SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to take the gospel from the Upper Peninsula to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy our Hero series where we dive deep into the lives of heroes in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Glad you're with us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So excited about all those who chose to declare their faith in Jesus this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Would you give them a round of applause across Lam, Snag and Marquette?
SPEAKER_01: Ishmouring.
SPEAKER_01: We have all kinds of people watching.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I believe God's doing something powerful in your life.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the middle of a series called Heroes Looking at Individuals that we find in Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to grab your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone needs a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: We have a great version, free version for you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to God's word, you're gonna find Hebrews is a little difficult to find as a book.
SPEAKER_01: You'll hit first, second uh Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: It's right in front of James.
SPEAKER_01: If you hit uh the books of Peter and John, you probably have gone too far.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very powerful book talking about faith.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 11, we find that the writers of Hebrew is using the characters we find in the Old Testament as examples of what faith looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you need to understand that these are not by in any way perfect individuals.
SPEAKER_01: They were broken people who simply trust and followed God in their incredible story that God was developing through them and impacted us even here today as youpers in the north.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been looking for the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're in week four last week, or I'm sorry, we were at serve day last week, but the week before that, we were talking about Abraham and the tests that God had put Abraham and Sarah through.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about the third test uh today.
SPEAKER_01: We mentioned the first and second test uh a couple weeks ago, and we're gonna we're gonna start this morning in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 17 through 19, and we're gonna walk through this very important aspect of what faith looks like.
SPEAKER_01: I'm always a little, I'm always a little nervous about talking about faith because it's such a a common word, kind of like grace.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people use the word grace and mercy and yet really don't even understand the definition of both of those and how they're different.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's it's oftentimes the same with faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's so much a part of the English American culture that we don't recognize what it truly is, except there's some very important and bold world words that we find, a phrase that we find in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, where it says that it's impossible, it's impossible to please God without faith.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get in there and say, man, if you're an incredible worshiper, God is pleased.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that if you're a a moralistic person that God is pleased.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: What we find, and even as you look in these characters, these individuals' lives, again, I told you they're they're broken people, and yet they had an element about them of trusting and following God, and so God was pleased by them and what they did.
SPEAKER_01: That you need to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: You need to under I hear people all the time say, Well, Pastor Mark, before I come to church, is like the number one response to me saying you need to get your butt in church.
SPEAKER_01: Is well, Pastor Mark, I have to get it all together before I come to church.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, I gotta head down to men's warehouse and get me a suit.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, I gotta clean up my life.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, I gotta get organized.
SPEAKER_01: You're just missing it.
SPEAKER_01: You're being religious.
SPEAKER_01: Being a follower of Jesus is a a journey, and he begins to weed out things in your life that can damage, derail you, can I say, from your calling.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about Abram here, who has a direct calling, and because he followed not perfectly, but he followed anyway and took steps of faith.
SPEAKER_01: We're affected as you pers here.
SPEAKER_01: The blessing of God flows in your life, in my life for eternity, in my family's life, because a man centuries, centuries ago, decided to drop it all and just follow God.
SPEAKER_01: You can still have the same kind of effect, not only in your personal life, but your extended family and your peer groups and your business and your city and your village.
SPEAKER_01: So, what is that?
SPEAKER_01: What does that trust look like?
SPEAKER_01: I oftentimes equate it to rock climbing.
SPEAKER_01: I've used this illustration, I think it's pretty clear the implications of this when you first want to rock climb.
SPEAKER_01: When I I I said I first wanted to rock climb, I went to a camp in the 80s.
SPEAKER_01: This wasn't in the late 70s, rock climbing became kind of a thing, and and I was always kind of interested in it.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of like the thrill of it.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know how to do it.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a lot of books out there.
SPEAKER_01: There was no internet.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way, unless you were connected to someone who could show you how to do that safely, you're probably gonna die.
SPEAKER_01: And I was at a Royal Ranger camp, and there was an army, um, someone who was in the army who had been trained on repelling, and so we he he offered to show me how to repel off this tower, and I was like hooked.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I wanna do this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I was 18 and foolish, and I came home and I said, I told my dad, I said, Dad, I have to learn how to rock climb.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I just experienced repelling.
SPEAKER_01: I want to I want to learn how to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta find a rope somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And probably my first mistake is I told that to Jim Lindholm, if you know Jim Lindholm.
SPEAKER_01: Jim has everything that you ever need, probably in his garage or his basement.
SPEAKER_01: And he heard me say that.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, Mark, I I found a rope in the the dump at the mine, the mine dump.
SPEAKER_01: And I decided to grab it.
SPEAKER_01: It looks like a pretty good rope.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Yeah, that sounds perfect.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got this rope from Jim, probably my first mistake.
SPEAKER_01: And then my dad said, You know, I should probably go with you, Mark, because I don't want you to die.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably my second mistake.
SPEAKER_01: My dad didn't know anything about rock climbing.
SPEAKER_01: And so with Jim's rope, and we didn't have shoes, we didn't have harnesses, we just tied a rope on our waist, and I found a cliff in Salisbury in the old mine, and I had at it.
SPEAKER_01: It was great, it's fun.
SPEAKER_01: And I I've used that multiple times in my life and really dived into that when I was younger.
SPEAKER_01: I still do it today.
SPEAKER_01: When oftentimes on forward trips, when we go out to um when we go out to Arizona, we'll we'll take a day and we'll do something.
SPEAKER_01: There's kind of a new sport that has happened in the deserts of Arizona and Utah.
SPEAKER_01: It's called uh it's called cannoneering, where you start at a top of a very uh elevational, high canyon, and because of the watershed, it has created something called a slot canon canyon, and it can go for thousands of feet down.
SPEAKER_01: You can take 10, 15 different repels all the way down, and uh each rappel is different, and you go into situations you're not gonna be sure what it what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you can touch the walls on both sides and it'll go down, you know, a couple hundred feet.
SPEAKER_01: You can't see the bottom as you're repelling, you don't know what to experience.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing you need to learn about repelling that I I constantly would school and tell people listen, you have to trust the rope.
SPEAKER_01: You can't trust yourself.
SPEAKER_01: There's three rules trust the rope, don't let your hands off of the rope, and then there's an unwritten number three, don't die.
SPEAKER_01: But you won't die if you do the first two.
SPEAKER_01: But our human nature, as I watch guys, they come up to the edge.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing to look at the edge and look down the abyss that you're about to rappel down into.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell, like, I don't know what's gonna be at the bottom of every one of these repels.
SPEAKER_01: I've I've rappelled into uh water before, where floating bodies, deer or goats have had maggots on them.
SPEAKER_01: I've had to swim through.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's at the bottom of this, but it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I don't care what happens, trust the rope and do not take your hands off the rope.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'll I'll I'll go first, and when I get down there, I'll I'll do something called belaying, which is making sure that you're not going to die.
SPEAKER_01: If I tug on the rope, it kind of suspends you.
SPEAKER_01: But time and time again, no matter no matter how much training you have had, and these guys haven't had a lot of training, you get to the edge, and you have to lean all the way back, and you have to put all your weight on the rope, and you have to jump off the cliff.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's one thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's a trust that is not natural, it doesn't make sense, it's not logical.
SPEAKER_01: At this particular one, we were going down a canyon called Blue Pools, and that's because oftentimes water gets cut and you have to uh repel down into water.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, and so I was we're about halfway through, and here's the thing you need to understand halfway through, there's no there's only forward, there's never going back.
SPEAKER_01: And we got to um uh a portion of of this canyon, and so I said, guys, I'm gonna go in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: And so I jumped off because I'm gonna be playing at the at the at the bottom, and we had someone on on the top instructing, and so I got to to as I'm coming down this this canyon, bouncing off off the side walls.
SPEAKER_01: I looked behind me to see where I was gonna jump off and land.
SPEAKER_01: And as I I jumped off and was going to land on the on the ground, there were the ground started to move.
SPEAKER_01: There were rattlesnakes in in the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: And so I hit the ground and I jumped up on my rope and jumped to like a ledge, and I I yelled to the guys up on top, and it's kind of an echo because it's not a straight shot.
SPEAKER_01: They can't, it kind of bounces up.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Guys, give me a minute before you come down.
SPEAKER_01: There's rattlesnakes down here.
SPEAKER_01: And I just very distinctly heard the next individual say, Did I hear him right?
SPEAKER_01: Did he say there was rattlesnakes at the bottom?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, there's rattlesnakes down here.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful when you land.
SPEAKER_01: I'll try to push them away, but there's rattlesnakes down here.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's one thing to trust a rope, it's a whole nother thing to trust that I can rodeo rattlesnakes.
SPEAKER_01: And yet there's only going forward.
SPEAKER_01: So they came down and no one died.
SPEAKER_01: But I feel sometimes that's what it's like to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing to say, okay, Lord, I give you my life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a whole nother thing to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And rattlesnakes show up.
SPEAKER_01: And you just gotta trust him.
SPEAKER_01: You just gotta trust him.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'm just man, listen guys, I've had people come up with me repelling, look at the edge, and just walk away and say, no, that's not for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, Man, no, you're made for this.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not interested.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna have to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: And they did.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, this is too hard.
SPEAKER_01: The following Jesus thing.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, you're created for this.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just I'm okay where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01: I'm okay where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, I feel like I'm called to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm called to be a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say, well, man, you can't even make it on Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, I'm called to lead this way.
SPEAKER_01: Well, man, you just need the consistency of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, it is the small, mundane choices that lead you to the large areas of your life.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard me say those kinds of things before.
SPEAKER_01: It's the consistency of walking with Jesus, no matter what kind of trials or suffering or indecision or an unknowledge of the future that's placed in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: It is a a constantly, a constant step of faith in following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we we don't pull the trigger on that and we miss out on the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: In the Christian life, there are places of obedience you will never arrive at until you fully trust yourself to God and His plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: And I see people walk away from that.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a plan for you.
SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes it involves suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It involves suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And miscomfort.
SPEAKER_01: And that's hard for some of us who only grew up eating prime steak our whole lives.
SPEAKER_01: So Hebrews chapter 11 lays out these incredible tests of Abraham in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: He says, By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, here's the thing you need to understand that God's going to put you through tests.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that he puts you through those tests is to see that you have a developed faith in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so he brings you through tests.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's suffering, sometimes it's unanswered prayers.
SPEAKER_01: But he wants to develop you, he wants to develop that faith in your life so that he can do in powerful, powerful things through you.
SPEAKER_01: And so we find that God tested Abraham, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: He who had embraced the promises, meaning Abraham, the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 15, we talked about that a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: God's plan for Abraham's life to bless all of the world through the promises and blessings of God.
SPEAKER_01: The promises was about to sacrifice the one and only son.
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: You should underline it.
SPEAKER_01: Even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to turn to the actual story in Genesis 22.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis is really hard, easy to find, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: It's the first book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You can't miss it.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 22 is right after chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is the actual story.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews is in response to the actual story.
SPEAKER_01: You should read the actual story of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: If you remember, Abraham's first test, everyone, was that God had called him out to something different.
SPEAKER_01: Something different.
SPEAKER_01: And so Abraham followed God into the wilderness, into the unknown.
SPEAKER_01: And then God promises that he's going to have a son.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham and Sarah are old, like old, old.
SPEAKER_01: By this time they're a hundred years old.
SPEAKER_01: And because Abraham trusted God at some point as a hundred-year-old man for him to be without children, and then God comes in and says, You're gonna have a boy named Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, his Isaac actually means uh a son of laughter, which is true.
SPEAKER_01: There's probably a point where it was ridiculous, like Abraham was probably in diapers the same time Isaac was.
SPEAKER_01: Just saying.
SPEAKER_01: It's funny.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're old, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: And he had to trust God.
SPEAKER_01: So eventually he had to walk into the tent and he put on some Marvin Gaye on the record player and throw some old spice on the old body and get busy with it.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, come on, we can recover.
SPEAKER_01: This is where it gets serious.
SPEAKER_01: Because God, the third test comes the Abraham and says, Well, I want your son.
SPEAKER_01: I want your son.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, take your son.
SPEAKER_01: Your by the way, the writing of Genesis in the story of Abraham clicks off pretty fast.
SPEAKER_01: Really fast.
SPEAKER_01: Like things happen, things happen, things happen, things happen.
SPEAKER_01: But when you get to this portion of scripture right here, it slows, it's like you hit a wall, and everything stops.
SPEAKER_01: Because Isaac is the promised child.
SPEAKER_01: He's the present and the future.
SPEAKER_01: This incredible blessing from God, this good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham trusted God.
SPEAKER_01: Sarah trusted God, and so they had a child of the future that was going to bless and change the world.
SPEAKER_01: And they could literally see the physical blessings of God as they looked around, not only their son Isaac, but the way that God had used them for many, many years as Abraham and Sarah trusted God.
SPEAKER_01: And now God's telling me to take my son.
SPEAKER_01: My only son?
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, in this portion of scriptures, you'll see the word son used over ten times.
SPEAKER_01: Your son, the son you love, the son of promise, your only and one son.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to sacrifice him.
SPEAKER_01: Are those where God seems to take you off the path of blessing and put you on the road of disaster.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe at your business you know something that's going on that's not right.
SPEAKER_01: And your thought is, I'm just kind of gonna go along with the process.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna shake the boat in any way because if you bring it to light, you might lose your job, you might lose the finances of your family.
SPEAKER_01: And so you just go along instead of God calling you to make a stand.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're dating someone and you know that God doesn't want you to have sexual relations with your boyfriend or girlfriend, but you just feel like you're missing out, or you know, we're in love, and yet you know that the Holy Spirit has told you that he doesn't want you want that in your life, and yet you keep on opening that door, you keep on opening that door, you keep on opening that door.
SPEAKER_01: And he's calling you out of that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here and you're dealing with the confusion of your sexuality or the feelings of homosexuality, and then that Pastor Mark, those desires or those passions can't be wrong because they're they're coming out of my heart, and yet you know that even King Solomon says that your heart is deceptive.
SPEAKER_01: This is not how God has created you, and he wants you to move away from those desires or passions.
SPEAKER_01: The creation that he put inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: We all live different lives, right?
SPEAKER_01: Tim Keller says it very wisely like this.
SPEAKER_01: You're not really in a test until your wisdom seems to contradict God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: You have not been tested until it looks like to obey God will lead to some kind of death, and it will require some kind of resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: When God commands him to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham only saw death, but he trusted that somehow God would resurrect him.
SPEAKER_01: And some avoid tests by refusing to consider the possibility that a loving God would want anything other than immediate comfort for us.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have a God who is only fulfilling your short-term desires and never contradicts you, you really don't have a God.
SPEAKER_01: You are the God.
SPEAKER_01: In the process of going to the mountain that is three days away.
SPEAKER_01: And then on the third day, it's important.
SPEAKER_01: On the third day, Abraham lifts up his eyes and he sees the mountain that God has drawn him to to sacrifice his one and only son that he loves.
SPEAKER_01: Like I would have talked myself out in three days.
SPEAKER_01: Mark, you just had some bad pizza.
SPEAKER_01: No, I serve a loving God.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that he would want.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you, where have you started obeying God in something like the Holy Spirit came to you through his word?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe an individual who came in and corrected you.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, this is how it is to serve Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're arrogant or you're ignorant, but this is what God's word says.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it happens.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's why you need to be a part of a church that loves you.
SPEAKER_01: People come along and say, Man, I dealt with this.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that's why celebrate recovery is so important.
SPEAKER_01: That's why your small groups are so important.
SPEAKER_01: That's why forward trips are so important.
SPEAKER_01: I get it, it's about the mission, but it's really about the context of relationship of godly people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who understand God's word and can direct you in the right way.
SPEAKER_01: This path, not this path.
SPEAKER_01: And have you started obeying God in something, but it's only lasted two or three days?
SPEAKER_01: So then Abraham says to his servants, hey, we've arrived, and me and the boy are gonna go over there and look at this word he uses.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to worship.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting that he uses that terminology, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go worship God.
SPEAKER_01: And I love this part.
SPEAKER_01: And he says to his servants, we will return.
SPEAKER_01: Resurrect.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham takes his boy in the wood, and the knife, and the fire, puts the wood on Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this is a big boy.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a child.
SPEAKER_01: This is a full-grown man who can carry wood up a mountain to start a fire.
SPEAKER_01: He takes his knife and he takes his fire, and so they both went up together, and Isaac says to his father on the way, hey dad, listen, I got a question.
SPEAKER_01: I see the fire, I see the knife, I see the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering, Dad?
SPEAKER_01: Probably the most faith-filled statement in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is what Abraham has done for three days.
SPEAKER_01: He's been walking up the mountain, reciting the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I know I got cancer.
SPEAKER_01: But I know the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: I I know maybe the car's getting foreclosed on.
SPEAKER_01: Do they do that?
SPEAKER_01: I think they do.
SPEAKER_01: But God, you're faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I know I signed up for a forward trip.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't know how I'm gonna pay for this.
SPEAKER_01: But I know that you're faithful, I know the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: And you always show up.
SPEAKER_01: I had an old missionary in Bangladesh tell me one time, as a new missionary of struggling raising my funds, he simply came up to me and said, Mark, God's never early and he's never late.
SPEAKER_01: So God shows up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham builds the altar and he lays the wood.
SPEAKER_01: He binds Isaac up like I don't understand that aspect.
SPEAKER_01: Except just one thing, and scripture doesn't, this is my opinion, that Isaac watches his dad follow God.
SPEAKER_01: And so faith is exhibited to Isaac again and again and again and again.
SPEAKER_01: So Isaac also trusts God because his father has shown not a one-time, but a daily getting up and trusting God, and trusting God, and so he he gets on the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And then Abraham reaches out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son and raised it.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are wondering, like, what's up with a God who wants to murder a son?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question you should be asking.
SPEAKER_01: If you're asking it, it's not the wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually a very important question.
SPEAKER_01: Now you need to understand that most people look at this story and look at the faith of Abraham instead of looking at the consistency and faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: We get it backwards.
SPEAKER_01: We like to think of ourselves as Abraham, being obedient to God.
SPEAKER_01: There's something in Scripture that is symbolized again and again and again.
SPEAKER_01: It's a debt that men owe God.
SPEAKER_01: And that debt is the offering of the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: We see this in the Passover in Genesis as the death angel comes through Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: It's very evident in the Hebrew sacrificial system that we find as sheep and cattle, the firstborn, are sacrificed to God.
SPEAKER_01: We find it in the giving of our firstfruits, which is actually when you tithe, you're sacrificing the first of your life to God.
SPEAKER_01: We find that in Numbers 8, chapter 17, that the firstborn belongs to God.
SPEAKER_01: It is a sin debt.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way you can walk away from that sin debt that you owe God is by by symbolicy, symbolic key, symbolicing whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Sacrificing your son.
SPEAKER_01: You all know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: The only way to be a part of North Iron is to be an interpreter for Mark Roger.
SPEAKER_01: But you understand what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: There's a demand on your life, and the sin and the rebellion and the disobedience that you have in your life is demanding something.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the sacrificial giving of your firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: Tim Keller says it this way.
SPEAKER_01: He's a pretty smart guy.
SPEAKER_01: If Abraham had thought God had told him, kill Sarah, and then I know you love me, he would have never done that.
SPEAKER_01: He would have concluded that he was hallucinating because God would not have commanded senseless murder like that.
SPEAKER_01: And God would not have said it because it would have been murder.
SPEAKER_01: But when God said offer Isaac, Abraham knew exactly what God was talking about.
SPEAKER_01: The sacrificing of the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: The firstborn represented his very life and the debt every man owes to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Abraham put his boy on the altar.
SPEAKER_01: He could have murdered him on the trail, he could have murdered him in the tent.
SPEAKER_01: But he put him on the altar of the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: And he raised his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And as he was about to bring it down, an angel of the Lord appeared and said, Abraham, Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham said, Here I am.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't lay a finger on your boy, don't do anything to him.
SPEAKER_01: For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham lifted his eyes, and he doesn't, he sees not far off a ram that's caught in a thicket.
SPEAKER_01: And again, God provides.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham called the name of that place.
SPEAKER_01: You need to understand in God's word, whenever ever anyone experiences God in a powerful way, they'll they'll name that that that that that place.
SPEAKER_01: Not Abraham's obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Thousands of years later, another one and only son would be put upon an altar.
SPEAKER_01: His name would be Jesus, and he too would walk up the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the exact same mountain, in the exact same place that Abraham and Isaac acted out in a word picture what Jesus would accomplish on the cross, and they would put Jesus on that cross, and this time God's hand would be raised with the knife, and the angels would not stop it, and God's wrath would come down on Jesus, and he would bleed out for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Jehovah Jira, the Lord's provision for my greatest need, my rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: I give it away, and God gives me redemption and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm confused in my mind, my sin makes me stupid, and I just know I'm not thinking right.
SPEAKER_01: And if I trust God and I accept Him into my life and make Him Lord, He promises to transform my very thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Where every day new mercies come my way, and I wake up thinking different.
SPEAKER_01: I find myself making choices, like God would make choices, or better yet, Jesus would choose.
SPEAKER_01: And I find, man, that's just so different than who I thought I was.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I've received a new identity, a new calling, where he has taken my derailment of sin and placed me, positioned me, postured me as his son and daughter.
SPEAKER_01: About God's provision.
SPEAKER_01: His commitment to us is more important than our commitment to him, and his commitment to us becomes the basis of our commitment for him.
SPEAKER_01: So let me tell you real quick quickly about the nature of God's tests in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So important.
SPEAKER_01: That eventually, listen, you're good, God's gonna bring you to a place where he takes something away from you.
SPEAKER_01: You just gotta trust him in that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I know your promises.
SPEAKER_01: I know your nature.
SPEAKER_01: You're a resurrecting God.
SPEAKER_01: You have the power to spit the stars into existence.
SPEAKER_01: I can trust you with my life.
SPEAKER_01: So I give it freely to you.
SPEAKER_01: That might involve suffering.
SPEAKER_01: That might involve unanswered prayers in your life.
SPEAKER_01: But your responsibility is not to know everything and control everything.
SPEAKER_01: Your responsibility is to follow God consistently in the form of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9, my strength is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus' spirit, the resurrection spirit, dwells within me.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, the reason that we need God tests in our life because even the good things in our lives, as Martin Luther says, becomes an idol factory.
SPEAKER_01: That constantly we're in this place where the blessings of God come our way.
SPEAKER_01: And you would think Abraham could just take a vacation.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I gave up my family.
SPEAKER_01: I followed you out in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: I trusted you with my wife, and you came through on your promises.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a hundred years old and I'm still changing diapers.
SPEAKER_01: I think I've done enough.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like kind of the 65 mentality.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I'm ready to retire and just enjoy life a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if God, I'll say something bold.
SPEAKER_01: Ready?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just not sure if God believes in retirement.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest potential enemy of God in your life, in your calling, and working in your life is not your sin or your bad habits, it's the good thing God has put in your life: your marriage, your family, your job.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll end with this.
SPEAKER_01: What are the only's in your life?
SPEAKER_01: You're one and only.
SPEAKER_01: If only I was married, Pastor Mark, then everything would be great.
SPEAKER_01: If only my career or achievements were better, if I only had a boyfriend, if I only had kids, if I only could make 50k more a year on this side gig I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Mark, that just seems too hard.
SPEAKER_01: And so people walk up to the cliff following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They look at the obstacle.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't think this is for me.
SPEAKER_01: It's the consistency of getting up and following him and surrendering the things he wants you to surrender.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, don't lie to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is what we do.
SPEAKER_01: But like on, you know, why would he want me to?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, I'm gonna surrender my marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Nope, that's not what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: You can have my kids, I'll be here on Monday.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: But some of you think your salvation is your marriage, your salvation is your kids, your salvation is the success, your salvation is at 401k.
SPEAKER_01: Your salvation is the Florida death camps you go to every winter.
SPEAKER_01: You can quote me on that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here's the here's the big question again.
SPEAKER_01: I'll wrap it back around.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray for you because you all have to walk through this or you're not walking.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear me?
SPEAKER_01: You have to walk through this or you're not walking with God.
SPEAKER_01: So what's your Isaac?
SPEAKER_01: Lantz, what's your Isaac?
SPEAKER_01: Antonogdan, what's your Isaac?
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord is asking you to surrender that.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to stand with me.
SPEAKER_01: We always worship at the end of our service.
SPEAKER_01: You need to spend time worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you simply just have to surrender your life.
SPEAKER_01: Like you're not following Jesus the way you are.
SPEAKER_01: You're keeping, Lord, you can have all of my life except for this closet here.
SPEAKER_01: This portion of my life is all open to you, Lord, but not her, not him, not my finances.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you need to sacrifice, but you need to bring something to the altar.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna open up this altar.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you just needed to be in the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I want heaven's will in my life, not my desires, not my passion, not maybe the way the world sees me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, how do you see me?
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I'm gonna I'm gonna sacrifice all of these things, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because my desire, my first desire is you and your will in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna surrender all my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'll surrender my kids, my family, my job.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I want you in control of my life.
SPEAKER_01: So just a moment, I'm gonna pray, and across our campuses, our pastors are going to pray, and then I'm gonna invite you forward.
SPEAKER_01: Man, movement is a part of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can walk out to your car, you can walk towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: One or the other will change your life.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you, walking out to your car won't.
SPEAKER_01: But you have to go, we love you, and we know we have a lot of pressure on your life.
SPEAKER_01: But I I continue continuously will direct you towards the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's all you need.
SPEAKER_01: Just come down in the presence of Jesus, lift your hands and tell them your desires.
SPEAKER_01: Father, right now, Jesus, you are the God that creates all.
SPEAKER_01: You created us, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, we know without a shadow of a doubt, Father, that you're here to lead us.
SPEAKER_01: You showed us by going to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But the deed, the promises and the commitment of God are in front of us.
SPEAKER_01: We see them on a daily basis, and Father, Lord, I ask that you would make them real in our lives as we give up all things.
SPEAKER_01: Father, you are our present, you are our future, Father, and we look to you.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, right now, I'm making movement towards you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm making movement towards you for my family, for my marriage, for direction, for correction.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I surrender my life to you.
SPEAKER_01: We ask all of this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this message.
SPEAKER_00: For past sermons, giving link and more.
SPEAKER_00: Check out the footnotes below, or visit our website at northiron.church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope to see you soon.