Jehovah Jireh: The Lord Will Provide

This morning, we are going to be teaching on a deeper awareness of Jehovah Jireh.

The Lord is our provider.

So let's pray. Father, we come before you humbly today, Lord.

We give you praise and we give you honor. And I ask, Father,

that you minister to the people today, that they're not limited by my knowledge.

They're not limited by what I've studied, but they will hear from the Holy Spirit today.

And I ask that you touch each and every heart that is here today in the building

and those that are listening online, those that are listening to the replay.

I believe that there is the same anointing on that replay.

And Lord, I'm asking for an encounter with you today, that people will be changed

and they will have a deeper awareness of your character, of your nature,

of Jehovah Jireh, that you are the provider.

And we thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

So open your Bibles this morning to Genesis 22. Meet me in verse 13.

We're going to read 13 and 14.

And before we read this, I want you to realize that the Father's character is to provide for us.

Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides. That's his nature.

That's who he is. That's what he does. He is the provider.

And so here it says in Genesis chapter 22, verse 13,

Genesis 22:13

it says, Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a

ram caught in a thicket by its horns.

So Abraham went and took the ram, and he offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

And Abraham called the name of this

place the Lord will provide as it is

said to this day in the mount of the Lord it shall

be provided here in the King James

version it states that Abraham called the name

of the place Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide

this is the first time in the word where we

are introduced to a different aspect

a different nature character of God

the Father Jehovah Jireh he will provide now

if you read through chapter 22 what is

happening here is God has spoken to Abraham and he says I want you to take your

son your only son Isaac the the chosen son that I have told you many nations

would come from I want you to take the son Isaac.

And we're going to go up this mountain, and I want you to sacrifice him.

Now, this is a foreshadow of Jesus, God's only son, and what he did for you.

What I find interesting is Abraham, he didn't hesitate. He got up early that morning to take action.

And I'm sure in his own human nature, he felt a certain way.

I am really going to take my son. I mean, he did have Ishmael,

so I shouldn't say only son.

But his son up this mountain, I'm going to sacrifice him. But he got up early.

He packed everything, and they're traveling. And what I find very interesting

in chapter 22, verse 5, if you look at verse 5, Abraham is speaking faith.

He says, stay here with the donkey, Abraham told his servants.

The boy and I will travel a little farther.

We will worship there.

And then we will come back.

God spoke to Abraham and said, you are to sacrifice your son.

But Abraham, in faith, said, I don't know how, but today when I return,

my son's returning with me.

He had experience with the father.

He had experience that God would provide for him.

And so they go up this mountain, and, you know, a lot of people talk about the faith of Abraham.

And sometimes, you know, I don't want to dismiss the faith of Isaac.

So I think about it, and I was thinking about this yesterday. Josh and I are runners.

Josh is my husband. We're runners. And if we were getting ready to leave the

house and he said, hey, we're going to run down here to this bridge.

And when we get to this bridge, God told me that I'm to sacrifice you.

Well, I would have a problem with that.

First of all, there's no way that I would go on that run.

I'm not going to that bridge, and there's going to be a fight before you tie

me up and think you're going to sacrifice me.

But here we see that Abraham and Isaac are climbing the mountain,

and Isaac stops and looks around and says, I see the fire and I see the wood,

but where's the sacrifice?

And Abraham tells him, the Lord will provide.

The Lord will provide. The next thing that we see is that Isaac is bound and laying on an altar.

We don't hear an account of him fighting, resisting.

And for the longest time, I needed revelation on this.

And then the Holy Spirit told me just as Abraham had faith that today me and

this boy will come back down this mountain, Isaac had faith because he knew

the character of his dad, Abraham.

He knew Abraham was a faithful man who heard from God.

And he, I believe, had an encounter with God the Father because Abraham taught

his son, God's going to be here to provide for you. So Isaac trusted and believed.

So we know right at that moment, an angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham and

said, Don't put your hand on your son.

And he provided. He said that Abraham lifted up his eyes, and there in the thicket was a ram.

His provision was already on that mountain before they started climbing the mountain.

And that's when Abraham encountered the nature, the other aspect that the Lord will provide.

So let's go ahead and we're going to take a look at Psalms 121.

Actually, I may not have gave that to you, but thank you. It's up there.

Psalms 121 verses 1 and 2.

Psalms 121:1

It reminded me when we were reading through Genesis about lifting up your eyes.

It says, I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

There are so many times that we have to stop and remember that our help comes

from above. Our help comes from the Lord.

You know, there's times when you have a need, and in our human nature,

or at least in mine, I start looking at other things or other ways to meet that need.

Who can I talk to? A person, a relationship, different things in the world.

But all of those things fall short compared to the help that you can get from

the Lord. It says here, I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

So this day marked a day in history where Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide

became known to the people.

Became known in a greater sense to Abraham and to Isaac.

And that day both of them came down that mountain back to the servants.

And you know, I think that right then, it was just a foreshadow of what was to come.

That God was going to give his one and only son, Jesus.

And that Jesus was going to go through with the ultimate sacrifice.

And what is so interesting is after that day, Jesus rose from the dead.

And that tomb was open. And so the same way when Abraham's like,

I'm coming back, my son's coming back too.

God said the same thing on that Friday. God didn't stop and say,

well, they defeated my son. He said, my son's coming back.

And then after that, now when Jesus said, I'm not leaving you an orphan.

I'm going to put the Holy Spirit in you who's going to guide you and teach you

and teach you the facets of the Father.

Again, the Holy Spirit tells us even more today he's coming back.

Jesus is coming back. And so I find that very interesting to study that and

see the love of the Father teaching us that.

And as we go further throughout the Word of God, we continue to see Jehovah

Jireh show up through the Old Testament, through the New Testament.

And there are people who will not like this because they believe that you should

pray for your needs and your needs only and stop there.

But that is such human knowledge for us to say, I can put a limit on God and

to tell God what he can't do.

It's almost an insult to say, I can't pray for that want or that desire because God can't do it.

That is insulting to the father. That is insulting to Jehovah Jireh who said, I'm the provider.

All I can do is provide for you. And so we find in Philippians,

This is such a familiar verse, so don't be so familiar that you allow it to lose power.

Philippians 4.19, it says, And my God shall supply all your need according to

his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

So here, let's leave that up there so we can kind of just dissect it for a moment.

My God, Jehovah-Jireh shall supply all your need according to his riches.

It's not according to how much money we make on our job.

It's not according to the economy and who's in the offices.

It's according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. That shows me that we're

not to limit God. We have to stop limiting what God is already offering you.

We go further in Psalms 23, verse 1.

Psalms 23:1

This again is a familiar verse that don't let it lose its power.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

So you're going to tell me that I can't pray for my wants over and above my

needs when the Lord said he's my shepherd and that I should want nothing.

Then again, in Psalms 37, verse 4, it goes even further and says,

Psalms 37:4

Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desire.

The desires of your heart.

Here, when I am reading the Word of God, I take the Word of God as complete ultimate truth.

Man, women, they can lie.

So if they're telling me that's over and above your need, that's something you

just want or you're desiring, God's not going to do that for you, you can lie.

But God cannot lie. And the Word of God says if you will delight yourself in

the Lord, he will give you your heart's desire.

Now, you have to realize that it tells you to do something.

You can't just make something up and live however you want to live.

You have to delight yourself in the Lord.

You have to have a relationship with him.

People that have a relationship, an intimate relationship with me,

I will probably be more likely to do something for them versus someone that I don't even know.

Now, yes, we're supposed to help others, but you understand the example that I'm trying to give.

Just like last week, On Father's Day, when a pastor gave that example of Zavin,

Zavin's his son. He loves us.

But that's his son. So even though he loves you, if you decide to do something

to his son, he's going to protect his son. And it's the same thing.

We are God's children when we have a personal relationship with him and we are delighting him.

It goes further in the New Testament. Even Jesus has told us in Matthew chapter 6, 31 through 33.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

It says, therefore, do not worry.

I want to pause there a moment, because I think we all just need to take a deep

breath and say, therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat?

What shall we drink? What shall we wear?

How will we pay the bill? How are we going to get the kids closed for school?

How are we going to do this? How are we going to do that?

It says, for after all these things, the Gentiles seek.

Now pay attention to that word, seek. For after all these things, the Gentiles seek.

For your heavenly Father knows what you need, that you need all these things.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Here Jesus is giving us a command, do not worry.

I need you to trust that I am the provider.

I am Jehovah Jireh. I will provide. It is in my nature. That is what I do.

And it goes on to say that the Gentiles, or in this sense you could say the unbelievers, seek.

And you think about those that are just in the world and their minds are not

renewed to the Word of God.

They're seeking a lot of things.

Just always toiling and hustling and trying to get, get, get and seek.

They're seeking these things.

The things are not necessarily good or bad.

But it's where is your heart and what's your intent of seeking?

You may need those things. And so you think, you know what?

I do need my bills paid. I do need this for this situation.

So why wouldn't I seek that? But the heart nature is you need to seek the provider.

Seek Jehovah Jireh. When you seek the provider versus the provision.

That's when miracles and breakthroughs take place.

We are not like the world. We don't seek the provision.

We seek the provider. And he can provide whatever you need, want,

and desire. So you may be needing finances.

You may be needing healing in your body.

You may be needing security and comfort and peace.

He provides all of that. He has no limit to what he can provide for you.

So Jehovah Jireh, the name is not just a title. It's a testimony of what God can do for you.

It declares that God sees, knows, and supplies all your wants,

needs, and desires at exactly the right time.

And that is what is so important about seeking the voice of the Lord.

That you are in the right place at the right time with the right people doing the right things.

And the youth that are in here, you may hear that a lot here.

You may hear it in youth group a lot.

You may get tired of hearing your parents or your guardians say that,

but it's so important because I know people that the trajectory of their life

completely changed because they were with the wrong people.

Doing the wrong things at the wrong time. And it changed their complete life.

And so here you have to be in that position of hearing from Jehovah Jireh.

Listen to his directions of what he's telling you to do in your situation.

And faith is not proven in comfort. It's proven in obedience.

We've talked about that a lot in the last few months about being willing and obedient.

But, you know, we weren't called to an easy life. I wish we were called to an

easy life. I wish that we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and everything

becomes easy. But that's not the case.

We demonstrate our faith through obedience. is.

So when God is calling you to do something or you're seeking the Lord and you're

saying, Lord, I have this need, you have to follow his voice and you have to

be very cautious to follow his voice and not the voice of this world.

That's why the word says in Romans to renew your mind.

Renew your mind so that you don't conform to this world.

And so it's very interesting because I

feel like people will tell you what they

can't do they will tell you what they can't believe

when you're telling them what the Lord told you

to do so the Lord may tell you that you need to take a new job but those that

are around you are like ump you better not quit this job you better not leave

this job you know the benefits are this the retirement you can't afford to to

take that job how do they know what you can afford.

But they're going to tell you that. You're going to have family.

You better not make that decision.

I'm going to tell you what. This is going to happen. And they're going to tell

you the whole story of this made-up life.

And they're going to tell you what they can't believe. God spoke to you, not them.

And I find that a lot of times what God tells you to do, it's almost like it's

not going to make sense to the world.

Because it's making faith. He's seeing if you're obedient to step out in faith.

And in the Word of God, it says to be still and know that I'm God.

And I think that that verse is very, I almost want to say commercialized.

I feel like, you know, be still and know that I'm God. But have we ever really

just stopped and realized what that verse is telling us to do?

In the midst of everything going on around you, in the midst of all the voices

that are telling you what to do, God the Father, Jehovah Jireh, says, Be still.

And in that stillness, He's telling you, I will provide for you.

In that stillness, He will tell you the next step to take.

In that stillness,

Your mind is renewed to the awareness that he's God and you're not.

And it's right here when Jesus is talking in Matthew 6 and it says, Do not worry.

He knew our human nature is going to be bent to worry,

but he's telling us do not worry because if you can be still enough in the presence

of the Father and be still enough in the presence of Jehovah Jireh,

you will sense him saying,

I am here to provide all of your needs. Just seek my presence.

And in that stillness, that is when we can step away and say, I don't have to worry.

I don't have to worry about that deadline.

I don't know about you, but sometimes deadlines can try to overwhelm me.

I think, I'm running out of time. I'm running out of time.

God can provide extra time. He can give you supernatural grace to get things

done faster than anybody else can get things done. He can rearrange things.

He has stopped time before.

I mean, you talk about things like this and people say, well,

you're radical. Well, I have lived radical for the world in the past,

and I've lived radical for God, and I promise you it's better to be radical for God.

And so here Jehovah Jireh is saying, I will provide. I will provide not only

your needs, but I will provide your wants, and I will provide the desires that you have today.

An example of some of the things that I've encountered in my life and that God has showed up.

And I wanted to share this this morning because, like Pastor said in the offering

message, testimonies are so powerful.

I encourage you to go back. I want you to just sit and be quiet before the Lord

and go back and think about all the times that God has showed up in your life.

All the times that he has provided for you and he has saved you and protected you.

Think about those. It's like a memorial and it just energizes your faith.

And so when I, this was years ago and I felt like the Lord was calling me to go back to school.

And it was graduate school and so

I stepped out in faith and I applied for

a program that I wanted to go to to complete my

master's degree at the time living in North

Carolina there was not an accredited bridge program so I was already working

as an occupational therapist but I wanted to go further and have my master's

but there was a bridge program so I wasn't entry level but the only bridge program

was in Tennessee at Belmont University and it was going to be out-of-state tuition,

It was a private university, but that was the only option during that time.

And so I had prayed about it and, you know, getting wise counsel,

and I felt this is what I'm supposed to do.

But can I tell you that the majority of the people around me were telling me

every reason why I shouldn't do it.

You're 27 28 at the time you

have a two-year-old you have to travel every

other weekend to nashville you got to have

money for the hotels you got to do this i mean they knew

more about my life than i knew and it's

very defeating so be careful again who

are you listening to you know

when eve was in the garden that serpent came and

he said did God really say this did

God really tell you to open that business

did God really tell you to do

this and so I had to make a choice I had to choose am I going to listen to all

of this logic and what people are saying or am I going to step out in faith

and thank God I stepped out in faith it wasn't easy it was hard to travel every

other weekend with a two-year-old,

but we did it.

And we trusted God, and every time he provided for us.

When we didn't know, my goodness, how are we going to pay for this hotel stay,

and how are we going to get these books, he always provided.

He's never late. And I will say, we never stop tithing.

You will always hear me say that up here, because tithing is such a spiritual principle.

We tithed. We've never stopped tithing, and God always provided.

There was another situation where the Lord stepped in.

It was a few years ago we decided to sell our home that we had lived in for

15 years. It was our starter home.

And it was right during the whole COVID time. It's funny, I think history,

you know, now there's this COVID time.

And it was during COVID. And it was around probably 2021 that I started praying

to the Lord because where we lived, when we bought the home,

it was this small starter home, cute little cul-de-sac.

And I've shared some stories with Pastor I won't share up here right now.

But it turned into a not so good cul-de-sac.

And there's some words I won't share up here.

And it got to where I couldn't go out on my front porch to just sit and just sit.

If I wanted to just sit on my front porch, I couldn't sit without hearing very

colorful language, gunshots.

Like, it was rough. And so...

Um, there were some other situations where the law enforcement had to be involved

and it was, it was a rough time. And so I went before the Lord and I said,

God, your word says that I can lie down in peace and not be afraid.

Well, that I shouldn't be hearing gunshots in my neighborhood when I'm trying

to lay down and sleep and I shouldn't have random people at my kids' windows.

So we, we had to get out of there. And I said, and Lord, I need to be able to

serve you, and I'm sanctified, and something's about to happen to me,

and I need to get out of here.

So you've redeemed me from that nature. So we were praying, and the Lord said, okay, now's the time.

You're going to sell your house. Well, if you remember during that time,

it was a seller's market, but to buy a house, the prices were insane.

And so I said, well, if we're going to sell this house we need to

sell it now and again everybody wanted

to tell me you may sell this house

but you're going to be homeless you can't

afford any of the houses on the market and

again I'm like have you how do you know

have you been talking to the bank like how

do you know this and you guys no you

have them in your life too um and so I

thought oh my gosh well how are we going to be homeless where

are we going to live and I thought no Jehovah Jireh

he showed up time and time again in my life and he is faithful and he does not

change and he said that he would provide for me and so we prayed about it and

we decided to set that put the house on the um the market and again it was a seller's market.

And so we put the house on the market that day. It did sell in one day.

So praise God, but we need to be able to live somewhere. And we weren't living with family.

So we were praying and I said, God, I can't, I got small kids.

I can't be homeless. What are we going to do? And so we were looking at houses at the time.

And so there was this one home that was going to go on the market the next day

and so our realtor set it up to where we would be the first ones to view it and when.

When the Lord says that he'll lead you by the Holy Spirit, and Pastor Devon

has talked a lot about that green light in your spirit when you know that the Lord is leading you.

We had looked at a lot of houses, and we liked them.

I could vision myself there, but the moment we stepped on this property, I knew.

It wasn't that I could see us maybe being there. I knew that the Lord was saying, this is your home.

But again there were multiple people

viewing the home multiple offers and so

we believed and again we're tithers we sow to seed just like pastor was talking

about the exodus project i believe you will never make me doubt that i believe

that there's a spiritual principle in giving and so i took that seed josh and

i took that seed that day because we viewed it earlier in the day we took that seed.

We said, we are sowing this seed and we are believing that we are going to occupy this land.

I'm believing that God is going to open doors for us and we're going to be able to step into this.

And so that night we went to bed and this is a testimony for you guys,

for you to hold on to and encourage your faith.

That night when we went to bed that night, I

usually have my phone turned off but the realtor called

at probably 11 30 that night and she

said are you awake I am awake now um and I was like yeah I'm awake and she was

like well is there any way that you could stay awake a little bit longer the

buyers or the sellers have a situation where they really need to move fast and

so they've got multiple offers and they're going to um they're going to make their decision tonight.

And so I said, sure, I can stay up. And so you better believe I was sitting

on that floor in the bathroom just praying in tongues and trusting God and praising him.

And around that midnight hour, and it was literally the midnight hour,

she called back at midnight and she said, I want you to know if you can wake

Josh up and sign the papers, they took your offer.

So I went in there and I said, Josh, get up, get up, wake up.

I didn't wake him up because I was just like, I don't know what's going on.

But I woke him up then. I was like, wake up. We've got to sign these papers.

And we were able to move. And every single time that God has told me in my life

to do something, there are naysayers that are telling me what they can't do.

It's what they can't believe. And you heard me say that correctly.

The naysayers will tell you what they can't do, what they can't believe.

Do not limit God. And so this morning, whatever you're believing God for,

I believe that, you know, there's things that you need.

There's things that you need. The Bible doesn't fault us for needing things.

They know, the Lord knows we need things. It says that if you will seek first

the kingdom, all of these things will be added unto you.

So I know that there's people listening online and here today that you have

needs, you have wants, and you have desires.

And it is not shameful or unbiblical to believe God for the best in your life.

Where you're at today, you will be better off tomorrow, next week,

the next month, if you will continue to seek the kingdom of God.

You may go through some hard times, but you won't stay in those hard times.

And when you're in that hard time, Jehovah Jireh is there with you.

Someone asked me last week, and Josh and I this month, full disclosure,

we have been through some hard things this month.

There's been a lot of different things happening in our life.

And I had an unbeliever ask

me a very serious question and it didn't make me mad it didn't make me think

you shouldn't ask me that they they were very honest and blunt and they said

how can you keep believing that God is faithful and good when these things are happening to you.

Fair question. And I said, well, do bad things happen to you?

Are you going through things too? And they were like, well, yeah.

And I said, well, the difference is I have somebody that goes through it with me.

And I have somebody that's going to get me through it. And he's going to hold

me and comfort me and heal my brokenhearted.

And he's going to provide for me. I don't have to be alone.

He said that he's never going to leave you.

And you know it says that you may walk through the

valley of the shadow of death you may walk through

some things but who is with you who is

walking with you who is helping you who are

you crying out to so yes I

do continue to believe that my God is

faithful and my God is good even when

we're walking through things that aren't good and that

is a lifestyle that is how you know that

somebody's walking by faith and not by sight because

when the bad times come we can surrender we can give in if we want to but walking

by faith says this doesn't feel good right now but my god's with me and he's

for me and i continue to believe that he's going to turn this situation around.