We want to invite you to, we want to say come 00:00:34.50\00:00:40.04 We want to say come let us adore Him 00:00:40.07\00:00:42.97 Am I right? Alright. 00:00:43.00\00:00:46.57 Come let us adore Him 00:00:53.35\00:00:57.69 Kneel down before Him 00:00:58.39\00:01:02.59 Worship and adore Him 00:01:04.43\00:01:07.66 Come let us adore Him 00:01:14.84\00:01:18.51 Kneel down before Him 00:01:19.77\00:01:23.45 Worship and adore Him 00:01:25.11\00:01:28.68 Immanuel, Immanuel, oh oh 00:01:30.35\00:01:34.46 Immanuel, Immanuel, oh oh 00:01:36.12\00:01:40.10 Immanuel, Immanuel oh oh 00:01:40.13\00:01:44.53 Immanuel, Immanuel, oh oh 00:01:45.63\00:01:50.17 We worship You, we worship You 00:01:51.67\00:01:55.38 Come, come let us adore Him 00:02:01.65\00:02:07.26 Kneel down before Him 00:02:11.46\00:02:16.16 Worship and adore Him 00:02:16.20\00:02:20.87 Come let us adore Him 00:02:28.71\00:02:32.31 Kneel down before Him 00:02:32.35\00:02:36.72 Worship and adore Him 00:02:36.75\00:02:41.82 Immanuel, oh Immanuel 00:02:47.40\00:02:52.37 Immanuel, oh Immanuel 00:02:55.04\00:03:04.91 Immanuel, oh Immanuel 00:03:15.46\00:03:19.26 Immanuel, oh, oh, oh 00:03:35.38\00:03:39.81 We worship You, oh oh 00:03:50.23\00:03:54.80 I shall wear a crown 00:04:06.68\00:04:15.18 I shall wear a crown 00:04:18.72\00:04:24.89 When it's all over, when it's all over 00:04:29.00\00:04:36.64 When it's all over, when it's all over 00:04:40.98\00:04:47.32 I shall see His face, I shall see His face 00:04:51.32\00:04:56.36 When it's all over, when it's all over 00:05:11.81\00:05:16.95 When it's all over, when it's all over 00:05:21.52\00:05:27.16 I shall see His face, I shall see His face 00:05:31.06\00:05:36.70 I shall see His face, I shall see His face 00:05:42.64\00:05:49.11 When it's all over, when it's all over 00:05:56.32\00:05:59.85 Oh I'm going to put on a robe 00:06:13.27\00:06:20.88 Oh yes when it's all over 00:06:20.91\00:06:26.41 Oh I'm going to put on a robe 00:06:36.22\00:06:40.86 And tell the story when it's all over 00:06:40.90\00:06:50.84 I will put on my robe 00:07:17.40\00:07:21.04 And tell the story, oh 00:07:21.07\00:07:25.24 I want to put on my robe 00:07:33.92\00:07:39.59 I want to put on my robe 00:07:54.14\00:07:58.97 And tell the story, oh 00:07:59.01\00:08:03.81 When it's over, when it's over 00:08:14.72\00:08:20.86 I want to direct your attention to the book of Genesis 00:13:37.35\00:13:40.65 Genesis the 22nd Division and consider with me verses 13-14 00:13:40.68\00:13:49.76 I've entitled our message for today 00:14:41.94\00:14:44.85 He sees and will see to it 00:14:44.88\00:14:49.58 He sees and will see to it. The holidays are supposed to be 00:14:50.69\00:14:58.09 times of joy and times of cheer 00:14:58.13\00:15:04.87 Yet it is not unusual for many people 00:15:04.90\00:15:08.94 to fall into what we call holiday blues 00:15:08.97\00:15:13.07 Holiday depression can occur at any holiday 00:15:13.11\00:15:18.68 believe it or not during a vacation or at the beginning 00:15:18.71\00:15:25.25 of a New Year. The causes are myriad. It may come about as 00:15:25.29\00:15:32.73 a result of some family distress some economic distress 00:15:32.76\00:15:38.87 perhaps it may come as a result of missing some absent family 00:15:38.90\00:15:43.67 member who would usually be there at this time of the year. 00:15:43.71\00:15:46.61 But they're gone for one reason or another. 00:15:46.64\00:15:52.35 Or perhaps it comes as a result of unrealistic expectations 00:15:52.38\00:15:56.99 that sometime we place on ourselves. 00:15:57.02\00:16:01.22 I have seen many to-do lists 00:16:02.42\00:16:05.29 that kind of give some sort of prescription 00:16:06.96\00:16:13.20 for how to deal with the holiday blues. 00:16:13.23\00:16:16.71 Unfortunately you cannot take a Tylenol and get rid of it. 00:16:16.74\00:16:22.58 What's that little powder? 00:16:24.21\00:16:26.72 BC or AB powder? Won't work. 00:16:27.92\00:16:31.42 You can't take anything. This, that or anything else. 00:16:32.85\00:16:36.69 When the blues hit you, you're just blue. 00:16:38.09\00:16:43.53 But in all of those lists, those to-do lists 00:16:44.93\00:16:49.00 of things you can do to deal with it 00:16:49.04\00:16:51.81 I have yet to see one list that includes this one simple 00:16:51.84\00:16:56.95 prescription, FAITH. What did I say? 00:16:56.98\00:17:02.95 Hebrews 11:1, what does it say? By what? I don't hear you. 00:17:02.98\00:17:09.49 See you just quote Scripture that ain't it. 00:17:14.36\00:17:17.07 You're quoting to me Hebrews 11:6, I'm asking you 00:17:17.10\00:17:21.67 about Hebrews 11:1. 00:17:21.70\00:17:25.07 I am in church ain't I? You do have a Bible don't you? 00:17:26.31\00:17:29.88 What does Hebrews 11:1 say? 00:17:29.91\00:17:33.05 Now faith is what? the substance of things hoped for 00:17:35.38\00:17:40.89 what else? The evidence of things not seen. 00:17:40.92\00:17:46.36 The evidence of things not seen. Now let me help you with that 00:17:47.80\00:17:51.93 Let me show you what faith is not. 00:17:51.97\00:17:53.70 When I first got into the ministry 00:17:53.74\00:17:57.84 It was a little tough. Trying to keep my family together 00:17:57.87\00:18:03.01 keem 'em fed on the amount of money that I was receiving 00:18:03.04\00:18:07.52 And so I was sitting at home one evening and I was watching 00:18:07.55\00:18:14.16 one of those segments of "All In the Family" I think it was 00:18:14.19\00:18:20.23 You laughing cause you saw it too, didn't you? 00:18:22.03\00:18:24.57 And on this particular segment, Edith had just, guess she was 00:18:27.10\00:18:33.27 reading the Bible, I don't know whether she was getting religion 00:18:33.31\00:18:35.41 or what. But she read that passage of Scripture in Hebrews 00:18:35.44\00:18:38.91 11:1, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence 00:18:38.95\00:18:43.18 of things not seen. And so she went and said, Archie, 00:18:43.22\00:18:50.09 what is faith? And Archie started trying to quote that 00:18:52.19\00:18:57.50 Scripture. Now imagine Archie Bunker quoting that Scripture 00:18:57.53\00:19:01.70 It was laughable, it was laughable. 00:19:03.87\00:19:07.08 So after he went through his profound explanation 00:19:08.51\00:19:13.88 on what faith was, Edith looked at him 00:19:13.92\00:19:20.59 Archie, what is faith? 00:19:20.62\00:19:24.49 Now you know the exchange, the dynamics between them. 00:19:26.03\00:19:29.80 Archie was so frustrated. He just blurted out, Edith, faith 00:19:29.83\00:19:35.17 is believing something that nobody else in their right mind 00:19:35.20\00:19:38.61 would believe. Now while that has some sort of comedic 00:19:38.64\00:19:45.38 overtone to it, it was the truth, in fact. It takes faith 00:19:45.41\00:19:53.42 sometimes to believe things that are unbelievable. 00:19:53.46\00:19:59.26 Back to my story. I decided I was going to exercise that kind 00:19:59.29\00:20:04.90 of faith the next day. And I walked down the street 00:20:04.93\00:20:08.34 to the grocery store and I wrote a check and got some 00:20:08.37\00:20:13.38 groceries for my family. Nothing unusual about that except that 00:20:13.41\00:20:19.01 there was no money in the bank. 00:20:19.05\00:20:22.78 You know you've written some of those Spalding checks before 00:20:25.05\00:20:30.49 And this was my reasoning for it. 00:20:31.86\00:20:36.93 I'm a child of God. I've returned a faithful tithe. 00:20:38.87\00:20:45.61 He said that he would open the windows of heaven 00:20:45.64\00:20:51.38 I just wrote the check before the window opened. 00:20:51.41\00:20:54.88 Imagine my surprise the next morning when I heard a knock 00:21:06.73\00:21:11.80 at the door. And I opened it and the kindly gentleman 00:21:11.83\00:21:17.51 stood in the door holding my check. 00:21:17.54\00:21:22.24 informing me that he was the manager of the store 00:21:22.28\00:21:25.41 Somewhere in my thinking I had thought 00:21:27.92\00:21:30.82 that after I wrote the check, God would open the window 00:21:30.85\00:21:36.83 one window, in fact it could've been a just a little skylight 00:21:36.86\00:21:40.16 I didn't care, money would somehow fall into my account. 00:21:40.20\00:21:44.77 So that before the grocery store tried to clear it 00:21:45.93\00:21:49.94 there would be money in there already to sustain it. Now 00:21:49.97\00:21:55.41 beloved, that's not faith. That is foolishness. 00:21:55.44\00:22:01.08 In fact, in legal terms, it's called theft by deception. 00:22:02.62\00:22:06.99 Right? Theft by deception. 00:22:07.02\00:22:09.42 Anytime you got to do something wrong, hello 00:22:09.46\00:22:14.46 in order to try to put God in gear to come to your aid 00:22:15.83\00:22:22.17 something is wrong. Let me say something to you. 00:22:22.20\00:22:26.17 It's one thing to have faith when your cupboards are full 00:22:26.21\00:22:30.98 of food. But it's another thing to have faith when you ain't got 00:22:31.01\00:22:35.08 but a heel of bread in the house. It's one thing to have 00:22:35.12\00:22:39.49 faith when you got four good tires on your car. It's another 00:22:39.52\00:22:45.06 thing to have faith when steel belts are breaking through 00:22:45.09\00:22:48.96 and you can see them. Obviously it's another thing to have faith 00:22:49.00\00:22:52.87 when your kids are well behaved and manageable, it's another 00:22:52.90\00:22:57.17 thing to have faith when your children have eaten a five 00:22:57.21\00:23:00.74 pound bag of sugar. It's one thing to have faith when you're 00:23:00.78\00:23:06.21 walking around in the bloom of health, but it's another thing 00:23:06.25\00:23:09.72 to have faith when your doctor just told you, you have stage 4 00:23:09.75\00:23:13.92 cancer. It's one thing to have faith when your husband is 00:23:13.96\00:23:18.66 bringing you candy and flowers and another thing to have faith 00:23:18.69\00:23:23.00 when your eyes are getting bruised and your body is getting 00:23:23.03\00:23:26.53 battered because of a man who has not come to value you as 00:23:26.57\00:23:32.27 his wife. Listen to what the American Standard Version says 00:23:38.15\00:23:41.18 about this passage. It interprets it this way: 00:23:41.22\00:23:46.55 Faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction 00:23:46.59\00:23:53.46 of things not seen. What everybody? 00:23:53.50\00:23:58.07 A conviction. Then the New Testament in modern English 00:23:58.10\00:24:02.50 translation, translates it this way. Faith is the title deed 00:24:02.54\00:24:08.54 to things hoped for. The pudding to the proof of things not seen. 00:24:08.58\00:24:15.62 The title deed. Stay there with me for a moment. 00:24:17.72\00:24:20.49 I got to go way back to help you try to understand this, 00:24:20.52\00:24:24.23 way back. Anybody ever remember a store called Woolworth's? 00:24:24.26\00:24:29.20 Is that going back? 00:24:31.60\00:24:34.10 Y'all could have Wal-Mart's, Targets, J C Penney's, 00:24:36.91\00:24:43.68 Give me Woolworth's. That was it. 00:24:43.71\00:24:49.75 One day we went to the store with Mama. And as we looked 00:24:50.59\00:24:58.36 around the store we saw all kinds of things that we wanted. 00:24:58.39\00:25:02.06 I wanted a pair of hip hugger pants. 00:25:02.10\00:25:08.97 Brown corduroy, hip hugger pants. 00:25:18.11\00:25:23.42 My brother, he wanted a pair of chuck converses. 00:25:27.86\00:25:34.96 Y'all got some old folks here. 00:25:39.93\00:25:42.17 Then there was one other thing that I wanted 00:25:47.88\00:25:50.25 I wanted a Nehru jacket. 00:25:52.15\00:25:55.08 But mother didn't get us anything that day. 00:26:06.90\00:26:10.27 We just went on home. 00:26:11.33\00:26:13.80 I was styling in my corduroy pants and Nehru jacket 00:26:17.34\00:26:21.94 in my sleep. But one day I came home from school and mama 00:26:21.98\00:26:28.58 gave me this little ticket and she said 00:26:28.62\00:26:32.35 Go to town to Woolworth's and give them this ticket 00:26:32.39\00:26:37.63 to the person in the layaway department 00:26:37.66\00:26:43.30 I thought to myself, Layaway! 00:26:47.14\00:26:50.47 That sounds pretty good to be. You don't go to layaway 00:26:50.51\00:26:55.48 unless something is laid away. 00:26:55.51\00:26:56.91 I didn't know what was in there but I took the little ticket 00:26:59.05\00:27:02.92 my mama gave me and I took it to the lady in layaway 00:27:02.95\00:27:07.06 and lo and behold here comes my pant, a brown corduroy 00:27:07.09\00:27:13.96 hip huggers. A Nehru jacket. 00:27:14.00\00:27:18.70 And some Chuck converses. And I took those things home 00:27:18.73\00:27:27.24 excited about the fact that mama had sometime ago unbeknownst 00:27:27.28\00:27:34.88 to me already went back to Woolworth's and paid for 00:27:34.92\00:27:40.19 those things and all I had to do was exercise the faith 00:27:40.22\00:27:45.23 to take, Oh Jesus, to take that little ticket, give it to the 00:27:45.26\00:27:51.00 lady in Layaway and watch her give me the things I hoped for 00:27:51.03\00:27:56.67 cause I had the title deed to them. Beloved whatever it is 00:27:56.71\00:28:03.41 we're hoping for, Jesus has already paid the price 00:28:03.45\00:28:09.28 if we use our faith to claim it. 00:28:09.32\00:28:14.02 To claim it. Here's the big point of my message today 00:28:15.52\00:28:19.69 Strong faith is born out of strong trials. 00:28:19.73\00:28:27.64 I ain't got nothin else to say today. It ain't that deep. 00:28:29.50\00:28:34.78 If you can just find some kind of way to wrap your mind around 00:28:34.81\00:28:38.38 that, strong faith is born out of strong trials. 00:28:38.41\00:28:47.82 Have you ever heard the Psalmist say, Lord don't move my mountain 00:28:47.86\00:28:51.76 Just do what? Give me the strength to climb it 00:28:53.40\00:28:58.90 Please don't move my stumbling blocks, leave me learn around it 00:28:58.93\00:29:03.51 That old slave understood something about trials 00:29:03.54\00:29:07.81 and troubles and problems and tribulation. They build strong 00:29:07.84\00:29:12.98 bodies in a way that no vitamin ever could. 00:29:13.01\00:29:16.99 And there, right there, in those difficult experiences, we give 00:29:18.82\00:29:24.69 birth to a quality and caliber of faith that we would not have 00:29:24.73\00:29:29.80 otherwise had we not gone through that particular trial. 00:29:29.83\00:29:35.14 We ought to stop praying, Lord please take my trials away. 00:29:35.17\00:29:40.34 You may be praying for the Lord to take something away from you 00:29:42.94\00:29:45.61 that might be of great benefit to you. I believe that there is 00:29:45.65\00:29:53.29 no more profound illustration of this kind of concept 00:29:53.32\00:29:58.59 this experience than that found in Genesis 22nd chapter we 00:29:58.63\00:30:03.87 we classically call Abraham's Test. Abraham's Test, go there. 00:30:03.90\00:30:11.37 Go there with me to Genesis 22nd chapter. 00:30:11.41\00:30:15.88 I want to lift up verses 1-3. 00:30:15.91\00:30:19.35 Abraham was called the Father of the Faithful. Yet on two 00:31:07.40\00:31:15.40 occasions in his life he did not seem to exercise a whole 00:31:15.44\00:31:20.38 lot of faith. Once when he went to Egypt with his wife. 00:31:20.41\00:31:24.21 And he told the king what? That she was his sister. 00:31:24.25\00:31:29.08 Concealed her true identity because he did not have the 00:31:29.12\00:31:34.52 quality of faith to be honest about it. The second time 00:31:34.56\00:31:39.79 he demonstrated a lack of faith is when God has promised him 00:31:39.83\00:31:45.93 some 50 years prior that he was going to give birth to a 00:31:45.97\00:31:50.81 child, a son and that son would be the progenitor of a great 00:31:50.84\00:31:57.18 nation. His seed would know no end. 00:31:57.21\00:32:00.08 And instead of waiting, because he doubted, he was 100, his wife 00:32:00.88\00:32:08.99 was 90 when the Angel said you're going to have a child 00:32:09.02\00:32:12.09 what did she do? I don't blame her. 00:32:12.13\00:32:15.13 My own daughter right now, I don't know how old she is 00:32:15.16\00:32:20.17 how old is she baby, huh? 26. 00:32:20.20\00:32:24.57 We're getting old. 26. And she calls home everyday 00:32:28.98\00:32:37.55 I see her posting on FaceBook, talking about her experiences 00:32:37.59\00:32:42.39 she's supposed to be giving birth on January 1 00:32:42.42\00:32:44.46 She's not going to make it, is she sweetie, no she's not 00:32:44.49\00:32:48.00 Just think. She's 26, talking about the challenges of being 00:32:49.60\00:32:56.77 pregnant, but here's a lady 90 00:32:56.81\00:33:01.84 Keep em up Abraham, keep em up. 00:33:10.19\00:33:13.49 Give me your minds, come back, come back. 00:33:26.67\00:33:30.17 We're going to do what? Have a child. 00:33:36.24\00:33:40.62 Abraham couldn't see it and so Abraham gets a secondary wife 00:33:40.65\00:33:49.36 a concubine and has a child by her. 00:33:49.39\00:33:55.86 His faith? How could he be the father of the faithful? 00:33:55.90\00:34:00.30 And he's trying to find his own solutions to deal 00:34:00.34\00:34:05.11 with the circumstances that God had allowed to come into 00:34:05.14\00:34:08.54 his life. Abraham. Abraham. I want you to take your son 00:34:08.58\00:34:16.22 your what kind of son? your only son 00:34:16.25\00:34:21.82 Now he wasn't in fact his only son, was he? 00:34:24.26\00:34:26.76 Cause he just had a son, his name was Ishmael. 00:34:26.80\00:34:29.70 14 years older than Isaac. However, he was the only son 00:34:29.73\00:34:36.10 who fulfilled the conditions of the covenant. 00:34:36.14\00:34:41.44 The promise. I want you to take that son, not that other one 00:34:41.48\00:34:48.18 that son. And I want you to take him and offer him 00:34:48.22\00:34:53.66 as a burnt offering. Remember now,, Sarah has waited how long? 00:34:53.69\00:35:03.26 Now he's having this revelation this epiphany in his sleep. 00:35:06.47\00:35:12.17 Surely somebody ought to wake him up. 00:35:12.21\00:35:17.45 Surely he's having a nightmare. Surely he's had something to 00:35:17.48\00:35:23.82 drink before he went to sleep that night. 00:35:23.85\00:35:25.82 Because here he hears a voice telling him to get up, take your 00:35:25.85\00:35:31.16 only son, the one that you waited so long for 00:35:31.19\00:35:34.70 and kill him, offer him as a sacrifice, understand? 00:35:34.73\00:35:39.53 You got to know that you know that you know the voice of God 00:35:39.57\00:35:43.61 That's the only way in the world he could've been obedient 00:35:45.54\00:35:50.01 it's the same voice that had told him to leave Ur of the 00:35:50.05\00:35:54.08 Chaldeans, it's the same voice that had promised him 00:35:54.12\00:35:58.02 that He would make of him a great nation. He understood the 00:35:58.05\00:36:01.32 intonation of the voice when you heard the voice of God 00:36:01.36\00:36:05.29 once you recognize it, you'll never forget it whether you're 00:36:05.33\00:36:09.23 wide awake or deep in sleep you'll know the voice of God. 00:36:09.26\00:36:13.90 Take your son. Understand what God is asking him now. 00:36:18.54\00:36:22.58 Understand. All the heathen nations, the Semitic tribes 00:36:24.05\00:36:29.72 around him practice child sacrifice. 00:36:29.75\00:36:36.32 He's not a heathen. He is in fact, a believer of the true God 00:36:36.36\00:36:43.43 When you read the 6th chapter of Micah, somewhere about verse 00:36:43.47\00:36:48.10 7, you will discover that Israel got so disconnected from 00:36:48.14\00:36:54.24 God that they too started practicing child sacrifice 00:36:54.28\00:37:02.72 just like the heathens around them, because somehow they 00:37:02.75\00:37:07.79 believed that if you would sacrifice the first fruit or the 00:37:07.82\00:37:13.33 first born of your body some kind of way it would lead you 00:37:13.36\00:37:17.50 into a greater relationship with God. 00:37:17.53\00:37:21.87 You would have great approval. But Abraham recognized 00:37:21.90\00:37:26.98 that's what heathens did. That's not what Christians do. 00:37:27.01\00:37:31.38 How often, how often do we find ourselves reflecting and 00:37:31.41\00:37:37.65 doing the things that people who don't portend to know God 00:37:37.69\00:37:42.56 and yet we follow their practices. 00:37:42.59\00:37:46.80 And do the things they do in order to fit in. 00:37:46.83\00:37:52.43 In order to belong. Abraham also knew that right there 00:37:52.47\00:37:59.67 in the law it says, Thou shalt not what? Could this really be 00:37:59.71\00:38:05.95 the voice of God contradicting Himself 00:38:05.98\00:38:09.82 Kill your son, when you commanded that thou shalt not 00:38:09.85\00:38:14.72 kill? Once again you gotta know that you know, that you know 00:38:14.76\00:38:18.09 the voice of God. Look at verse 8. 00:38:18.13\00:38:24.60 Here's Abraham. He recognizes that it's the voice of God 00:38:58.00\00:39:02.47 he heard the night before. He goes into the tent of his son 00:39:02.50\00:39:07.48 while he's sleeping. We got to go. We got to offer a sacrifice 00:39:07.51\00:39:13.42 This is not unusual. They had been to other altars before 00:39:13.45\00:39:18.09 to offer sacrifices. So this is not strange to Isaac. He gets 00:39:18.12\00:39:23.39 two other servants to come with him. He gets wood, he gets 00:39:23.43\00:39:26.86 fire and they begin to walk. They're living in Beersheba 00:39:26.90\00:39:31.77 and yet he recognizes that it's a 3 day journey so he's got to 00:39:31.80\00:39:38.61 walk for days with this secret inside him. He does not tell 00:39:38.64\00:39:44.85 Sarah because he recognizes that Sarah has the blood 00:39:44.88\00:39:50.15 of a colored woman running through her veins. 00:39:50.19\00:39:53.15 He does not want to see the perm just come out. 00:40:06.63\00:40:12.31 You goin to do what? With who? 00:40:17.65\00:40:22.02 He recognized that she would try to prevent him. 00:40:31.63\00:40:36.60 And so he holds it in. He doesn't tell the servants that 00:40:36.63\00:40:41.17 accompany him. Because they too would try to prevent him. 00:40:41.20\00:40:45.61 From following through with what God has asked him to do 00:40:45.64\00:40:50.35 it's a 3 day journey from Beersheba to Mount Moriah 00:40:50.38\00:40:54.55 and each night that comes, Abraham stays up all night 00:40:54.58\00:41:00.22 praying, hoping he can get God to change His mind. 00:41:00.26\00:41:03.99 Have you every done anything like that, when God puts you 00:41:04.03\00:41:06.03 in a circumstance? Huh? And you prayed and asked God, 00:41:06.06\00:41:11.70 He needs to think about it again. Can you change your mind 00:41:11.73\00:41:17.64 about this thing? He did that the first night. He did that 00:41:17.67\00:41:23.85 the second night. And when he wakes up on the third day 00:41:23.88\00:41:26.45 he can see in the distance Mount Moriah and he recognizes the 00:41:26.48\00:41:31.25 sign that God has given him. I'm going to show you where you 00:41:31.29\00:41:34.69 supposed to do this. He sees the glory, a glorious little 00:41:34.72\00:41:39.06 cloud hovering over Mt. Moriah and he knows that's where I 00:41:39.09\00:41:43.93 gotta take him and so he leaves the two servants behind 00:41:43.97\00:41:50.04 takes the wood off the donkey, places the wood on the back 00:41:50.07\00:41:53.94 of his son, gets some glowing embers in a container 00:41:53.98\00:41:58.11 picks up the knife and they began to make the trip 00:41:58.15\00:42:01.58 up the jagged slope of Mount Moriah and when they reach its 00:42:01.62\00:42:07.29 summit, being an astute young man, being a knowledgeable 00:42:07.32\00:42:15.06 young man, Isaac says ''Dad, 00:42:15.10\00:42:19.80 we got wood, we got a knife, we got some fire 00:42:21.64\00:42:29.78 but where is the lamb? 00:42:29.81\00:42:35.98 Imagine his surprise when Abraham says, God will provide 00:42:36.02\00:42:44.16 Himself a lamb. Up here? We're on a mountain, man. 00:42:44.19\00:42:52.37 If He was going to give us a lamb we should've brought one 00:42:52.40\00:42:55.90 from our flocks. We've got thousands of flocks. 00:42:55.94\00:42:59.07 But they go on and they build the altar. They take the sticks 00:42:59.11\00:43:02.81 and place them on the altar and now comes the moment of truth 00:43:02.84\00:43:06.51 Son, God has told me you are the sacrifice. 00:43:06.55\00:43:13.42 Remember now, Abraham is over a hundred years old. 00:43:17.99\00:43:25.57 Isaac at this time is somewhere between 20 and 22 years old. 00:43:25.60\00:43:30.04 Take a 20 or 22 year old young man today 00:43:32.21\00:43:36.44 and insert him into the story. 00:43:36.48\00:43:39.48 Daddy, PCP is not good for you. 00:43:55.96\00:43:59.23 But there's something, something cradled in the story that we got 00:44:04.67\00:44:12.08 to expose. Think about the regard, the respect and the 00:44:12.11\00:44:18.35 recognition the son had for the father's relationship with God. 00:44:18.39\00:44:23.26 For him to say God told me to do this and for a 20 year old 00:44:23.29\00:44:30.20 son to submit to the will of his father because he respects 00:44:30.23\00:44:36.27 him, he knows he's got a relationship, he knows he's got 00:44:36.30\00:44:39.74 a connection with God. That says something to us today. 00:44:39.77\00:44:44.65 Oh if we could raise children in our homes that respect us and 00:44:44.68\00:44:50.09 regard us as godly parents. The only they're going to do that 00:44:50.12\00:44:55.02 beloved is if we act like godly parents. 00:44:55.06\00:45:00.03 You can't say one thing and then do another 00:45:00.06\00:45:04.60 and expect your children to give the same level of respect 00:45:04.63\00:45:10.14 They see through the hypocrisy, the recognize the duplicity 00:45:10.17\00:45:16.14 and they've already made up in their minds, like we all have 00:45:16.18\00:45:20.82 said, when I grow up and have children I ain't gonna act like 00:45:20.85\00:45:24.32 our mama. I ain't gonna act like my daddy. 00:45:24.35\00:45:29.32 But understand just as poignant as the faith of Abraham's is, 00:45:29.36\00:45:38.33 so too is the faith of Isaac. 00:45:38.37\00:45:44.51 Horror runs through his veins at first and then he transitions 00:45:44.54\00:45:50.71 into submission. Daddy, if God told you to do that, do it. 00:45:50.75\00:45:55.78 You've got to obey him. There's something here you've got to see 00:45:57.69\00:46:02.76 finish it for me. 00:46:16.40\00:46:19.84 The Hebrew says, and we will come again to you. 00:46:22.54\00:46:27.98 Remember now what is he being asked to do? 00:46:30.15\00:46:32.25 Sacrifice his son. But what does he say even before he leaves? 00:46:32.29\00:46:37.73 We will be back! Yes. 00:46:39.86\00:46:46.13 Will you read Hebrews chapter 11, verse 9? 00:46:47.24\00:46:50.51 You'll find out that Abraham was able to do this 00:46:50.54\00:46:54.74 because he accounted God with the ability to raise his son up 00:46:54.78\00:47:01.02 from the dead. The ironical thing about it is there was 00:47:01.05\00:47:04.99 no historical record of anyone having been resurrected from 00:47:05.02\00:47:10.16 the dead at this point. 00:47:10.19\00:47:13.63 Where then do you get the faith to believe that God is going to 00:47:13.66\00:47:22.40 somehow resurrect your boy. Faith is the substance of things 00:47:22.44\00:47:28.84 hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. 00:47:28.88\00:47:34.18 So he lays there and his daddy raises his knife 00:47:36.99\00:47:42.62 and as he raises the knife and understand something, he is 00:47:42.66\00:47:48.76 going to kill his son. We love to hasten and get to the other 00:47:48.80\00:47:54.37 part where the angel says, hey Abraham stay your hand. But 00:47:54.40\00:47:58.17 let's stay right there. The Angel would not have said that 00:47:58.21\00:48:01.64 if He was not sure that Abraham was going to follow through. 00:48:01.68\00:48:05.91 Isn't that right? If you had an ATM and somebody comes to 00:48:05.95\00:48:11.82 you with a gun and says, give me your money. You gonna start 00:48:11.85\00:48:16.79 laughing? What're you gonna do? You gonna give him the money. 00:48:16.83\00:48:21.26 Why? Because you think they're gonna do something, right? 00:48:21.30\00:48:26.33 The Angel understood this man was going to take his son's life 00:48:26.37\00:48:34.28 And He stops him. In that synaptic moment He stops him 00:48:34.31\00:48:41.62 He arrests his hand. Abraham I understand now you won't 00:48:41.65\00:48:45.42 withhold anything from me. I understand you won't put 00:48:45.45\00:48:48.79 anything before me, not even your precious, only son. 00:48:48.82\00:48:53.29 Imagine the relief, imagine the relief. 00:48:55.43\00:49:00.54 Here's what I learned when I was studying this message. 00:49:02.04\00:49:05.31 Sometimes our greatest anxiety is not what happens but what we 00:49:06.37\00:49:12.08 think is going to happen. 00:49:12.11\00:49:15.68 We stress ourselves out thinking that the proverbial sword of 00:49:15.72\00:49:24.26 Damocles is going to fall on us before anything ever happens 00:49:24.29\00:49:32.23 and so we find ourselves leading distressed lives. 00:49:32.27\00:49:37.97 Always living with the anticipation of gloom and doom 00:49:38.01\00:49:43.81 forgetting the rest of the story. 00:49:43.85\00:49:47.15 There are seven compound names of God that are found in the 00:50:18.58\00:50:23.49 Old Testament. In Exodus 15 verse 26 He's called 00:50:23.52\00:50:28.89 Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals you. In Exodus 17: 8-15, 00:50:28.92\00:50:36.90 He's Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my Banner. In Judges 6:24, 00:50:36.93\00:50:43.57 He's Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our Peace. In Psalm 23:1, He's 00:50:43.61\00:50:50.55 Jehovah Rohi, the Lord is my Shepherd. In Jeremiah 23:6, 00:50:50.58\00:50:54.95 He's Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, 00:50:54.98\00:50:58.35 In Exodus 48:35, He's Jehovah Shamma, the Lord is Present 00:50:58.39\00:51:03.69 but in Genesis 22:14, He's Jehovah Jireh. In the Hebrew 00:51:03.73\00:51:12.33 it's Yehovah Yireh. Yehovah Yireh. Now when we hear that 00:51:12.37\00:51:20.91 word, when we hear that word we love to say it means what? 00:51:20.94\00:51:28.08 Talk to me. The Lord will Provide. Isn't that right? 00:51:28.12\00:51:36.69 The Lord will Provide. But I'm going to give you a lesson 00:51:36.73\00:51:41.03 in Hebrew. The original Hebrew says, The Lord Sees 00:51:41.06\00:51:47.64 and will see to it. 00:51:47.67\00:51:51.67 That speaks to my lack of faith. 00:51:55.08\00:51:58.11 That speaks to my doubt. That speaks to my lowliness. 00:51:58.15\00:52:03.69 That speaks to my despair, that speaks to my pessimism. 00:52:03.72\00:52:09.36 That speaks to my negative attitude when I know if I could 00:52:09.39\00:52:13.29 just know that God sees what I'm going through 00:52:13.33\00:52:17.57 sometimes we get into such a place, a rut that we don't 00:52:17.60\00:52:21.64 believe that God even knows that we're in trouble. 00:52:21.67\00:52:25.81 That we have needs, and yet Jehovah Jireh says I see it. 00:52:25.84\00:52:30.98 I see what you're going through. I'm well aware of your 00:52:32.98\00:52:39.89 circumstances. But that wouldn't be enough. J.B. Phillips 00:52:39.92\00:52:45.73 in his book Your God is Too Small, says if you don't have 00:52:45.76\00:52:50.27 a God that can do something about your situation 00:52:50.30\00:52:55.00 then your God is too small and you need to trade Him in 00:52:55.04\00:53:00.54 and get you another. If your God can't pay your electric bill 00:53:00.58\00:53:05.55 then your God is too small. If your God can't fix your broken 00:53:05.58\00:53:09.88 marriage then your God is too small. If your God can't raise 00:53:09.92\00:53:14.39 up your sick body then your God is too small. If your God can't 00:53:14.42\00:53:18.99 get you another job then your God is too small. If your God 00:53:19.03\00:53:23.06 can't take you to work on empty then your God is too small 00:53:23.10\00:53:26.77 If your God can't give you a promotion, then your God is 00:53:26.80\00:53:30.57 too small. If your God can't help you raise your children 00:53:30.61\00:53:34.14 then your God is too small. If your God cannot help you pass 00:53:34.18\00:53:38.18 that class, then your God is too small. If your God cannot 00:53:38.21\00:53:42.52 find another mortgage payment then your God is too small 00:53:42.55\00:53:46.32 If your God cannot stop fore- closure, then your God is 00:53:46.35\00:53:50.53 too small. If God can't step into your circumstances 00:53:50.56\00:53:54.26 and do something spectacular to change them for your good 00:53:54.30\00:54:00.47 then you need to trade Him in and get you another God. 00:54:00.50\00:54:04.37 Because the God I serve, He sees I said He sees, He sees 00:54:04.41\00:54:11.48 and He will see to it. 00:54:11.51\00:54:16.79 He sees and He will see to it. 00:54:23.09\00:54:26.86 Let me close with a challenging verse of Scripture. 00:54:29.16\00:54:33.47 Luke 18, verse 8. The Bible says: When the Son of Man shall 00:54:33.50\00:54:42.78 come, will He find faith in the earth. 00:54:42.81\00:54:50.32 When the Son of Man shall come 00:54:51.92\00:54:56.69 will He find faith on the earth? 00:54:56.73\00:55:01.10 Times are bad now, are they not? 00:55:01.13\00:55:08.20 Bible Prophecy in Daniel 12:1 let's us know 00:55:10.21\00:55:14.81 that there's a time of trouble coming such as there never was 00:55:14.84\00:55:20.05 since there was a nation on the earth. The problem is 00:55:20.08\00:55:24.29 that we're looking at that particular passage in future 00:55:24.32\00:55:30.63 times, when in fact I believe it's here. 00:55:30.66\00:55:36.10 There's a time for occupy Dallas occupy Dimlah 00:55:37.83\00:55:44.77 occupy L.A., occupy Cairo 00:55:44.81\00:55:49.04 occupy Iran. Look all around this globe. Trouble everywhere 00:55:49.08\00:55:56.15 It seems there is unrest every where, there is an erosion 00:55:56.18\00:56:01.32 and loss of stability. People appear as if they've lost their 00:56:01.36\00:56:07.23 minds. But it's in fact time when things look the darkest 00:56:07.26\00:56:13.80 and the most forlorn that we can never ever forget that 00:56:13.84\00:56:18.61 that God sees and He will see to it. 00:56:18.64\00:56:25.21 That he fixes everything. 00:56:25.25\00:56:29.68 Do you believe that? If you believe that stand on your feet 00:56:29.72\00:56:33.96 with me today, if you believe that. 00:56:33.99\00:56:37.29 If you believe that He sees and will see to it, while you're 00:56:37.33\00:56:43.47 standing, there's someone who's here today, there's someone here 00:56:43.50\00:56:49.74 today. You're here and you're saying Pastor 00:56:49.77\00:56:56.31 I must confess that I'm one of the folk who can't believe that 00:56:57.68\00:57:04.12 God is even aware of me. I pray and I pray. It doesn't 00:57:04.15\00:57:12.33 appear as if my prayers go any where. So I got discouraged 00:57:12.36\00:57:18.23 I must confess Pastor I haven't prayed in quite a while 00:57:18.27\00:57:25.17 because I don't believe He's listening anymore 00:57:27.01\00:57:30.38 But today, I heard something today. I heard you say that 00:57:32.11\00:57:37.49 He does see and He will see to it. 00:57:37.52\00:57:41.29