Promises | Find Your Way Home Week 3

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- We're all on a journey in life.

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Some people know where they're going

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and some people don't.

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The difference? It's knowing your origin story

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and finding your way home.

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You have to know where you came from

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if you're going to know where you're going.

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We believe that there is a God,

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and He made you for a journey, a life of adventure.

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Crossroads exist to help you get there.

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We're going all the way back to the beginning

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of the story in Genesis

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to find our way home to promises.

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Tests take us higher.

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To find out how, we're going to go back

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to the beginning of the story in Genesis.

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Welcome to Crossroads, I'm Brian.

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In this episode, we're going to help you find

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your way home and that way home

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might take some twists, it's going to take some turns.

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There's going to be challenges

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that are going to arise along the way.

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For a man named Abraham, his way home did exactly that.

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I've been to Israel maybe 15 times.

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And the first time it struck me most

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was the centrality of the story

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that I'm going to tell you today.

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It's a story that I always thought wasn't just quirky,

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but it was just downright annoying and troubling.

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It didn't fit my Western sensibilities,

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but yet church after church where I went to

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in the Holy Land, location after location

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featured artwork, carvings, sculptures that depict

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the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac

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up a mountain to be sacrificed.

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It's a crazy story. It's a troubling story.

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I didn't like this story, but I thought,

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"I've got to dig into this more because

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this is obviously a huge thing here in the Holy Land."

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And we end up finding out that our God

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has a very powerful future for us.

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But there are some things we're going

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to have to get through in the moment.

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God had promised Abraham

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He would make him into a great nation,

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and He had specifically repeatedly called out

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that it would be through Isaac, his eldest first born.

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All of the promises that God has made to Abraham

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are contingent on Isaac, his first born as his heir,

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not just in terms of how DNA operates,

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but in terms of cultural expectations

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in which Abraham lived.

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In Genesis Chapter 12:2-3, God says to Abraham:

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And I will make you a great nation,

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and I will bless you and I will make your name great,

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so that you will be a blessing.

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I will bless those who bless you,

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and him who dishonors you I will curse,

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and in you all the families of the Earth

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shall be blessed.

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This is the founding of the Nation of Israel,

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the Hebrew nation.

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Abraham is that founder.

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And this is the original vision statement

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that God gives them.

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He says, "You're going to start small,

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but you're going to grow and grow and grow and grow,

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and you're going to raise the water level

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of everybody in the world.

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At least this is the vision that I have for you."

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And then God takes, says this in Genesis 15:5:

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He brought him outside and he said,

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"Look toward heaven, and number the stars,

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if you're able to number them."

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And He said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

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And he believed the Lord,

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and he counted it to him as righteousness.

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See all these lights up in the stars?

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You see them all?

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They all represent the number of people

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who are going to trace back to you.

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This wouldn't just be who he actually gave birth to,

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but who they gave birth to, who they gave birth to,

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and so on and so on, actual exponential growth.

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Abraham hears this, and he laughs. He's like, "What?

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What kind of crazy high vision is this?"

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He goes home and he tells us his wife, Sarah,

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says, "Guess what? God told me,

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we're going to go higher

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and there's going to be so many of us

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it's going to outnumber the stars in the sky."

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And Sarah laughs too,

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but her laugh is one of derision,

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where Abraham is like, "Oh, this is amazing."

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Sarah is like, "Oh yeah, right, right.

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Yeah. Like, have you noticed that

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I'm through menopause right now?

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Have you noticed we haven't had any kids up to date?

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And now all of a sudden in old age we're just going --

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Oh yeah, right, exactly."

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They actually have a son.

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It's a miraculous thing God does for them.

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And they name their son Isaac,

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which in Hebrew means laughter.

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It's a remembrance for the rest of their life,

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a reminder for the rest of their life

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that they didn't believe God initially.

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They thought it was ridiculous.

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Every time they say his name,

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they're remembering the vision God had for them

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and how He's bringing it through.

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This is happening in a time when nations

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all around him, all the other nations

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that were around him commonly practiced sacrifice.

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Not just sacrifice, but child sacrifice.

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Up to this point, God doesn't really say anything

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about sacrifice one way or the other.

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So, therefore Abraham was like us.

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All of us live in this sort of

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religious spiritual environment in America,

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in the spiritual religiosity of America,

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whichever corner of America we're in,

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it kind of rubs off on us.

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And so when we come to God or the God of the Bible,

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we bring all of these thoughts, some of them true,

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some of them baggage to our relationship with God

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just because everyone else believes this.

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Everyone else thinks this.

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So this must be the way God is.

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And sometimes there's tension

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in our relationship because of this.

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For anybody to not practice child sacrifice

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would be an anomaly

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because everybody around Abraham did that.

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It would be the highest form of sacrifice.

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So to go higher with your God,

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you do the highest form of sacrifice,

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which is child sacrifice.

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This would have just been the goo

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and the mentality that Abraham would have had.

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With that as a backdrop, in Genesis 22:21,

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he starts going higher and the plot thickens.

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After these things God tested Abraham

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and said to him, "Abraham!"

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And he said, "Here I am."

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He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac,

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

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and offer him there as a burnt offering

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on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

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God's name is Yahweh. That's his name.

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It means "I am.

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I am sovereignly independent of all creation."

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And he says to Abraham, he calls him.

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And Abraham's response is like forcing Abraham

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to actually say the identity of God.

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"Here I am. Here I am.

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I understand you. I'm with you."

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It says, take your son, that's a build.

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Your only son, that's a bigger build.

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Whom you love, that's a bigger build.

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And start making your way higher,

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start getting up on the mountain.

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Oh, my gosh.

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Abraham senses where this is going.

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And I don't think that he likes it.

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- Hey, we're here real quick to talk to you

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about giving, because it hasn't always been

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the easiest thing for us, or at least for me.

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I remember a time when every time I gave

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it felt like the stupidest thing ever

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because I was lessening what I have.

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And it would just pressed me into this place of, like,

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do I believe that God's really my provider or not?

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You know? - That's a real question.

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If you want to ask that question

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and put that to the test, you can give right now

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by simply going to the Crossroads app.

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On your home screen, you'll see your profile

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in the bottom corner and at the top a little gear.

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And once you click that,

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you'll see give, and you can do that right now.

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Right now let's get back to Brian's message.

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- What do we do when God asks us to do something

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we don't expect and we don't like?

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Abraham has a choice to make.

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Is he going to do this thing the God's asked him to do

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or is it going to move on with his life

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and ignore God's test?

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Let's go back to our story in Genesis

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from Chapter 22:3.

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So Abraham rose early in the morning,

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saddled his donkey,

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and took two of his young men with him,

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and his son Isaac.

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And he cut the wood for the burnt offering

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and rose and went to the place

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of which God had told him.

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Imagine how Abraham must have felt.

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He had to believe that this God,

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his God was different,

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that he wouldn't be asked to do something

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as crazy as this.

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Like, "Man, I was hoping this God wasn't like

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the ones that did the child sacrifice thing.

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Okay. Okay."

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Yet he ultimately chooses to obey.

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The story continues.

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On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes

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and saw the place from afar.

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Isaac was likely not a small child during this time.

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He is asked to carry firewood up the mountain,

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and he had to keep up with at least three grown men,

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Abraham and two others, on a multiple day hike.

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It also when it says in this chapter,

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when it refers to him as a boy,

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that word in Hebrew is translated sometimes

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as young man sometimes is used, sometimes it's man.

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So this doesn't have to be six year old Isaac.

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He's aware, probably, of what's happening,

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and he's got to keep up with these grown men.

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How many miles is a three day walk,

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plus another day actually climbing the mountain,

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which this passage says happens?

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According to REI,

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which is one of the greatest stores in the U.S. of A.

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Any REI fans?

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Oh my goodness, they've taken more money

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than just about any store has.

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When you consult REI in how to plan a backpacking trip,

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they say that most people hike

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3-10 miles per day during a hike.

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Abraham is at least a hundred years old,

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and he's walking multiple miles a day in obedience.

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How many of us would have stopped walking

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just out of the inconvenience of our feet hurting

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after a day of hiking? "Oh, it's hard.

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Following God is hard.

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I have to walk three miles.

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Oh, it's so difficult."

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That's my impression of average churchgoers.

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We just assume that if God wants us to do something,

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it's going to be easy and it's going to be happy

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and it's going to be nice.

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And God's going to dip His sweet little sugar finger

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down into our life and make everything happy

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and give us unicorns and lollipops.

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And yet here we have Abraham taking

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a grueling, multi-day hike to do

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an emotionally grueling thing

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of sacrificing his son? Let's keep going.

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Then Abraham said to his young men,

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"Stay here with the donkey;

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I and the boy will go over there

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and worship and come again to you."

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Maybe he's got these young men,

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in addition to Isaac, because he needs some muscle.

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Maybe he's thought ahead and he's thought,

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"If I'm going to have to sacrifice him on an altar,

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he's not going to like it and I'm going to need

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some other people to actually manhandle him

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and put him down."

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You got to realize here, Abraham thinks

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that he's going to be killing Isaac

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at the top of this mountain.

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And I've got to think that he also thinks that somehow,

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somehow God's going to get him out of this.

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Maybe he's thinking that somehow

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God's going to bring Isaac back to life.

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He's just wrestling with it.

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"You blessed me with this son.

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You're doing something I thought that you,

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as a God, wouldn't ask me to do.

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Not only that, it contradicts the promise

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you've given me to multiply my descendants.

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There's got to be some end here that you're working toward,

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but I just don't understand it."

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That's the way it is with us.

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God tells us a step to take,

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but we don't really understand how it's going to end

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or what God's going to ultimately do.

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We've got to ultimately just trust in God.

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And this is brutal.

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It's agonizing for Abraham.

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And this is the way it's going to be with us.

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Your level of discomfort will be commensurate

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with the level of your vision.

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Your degree of pain will be commensurate

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to the degree of the purpose that God has for you.

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God's purpose always corresponds to the pain

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you're going to experience on the way to that purpose.

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It's not the the higher the goal, the easier it is.

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It's the higher the goal, the more difficult it is.

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And your ability to endure pain and difficulty,

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and I hate saying this because I wish this wasn't true.

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But your ability to endure pain

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and endure difficulty will be directly related

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to the heights in which you will go

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and the things that God will do in and through you.

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Right now, we've got this church, Crossroads,

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I help start it 26 years ago.

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And man, I just thought that

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everything was going to be easy.

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I thought of God's in it, all is going to be good.

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He's going to just pour blessings on us.

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It'll be great.

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And the story of my life with our church

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has been one brutal thing after another.

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It's just never stopped.

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Go to a vision of multi-site,

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having multiple campuses in different locations.

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Go to a vision of having a digital church

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where you don't have to actually go to a physical place,

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but you can actually be one as a church.

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Not just so we have more people.

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So we have a cohesive movement, a cohesive people

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who can bite off big chunks, like sponsoring children

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through Compassion International,

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like going after child sex slavery,

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like spreading the word of God

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in places that other people may be afraid to do.

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We need an army for that, and it's going to be great,

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it's going to be awesome.

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No, it's been hard.

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Every step has just been brutal.

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It's been brutal for me emotionally.

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It's been brutal for me financially.

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It's been brutal for me relationally.

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And one of the ways that I keep myself going

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is by reading the very word of God, reading the Bible.

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That's why we are right now in the Bible Challenge

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as a church.

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2022 is the year of the Bible Challenge

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and I want to encourage you, man,

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get in your Bible because it's here

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you understand the call of God

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and how to do the call of God.

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It might not be in a page.

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It might be one of the places,

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I do it about every day in the Crossroads App.

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- Do you know where you're going?

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To get different results in life

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you're going to have to do some different things.

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And if you're up for adventure this year,

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do the Bible Challenge with me.

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Read every day, get inspired,

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and see what others are saying.

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I believe the Bible is more than a book that's meant

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to sit on a shelf and just collect dust.

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It's meant to take you somewhere in life.

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What about you? Where are you going?

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Download the Crossroads App.

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Do the Bible Challenge today.

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- Just today, I was going through Proverbs 14:4,

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which was in the app.

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And there is a verse in there that

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it never hit me like it hit me this morning.

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It says:

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When there are no oxen, the manger is clean,

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but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

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What's being said there?

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If you want great crops,

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if you want more fruit in your life,

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get ready to clean a lot of poop.

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If you're a farmer, you want abundant crops,

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you need oxen to help you bring those crops in

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and you've got to house those oxen.

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There's going to be a lot of poop.

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You have to shovel a lot of manure our of stalls.

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Man, I feel like I've been shoveling manure

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for most of my life.

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And I wouldn't have to shovel

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the same amount of manure I do

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if it was just me and God having quiet times together

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and if God was just raining blessings on me.

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But when God's going to ask you to go higher,

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you're going to need other people.

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You're going to need oxen around you.

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And where there are people, there are problems,

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and where there's problems, there's poop.

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You learn this, I wish I could tell you another word,

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but, you know, it's church.

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So I got I got to use the p word.

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But do the Bible Challenge with me.

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You will not regret it.

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Let's keep going.

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In Genesis 22:6 it says this:

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And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering

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and laid it on Isaac his son.

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And he 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!'

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And he said, "Here I am, son."

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And he said, "Behold the fire and the wood,

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but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?"

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And Abraham said, "God will provide for himself

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the lamb for burnt offering, my son."

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So they went both of them together.

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It's starting to sink in for Isaac

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that this may not end well for him.

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Carrying wood, you know, again I think he's a young man.

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Here he's carrying wood.

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He's like, "I get the gig, I see a rock.

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There's normally something sacrificed on a rock.

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I got the wood for it.

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But like, where's the animal?"

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Is Abraham just not telling the whole truth

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by saying, "Well, God will provide"?

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As in uou're the lamb, but I want to tell you?

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Or is Abraham having a level of trust

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that God's going to get him out of this?

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We don't really know.

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All we know is he's going forward.

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All we know is that he is obeying.

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And this is part of why this story is so pivotal

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and in all those churches and sculptures

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I talked about earlier when I'm in Israel,

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because this is a precursor

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to what Jesus is going to do.

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It's one of the through lines

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that goes throughout the entire Bible.

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Jesus carried wood up a hill.

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He carried His Cross up to Calvary, up to Golgotha,

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and He, the very Son of God, was the sacrifice of God.

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Now you're going to see in a moment, spoiler alert,

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that God is not going to have him kill Isaac.

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The only justified child sacrifice

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that's ever happened in the Bible

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was the very child of God, the Son of God

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crucified on a Cross.

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And that Son also went there knowingly and willingly.

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Abraham doesn't know all this.

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He's just doing what God is asking to do.

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He's been obedient up this moment.

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He's passed every test.

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"Go in that direction." "Got it."

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"Take your son." "Good. Got it."

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"Walk and go." "Got it."

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"Take wood for you." "Good. Got it."

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Everything. "Take fire with you." "Got it."

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All that stuff he's got.

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But now here it is. Here is the moment.

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Binds Isaac, lays him on an altar

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that wouldn't have looked

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all that much different than this.

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And here is the son that God has given you

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in your old age, the son that God has promised,

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the son upon which is your future.

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The son that is the fulfillment of the purpose

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and the promise for your life.

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And here he is laying on an altar, maybe crying,

00:19:50

terrified as you stand over him with the knife.

00:19:54

As he pulls up that knife,

00:19:56

God intercedes at the last minute.

00:19:59

And he commends him for his faithfulness.

00:20:01

It's amazing. It's amazing.

00:20:05

Again, as barbaric as this sounds to our ears

00:20:08

and as barbaric as it is to Abraham and other people,

00:20:12

it wasn't all that barbaric and unusual

00:20:15

because they would do this sort of thing.

00:20:17

Their god would do this sort of thing.

00:20:19

And here's what happens in Genesis 22:11.

00:20:24

But the angel of the Lord called to him

00:20:26

from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!"

00:20:28

And he said, "Here I am."

00:20:31

He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy

00:20:34

or do anything to him,

00:20:36

for now I know that you fear God,

00:20:39

seeing you have not withheld your son,

00:20:40

your only son, from me."

00:20:45

Calls back to the beginning of this passage.

00:20:47

Calls him again, "Abraham, Abraham!" "Here I am."

00:20:49

Saying the name of God by saying, "Here I am."

00:20:51

And God says your son, your only son,

00:20:54

he reminds him of that.

00:20:55

God says, "Don't do it. Don't to do it.

00:20:59

Now I know. Now I know."

00:21:03

God stops him to show that God is different

00:21:07

from all the other gods.

00:21:08

He doesn't want child sacrifice.

00:21:11

And God also is going to be the one

00:21:13

who makes the sacrifice.

00:21:16

Our motives and our intentions are great,

00:21:19

but they don't signal to God

00:21:20

that we're ready for His promises.

00:21:22

It doesn't matter what you do.

00:21:24

"Oh, I really. I had every intention of doing that."

00:21:26

Great, you had every intention.

00:21:27

So what, did you do it?

00:21:28

God doesn't care that we have every intention to do something.

00:21:31

He doesn't care what our goal is.

00:21:33

He cares whether or not we do it.

00:21:37

God knows your heart based on what you do,

00:21:41

not based on what you say,

00:21:42

not based on what you think, but on what you do.

00:21:46

One of the attributes of God is He is omniscient.

00:21:49

He knows all things

00:21:51

Yet because we know He knows all things,

00:21:54

sometimes we allow that to cloud our understanding

00:21:57

of what happens in certain Bible verses like this.

00:22:00

God says here very clearly, he says,

00:22:02

"Now I know that you love Me more than your son.

00:22:07

Now I know that you love Me

00:22:09

more than you love the vision for your life.

00:22:11

Now I know."

00:22:12

We have to see, let's just take God at face value.

00:22:15

What's he say?

00:22:16

He says, "Abraham, you just increased

00:22:18

my knowledge base of who you are.

00:22:21

You've just passed the test."

00:22:23

Not a test that just qualifies you for the next thing.

00:22:27

This isn't just a test where it's a test for Abraham,

00:22:30

and tests is how we learn.

00:22:31

We all know that, that's why we hated school.

00:22:33

At least I did.

00:22:34

But I know that if I didn't have a test to cram for,

00:22:36

I never would have learned anything.

00:22:37

But it's not just that kind of test

00:22:39

that prepares Abraham, it's also a test

00:22:41

that tells God what Abraham is made of.

00:22:46

God knows that He can trust you based on what you do.

00:22:51

God knows that you're ready for more

00:22:53

based on how you obey.

00:22:55

God knows what you're up

00:22:57

for based on how you follow through.

00:23:01

Now, thankfully for Isaac, Abraham obeys God

00:23:04

in this specific moment

00:23:06

and doesn't have to go through with the human sacrifice.

00:23:10

Let's see how the story concludes.

00:23:13

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked,

00:23:14

and behold behind him was a ram,

00:23:16

caught in the thicket by its horns.

00:23:19

And Abraham went and took the ram

00:23:20

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

00:23:24

So Abraham called the name of that place,

00:23:27

"The Lord will provide"; as it is said to this day,

00:23:31

"On the mount of the Lord it will be provided."

00:23:37

The name this mountain named Moriah,

00:23:39

which means the Lord will provide.

00:23:42

Abraham learns that God has provided for him,

00:23:44

not only has He provided him a vision

00:23:46

and a purpose of promise.

00:23:48

He's actually provided a ram.

00:23:50

And thankfully Abraham doesn't have to go through it.

00:23:53

He's just right up, he's ready to go,

00:23:54

he's ready to do it, "Stop it, stop it."

00:23:57

God provides the ram.

00:24:00

When I came to understand the story,

00:24:02

I understand that the heart of God

00:24:03

and things that I needed to do, it caused me

00:24:05

to name our third and final child after this story.

00:24:09

Moriah is her name.

00:24:11

She might not know that because we know her by Dit,

00:24:14

her whole life, that's her nickname.

00:24:15

If you know Moriah, she would prefer to be called Dit,

00:24:18

just call her Little Dit. She likes that.

00:24:20

But Moriah, and whenever I say Moriah

00:24:22

or I think of her, I think of the ways

00:24:24

that God has provided for me again and again and again.

00:24:28

And He will provide for you as well.

00:24:30

But there's something powerful about provision

00:24:34

on the back end of making difficult decisions

00:24:37

and doing difficult things on the way to purpose.

00:24:40

That's when the provision means something to us.

00:24:43

Let's finish out this story, it says this:

00:24:46

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham

00:24:47

a second time from heaven and he said,

00:24:49

"By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord,

00:24:51

because you have done this

00:24:53

and have not withheld your son, your only son.

00:24:56

I will surely bless you,

00:24:58

and I will surely multiply your offspring

00:24:59

as the stars of heaven

00:25:01

and as the sand that is on the seashore.

00:25:03

And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

00:25:07

and in your offspring

00:25:08

shall all the nations of the Earth be blessed,

00:25:10

because you have obeyed My voice."

00:25:17

God reiterates everything He said before.

00:25:19

"You're going to have descendants that multiply

00:25:21

like the stars, I'm going to bless you.

00:25:24

All people are going to be blessed.

00:25:25

You're going to raise the water level with other people."

00:25:28

And here we are today.

00:25:29

I'm here today because of what Abraham did.

00:25:32

You're here today because of what Abraham did.

00:25:34

Because faithful people came to you

00:25:36

with the very word of God.

00:25:37

The covenant is reiterated for him, and he goes forward.

00:25:41

The testing of Abraham is the thing that sets him up

00:25:44

to be the central figure in our faith.

00:25:46

And out of his lineage comes the Messiah.

00:25:49

This is what the Book of James says in Chapter two.

00:25:51

This is the New Testament portion of the Bible,

00:25:53

looking back on this story, it says:

00:25:56

Was not Abraham our father justified by works

00:25:59

when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

00:26:02

You see that faith was active along with his works,

00:26:05

and faith was completed by his works.

00:26:09

We're not justified by our work's,

00:26:11

meaning we're not justified before God

00:26:14

to get to heaven by our works.

00:26:16

Our works don't get us to heaven.

00:26:18

Jesus's work gets us to heaven.

00:26:19

But this verse is saying

00:26:21

we're justified that we actually have faith.

00:26:23

We're showing ourselves and God that

00:26:25

we actually have saving faith when we're actually

00:26:28

doing things that are motivated by faith,

00:26:30

when we're moving, when we're walking.

00:26:33

A few key takeaways from this

00:26:35

so you can get on with your life

00:26:36

and you can start winning and start going higher

00:26:38

and passing tests.

00:26:40

One is this: God gives Abraham a chance to win.

00:26:42

He gives them a chance.

00:26:44

Sometimes the difficult things God gives us

00:26:46

we don't like, but it's actually a chance

00:26:48

for us to win and go higher.

00:26:50

The second thing is: God's love language is obedience.

00:26:55

That's His love language.

00:26:56

His love language isn't talk.

00:26:59

His love language isn't intention.

00:27:02

His love language is obedience.

00:27:04

He wants us to do what we're doing.

00:27:06

In fact, His love language is obedience over accuracy.

00:27:11

I meet so many people today who just feel frozen

00:27:14

and not knowing what to do because

00:27:16

they want to make sure they get it right.

00:27:17

"Oh, I don't know exactly

00:27:19

what God wants my other career to be."

00:27:20

"Is this the person that

00:27:21

I'm really supposed to marry right here?"

00:27:23

"Is this the thing I'm supposed to do?"

00:27:25

And we get so fixated on getting it right

00:27:27

that we don't actually move.

00:27:31

Abraham didn't understand everything,

00:27:33

but based on what he did have a good sense of,

00:27:37

he moved on.

00:27:38

We can't wait and be paralyzed

00:27:40

by having full confirmation and total clarity.

00:27:44

We have to move on what we know.

00:27:46

That's part of the test.

00:27:47

We have to be obedient and that.

00:27:51

Third, tests inform us, and they inform God.

00:27:57

These tests inform us who we are.

00:28:00

And they also inform God who we are.

00:28:04

What is it the God's asking you to do?

00:28:06

And are you doing it? What is that?

00:28:08

It's different for all of us.

00:28:09

God has similar standards for all of us.

00:28:11

Certain things like loving our neighbor,

00:28:16

honoring His commandments,

00:28:18

being a blessing to the world,

00:28:21

tithing, giving the first 10% of your income

00:28:23

to your local church, telling the truth.

00:28:25

All these things are things that all of us

00:28:27

in the family of God just have to obey.

00:28:29

But then there's other things, like,

00:28:31

what am I supposed to do with my occupation?

00:28:33

Who am I supposed to marry?

00:28:35

These things you generally know enough to take a step.

00:28:38

Take that step.

00:28:40

And that test will determine

00:28:42

the next opportunity God gives you.

00:28:45

God still keeps His promises today. He does.

00:28:49

He keeps His promises as we move and we obey

00:28:54

and fulfill the tests that He has given us.

00:28:58

He's got to promise for you. He does.

00:29:00

There's a higher place He wants to take you,

00:29:02

I believe that completely.

00:29:04

He's got a love and a tenderness for you

00:29:06

that you probably find hard really believing.

00:29:11

But He's for you.

00:29:12

He's not for you having an easy life. He's for you.

00:29:15

And that means our heavenly dad will stretch us,

00:29:18

you know, push us to see what we're made of

00:29:21

and prepare us for the purpose He's created us for.

00:29:29

There's a song that we sing,

00:29:30

and I like this song a lot.

00:29:33

It speaks to what we're talking about today.

00:29:35

It's about the promises of God.

00:29:39

Why don't we sing this song together

00:29:42

and tell God that we're thankful for Him

00:29:45

and tell ourselves, "I'm up for passing

00:29:47

the tests of obedience on the way to

00:29:49

fulfilling the promise that You have for me."

00:31:14

- You will never let me down.

00:31:20

- I'll bless You by trusting in You,

00:31:21

even when I don't feel like You're close right now.

00:31:28

- I will bless you by pushing towards

00:31:30

the things that you want me to do, God,

00:31:32

even when it's difficult.

00:31:36

- I will bless You by showing You

00:31:37

a heart that's full and open

00:31:39

to whatever You have for me.

00:31:46

- I will bless you by loving the people

00:31:48

you brought around my life and blessing them.

00:31:54

- I will bless You by giving You my whole life,

00:31:57

no matter what's around the corner.

00:32:37

- Let's pray together.

00:32:39

God, I'm thankful for the faith of Abraham,

00:32:40

for the obedience of Abraham.

00:32:42

I'm challenged by it, and quite frankly,

00:32:44

many times I don't like it, but I'm better for it.

00:32:47

God, we give you the rest of our week.

00:32:49

We want to look for the opportunities

00:32:51

to be obedient and step out,

00:32:53

even when we don't have all the information,

00:32:55

we might not even like it.

00:32:56

I recognized You as a God who provides rams

00:33:00

and a God who provides purpose.

00:33:02

I thank You for this

00:33:04

and we commit to walk in it this week. Amen.

00:33:09

- Hey, you know, that app I mentioned earlier

00:33:11

that you can give in?

00:33:13

We are actually doing the Bible Challenge

00:33:15

in that same app, and it is as simple as

00:33:17

downloading the Crossroads app,

00:33:19

which, by the way, is for free.

00:33:21

And in the app we read and we journal

00:33:23

and it's all going down right here.

00:33:25

- You're doing, I'm doing it, thousands of other people.

00:33:27

- I'm doing it, that's right. - It's been great so far.

00:33:29

Second thing we have for you with that

00:33:31

is a guidebook on Genesis.

00:33:32

There's a bunch more in here about Abraham,

00:33:34

stuff that Brian didn't have a chance to get to.

00:33:36

It's all in here. It's all free. We will mail it to your house.

00:33:39

Just go to crossroads.net/BibleChallenge

00:33:41

to get one of these.

00:33:42

- We'll see you guys next week.

00:33:48

- You know, if you follow God,

00:33:50

you're in the family, that's good news.

00:33:51

I'll give you even better news.

00:33:53

There's a blessing for being in the family.

00:33:56

The Genesis story unlocks for us

00:33:59

how you actually get that blessing.

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