problem. That's a real problem.

And Jesus looks at us and goes, Hey, you, you want to understand

what faith is. Faith is not just saying that

you trust Jesus. Faith is actually trusting

Jesus. Faith is not finished until it

it's made its way to your feet, until you start doing the things

of God. And can we pause for just a

moment? There are some of you who have

been allowing too many verses about your life to be written

between when God said it and you started doing it.

There's some of you who know that for a while now God has

been calling you to make a decision for him, but you

haven't made it. My hope is that today you will

make the move that is long overdue.

Let's keep reading verses 4 through 5.

On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the

distance. He said to his servants, Stay

here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.

We will worship and we will come back to you.

Right here we get a little bit of an insight, a snapshot into

the faith of Abraham. He believes something about God.

We are going to worship. I am going to be obedient to the

thing that God has called me to do, and we will come back to

you. For those of you who are nerds,

this is the first time worship actually shows up in all of

Scripture. A man going up a mountain to

sacrifice his son to be obedient to God.

And Abraham as he is going up this mountain says we will

worship and we will come back. And you and I know, but you're

going to do the sacrifice thing. Hold that for just a moment in

your spirit while we keep reading verses 6 through 8.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and he placed it

on his son Isaac and Abraham himself carried the fire and the

knife. As the two of them went on

together, Isaac spoke up, said to his father Abraham.

Father yes, son, Abraham replied.

The fire and the wood are here, Isaac said.

But where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

Abraham answered. God himself will provide, Turn

to your neighbors, say provide the lamb for the burnt offering.

My son and the two of them went on together.

Isaac is no small boy. He is probably between the age

of 15 and 25. His father is between 115 and

125. And Isaac isn't doing algebra,

but he can do math. He's going up the mountain.

He's like the woods on my back. You have the fire, you have the

knife. But we are missing an important

part. We are missing a sacrifice, and

some of you who are Bible nerds and I, you're going to love this

sermon. If you're a Bible nerd, you're

already ahead of me. The sacrifice is the one

carrying the wood up the hill. Genesis 22, verse 9.

Genesis 22:9

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham

built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.

He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the

wood. Pay close attention here.

Isaac is strong enough to carry the wood.

His father is not strong enough to overpower him.

So Isaac allows himself to be tied so he will not resist his

father's will. He is trusting his father in the

highest way possible. Verse 10 through 12 Then Abraham

reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the Angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven.

Abraham, Abraham, here I am, Abraham replied.

Do not lay a hand on the boy, the Angel said.

Do not do anything to him now. I know that you fear God because

you have not withheld your son from or withheld from me, your

son, your only son. Remember when I said that God

had no plans for Isaac to die? He was testing Abraham to see if

Abraham had faith and Abraham passed the test.

Abraham was willing to let go of everything so he could

completely take hold of God. And you might be asking how did

Abraham do this? I'll tell you because Abraham

had faith. If you go all the way to the New

Testament, to the book of Hebrews, it gives us insight

into Abraham's faith. Hebrews Chapter 11, verses 17

Hebrews 11:17–19

through 19. By faith, Abraham, when God

tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one

and only son, even though God had said to him, It is through

Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.

And so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from

death. Abraham reasoned in his mind,

and it made its way to his feet. Abraham was willing to sacrifice

his son. You ready for this?

Because he believed that God could raise him back.

Why did Abraham believe that God could raise him back?

Because he had seen a barren womb that was dead come alive

again with his son. Why was he able to do this?

Hear me? Because faith is a muscle.

The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.

And what you will notice is that if you can trust God anywhere,

you can trust him everywhere. That's what happens with

Abraham. He realized that God could do on

a mighty amazing work in a dead, barren womb, and then it would

become alive again with a child. So he reasoned that even if he

were to sacrifice his son to that same God, that that same

God could bring his dead son back to life.

And some of you, that's where you're at today.

You need to connect some dots. You've seen God move in a way,

maybe it was in your life or the life of of a friend or somebody

close to you and you've seen God move there.

And what you need to realize, if you can trust God in that

situation, you can trust him in every situation.

Now this is where the story gets really, really good.

Verses 13 through 14 when Abraham looked up there in a

thicket, he saw a ram caught by its horns.

He went over, took the ram, and sacrificed it as a burnt

offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place.

The Lord will provide and to this day it is said on the

mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

The mountain is Mount Moriah and there on Mount Moriah the Lord

will be will provide. And here we get another name, a

title for God, Jehovah Jireh. What it means is not just that

the Lord will provide, it carries with this, this idea

that God will see to it, turn to your neighbor and say God will

see to it. After church on the weekends, I

asked Jennifer, what are we going to have for our meal?

She's like, I'm on it. That means she's seeing to it.

And that means that I'm probably driving through somewhere.

That's what that actually means. That's I'm going, yeah.

Anyhow, I just want you to see the beauty of your God.

While Abraham was walking up one side of the mountain, God was

walking a ram up the other side. While Isaac was being bound, a

ram was being caught in the thicket.

The Lord, the Lord saw to it that there was a sacrifice.

And today you might be struggling to trust God, and I

just need you to hear me say this.

God will see to it that you have the necessary strength to

survive the struggle. Today you might be wondering, is

there enough grace to wash away your sins?

Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide.

He will see to it. You might be wondering if there

is enough forgiveness for your past.

Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, will see to it that everything that

you need for your sins to be forgiven will be there for you.

And how do I know this? How do I know this to be true?

OK, got to zoom in or you'll miss this.

If you go to Second Chronicles chapter 3.

2 Chronicles 3 · chapter mention

Do you remember all those words that I said are highlighted

differently through this entire story?

Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.

And where did he choose to build it?

On Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father

David. And it was on those very

foundation stones in Jerusalem that Jesus walked into that

temple, the temple where the sacrifices were made for the

sins of the people. It was there that the one and

only Son took the wood of the cross on his back, and the

sacrifice carried the wood. And on that day there was no ram

in the thicket, and there was no Angel that stopped the pain of

death, and he died, and he was the sacrifice that our sins

deserved. And on that mountain it is said

of the Lord Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.

And what did he provide? All the grace and mercy that you

and I could ever want. And that is why this series is

called the same name, because it is the same God with the same

power, offering the same promise.

If you will receive it, and I hope you will, we're moving to a

time of decision. To those of you here today or

watching online that don't know Jesus, I need you to hear me say

this. God has provided a way for you

today. He has seen to it the doors are

open, the difference makers are in place, the water is warm, the

towels are folded, the clothes you need to change into are

labeled according to size, and the invitation is being made.

He has seen to it that there is no barrier, there is no excuse

for you to get right with him today and God is ready to

provide you with the forgiveness of your sins, the power of his

Holy Spirit, new life in him if you will receive it.

One of my all time favorite verses.

I have to be careful how often I use it because I mean, if I was

going to get a chest tap, this is it.

It would be it would be it would be hard to read because of how

God formed me, but it would be there if and if you and if

you're relatively new here you you, this is for you.

Romans 5/8. It is a Mount Rushmore verse.

This is what it says. But God demonstrates his own

love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. To put that in this story, while

your sin was walking up the mountain, so was his love.

That's how good he is. And listen, my wife loves me, my

kid loves. My kids love me, my friends love

me. Most of you love me.

But I have never experienced love like that.

Most of you love me because because I'm kind of nice,

because I'm kind of funny, because the sermon was kind of

good. It wasn't too long.

There's an awful lot of because's.

He is the only one who knows me at my worst and chose to be at

his best on my behalf. While my sin was walking up the

mountain, Jehovah Jireh was carrying the cross.

When I was at my worst, he was at my best.

And it is bananas to me that people could hear that week

after week at this church and walk out rejecting it.

But I will die proclaiming it. And if you get tired of hearing

it, you are getting tired of the gospel, because that should

shape everything about you. And so if you are here today and

you have never said yes to Jesus, don't wait till next

week. Today's a good day to get saved.

To the rest of you in here who have yet or who already have an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus, let me just put

three things in front of you for you to consider.

Is there a good thing in your life that's in a bad place?

Jehovah Gyra will provide you with the strength to reorder

your life. If there's a good thing in the

wrong place that needs to be moved so that God can be where

he was supposed to be, where he used to be in your life.

Today's a good day and the Lord will see to it.

He will answer that prayer. Maybe today you're a person who

there are too many verses being written between when God says it

and you get around to doing it. In fact, every single week at

this time, in every single service, you feel the exact same

tug to do the exact same thing. And you wonder why God doesn't

say anything different, why you keep feeling the same prompting,

why you keep having the same burden.

I'll tell you because God is not a woman who doesn't know what

she wants for dinner. God is very clear about what He

wants in your life, and so He is not going to change His mind.

He's not going to adjust what He has proclaimed over you.

And so He has said it and He will keep saying it and He will

keep revealing it and He will keep prompting it because He

knows it is for your good. How many verses, how many

chapters between when He says it and you get around to doing it?

And what I want to tell you is you might be scared about doing

that thing, but the Lord Jehovah Jireh will provide you with

everything you need to accomplish the thing He has

called you to accomplish. Would you stand with me?

Heavenly Father, You are abundantly good, and our hearts

cannot fully contain. How wonderful you have been on

our behalf. And so, Heavenly Father, would

you use this moment to strengthen us, to shape us, to

change us. In your name, I pray.

Amen.