Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Good morning. How are we feeling this morning? Good?
That being a prayer that Chris had for Morgan, I remember when I met Morgan,
she said that she didn't want to be a pastor's wife.
And so here we are, and we love coming up. We get a pastor down at a church in Florida.
It's so much fun, but it's always an honor to get to come up here and be really just with family.
We feel like we're at home when we come and join this church. Before we dive in this morning,
we're going to be in Hebrews 11. And so if you have your scriptures, you can open up to that.
But in a time where we're getting ready to enter into Thanksgiving and into the holidays,
it can be so easy to step into a time, a church on Sunday morning, and just kind of go with the flow,
go through the motions and things just rush by. And so I want us to just take a second
to really just allow ourselves to be present and in the presence of God. And so if you would,
just take a couple of deep breaths. And we like to do this at our church. We talk a lot about
posture, that it's not only a heart posture and a mind posture, but we can actually physically
posture ourselves to prepare to hear from God. And so if you would just open up your palms
to the heavens right where you're at and we're going to pray. God, we thank you so much
for who you are. But we ask that you would just come and fill this place,
fill our hearts, fill our minds. God, would you clear our lives from distractions
of maybe a crazy work week or maybe heading into a crazy week with Thanksgiving, Lord?
Would we just allow ourselves to pause and realize that you are present, that you are real,
that you are here? And would we prepare this place for you? Speak to us. Pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Hey, we're going to be in Hebrews 11. I'm so excited to dive in. I know that y'all
have been going through this, so it's great to just jump in and be a part. I want us to be
reminded though of what we're reading and what we're diving into. And so we're going to start in
Hebrews. I'm going to read Hebrews 1 and 2 just so that we can remember what it is that we're
diving into when it talks about by faith. We're going to be really learning, and we look at what is
known as the Hall of Faith, but when it says by faith, this is exactly what it's talking about.
Hebrews 11 verse 1, it says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things not seen for. By it the people of old receive their commendation. That faith is the things
hoped for, the things not seen. We think that the opposite of faith is doubt, but the opposite
of faith isn't doubt, it's assurance. That it's, hey, we're not doubting God. That's not the opposite
of faith. The opposite of faith is certainty. That if there is certainty in something, then
there's no faith. It's like, well, God, I want to know exactly what you're going to do with my life.
If you knew that, you wouldn't have to have faith in God. God, how is this situation going to turn
out? If you knew exactly how the situation would turn out, you wouldn't need faith.
And so while I think it's great to pray, God, God, give me certainty. Show me the way. Show me,
what about show me faith? God, build my faith. And that's what we really dive into in this
scripture. In Hebrews 11, we're going to be in verse 17 through 19, the story of Abraham and
Isaac, where they celebrate that it is by faith. Picking up in verse 17, it says, by faith.
Got some pictures of my Bible. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,
on whom it was said, through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was
able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
To fully understand this, we're going to have to flip back to the very beginning of scripture
in Genesis. And so we're going to be in Genesis 22. And I want us to fully understand what we're
reading here in Hebrews 11 of by faith, the story of Abraham offering up Isaac. And so
Genesis 22, flip there with me, if you would, this morning,
it's going to be a lot of scripture, but I think to fully understand what we're going to dive into
in Hebrews 11, we need to understand the significance of this story and where we find
ourselves. We find ourselves with Abraham, who has just recently received the Abrahamic covenant,
the promises of God to work through Abraham and give him land and to bless his family,
and that the whole world would be blessed through his lineage and his seed. And we see pickup
in Genesis 22. Abraham has Isaac, which he's referred to as his only son in this scripture,
but he actually has two sons, but one is with Hagar and the other is with Sarah and Isaac is the one
who carries the promise and he is the really the only one that Abraham truly loves. I have two
kids and so I wouldn't, you know, measure them up and be like, there's one that I love more than
the other because that's not fair. But there is one that's been grumpy this morning, so he's a
little bit lower on the totem pole, but that's okay. Hey, Genesis 22 verse one, it says,
after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am.
He said, take your son, your only son 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. So
Abraham was a young man with him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering
and arose and went out to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted
up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young man, stay here with
the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took
the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. He took in his hand the fire and
the knife, so they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, my father, and he said,
here I am, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt
offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
So they went both of them together. That's a fair question for Isaac to ask. He's like, hey,
we're going to do this offering. In Isaac's mind, it's important, this is just a little side note,
that the early antiquity in this time of Scripture, God made his people declare that
their first son would be given to God. So wouldn't it be ridiculous if he ended up having to
sacrifice his son? That it was this staple of their faith that, hey, the first son,
and they didn't usually have to sacrifice him, but they had to declare and agree that the first
son was for God. And so Isaac, knowing this honestly, is probably getting a little scared.
Says, when they came to the place of which God told him, Abraham built the altar there and
laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the
Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, he said, here I am. He said, do not lay
your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not
withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and
offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of this 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 in a second time from heaven and said, by myself I
have sworn declares the Lord because you have done this and you 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. Let's pray. God, would you speak to us this morning? Would you help us understand
what it is that you're teaching us here in Hebrews? We pray and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
What we see in the scripture is that in Hebrews 11, Abraham is being celebrated for having faith,
right? The hall of faith. And we look at this story where Abraham has this faith where he trusts
God when it doesn't make sense. But not only does he trust God when it doesn't make sense,
he trusts God with the gift that has been given him that is supposed to carry the promises
of God with it. So there's going to be moments where it feels like there's this tension and this
contradiction, but there's also this understanding that the greatest gift that Abraham has received
at this point, he's being asked to sacrifice. And in a world right now, we live in a world
where we magnify our gifts, our blessings, our achievements, our successes, our families,
our kids, and they can quickly become our idols. See, I heard it said that the enemy isn't super
busy with causing you to sin because you'll do that on your own a lot of the time. But what he
wants to do and what he tries to do is replace God with other Gods. And most of the time,
if we're being honest in this place, we don't wrestle with replacing God with other Gods with
bad things. We replace God with other Gods with the things that are good in our life.
And before we dive into this, I want us to just sit and think about what does this mean for me?
Because very often we can come into church and we can listen to a message and we can go through
and we can start to think, oh, well, this would be a great message for this person.
No, just me. Am I the only one guilty of that? But I think it's important that as we hear the
word of God and God is speaking to us, that he doesn't do coincidences, that you're not here
by accident, that you're here for a reason to hear the word of God. And we have to allow
the word of God to speak directly to our hearts first before we try to think, well,
this would be a great message for that person. No, no, no. This is a message for you.
And so what are the things in your life that maybe you wouldn't say are idols if you just
thought about it, but what are the things in your life that are good that can quickly become idols?
Think about it for yourself, whatever that may be, your family, your career, your money.
But then I want us to understand something too. So that's what we believe could possibly be idols
in our life. And I think right now there's a Russell in the church that there's the orthodoxy,
which is the right belief, right? There's the right belief system, orthodoxy, the belief system,
but then there's the other side with the orthopraxy, which is the right practices.
There's the way that we believe, and there's the way that we practice and obey.
And so when we think and we just thought about what are the idols, we just thought about the
belief side of things. But what we have to do is we have to allow the belief side of things
and then measure it with the practices. Because what can very easily happen is we can come into
church and get a lot of information and hear a lot of things and believe, oh, yeah, I believe
that. I believe that. I believe that. But if you don't act on it, you will just get spiritually
fat. And so now I want us, we thought about what are the things that could become idols.
Now I want us to question what are the things that we're acting on
that are our idols? How do you measure that?
It's pretty easy exercise. And you can get a lot deeper, but the simple question is,
what do you allow to shape your practices that aren't obeying God?
Like what do you put in place as excuses to not obey the commands of God?
Let's ask. And if you don't have anything, you're like, that's not me. It's easy. It's pride.
But what are the things that make you not follow the instructions and obey the commands
and the things that God has shown us in scripture? What is it that stops you from tithing or giving
generously? Is it your money? Your financial security? What makes you not love your neighbor?
Is it your ego? Is it your pride? Is it your political party?
Here's a big one. What is it that makes you not practice the Sabbath?
Is it your career? Is it your financial security?
What is it that makes you compromise your integrity?
The career path? That, oh, I can't, you know, I just got to kind of go with the flow because
that's what everybody else does to get promoted or lie about certain things.
If you're honest with yourself, a lot of these things
aren't necessarily bad things in themselves, but if they become ultimate things and you place them
in front of God, and you might say, well, I don't place them in front of God,
Orthodoxy. But what are you practicing?
What stops you from showing up to church on Sunday? Is it your family?
Well, my kids got a bunch of stuff going on, okay?
We can't just think about what we believe because if we talk about, hey, yeah, I got,
I believe this, I believe this, then we can look at faith and say, yeah, I got faith,
but this story that we're going to look at with Abraham, it's not just a faith,
hey, saying it, but Abraham is acting on it.
What are you practicing? What are you acting on? What are the things that could be gifts
that God has given you, but you've turned that gift into God and you lowered God on the totem
pole. And this was so convicting for me this week. That's like, I love being a pastor,
but it's really hard because these messages, I'm like, oh, all right, God.
It's like every week I feel like God is working on my heart and convicting me of these things,
and that's what we need to allow the scriptures to do. And so when we look at this scripture,
I really want us to think about the people are not in the hall of faith because they said that
they had faith. They're in the hall of faith because they acted on faith.
There's a difference of believing and acting.
And so what we see is that Abraham acts on faith. And the beautiful thing that I love about Abraham,
and I know Chris has kind of touched on this the last couple of weeks, is that Abraham didn't
get everything right. Yeah, he passed this test that we're about to look at, but there was plenty
of tests before that he didn't pass. And so if you're in here and you're like, I don't know if
I've been acting on faith or I don't know if I've been obeying what God has called me to.
That's great. That doesn't count you out of becoming this type of person that has a firm
faith and passed the test that God sends in our life.
The test that we look at in Hebrews, there's a few things that we're going to learn.
One is that the test of faith reveal our heart. It says this, by faith Abraham when he was tested,
it doesn't say if he was tested, it says when. And we have to understand that being tested is not
tempted. That the word there, parazo, actually means to examine, to prove, or to refine with
a purpose. That God is refining with a purpose when he sends tests in our life. And it does
this, it refines with a purpose our heart, and it reveals the things that we cherish.
And as tests, we have to understand they're not random. That they oftentimes reveal the areas of
our heart that we think are like, hey, no, I got this part. No, that's easy. It's not, hey, yeah,
God, test me on the things that I already do. That's not a test. A test we have to understand is
when you come to that wrestle of following God might look foolish and not make sense.
That it doesn't make sense in the eyes of other people around you, and it might seem foolish,
but that's really when you trust God. That's the test. And it reveals our heart of what we cherish
more. The gift that God has given us, and whatever sense that may be, or the giver.
We talk about this at our church from a standpoint when it comes to what most churches refer to as
giving. We call it bringing. And we've called it bringing because when we bring back what God has
given us and how we steward our time, our treasures, and our talents, we're actually
bringing back to God something that He gave us in the first place. You can't give something
that's not really yours. And so do we trust the giver and allow ourselves to bring our gifts to
Him, or do we trust more in the gift and we try to take what God has given us and run with it
and allow that to become our God. Abraham is tested, and then it says that when he was tested,
he offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up
his only son. This is when the promise and the command collide, because Isaac is the carrier of
that promise that Abraham's lineage is going to be blessed through this son, and it starts to
not make sense when he realizes, all right, God's asking me to sacrifice my only son through which
the promise is through. There's a collision here. Abraham is realizing, God, you made a promise to
me, but you're asking me to kill the person that carries that promise. This doesn't make sense.
There's a tension that's created, and I love tension throughout Scripture, because I think
tension in the middle of tension is where God loves to work. That we see throughout the New
Testament that God loves to work in the midst of the tension that is truth and love, and that
both of them have to coexist. If you bring one and not the other, there's no tension.
And that's where people get hurt. You have to allow these things to create tension and bring them at
the same time that there is a promise of God, and there is a command that we see in this Scripture
throughout this story that create the tension, and it doesn't make sense. But that's when you
have to make the choice, all right, I need to trust the promissor more than the promise,
that he will be faithful to finish whatever he wants to do, that I need to trust him even when
it doesn't make sense. And this is the things that we have to understand. When it comes to the tests
of God, it feels this way often. It's like, well, God says that he will provide, but he's asking me
to give sacrificially. And there's tension in the midst of it. God says that he is faithful,
yet he's allowing for this season of silence, and there's tension in the midst. God's promise
is purpose, yet I'm walking through failure right now. And there's tension. God promises peace,
yet he leads you into a storm. God promises abundant life, yet he asks you to lay something down.
That when the two things are at odds, we have to understand that we have to trust
the promissor and realize that the test is not the contradiction. The test is truly,
do you believe God beyond the contradiction? Do you trust in him beyond the things that don't
make sense? Do you trust in him beyond the things that are outside of your understanding?
And like we said earlier, do we not only trust in him
belief, but do we trust in him with our actions? It's easy to say, God, I trust in you. Yeah,
this doesn't make sense. I trust in you, God. Are you going to act on it? God, I trust that
you're calling me into vocational ministry, but it doesn't make sense because that would
mean that I would need to sacrifice the financial stability that I have.
God, I'm trusting you with this relationship, but it doesn't make sense because I don't want
to be lonely. God, I'm trusting you with my kids, yet I'm still controlling.
Do we not just say we trust him, but do we act on it?
I wonder what would happen, and I won't even just say in the world,
I wonder what would happen in this country if Christians just didn't say things, but they acted
on them. Like, I wonder if we really believe this book written from God and trusted that
every word is from God and the commands that he has are from God, if we wouldn't just say
we care for the poor, but we acted on it.
If we didn't just say we believe in justice for the oppressed, but we acted on it,
if we didn't just say that if Jesus asked us to lay everything down and follow him, that we would,
but instead we truly just say, God, everything's yours and I want to follow you,
and so I give it all over to you. See, faith isn't just words, it's action.
Abraham in this scene in Genesis doesn't just say, God, if you want my son, you can have him.
He puts his son on the wood and he ties him down.
That doesn't make sense.
I don't know if you have kids, but like, think about this.
God, this doesn't make sense, but I'm going to trust you anyway.
What is that gift for you?
See, for Abraham, it was his only son.
What's the only, like, the word there for only is really just pointing that he is like
the miracle child, that mono genes, that he is the only begotten, beloved son of Abraham,
and he's asking him to sacrifice that gift.
What do you place your security in? What do you place your identity in?
Like we said earlier, those can be good things.
A relationship, a marriage, a child, a career, a calling, a ministry, a dream,
a political party, your reputation, your success, your sense of control.
God tests us not to take away these good things but to ensure that these good things don't take his
place. God is testing Abraham. He's not saying, hey, I want to see if you'll kill your son.
No, no, no. He's saying, I want to see if you'll put me above your son.
I have a mentor. His name is Andrew Matrone, and I love him to death, but he asks the most
difficult questions. He's one of those people that he just, like, consistently challenges me.
And I called him a few months ago, and I was going through this stuff, and I was just like,
man, like, I'm just so fed up with this stuff, and, like, this is what I want to do,
and this is all of these things. And he just challenged me. He's like, hey,
God asked you to give it all up, would you? I was like, no, like, definitely not right now.
And he's like, no, no, no. I'm not asking about timing or play. Like, would you give it up?
Would you lay it down? And I'm like, ah. No, because, like, I got a family to feed.
And he's like, so you're putting it above God? And I was like,
well, no. And he's like, no, no. You are.
What's the greatest thing in your life, and if God asked you to give it up, would you do it?
Would you give up that job that pays the bills? No?
Would you give up that activity that takes all the extra time?
Would you just love it? Your passion about it?
Here's the thing, too.
Abraham was gifted Isaac and given a calling and a promise.
Are you willing to give up the things that you feel like God has given you?
Well, God blessed me with this. That's great. What if he wants it back?
Think about it. Are you willing to give that up?
That's what we see. That's the reason that Abraham is in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews,
where we look back on the Old Testament and we celebrate these people. It's not just because
he said that, yeah, you know what, I think I would, maybe. No, he was actually forced to act on it.
And he did. And because of that, we see that God realizes that he can trust Abraham because
he realizes Abraham will put nothing above me. Some of you, you want God to use you,
but God doesn't trust you because you're putting things above him.
Well, I want God to use me to do this, but you won't give up that.
You want God to trust you, but you don't trust God.
The end, it says in Genesis 22 and verse 15,
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 not withheld
your son, your only son. What are you withholding from God?
Abraham withheld nothing. And he used to. We see throughout scripture before that he withheld things
and he lied because of it and he trusted himself, but it didn't work out. He came to the end of
himself and said, okay, no matter what I'm trusting God more than myself. See, Isaac is not your
savior. Isaac is not your security and Isaac is not your identity. Your career is not your savior.
Your career is not your security. Your career is not your identity. Your family is not your savior.
Your family is not your security. Your family is not your identity. Your political party is not your
savior. Your political party is not your security. Your political party is not your identity.
Your control is not your savior. Your control is not your security. Your control is not your identity.
Your kids are not your savior. Your kids are not your security. Your kids are not your identity.
God is saying, hey, I am your savior, I am your security, I am your identity. Do you have faith in me?
And we celebrate and we look at Abraham today because he said,
Yes, I do.
I don't know about you, but as a believer, I want to have great faith.
I hope that my kids remember me for having great faith.
I hope that my grandkids remember me for having great faith.
And I know many of us in here, we probably feel the same way.
But do your kids see you trusting God with everything that you have?
Or do they see you trusting your career, trusting your finances,
trusting the party that you belong to, trusting in them?
I know so many young adults. I work with young adults predominantly.
They feel so much pressure because they're like,
everything leans on me. It's like, well, it seems like your parents trust you as their savior.
Yeah, it's kind of scary. Are your parents believers? Yeah, they love the Lord.
Okay, cool. I think if we actually like broke it down, we're probably the same
as like the outside world of putting the same pressure on our kids, living through them.
What do you trust in? Not what you say. I don't care what you say. What do you show?
What do you act on?
I've come to this point where like, I literally do not care what people say anymore.
I don't. Show me. Show me what you believe.
We see, as it continues on in Genesis 22,
that the giver ends up providing the ultimate gift. Verse 10, Genesis 22 10 says,
Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham,
he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.
For now I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in
the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went, took the ram and offered it up as a bird offering
instead of his son. We see in this story that God provided a ram,
but that was just a substitute for Isaac.
But Abraham was really looking for, we see earlier in Genesis 22 verse seven, it says,
and Isaac said to his father, my father, and he said, here I am, my son. He said,
behold the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said,
God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
See, in this moment, God provided a substitute for Isaac, which was a ram.
But then centuries later, God provides the lamb of God who was not Abraham's only son,
but he was God's only son in Jesus. And this is a beautiful story
that makes it clear that the entire point of scripture is to point to a man whose name is
Jesus Christ, that from the very beginning in Genesis, we see this foreshadowing of the
lamb that would come to be the sacrifice for all the world. And Jesus, and John makes it very clear,
John the Baptist says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world
when he sees Jesus, that this lamb that Abraham spoke about in Genesis 22
came in the form of a man who was his only son, God's only son.
And this whole story just foreshadows the person that is Jesus.
The giver, God, provides the ultimate gift. Who is Jesus?
And Abraham at the time was asked, hey, do you trust God or you trust your son?
But now we're asked, do you trust the gifts or the things that God has given you
or do you trust the son of God who is Jesus? There are many gifts and blessings that we'll receive
in this life, but do you trust the ultimate gift that is Jesus Christ that came to die
for each and every one of our sins? I love the foreshadowing that takes place in Genesis 22
in verse two. He instructs to Abraham, he says, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.
This is the first place in all of scripture that love appears.
It's not talking about a romantic type of love. It's not talking about a friendship type of love.
It's talking about the love of a father and his only son.
And it's the exact same love that we see in John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his
only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
All of scripture is leading up to this point where God sends his only son.
And I don't know if you realize this about God's love. I like to think there's times where I'm
like, man, I feel like I'm fully understanding God's love. Like when we had our first son,
Kingston, I was like, man, I feel like I understand the love of a father so much more.
And then I'm like, man, I think that I understand God's love. And it's at that point that I realize
that, man, I'm not even close because God's love is not the love that I have for my son, Kingston.
I love my son unconditionally so much.
But if y'all ask me to sacrifice my son for one of y'all, not a chance, because I love him so much.
But God loves you so much that he was willing to sacrifice his only son to have you in the family.
So when you think that you understand the radical love that God has for you, you got it wrong.
You might be scratching the surface of God's love, but it's greater. It's far deeper.
This is the first time that we see love appear in the Bible.
It's just pointing to the ultimate love that we see on the cross
of Jesus dying for our sins. And so how do we walk this out?
When we read this scripture, we have to understand that the goal isn't ultimately to be like Abraham.
We want to have faith like Abraham, but really the goal is to be like Jesus
who trusted God, his father beyond measure,
even when it didn't make sense.
And so how do we walk that out really quick in the band? I don't know. Is there a song on the back end?
Yeah, the worship teams can come on up and we'll kind of land with this.
How do we walk this out? How do we pass the test of faith?
One, keep your eyes on the giver. Who is God? He's the giver of all things.
Everything that you have in your life, every blessing that you received, every gift that you
have, every good thing that you would say has the opportunity to maybe even become an idol.
God has given you, and so you remember that.
And you don't put anything that he's given you above him.
Two, you trust God's character, even when you can't trace his hand.
Throughout scripture, we see God move in so many different ways, but we always see his
character remain the same. You trust his character that's the same yesterday, today,
tomorrow, and forever. And you always remember the ultimate gift that is Jesus.
There's nothing greater than that gift. And when you truly come to realize that,
you realize that the giver and the gift are the same.
The giver and the gift are one. They're God.
But if you ever come to a moment in your life where the giver and the gift are something
different, they will always be at ends with each other. Because God doesn't want anything
to be above him. And so having faith is making sure that in everything that we do,
we place God first, we trust his character, and we trust what he says.
And so when it comes to the orthodoxy, I hope that we realize that,
but I don't want us to stop there. How do we practice that?
What does that look like for you? It's consistently reminding the areas of your
life that might be good things, that they're not ultimate things.
And it's asking the question, hey, right now, what are you withholding from God?
What would you, if he asked you for it, what would you not be willing to give him?
Because if there's something that you're not willing to give him that you're withholding,
then that thing is taking place of God and it's guiding your life.
I know what it is for me. I don't know what it is for you. Only you know that.
And maybe some people in your life around you know that. They might see it and be like, hey.
A lot of the times it's not something that you have to look too far for.
There's things that popped into your mind and that's it.
Make the decision to give it to God. Why? Because he gave everything for you.
And it's his anyway.
So I'm going to pray,
but I really want us to sit on this. It's an A.W. Tozer quote that I love.
It says, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing
about us. When you think about trusting God, what comes into your mind?
God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you're
the giver that gave the ultimate gift in your son Jesus, Lord.
That you gave us a gift that we don't deserve, that we couldn't earn, Lord.
God, you gave us a gift that it doesn't make sense from the outside.
Lord, would we have faith in you?
God, Abraham had faith that you would provide, Lord. Would we have faith that you already have
provided? Would we trust you and would we not just say it with our mouths? Will we not just sing
it with our lips and worship, but would we show it with how we live our lives? God, would you
reveal in our hearts and in our minds the things that we cling on to, Lord, that we wouldn't
be willing to give over to you, Lord? Let us live with open hands, God, giving you everything
that we have, trusting that you can do more with what we have than we can do with it,
that you can do more with our yes than we can do with our no.
Speak to us, convict us of those things, Lord, and then correct us and place us on the path to walk,
Lord, trusting and having faith in you, faith that surpasses understanding, faith that doesn't
make sense, faith even when it seems foolish, Lord. Would we trust you?
You're a good God. You're a good Father.
Thank you for your love and who you are. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!