The Posture of Posture of Obedince Pt 11 Fight for your Promise

Today we are standing at the foot of one of the most heart-stopping chapters in the Bible. Genesis 22. The mountain. The wood. The fire. The boy. And a father whose obedience is about to be tested in a way that still echoes through every page of Scripture after it.

Because here is what nobody tells you when God speaks a promise over your life — there is going to come a day when you have to fight for it. Not against God. With God. Beside God. For what God said.

Stay with me. If you have ever held something in your hands that you waited years to receive — and then felt God ask you to trust Him with it all over again — this episode was made for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Nothing but with you I have everything. Tell him thank you. Come on and give God some praise as we adore him on this morning. You should have your Bibles by now. You should have your Bibles by now. Let us turn to Genesis chapter number twenty two. And I have several verses to read in this particular chapter. So I ask that you just bear with me as I read these verses. And as we go into what thus saith the Lord for us on this morning. Genesis chapter number 22. We'll be reading verses 1 and 2 to begin. And it says, Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abram, and he answered, Here I am. Then he said, Take your own, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mora and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you. Jump down to verse number five. And Abraham said to the young men, Stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go up yonder and worship. And we will come back to you. Skip down to verse number seven. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I, my son. Then he said, Look the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? He asked the question. Turn with me to verse number 11. And we're reading 11 and 12. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abram, Abram. So he said, Here I am. And he said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God. Since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Put your Bibles down and let us pray. Heavenly Father, we want to say thank you. Thank you for what was said and saying so far. But now, God, we need to hear from you. We need a word from on high. We ask that you, or I ask that you forgive me for anything I said, did, thought about that is not like you. I ask that you cast it in a sea of forgiveness and remember it no more. I don't want anything to stop, hinder, or impede how you're going to use me on today. God, I yield my mind, my body, my spirit. Everything about me belongs to you. Hide me behind the cross. Don't let them see me, don't let them hear me, but let them hear and see you. Use me for your glory today, God. And God, I ask that you open up the ears of the believer. Even open the ears of the non-believer that they may hear something that will draw them closer to you. We ask that you do this right now in the name of Jesus. And we bind the hand of the enemy that will try to distract and to take our attention off what you're trying to say. We ask that you loose your spirit right now. Do it in the name of Jesus. And we'll be so mindful to give you honor, glory, and praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Ladies and gentlemen, as we close out this series, The Posture of Obedience, I want to leave you with this final thought. And that is fight for your promise. Fight for your promise. Look at your neighbor that's sitting next to you. I need someone to type it in the chat and type in your promise is worth fighting for. Come on, declare that, declare that in there, declare that in your home, declare that in your heart, declare that in your mind. Your promise is worth fighting for. Because the answer to that question will tell us everything you need to know about where your posture of your obedience really stands. I want to revisit the end of Genesis chapter 21 before we get into chapter number twenty two. Because what happens at the end of 21 is what sets up chapter number twenty two. We left off where Hagar was, or Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away. They leave with nothing but bread and a skin or a jug of water. They wander into the wilderness of Beathsheba. And eventually the water runs out. Not only does the water run out, but the bread runs out. Everything they were carrying out of Abraham's house is now gone. And what was once a promising future for Hagar and Ishmael has now turned into a nightmare. Hagar is at the end of her rope. So she takes her son and she lays him down under the shrubs and walks away. Because she could not bear to watch her son die of starvation and of thirst. And then the Bible says that she lifted up her voice and wept. But watch this. The Bible does not say that God heard Hagar. The Bible said that God heard the voice of the lad. Now I want you to think about that. Hagar was weeping loud enough for the Bible to record it, but God heard the voice of Ishmael. That's telling me something here. That tells me that Ishmael was weeping for his mother. Ishmael was lying under the shrubs, hearing his mother sobbing in the distance. And he began to cry out for her. He began to cry out to God for his mother. Ladies and gentlemen, where do you think Ishmael learned how to cry out to God? Ishmael learned how to cry out to God from Abraham his father. The same Abraham who built altars, the same Abraham who called on the name of the Lord, the same Abraham who interceded for Sodom, now hunts Ishmael interceding for his mother. Ishmael grew up weeping or watching his father pray. And now in the wilderness, look at this with no food, no water, and no future. What his father taught him by example now comes out of him out of necessity. Ah, I'm gonna stop here and tell you this. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have kids, always teach them how to pray. Ah, because when they get into a situation and they don't know how to figure it out, that prayer will start to rise up in them and they'll start to pray for themselves. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, watch this. What you produce out of season, God will shall teach them how to pray. Ah, it may not be the season to teach them how to pray, but they should see you on your knees. Ah, they will see you on your knees, and they will know how they should cry out to God in the midst of their circumstances. Ah, see, Hagar was at her wit's end, but her son knew how to reach God. Because Ishmael came from Abraham. And anyone who comes from a praying house carries something inside of them, whether they realize it or not. And here's the beautiful thing about this: God didn't show up to Ishmael. God showed up to Hagar. Ah, isn't that ironic? Because remember, when Abraham was talking to God about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels showed up at Sodom and Gomorrah because Abraham interceded. Here now you have Ishmael interceding for his mother, his mother, and you see now that God showed up not to Ishmael, but he showed up to Hagar, the one he was praying for. God told Hagar, what ails you? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad. Where is he? Hagar said, God told Hagar, Arise, get the lad, hold up his hand, for I will make him a great nation. Then the Lord opened her eyes, and a well of water that had been there the whole time, Hagar finally sees it. She fills the jug or the skin with water, she gives the lad a drink, and the Bible says that he grew because he was Abraham's seed or child. Look at your neighbor and tell them God still blesses what comes out of a praying house. Don't stop praying. Pray in season. Pray out of season. Don't stop praying. Set the example for your children. As we dive into our texts, look at what happens right out of the gate. The Lord calls Abraham. And Abraham says, I am. Here I am. Now, church, don't miss that. Here I am. This is not a casual response. Here I am means I'm listening. You have my undivided attention. You have you, whatever you are about to say, I'm ready to receive it. Abraham did not say, Hold on, Lord. Abraham did not say, Let me check my schedule. He said, Here I am. Because by Genesis 22, Abraham's posture of obedience had been refined for this moment. Abraham is already standing at attention. And when God speaks, he says to Abraham, and he quote, or he doesn't ask a question, but he gives a command. He says, Take your now son, your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Morah and offer him there as a burnt offering on the mountains of which I shall tell you. Look at those two words, take now. These two words mean act with haste. Do not deliberate. Do not try to negotiate. Do not try putting it off until the morning. Or when it is convenient for you. Take now, because God gives you a command. God is not opening up the floor for discussion. He's not saying think about it. He's not saying take your time with it. He says, take now. Go and do what I tell you to do. God is telling you what to do. Watch what Abraham does. Abraham hears what God says. And the very next morning, he gets up early, saddles the donkey, he takes two young men with him, and Isaac, his son. He splits the wood of the burnt offering, and he went on to the place which God had told him. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to notice something here. The Bible does not say, the Bible does not say Abraham had a conversation with his wife. The Bible does not say Abraham had a conversation with his son. The Bible tells us God spoke and Abraham obeyed. Abraham did not discuss this with Saul. Abraham did not sit down with Isaac and explain what was about to happen. And I believe I know why. Because if Abraham would have told them, they would have rebelled. They would have put up a fight. Can you imagine, Sarah? Can you imagine a conversation in your mind? How dare you take my son and sacrifice him after everything I've been through? After waiting 25 years, after I laugh at the tent, after I didn't believe it could happen, I finally get to hold my boy in my arms at this old age, and you tell me God said, give him back. No, no, no way. Sarah would have stood at the tent door and put her body between Abraham and Isaac. Sarah would have grabbed Isaac by the wrist and refused to let him go. Sarah waited too long, prayed too hard, laughed too loud, that the day that the promise was born, to now watch the promise walk up to the mountain and never come back down. So Abraham didn't tell her. Abraham didn't even tell Isaac that was walking with him. He took the command that God gave him and kept it between him and God. Ladies and gentlemen, watch this closely. Because sometimes, and this is for somebody in the room, sometimes the instructions God gives you is going to be strange. It's going to sound strange, and it's going to feel strange. And when you choose to obey, you must be very careful who you share it with. Because everybody's faith that is around you is not on the same level as yours. Everybody around you cannot carry what God just whispered in your ear. Friends and family who you love with all your heart will try to talk you out of what God told you to do. Not because they're evil, but because they can't see what God showed you. They can only sense or make sense of what they see. And God told you this does not make sense. So they will doubt, they will question, they will speak into your spirit, and before you know it, you are sitting back on the couch wondering if I really heard the voice of God in the first place. But watch this, ladies and gentlemen. When your manifestation or when your promise gets manifested, your faith posture grows stronger. And when your faith posture goes stronger, the instruction God gives you gets harder. Have you ever been in a situation where God has done one thing for you, your faith gets risen up, or your faith starts to increase, and then here comes an even harder situation. God does not give Genesis 22 assignments to Genesis 12 faith. He gives Genesis 22 assignments to people who have already walked through Genesis 13, who've walked through Genesis 15, who walked through Genesis 17, who walked through Genesis 18, who walked through Genesis 19 and 20, and even 21. God gives the hardest assignments or the hardest test to the most mature believer. Ah, so when God starts speaking to you on that level, you must be careful who you tell. Because sometimes the most obedient thing you can do is to keep it between you and God. You cannot let other people talk you out of what God promised you. Too many times we get into a position where we allow other things, circumstances, what other people say to affect us and how we react to what God said. God is saying you are on a different level now. Your faith is not in Genesis 12. Your faith is in Genesis 22. So now your faith has to mature. You walk through Genesis 12, you walk through Genesis 13, you walk through Genesis 14, you walk through Genesis 21. Your faith is now matured. Can I trust you? In Genesis 22. Uh sometimes obedience requires you to leave people you love in the dark. I'm gonna repeat that again because I think somebody needs to hear it. Sometimes obedience to God requires that you leave other people in the dark until God says, bring them into the light. See, sometimes you gotta get there first. And then when other people see you get there, you can reach back and pull them to where you are. Ah, some people gotta see it before they believe it. We gotta believe it before we see it. Look now, it took Abram three days to get to the place where God showed him. Three days. I want that to sit for one second. Three days. That three, that's three sunrises, that's three sunsets, that's three nights of lying in the middle of a campfire looking over at your son sleeping, knowing what is supposed to happen at the top of the mountain. That is three days every step feeling heavier than the step before. Three days carrying command of God close to your chest that you can't even speak out about. And right here on the third day, Abraham sees the place far off. This is where Abraham's faith posture shows up. And it shows up once, not just once, but twice. The first time Abraham's faith posture shows up is when he now turns to the two men who were traveling with him. He tells them to stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go up yonder and worship, and we will come back. Listen to what he said here. He said, We will come back. He didn't say, I will come back. He said, I he didn't say I will return alone. No, no, no. He said, We, meaning both of us, me and my son. The one going up to the mountain to be sacrificed, the one going up to the mountain is doing the sacrificing. We both are coming back down from this mountain. Now, ladies and gentlemen, on the surface that looks like a lie. Why? Because Abraham knows what God told him to do. But it was not a lie, it was a faith posture. Because Abraham had walked with God long enough to know that if God gave him a promise, God will give him back the promise. If I could open up Sarah's dead womb at the age of 90, God can open up or God can raise up a dead boy chest at the top of the mountain. Hebrews 11 says Abraham believed God was able to raise Isaac from the dead. Ladies and gentlemen, that is faith posture at its best. That is what 25 years of walking with God will produce in you. This is something or somebody who has been examined, who has been changed, who has been refined, and who has matured to a place that what no matter what the assignment looks like, God has the final say. That no matter what I have to go through, no matter what the outcome may look in my eyes, no matter what I see, God still has the final say. Look at your neighbor and tell them, God has the final say. Tell them, God is not done with me yet. You may not see what I see. You may not feel how I feel, but God is not through with me yet. God will show up at the last moment. God will show up and do something miraculous. God will show up and change my whole situation. God is not through with me yet. Abraham takes the wood for the altar, and he lays it on the back of Isaac. Watch this. The wood is on Isaac's back. Church, when I read this line, my mind went straight to Calvary's cross. Because over two thousand years, or because two thousand years later, there will be another son carrying wood up another hill. There will be another father walking his only son to the place of sacrifice. There will be another beam laid across his shoulders. The only other this only this time the sun would not come down. This time the son would hang on the wood he was carrying. And this time the father would not stop the knife. Genesis 22 is not just a story about Abraham. Genesis 22 is a preview of Calvary. And on the walk up the mountain, Isaac speaks. Isaac looks at his father and says, My father. And Abraham says, Here I am my son. He says, I am here. The same posture Abraham had towards God. In verse number one, Abraham now had towards his son. Because when your posture towards God is right, your posture towards other people you love gets right too. Then Isaac asked the questions. Look, the fire and the wood are here. Well, where is the lamb for the burnt offering? That question right there is the kind of question that would have broken a weaker man. But Isaac did not know what was about to happen. Isaac was walking towards his own altar, and he didn't even know it. Isaac was asking his father, where is the sacrifice? Not realizing he was the sacrifice. But here comes Abram's posture or faith posture for the second time. Abram looks down at his son and he does not flinch. Abraham does not break. Abraham does not change his stride. He simply says, My son, God will provide for himself, the lamb for the burnt offering. Now, church, what just happened in verse one, God will provide for himself. Ah, two thousand years there was a lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. Abraham is already prophesying about him. Because what Abraham could not see with his eyes, faith already saw in the horizon. God provided for himself. God did not die on Calvary, or God died for us on Calvary, what he did not stop Abraham for doing on Mount Morah. God provided Jesus as the sacrifice so that we would not have to be. The same God who told Abraham, take your son. And the same God 2,000 years later, I will take now my son. The same God who stopped the knife from coming down to Isaac. The same God who did not stop the spear from going into Jesus' side. Ah, look at your neighbor and tell him Jesus was the ram for me. Jesus sacrificed himself for me. Jesus gave his life for me. And I owe him my life because of that. Jesus did it all. And all to him I owe. Ah, it is here is what I love at this moment. Abraham said, God will provide himself of the lamb. At that moment, only Abraham knew he was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. Isaac did not notice yet. The young men back at the camp did not know that. Sarah back at the tent did not know. Only Abraham and God knew. But Abraham's faith posture was so strong. It was so strong that he pulled Isaac into the posture of trust. I stay with me here. Did you hear that? Abraham did not have to convince Isaac. Abraham did not have to explain himself. Abraham's faith posture was so settled, so ready, so anchored that when his father said or asked, or when Isaac asked the question, Abraham's answer said, the Lord will provide. At that point, Isaac stopped asking questions and kept walking. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to get to a point in our lives that when our faith when our faith posture is that solid, when God tells us what to do, we gotta stop questioning and start walking. Ah, we gotta stop questioning God. Why this, why that, and just keep walking. I don't know who that's to. God is giving you directions, and sometimes you start to question God's question, you start to question God's answer or telling you what to do. God says, stop questioning and just start walking. Because of your faith posture is strong. Because your faith posture is solid. Because your faith posture is on solid ground, you will pull others into the trust posture as they follow. Ladies and gentlemen, this just dropped in my spirit. See, see, see, when your faith posture rises up, and your faith posture is on another level, and you have someone in your orbit that their faith posture nor their trust posture is where it should be. When you start moving out on faith, when you start moving out on everything God tells you to do, they will catch a glimpse of what they see, and they will start to believe. Why? Because you believe. And when they start to believe, they will figure out that you believe in God and they'll start to believe in God also. I don't know who I'm preaching to. I might be preaching to myself. God said, stop questioning, keep walking. This is how your faith is supposed to function in your house. This is how your faith is supposed to function in your church. This is how your faith is supposed to function on your job. This is faith posture that is settled. This is faith posture that walks beside you. This is faith posture that you lean on when you don't understand what is going on around you. This is faith posture. And if you stand on your faith posture, watch God do something. Watch God show up and watch God show out. Isaac did not need to see the ram. Isaac just needed to see his father's faith. Sometimes all somebody needs to do is see your faith in God. Sometimes all somebody needs to do is see how you react to certain situations. All somebody else needs to do is see how you respond. When you crack under the pressure, or when you hold on to your faith posture. So Abram or Abraham, as Isaac came to the place where God told them, look at what happens next. Abraham builds an altar. He arranged the wood in order on top of it. And then Abraham took his son Isaac. He bound him, laid him on the wood on top of the altar. Ladies and gentlemen, it is at this moment when the rope gets tied around his hands. It is at this moment that the rope gets tied around his feet. It is at this moment that the wood is now on the shoulders of Isaac, who just carried it up the mountain. When he looks up and sees his father standing over him with the knife, it is at this moment that he knows I am the sacrifice. But notice this: Isaac did not say a word. Isaac did not fight back. Isaac did not complain. Isaac did not roll off the altar. He did not scream out for his mother Sarah. Isaac did not bargain with his father. Isaac look, or Isaac did not even ask for an explanation. Doesn't that sound like what Jesus did for us? Isaac's silence speaks violence. Isaac's silence is screaming one thing. I trust. When you go into a situation in your life where everything seems to be collapsing around you, you prayed, you fasted, you read your word, but nothing seems to be working. Can you lift up your voice and say, God, I trust you? Do you have the stamina to say, God, I love you? Do you have the passion to say, God, I trust you? No matter what I'm going through, God, I trust you. No matter what position I'm in, God, I trust you. Do you have the faith question to stand there and say, God, I trust you. Ladies and gentlemen, Isaac is a young man at this point. Isaac is strong enough to carry the wood for the burnt offering up at the mountain. Isaac could have fought. His hundred-year-old father off the altar. Isaac could have outran his father down the mountain. Isaac could have wrestled the knife out of his father's hand. But Isaac did not move. Because Isaac's trust posture had been developed the entire time walking to and up the mountain. And by the time they reached the mountaintop, Isaac trust his father with his life. That he lay down the wood and let his father bind him. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, this is exactly what Jesus did for us. He laid his life down for us. This is what trust and faith posture looks like. When you trust the one God has placed over you so much, you don't even have to understand what is happening to lay down and let God's plan unfold. And while Isaac, and while you are watching Isaac, don't miss Abraham. Abraham didn't say a word neither. He didn't give a long speech. He didn't try to explain himself. Abraham did not justify what he was about to do. Abraham just positioned things. He built the altar, arranged his wood, picked up his son, laid his son down, and binded him, and he reaches for his knife. Every motion was deliberate. Every motion was in order. Every motion was intentional. There was no panic on the mountaintop. There was no chaos. There was no confusion. There was no second guessing. There was only obedience and moving in order. Ladies and gentlemen, when your faith, when you have that much faith in God, you must be systematic in what you do. You must not deliberate. Because when God has given you an assignment that is this heavy, you cannot afford to move sloppy. You cannot afford to be rushed. You cannot afford to be all over the place. You must take it one step at a time and trust that God will guide you as He gives you instructions to what you are about to execute. And here's why it matters. Because God operates in order. God is not a disorder, God, a disorderly God. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 14, 40 that everything that we do, let it be done what? In decency and in order. This is not just a verse about church service. This is a verse about how God moves. God is a God of order, God is a God of structure, and God is a God of sequence. And watch this. If Abraham would have moved on that mountain in chaos, if Abraham had panicked over this, if Abraham would have been frantic and instead of focused, Abraham would have missed the ram of the bush. Ah, did you hear what I just said? If Abraham would have moved in chaos, Abraham would have missed provision. See, see, see, sometimes when God gives us the hardest instructions to do, and we start to operate in chaos, we miss the provision that God is trying to take us to. We miss where God is trying to show us where provision is, because we want to operate in chaos. God is saying, when you get yourself together, when you get yourself in order, when your health, when your faith posture, your heart posture, and your obedience posture is walking in alignment with God. And you start to walk in orderly fashion after what God tells you to go after. No matter what trials you may come up against, no matter what you may face in your future, if you walk with God in orderly steps, how the Bible says it like this every step, the steps of a righteous man is ordered by God. God has ordered our steps. If we follow the order that God is giving us and don't operate in chaos, you will catch the provision. But the moment that you start operating in chaos, the moment you step out of the will of God, the moment you start to walk in your flesh, you will miss the provision. Ladies and gentlemen, don't miss the provision because you walked out of alignment with God. Don't miss the provision because you missed out because you walked in chaos instead of order. There was a ram caught in the thickets right now, while you're on your way up to the mountain. There was provision God already promised for you before you even got your assignment. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, I gotta stop here. God just dropped this in my spirit. God had given some of you an assignment. And because you could not see the provision, you skipped or you missed the assignment that God was telling you. God is saying, if I give you an assignment, follow that assignment and I'll provide provision where there was no provision. I will provide provision because you follow my orderly steps. Don't walk in chaos. Don't try to figure it out. I already figured it out. Walk in my steps and I'll show you your provision. The reason most of us miss out on God is because we're walking in chaos. The reason why most of us miss out on God is because we try to we're trying to figure it out. And God has said, if you walk with me, I already figured it out. Don't move in chaos. Don't move in panic mode. Don't move in disorderly mode. Or you'll miss out on your provision. The provisions of God is in the order. Watch this. Because where there is where all of the this comes together. When your trust posture and your faith posture and your obedience posture are all actively working together in your life at the same time, you begin to walk in the posture that God shows you, and you are willing to fight for your promise. Ah, these three postures: one walk, one man, one mountain. The posture of your heart says yes when God first called Abraham. The posture of faith says yes when he had to walk through 25 years of waiting. The posture of obedience said yes at the top of Mount Morah. God is looking for your yes. God is looking for you to say yes to his will. Yes to his way. And at the top of the mountain, he's looking for that yes, so you can see provision. It is atop of the mountain of all three mountain, all three postures finally is fully active. Abraham raises the knife. Abraham's about to do it. Abraham is about, is committed to sacrificing his son. Abraham has not hesitated for one breath since God spoke to him in chapter number 22, verse one. Abraham was about to punt the knife into Isaac's chest. And at the last possible moment, the voice of God called out from heaven, saying, Abraham, Abraham. The same way he called Abraham at the tent door. The same way he called Abraham in verse number one. The same Abraham that walked up his son to the mountain. Abraham says, Here I am. And God says, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. For now I know. Ladies and gentlemen, do not gloss over those four words. For now I know. Because God is omniscient. God knows before the foundation of the world how Abraham was going to handle this test. God did not learn anything going on or anything on the top of the Mount Morah that he already didn't know. So why did God say, I know, or now I know? Because God was testing Abraham for God's sakes. Or God was not testing Abraham for God's sakes, God was testing Abraham for Abraham's sake. God was not learning anything new about Abraham. God was revealing Abraham to Abraham. God was letting Abraham see for himself what 25 years of walking, waiting, mistakes, mercy, separation, manifestation have produced inside of him. God was holding up a mirror and saying, look at the man you have become. Ah, see, when you walk through something, and when you go through something, God is not doing it just for you or just for him. God is doing it for you. Why? Because at the end of the journey, you are not going to look the same as you did when you started. Ah, God will hold up the mirror and tell you look at you now. Look where you came from. Look what has produced in you. Look how far you've come. Look the changes that I made in you. Look at what you're looking at. You're looking at someone who walked with God. You're looking at someone who talked with God. You're looking at someone who had manifestation. You're looking at someone who's been separated. You're looking at someone who God can use. You're looking at someone who God can trust. You're looking at someone that God can put his faith in. You're looking at someone who God can say, walk now. You're looking at someone who can speak God's voice. You're looking at someone who can talk for God. You're looking at someone special. Here. God's Abraham or God was testing Abraham was not just a physical test, but it was a spiritual one. God didn't need Isaac bound on that altar. God needed to see if Abraham would fight for his promise. Abraham or God needed to see if Abraham would withhold everything that God had given him. Because God, who gives the promise, is allowed to ask for the promise back. And the way you respond, when God asks for it back, tells him everything he needs to know about you and whether he can trust you with your next promise. God was making sure he can trust Abram or his bloodline with Abraham. Ladies and gentlemen, Isaac was not just Abraham's son. Isaac was the seed at which the entire covenant would flow. Isaac was the great grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel. Isaac was the root of the line that would produce kings and prophets and priests and eventually Jesus Christ Himself. See, see, when God asked Abraham to lay Isaac on that altar, God was not just teaching or testing Abraham about faith. He was testing whether Abraham could be trusted with the line or the lineage of the Messiah. And on top of Mount Morah, God got his answer, yes. Can God trust you to carry on Jesus' name? Can God trust you to speak the truth when things go wrong? Can God trust you to handle difficult situations and not change or not flicker or not be respond to the flesh? Can God trust you? And all God wants is your yes. And don't miss this either, because the test was not only for Abraham. This test was for Isaac too. Why? Because Isaac is the next promise carrier. Isaac is the one who carries the covenant after Abraham is gone. Isaac just spent three days walking with his father, watching his father, listening to his father, and finally laying on down on the altar, trusting his father. Isaac's trust posture was being developed the entire time. Because here is what Isaac learned on the mountaintop. Isaac learned that God provides. Why? Because you're developing their posture of trust in God. Isaac learned that his father's faith did not break under pressure. Don't let them see you curse God when things go wrong. Don't let them see you give up on God when things don't go your way. Hold on, my brother. Hold on, my sister. God will show up. Isaac learned what it was like to obey God. Isaac learned what it was like to keep things close to your chest and not to let things spill out that is unnecessary. Isaac learned what to say, when to say it, how to say it, when to say it. Isaac learned by watching his father. What are you teaching your children about God? What are you showing them about the God we serve? What are you showing them how to trust God? Are you showing them how to have faith in God? Are you ready to pass the lineage down the line to them so they can preach the gospel that you preach? And these lessons or those lessons would shape Isaac's decision making for the rest of his life. God was not just testing one man on the mountain, he was disciplining two. Now Abraham lifts up his eyes and he looks, and behind him, caught in the dicks of the thorns by the horns is a ram. A ram that was already there. A ram God has positioned in the bush before Abraham even raised the knife. The provision was already there. It was there the whole time. The God who told Abraham, take now your son, was ready to had already put a ram in a bush for that moment. He would say, Do not lay your hands on the lad. God had rescued stage before the test even, or God had staged the rescue before the test even started. And Abraham, because of his posture, was in order, because his motions had been deliberate, deliberate, because he had not let chaos close, cloud his eyes. Abraham saw the ram. He went and got it, offered it up in the place of his son. And the Bible says Abraham called that place Jehovah Jirah. The Lord will provide. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm just about finished. What Abraham believed on the walk up on the mountain, God will provide a lamb for himself. Abraham got to witness on the top of that mountain the faith posture that spoke into existence, got to see with his own eyes. Abraham's confession in verse 8 became Abraham's revelation in verse 14. This is what happens when the three postures are lined up. What you speak on your way up to the mountain, you will see and provision at the top of the mountain. The God who told you to take your only son is the same God who had the ram caught in the thick of the bush awaiting for you to raise the knife. Fight for your promise, ladies and gentlemen. Because the God who gave you the promise is the same God who will provide for the promise. The God who told you to bring it back is the same God who has the stability or substance waiting for you. The God who asked you to lay it on the altar is the same God who is about to call. You out from heaven and say, do not lay your hands on it. I just need to see. I just need to see if you would do what I asked you to do. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the posture of obedience looks like. This is where the old journey, or this is where the journey had been leading. The three postures of the believer, the heart, the faith, the obedience, all standing at the top of the Mount Mora. One saying, I am, one man saying, I am here every time God speaks. One son trusting his father all the way to the altar, and one God in heaven clinging or calling out at the last second, now I know. Many of us have been in a place where we've missed out on promises from God. And it's because we walked in chaos. But God is calling us to fight for our promise. Fight the flesh. Fight what you see. Fight everyone that's coming against what God told you. That's the fight that we have to have for our promise. That's the fight that we have to have when God speaks to us. Fight the enemy that's trying to get into your head. Fight the enemy that's trying to get into your ear. Fight the enemy when he tried to show you something that God didn't show you. You have to fight for your promise. Don't allow the enemy to put you in a chaotic situation. Don't allow the enemy to talk you out of what God has shown you. Every time something like that comes into your mind, cast it down. That's how you fight for your promise. Don't speak about what God told you only to the right people. That's how you fight for your promise. When things sound strange to you, don't repeat it to somebody else. Do what God told you to do. That's how you fight for your promise. That's how you fight. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to fight not to revert back to what we used to do. The old habits, the old patterns, the old crowd, the old comfortable position. They will come knocking at your door the moment you start walking towards your promise. Fight to stay in the place that God brought you. We have to fight not to lie on things that look bleak. Fight to keep the confusion thoughts out of your mind. And when things start to look bad, look up to heaven and say, God, I trust you. And watch God show up and show out. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we want to say thank you. Thank you for this moment in time. Where you are able to speak to our hearts and to our minds. God, we promise to fight for what you have promised us. We will not give in. We will not hold back. We will do everything that you told us to do. We will fight to keep the flesh under subjection. We will fight to keep the mind that you gave us. We will fight every step of the way to our promise. So that we can keep it in decency and in order. We'll fight to keep the chaos out of our lives. God, we just ask that when we do fight, that you show up and give us the strength to endure. And we'll be mindful to give you all honor, glory, and praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. I want you to