Introduction:
Faith is: Believing the Word of God, no matter how I feel, because God promises a good result.
3 Reasons Faith is Difficult. (Genesis 22:1-28)- Faith doesn't make (human) Sense. (Gen 22:1-2)
- Faith means Doing hard things. (Gen 22:3-8)
- Faith requires Total commitment. (Gen 22:9-12)
Faith is always Rewarded.
Hebrews 11:17-19 - By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who hadrecieved the promise 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 from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did recieve him back.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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00:24-00:32
We're starting a series today called "Bible Basics." And this is a series to help you understand the Bible as a whole.
00:33-00:35
We want you to become a better Bible student, okay?
00:35-00:41
If you want to know God, if you want to know God in a deeper way, then you have to know God's Word.
00:42-00:53
And last year we did a series called "Bible 101." And in the "Bible 101" series, we went through the Bible and we took events, major events in the Bible.
00:53-00:55
But this series is going to be different.
00:56-00:57
It's going to be 10 weeks.
00:58-01:07
And also sweeping through the Bible, but instead of looking event by event, we're going to be examining 10 people from the Bible that you need to know.
01:08-01:11
Now how hard do you think it was to narrow that list down to 10?
01:11-01:15
It was hard. Okay? But we're just going to stick with 10.
01:16-01:25
These ten people were selected because of the ten key lessons that you and I need to learn from these people.
01:25-01:30
And first up, we're going to be starting in Genesis with Abraham.
01:31-01:35
He comes on the scene in Genesis 11. This is after creation.
01:35-01:38
This is after sin enters into the world.
01:38-01:44
And sin is so bad that God decides to wipe out the world with a flood and start over with one family.
01:45-01:47
This is after the Tower of Babel incident.
01:47-02:01
We talked about that in Bible 101, where God said, "Spread out, fill the earth." And the people said, "No, we think we're just going to stay here and all cluster together." And God says, "No, I don't think you are." And He confused their language and they spread out.
02:01-02:04
That's why we have so many languages in our world today.
02:04-02:15
But you get to Genesis 11 and Genesis 12, you see that God chooses a man named Abraham, And he gives him a promise and a responsibility.
02:17-02:18
And the responsibility is this.
02:18-02:24
He says, "Abraham, pack up and go." "Where are we going? I'll tell you when we get there. Go." That was Abraham's responsibility.
02:24-02:27
The promise was for three things.
02:27-02:32
It was for land, first of all, a particular chunk of real estate.
02:33-02:34
It was descendants.
02:35-02:38
"Abraham, you're going to have a family.
02:38-02:39
They're going to be like the stars in the sky.
02:39-02:42
You're gonna be like the sand on the beach.
02:43-02:44
You're gonna have a huge family.
02:45-02:52
And the third part of the promise, God says your family is going to bring a blessing that will be for the entire world.
02:53-02:59
Spoiler alert, it was Jesus, but the blessing was going to be for the whole world through Abraham's family.
03:01-03:06
But like us, like everyone, like you and I, Abraham had some struggles.
03:08-03:11
And do you know what one of Abraham's biggest struggles were?
03:12-03:14
Abraham liked to take matters into his own hands.
03:15-03:16
Anybody else like that?
03:17-03:18
Anybody at all, don't leave me up here.
03:19-03:20
That sometimes you're like, you know what?
03:20-03:21
I'm just gonna do it my way.
03:22-03:24
Abraham had a little bit of that going on.
03:25-03:26
Like, well, what do you mean?
03:26-03:33
Well, you can read this, but there were two separate instances, at least that we know of from the Bible, where Abraham found himself in a situation.
03:34-03:38
Okay, he had this wife, Sarah, And according to the Bible, she was very, very attractive.
03:39-03:46
And Abraham found himself in some situations where he was afraid that the people were going to kill him and take Sarah.
03:46-03:48
Like, let's get rid of the husband and we can have the lady.
03:49-03:54
So he said, look, let's, instead of trusting God, Abraham took matters into his own hands.
03:54-03:55
And he said, here's what we're gonna do.
03:56-03:59
We're just gonna tell everybody that you're my sister.
03:59-04:02
And that way they won't feel like threatened that the husband guy is here.
04:03-04:07
Okay, took matters into his own hands And that had some disastrous consequences.
04:09-04:13
Another instance that Abraham took matters into his own hands is Genesis 16.
04:13-04:16
Remember God had promised Abraham offspring, right?
04:17-04:21
And at this point, Abraham was 86 years old.
04:21-04:25
And he still did not have the son that God promised.
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86.
04:27-04:29
I don't mean this to sound harsh.
04:31-05:07
is pretty late to be starting a family, but Abraham's like, "We didn't have the son that God promised." Abraham was 86 and Sarah would have been 76 and still didn't have the kids, so Abraham's like, "You know, I'm gonna take matters into my own hands." He says, "Since Sarah's obviously not able to conceive, I'll go to our maidservant, Hagar, and he had a baby with her." Again, he took matters into his own "Throw down your own hands!" And through Hagar came Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, and that caused a family feud that we're still dealing with today.
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Okay, so finally you get to Genesis 21.
05:12-05:16
Abraham is 100. Anybody here 100? Close? No?
05:17-05:22
Sarah was 90, and Isaac was born to Sarah.
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finally had this baby that they were promised way back when.
05:29-05:37
And now a hundred years old, Sarah, 90 years old, Isaac is born, rejoice, celebrate.
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We finally have our child.
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And then you get to Genesis chapter 22, and God says, "Now I want you to give him back.
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I want you to kill him.
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I want you to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to me." What?
06:00-06:03
Today, we're gonna talk about faith.
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And this is a great subject to start with, and Abraham is the perfect person to use because according to the Bible, Abraham is the poster boy for faith.
06:16-06:17
He's a poster boy.
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Like, well, how can you say that?
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Because Genesis 15.6, Abraham believed God, was reckoned to him as righteousness.
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Romans chapter four, the apostle Paul talking about faith in Romans, the greatest thing ever written about faith, Abraham is the poster boy for faith.
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So the question today is what is faith?
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Because it's a word that we throw around a lot, don't we?
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We talk about faith and we use it a lot, but it's one of those words that's sort of hard to pin down a meaning.
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We use it a lot though, right?
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We say, you know, you gotta have faith in the pirates, right?
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How many did they win in a row?
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Like what, 10?
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11?
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All right.
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So you gotta have a little faith, see?
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You guys thought the pirates weren't gonna do well this year.
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You gotta have some faith.
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See, we're using that word faith inappropriately, but we're using the word faith.
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We say, you know, you gotta have a little faith in me.
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You gotta have a little faith in yourself.
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People say, "You know, my faith is really important to me." Okay, so what's that mean?
07:25-07:29
Well, I looked up some definitions online, some secular ones, some religious ones.
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Here's a secular one.
07:31-07:36
"Faith is complete trust in something." Okay. Vague.
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Here's a religious definition of faith.
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"Faith is confidence in a religious doctrine." Okay, vague.
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But here's the best definition of faith I have ever heard.
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I think this came from James MacDonald and it always stuck with me because I think this biblically is the best definition of faith.
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It's on the screen here.
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Faith is believing the word of God and acting upon it, no matter how I feel, because God promises a good result.
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Believing the word of God and acting upon it, No matter how I feel, because God promises good results.
08:17-08:18
And you're like, "Okay, that's easy, right?
08:19-08:19
That's easy.
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It's easy.
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It's easy.
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God says it.
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I do it.
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It's easy, right?
08:25-08:32
Faith is easy, right?" Now, faith is not easy.
08:34-08:48
And I say this because I love you, but if easy is a word that you associate with your faith, if easy is a word that you associate with your walk with Christ, then you're doing And on your outline today, three reasons faith is difficult.
08:50-08:52
Three reasons faith is difficult.
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Number one, here in Genesis 22, I'll write this down.
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Number one, three reasons faith is difficult.
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Number one, faith doesn't make human sense.
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Faith doesn't make human sense. It does not.
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Look at verses 1 and 2.
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"After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham." And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Why?
09:37-09:40
Why in the world would God ask him to do this?
09:41-09:48
And, okay, why did Abraham at least ask God some questions, right?
09:49-10:01
Why did Abraham at least, at the very least, say, "God, is this open for discussion? Because, boy, I've got some questions here." There's no easy answer.
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We see clearly from the text that God was testing Abraham.
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That's clear.
10:10-10:12
But this doesn't make any sense.
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Can we at least acknowledge that?
10:15-10:27
God literally promised to bless the world through Abraham's offspring, Isaac, and now God wants Abraham to kill the very son that God promised to use.
10:27-10:29
It doesn't make any sense!
10:32-10:34
But regardless, there it is.
10:35-10:36
"Abraham, do you trust me?
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Then sacrifice your son to me." Wow.
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A guy that was so used to taking matters into his own hands now gets the ultimate obedience test.
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Now there's some things we can't understand, right?
10:55-11:03
For example, the test had to be hard, because the only way you can test for obedience is with a hard test.
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You know what I mean?
11:04-11:05
Let me explain what I mean.
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If you would say, "Jeff, are your children obedient to you?" Here's two of my children there and a nephew.
11:13-11:22
"Are your children obedient to you?" I would say, "My children are so obedient to me." You want proof?
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"Hey, listen, I want you guys to eat this candy, all right?
11:33-11:39
Listen, hey, you listen to your father, you eat that candy." And so right now I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, Pastor Jeff.
11:39-11:43
That was your obedience test? Your obedience test? That was too easy.
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Did that prove anything about obedience? Did that prove anything?" It did not prove anything.
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because we would have got the same result if I would have said, "Don't eat the candy." You can only test obedience with hard things.
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And Abraham here was facing the hardest test possible.
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Okay, and as a pastor I was trying to think this week, what can I compare this to?
12:08-12:31
Is there anything, and certainly there's no perfect illustration in my life that even lands in the same galaxy as this, but I'm like, is there something? And the only thing I could think of to try to wrap my brain around what Abraham had to go through here, the only thing I could think of was...
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I had this dog named Brody, and I loved that dog.
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I got that dog when I graduated college.
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And that dog went everywhere with me.
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He was always riding shotgun.
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I had...
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that dog slept with me, that dog ate with me from the same spoon, yes, I know.
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You're like, "Pastor Jeff, that's really gross," but Brody got used to it.
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I had that dog before marriage, I had that dog when we got married, I had that dog when we had our children.
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I have pictures of my children laying on that dog.
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That dog was a jerk. He had a chip on his shoulder.
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And he was only a jerk to me. He'd be great to everybody else, but he would bite me.
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He was so mean to me. But we all he was my best friend.
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I I loved him and.
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Well, he got cancer.
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And I had to make the decision that every dog owner just dreads, you know what I'm talking about?
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And I had to take him to the vet, and I remember kneeling down and the vet saying, "No, you know, just kind of hold him and tell him everything's going to be okay." And I had to stand, or kneel rather, and hold this dog who I loved and who trusted me perfectly.
14:01-14:03
I had to hold him while I killed him.
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I made the decision.
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That's the closest thing that I can even think of.
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But even that, like I said, is so far removed from, "I want you to do this to your kid?
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I want you to do this to your son?
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Could you do that?" But you see, real faith is when you get to the point where you say, "When God tells me to do something doesn't make sense, he can be trusted.
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Because listen, sometimes faith doesn't make sense.
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Actually, let me change that.
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Faith hardly ever makes sense.
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The Bible's full of this stuff, by the way.
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When faith makes no sense, the Bible's full of it.
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It's just stuff that makes no sense.
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For example, "Do you want to have money?" What does the Bible say to do?
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Give it away, right?
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Right, Alex?
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You want money?
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Give it away.
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Like, well, what sense does that make?
15:19-15:19
That's faith.
15:21-15:23
"Do you want to be great?" Everybody wants to be great.
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"Do you want to be great?" We just heard Rich Sprung, one of our elders, gave a sermon on this.
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"Do you want to be great?
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How do you be great?" What's the path to greatness?
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Be a slave.
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Well, that doesn't make sense.
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That's how faith works.
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You want to find your life?
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You want to find your life? What did Jesus say?
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Lose it. You want to find it? Lose it.
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I could go on and on and on and on.
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But if you're looking for faith as a logical way of living, it's not going to happen.
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It's just not.
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Faith is the opposite of human logic.
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You're like, "Well, wait a second. I see what you're saying." How could Abraham even possibly consider what God told him to do?
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In a minute, I'm going to tell you exactly how.
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In a minute, though. Hold that thought.
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Because number two, faith means doing hard things.
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Let's pick up verse 3.
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So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac.
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And he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and it rose, and went to the place of which God had told him.
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On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
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Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey.
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I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." Okay, so do you have the scene?
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Abraham has a couple young guys helping him, and he's with Isaac, and he says, "Okay, to the young men, you guys stay here, we're going to worship." And that's sort of just how he leaves it.
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I mean, it's not like Abraham could explain this to these young men, right?
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Like, "Hey, I'm going to go kill my kid, but you guys stay here and watch to make sure nobody touches my stuff." Like, how do you roll that out?
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Verse 6, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and took in his hand the fire and the knife.
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So they went, both of them together.
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And Isaac said to his father Abraham, 'My father!' And he said, 'Here am I, my son.' "Hey," Isaac said, "Behold the fire and 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.
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That's an interesting exchange between Isaac and Abraham, right?
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"Hey, Dad, where's the lamb?
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We're going to worship. We need to sacrifice to worship.
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So where's the sacrifice?
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And Abraham says, "God provides for himself.
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God always gives what he requires.
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God himself will provide it." Now that statement that Abraham makes, "God will provide for himself." I was doing some reading this week, and there are some people that think that Abraham was just placating Isaac.
18:41-18:56
Like, almost like Abraham's like, like Isaac's like, "Hey, where's the lamb?" and Abraham's like, "Uh, we'll find out when we get there." Like he was just sort of like being vague and placating, and honestly, I don't think that's what's happening here at all.
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I think Abraham was teaching Isaac.
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The very lesson that Abraham was learning in this moment, and that lesson is this, when God says to do something, you just do it, and you trust God to provide.
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Because faith calls us to move.
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And biblically, it's not faith until you believe God enough to act.
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You see, when God came to Abraham, God didn't throw him out hypotheticals.
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Let's say, "Abraham, would you say that you love Isaac more than you love me?" And Abraham would have been like, "No, I wouldn't say that." The Lord wasn't like, "Abraham, hypothetically, hypothetically, "Would you kill him for me?" Hypothetically, of course.
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And Abraham's like, "Well, hypothetically, I'd think about it." That's not what happened.
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God doesn't come to you with the hypotheticals.
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God says, "Do it! Do it!
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This is what I want you to do, Abraham, now do it!" And church, the ball is in your court. The faith ball is in your courts.
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that just agreeing with what God said isn't faith.
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Faith is acting on what God said, even when it's hard.
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For example, do you believe God hears and answers prayer?
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I imagine if we took a survey of people leaving, "Do you believe God hears and answers prayer?" Everybody would say, "Oh yeah, I believe in prayer. I believe in prayer.
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I believe in the power of prayer. Of course I believe in the power of prayer." I put a really cute kitten meme on Facebook talking about the power of prayer.
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Of course I believe in the power of prayer.
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Well, listen, if you don't get alone and pray, then you don't really believe in prayer.
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Or I could say, "Do you believe missions is important?" "Oh yeah, missions is important." "I believe missions is so important." "Well, do you give to missions?
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Have you gone on mission trips?" "Oh no, no, no, I don't really give to missions, I've never gone on a trip.
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Well, then you don't believe missions is important.
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Because faith isn't about agreeing, faith is about doing.
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Your faith should move you.
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We talked about money earlier.
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I said, "Do you believe God when he said," 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, so many other places in the Bible talks about money.
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"Do you believe God when he said, 'If you give to God, he gives back to you?'" Do you believe that?
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I'll tell you the person who believes that is the person who gives.
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Faith means doing hard things.
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And faith is not agreeing things are hard.
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Faith is doing hard things.
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James says faith without works is what?
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It's dead! It's dead.
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Faith without works is dead.
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And Abraham knew that well.
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You can talk a good game, but it's not faith until it moves you.
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Faith means doing hard things.
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Now number three, why faith is difficult.
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Faith requires total commitment.
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This requires total commitment.
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Look at verses 9-12.
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So we have the scene.
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Abraham tells his helpers, "Hey, you guys stay here.
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My son and I are going to worship.
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Put some wood on Isaac.
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Fire, get the knife. We're going." Where's the lamb? God's going to provide the lamb.
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Verse 9, "When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order "And he called Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
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Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son." He's really going through with this.
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Verse 11, "But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham!
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Abraham!' And he said, 'Here am I.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, Now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son." Faith requires total commitment.
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God wasn't satisfied with Abraham just saddling up the donkey.
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"Abraham, I want you to kill Isaac." "Okay, I'm going, God. I'm really doing it.
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I'm really doing it. You see me going?" God's like, "Okay, that's good." "No." He wasn't even satisfied Abraham was chopping the wood, or halfway on the journey, or even when he got to the point of binding Isaac, laying him on the wood.
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Okay Abraham, I see that you're serious now.
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Abraham was not stopped until the knife was in his hand.
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That's total commitment.
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That's going all the way.
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And that hasn't changed by the way, church.
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God wants all of you.
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Nothing in your life can be more important than your walk with Christ.
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That's why God chose this test for Abraham, by the way.
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Abraham, he waited forever to get this kid, to get this son.
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He finally got the one thing he waited so long for.
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And God comes back with a test and says, "Abraham, am I still number one?" Blessings can become an idol.
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Maybe you purchased that home, you get this new home, "Thank you God for providing this home, and God thank you, this is the perfect home, God we thank you for this." And then over time the home gets all of your time and money and attention, and it becomes more of an object of worship than God is.
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It becomes an idol.
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For some people it's a relationship, right?
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Some people are like, "Oh God, would you please just bring the perfect person into my life?" and you have this relationship and suddenly this person is now more important to you than your walk with Christ.
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Do you see how the blessing became an idol?
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Like in Abraham's case, it applies to us, church.
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Listen, if the shoe fits, you've got to wear it, right?
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Even kids. Your kids can become an idol.
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So the question that was posed to Abraham, that needs to be posed to you and needs to be posed to me, the question is this, "Do you love God?" Or, "Do you love what God has given?" Do you...
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Phrasing it another way, "Do you delight in knowing God, or do you delight in getting from God?" Your commitment that Abraham rediscovered here is first and always to God.
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No matter what he gives, no matter what he takes away, your walk with God must be first place.
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At this point you might be saying, "Well, faith is hard. Then why would we live by faith?" Like, "Pastor Jeff, you have given a terrible sales pitch today. That was horrible.
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I came here for a feel-good message, and that was terrible.
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I sat down, I even brought my Bible, and you're like, "Faith is really hard, by the way." There's a P.S. on your outline.
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P.S.
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I can't just leave you hanging, because here's the rest of the story.
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This is the good part.
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Faith is always rewarded.
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Faith is always rewarded.
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Look at verse 13, "And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.
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And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." You need to underline that in your Bible, that's the first substitutionary sacrifice in the Bible.
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"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." 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 have 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.
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And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." Faith is always rewarded.
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And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, doesn't that contradict what you just said?" No, not at all. You say, "Listen, listen, listen.
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This is important." It always is, but emphasis here, right?
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Abraham was rewarded because he cared more about trusting God than keeping His blessing.
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That's why Abraham was rewarded.
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He cared more about trusting God than keeping His blessing, and when you have faith like that, it will always, always, always, always be rewarded.
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Every time.
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Abraham was rewarded not only with keeping his son, but he was rewarded by being the spiritual father of all who would believe.
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You know that?
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If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a son of Abraham.
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I just want to say, church, that you're never going to do something by faith that you're going to regret.
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And I can tell you there's a lot of things that I've done in my life, taking matters into my own hands, not done by faith.
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I've done a lot of that stuff in my life and I regret that.
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I've regretted every one.
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But I have never done something by faith.
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I have never gotten to a place in my life where I'm like, "Okay God, I'm going to trust You on this." I have never regretted those moments, not one time.
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Nor have I met somebody that has.
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Now earlier you were like, "Pastor Jeff, you told us that you knew why Abraham was able to consider sacrificing Isaac.
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I think, you know, how could he have done it?
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What was he thinking?
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I mean, without resistance, how was Abraham able to do this?
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Do you want to know?
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You know, the Bible tells us.
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Look at these verses with me as we close.
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Here's why Abraham was able to do this.
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This is from Hebrews 11.
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It says, "By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, "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.'" Look at this last statement, this is it.
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This is one of the most awesome things in the Bible.
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It says, "He (Abraham) considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, He did receive him back.
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So you see, these verses take us through Abraham's logic.
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And this was Abraham's logic.
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So God says, "Abraham, I want you to kill Isaac." And Abraham's like, "All right, let's reason this out.
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God has promised that He was going to bless the world through Isaac.
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That's fact number one. We know that, right? God said that. We're sure about that, right?
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He's going to bless the world through Isaac.
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Fact number two, God says, "Kill Isaac." Oh. Easy. God can raise the dead.
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That's the only thing that makes sense?
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You see, that's faith.
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I'm sure God said this. It doesn't make sense.
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But I trust Him, and I'm acting on it, because trusting God always brings the best result.
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It was a hard lesson for a man who was used to taking matters into his own hands.
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Was Abe rewarded? He was.
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Because from Abraham came the Jews, and from the Jews came Jesus, and from Jesus Christ alone comes salvation to all who would believe.
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So we were all rewarded from Abraham's faith.
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And now you are writing your own faith story by the way that you live today.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word.
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A father has a dad with two sons.
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There's a part of me that just has a hard time even wrapping my brain around this passage.
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I understand it on some level, and I sure don't on another.
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But God, I thank You for the clear lessons that You're teaching us from Your Word today.
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But God, You have to be number one.
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Faith requires that we...
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Faith requires, Father, not just that we agree with what You say, but that we act on what You say, even in those times that our minds might not sense any logic.
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I pray, Father, for myself, and I pray for this church, that we would learn to have logic like Abraham, who said God promised to bless the earth through Isaac.
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God says kill Isaac, therefore God must be able to raise the dead.
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That's incredible logic.
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But Father, give us such faith.
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Father, there are some people here right now who are having to make some hard decisions because of faith.
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There are some people here right now that probably feel like bailing on a marriage.
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Bailing on life.
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People listening to this Father who maybe feel like they need to take matters into their own hands.
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Because the way of faith is hard.
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I pray for that person.
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I pray for those people that they would trust You though it is hard.
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And I pray, Father, just as Abraham, he had an immediate reward and he had a long-running reward.
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I pray, Father, that You would greatly reward the person who right now today - Father, please greatly reward that person who decides, "I'm going to trust God.
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I'm going to do what God said, and I'm going to leave the results to Him.
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Thank you, Father, for the example that You've given us in Abraham.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
WHOLE GROUP
Read Genesis 22:1-18
Define “faith”. What are some wrong ideas about what faith is?
Why did God test Abraham (Gen 22:1)? Does God still test people today? Do you believe God has ever tested you?
What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done because of your faith?
BREAKOUT
Is there any area YOU have struggled to be “100% all in”? Be honest, encouraging, and judgment-free! Pray for one another to over-come that struggle area of faith.