The Love of Your Life

Porch, how are we doing tonight? Are we doing okay? It's great to see you. Thanks for being here this Tuesday night. It's a joy. Every single week, we genuinely believe there's never a Tuesday like another. That means that tonight we sit at the center of a really special opportunity, because I think God wants to do something very unique in your life.

I mean that. I'm not just selling something up here. I genuinely believe the God of heaven and earth is here amongst us right now. He is moving by way of his Spirit, and he is wanting to offer you something, whether it's for your mind or for your heart or for your soul, that will lead you to walk away from this room different than how you entered in. Do you believe that? Do you think of that for yourself? Give me an "Amen" if so. You can talk back to me. That's okay. I know sometimes we worry if that's allowed, but you can do so.

Hey, we're so grateful you're here. We have so many young adults all over the nation who are tuning in with us tonight as well. We have Porch.Live locations all over the great United States of America. We have Porch.Live locations specifically in Springfield, Boise, and Greater Lafayette that we want to give a very special shout-out to. We love you guys so much.

Hey, let me kick things off with a story just to get us going here. When I made the leap from corporate America into full-time ministry…I need to confess…I genuinely found myself second-guessing that decision in my earliest days. Now, the reason for that isn't because I worried whether or not the position was going to be the right fit for me. No. I really liked the job I was getting to do. It wasn't because I was concerned if the organization was everything I had hoped for, because it was an amazing organization.

It wasn't that I was second-guessing, "God, did you call me into this?" I genuinely believed, with a wholehearted conviction, God had called me into a life of ministry. Why, then, did I second-guess all of it? Because I really loved all of the comforts that came with corporate America in the Western world. I genuinely loved my old paycheck because, as a single guy, I never had to count my dollars or worry about budgeting anything.

I could spend my money where I wanted to, when I wanted to, and how I wanted to. I loved all of the confidence that came with my old job, because I could walk into a variety of rooms and talk to a smattering of people. I could visit with friends. I could talk to family. I could go out on the weekends. I could find myself visiting with strangers and feel like I had something impressive to offer them because my career was respectable.

I loved the opportunities that came with that old job too. I loved that it indulged my competitive edge. It gave me a ladder to climb up and prove that I was worthy of following after. I could leave a legacy. I could make my mark on the world. I could even make a name for myself. I loved all of this about my old job. So, when I made the switch, having left the halls of power to do things like fold tee shirts by the thousands and lick envelopes by the millions to send out newsletters to all of the people who followed along with the ministry, I often second-guessed, "God, did I make the right decision?"

I remember very specifically, there was one summer day in the middle of the heat of August, the first week of school at Texas A&M. I was sitting out in front of Kyle Field, and I had borrowed this grill because we were going to pass out hot dogs. As I fired that grill up, only one of the six burners worked, yet I had a cooler of 2,000 hot dogs to cook. As I stood there baking in the heat of a Texas summer, I asked, "O God, why do you test me so?"

Why do I tell you that? Because we all can relate to that experience, can't we? Maybe not in cooking hot dogs in the middle of the heat of Texas but in feeling like God is testing you. I don't know what your situation is, and I don't know how serious your situation may be, yet we have all been in a situation where we have found ourselves asking the very same thing. "God, why are you testing me?"

Like, you hit it off with someone, yet the relationship ended unexpectedly. It fell far short of where you thought it would go. Or you are expected to take over the family business, yet at some point during your journey through life, you realize God has given you a different passion for something else, and now you fear that you're going to let everybody in your family down.

Or you love hanging out with those friends, yet every time you go out with them, you always feel pressured into compromising, and then you wake up on Saturday or Sunday morning, and you're just filled with regret because of the guilt by way of the things you did the night before. Or you have applied for 50 different jobs, yet despite all of your effort, you cannot get a response back. We have all been in a place where we're wondering, "Why? Why, God? Why are you testing me? Why are you making it so very difficult?"

That's what I want to talk to you about tonight, because as we continue in our series of the book of Genesis, we're going to specifically dial in to the life of Abraham in a key moment where he asks the very same thing. He is confronted with this great test from God, one that has marked the history of humanity across the globe in so many different places and yet has relevance even for us here tonight. I want to talk to you about the sacrifice of Isaac.

So, if you have a Bible, you can grab it and turn with me to Genesis, chapter 22. We have been in this series where we've been walking through the book of Genesis, and while we can't look at every single chapter, we have thought to ourselves, "You know what? In an effort to understand, 'God, who are you?' let's look at 10 iconic moments over the course of this book."

Last week, we turned the corner into really focusing on the family of Abraham. You see, you get all of the primeval history, everything that happens across the globe, and then it slowly dials down into this one man and the rest of his family, because it's from that man and his family that Jesus Christ himself is going to come and God is going to bless the rest of the world.

So, as we jumped into Abraham last week, we found that he was walking with God in a manner that you and I do very similarly. We find ourselves journeying with him through a variety of different highs and lows, ebbs and flows. Yet what we know is that as we go with him, often it's not perfect, but it can be faithful. That's the story of Abraham.

We see in him this guy who has just said "Yes" to going with God. As he has gone with him, he has found that there have been high peaks and low valleys, yet through it all, God has continued to be faithful. As we come to chapter 22, what we need to know is that Abraham is now over 100 years old. At this spot in his life, he has really grown in his faith. A lot has taken place since chapter 12.

In chapter 12, he kind of took a flier on God. God looked at him and said, "Hey, I've got big plans for you," and Abraham said, "Cool. Okay." So, he left his home, he left his family, he left his inheritance, and he began to journey with God into the promises God had given him. As we come to chapter 22, we realize a lot of those things have come to pass.

He has received the son of promise. He has entered into the land God wanted to give him. Yet, through it all, as Abraham has grown in his knowledge of who God is and his love for that God, we realize all of it has come by way of testing. Him knowing God's heart, obeying God's voice, trusting God's character…the very things that I hope would be true of you…literally all of it came by way of testing.

Notice I said testing. I didn't say tempting, because though those things can feel very similar, they are very, very different from one another. The Bible makes it really plain. James 1:13 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one."

Why do I tell you that? Because it means things like the thirst traps in your algorithm or the pressure you feel to perform and look successful before your peers are not from God. He didn't do that to you. That's on us. God does not tempt anyone, but he tests everyone. If you just look up north of verse 13 in James 1, what you find in verses 2-4 is he says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

You see, testing does, in fact, come from God, and it comes from God for very good reason. It comes to refine your character, grow your faith, shape your maturity, and ultimately lead you to look more like the person of Jesus. That's what tests do. Tests show you where you are, and then they show you where you want to be.

I remember experiencing this at the age of 15 when I went to take my driver's exam, because I did not pass my driver's exam. I failed that test miserably. The reason for it was I didn't prepare. I thought I could figure out the rules of the road all on my own. So, as I showed up to the DMV, I failed to become what I wanted. Yet that test was so useful because it showed me (and that cruel woman who ultimately handed me the results) that I was not roadworthy.

So, what happened? I knew I needed to grow, so I set out to learn traffic law. I wanted to know when to merge and when to yield. "How long should I sit at the stop sign? When can I and can't I turn right on red?" I wanted to know all of it because I had dreams of driving. Though they had been dashed upon the rocks in my past, I believed there was a brighter day still ahead.

That's what tests do. They show you where you are, and they show you where you want to be. I love the way Saint Augustine describes it. He says trials will prove and improve us. The thought there being that when you undergo trials and tests in life, God is trying to tell you, "Hey, this is who you are," and he's trying to show you who you're meant to become.

Listen. That's what he's doing with some of you tonight, which is why if you're here and you feel like, "Man, I missed my calling. I chose the wrong career. I picked the wrong guy. I picked the wrong girl. I can't get the things I'm praying for. I've waited too long, O Lord…" If that's you, you're probably facing a test, and it means God is trying to teach you something…about himself, yes, but also about you too.

So, how do we know if we are being tested and, more importantly, why we are being tested? Well, look at verse 1. It says, "After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.'" I just love that. Doesn't that tell us something about the nature of Abraham and God's relationship? By this point, Abraham has been walking with God for a very long time.

As they have journeyed through everything…again, we said the highs and the lows of life…what we see is that they have a closeness in relationship to each other that helps Abraham to actually know when God is speaking. He knows God's voice. What good relationship can you have in life where you do not know the other person's voice? There is no relationship like that, because you must talk to each other.

Abraham has been talking to God. God has been talking to Abraham. What we see is that when God calls, Abraham responds. He knows the voice of God, which raises a really big question that we do not have time to actually discuss, yet I'll put it before you because it's worth considering. Do you know when God speaks, and how do you respond when he does?

Abraham responds instinctively. He just gets up and goes. God says, "Abraham." He's like, "Hey, yeah. What's up? Right here." He's so ready for it. Yet, for so many of us, that's not the case. For some of you here tonight, it's hard for you to discern, "Is that God's voice or is that my own thinking?" For others of you, it's difficult to make it out through all the noise and distractions of what's going on in your life. Others of you don't know what he sounds like because you've never actually listened to him.

So, what do you do to pick up the trail, the accent of God's voice? You read this. You spend time studying the Scriptures, meditating on their truths, and not only memorizing what it says but realizing every word it speaks to you. This is timeless, and it is tailored directly to you. This is his Word. It is living and active. It is sharper than any double-edged sword, and it is still piercing even today.

If you want to know his voice, you have to get into this book, because the question is never, "Is God asking something of me? He has asked something of Abraham. How do I know if he's asking something of me?" That's never the question. God is always asking something of you. The question is…What? What is he asking of you? God has a lot that he wants to say about the way you live your life, what you do and how you do it, because he ultimately wants to shape you into a person who experiences all the fullness he has come to give through Jesus. You cannot get there if you cannot hear him.

So, what does it look like, then, for you to understand his Word? We don't have time to really unpack that, but we have a team out back. Once you leave the service, you can go and visit with them. They're at the welcome desk, and they would love to talk to you about how you can learn the Word of God and engage with it at a personal level.

So, as we keep going, we see Abraham hears God's voice and responds. It's instinctive. It says this in verse 2: "He said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'"

Now, why would God do that? What a crazy request. Why would God come to Abraham and be like, "Hey. Yeah, your boy, the most precious thing in your life, that thing, the one you treasure above all…I want you to give him to me"? Why would he do that? Doesn't that feel so inconsiderate? Doesn't that feel absolutely unloving? Here's why he does it: because tests expose what we love most in life.

Why is God testing you? He wants to expose what you love most in life. That is why he gives this deliberate instruction to Abraham. It's so interesting. As you read it, it feels redundant, but it's anything but redundant. He comes to Abraham and says, "Take your son, your only son, the one who you love, and give him to me."

Why is he so emphatic about this? Because he wants Abraham to know, "That thing which you cherish most in life? I know full well about it, and I want all of it. I want to be first in your life, so that which would ever compete against me, I want you to stack us against one another and evaluate whether I am better or it is instead."

That's why God looks at him and says, "Hey, I want you to give him to me as a burnt offering." If you study Levitical law, you realize there's a whole variety of different offerings the people of God could present to the Lord. This type of offering, a burnt offering or, as the Hebrew would describe it, a going up offering, was a total offering. The thought there being nothing is held back. Nothing is kept for the priests or the people. All of it is given to God.

So, he's looking at Abraham and saying, "Hey. Yeah, that thing, Isaac, who you love most… I don't only want him; I want all of him. I want the entirety of that which you cherish above everything else." The reason he does it in the life of Abraham and speaks it into the life of you and me here tonight is he knows there's nothing worse for somebody than to love something more than him.

So, I don't know what it is for you. I don't know what's most precious in your life, if it's your body, if it's your money, if it's your appearance, if it's your job, if it's your intellect, if it's your health, if it's your happiness, but God will not settle for second place in comparison to anything. And it isn't because he's insecure. "Oh no! They like social acceptance more than they like me. What will I ever do? How will I move on?"

God does not feel that way about you. He is not insecure, because he has always been secure. Before you and I ever showed up on the scene, he was totally secure then, and he will be totally secure whenever we are gone. He is not insecure in the slightest. Instead, he knows, "There's nothing better out there for you, so come to me." That's his heart. It is one of love. Yet, we don't often do this.

Psalm 115:4-8 is such a haunting passage, because it tells us what happens to people who love things other than God. It says, "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat." Here's the kicker: "Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them."

Do you see it? When you worship something lifeless, you become something lifeless. That's what that's saying. When you value your body, for instance… When you value your body so much that you're hyper-focused at the gym, and you can't even take pride in the things you've been able to achieve because you're also hyper-aware of how much farther you have to go, what ends up happening is it robs you of the achievement, because you always feel like you have someplace further still to reach.

It's why so many of you care so much to control your life, so what happens is you fill up your calendar, because that gives you some sense of security, and the reality is your calendar ends up running your life as opposed to you running your calendar. It's why others of you find comfort in unwinding with a few drinks at the end of the day, yet what happens as you do that and give yourself over to it more and more and more is you become as empty as the bottles you're draining.

You ultimately become that which you worship. We know what this is like, and here's the really dangerous thing about this. So many of the things in your life and everything I just described are morally neutral. They're not intrinsically evil. They're not wrong in any way by themselves, but they become evil whenever we mistreat what God created as good, because anything good can become bad if it's worshiped as best.

So, what will God do? He will come, and he will put his finger on whatever that is in your life, and he will ask you to give it to him. The reality is if you do not give it to him, he will ultimately remove it or destroy it, and that will be his mercy to you. I remember in my own life… I was trying to think of a different story, because I think I've shared this one before, but it is the best story from my life to give you.

A long time ago, I stood on a stage like this for the very first time. As I did it, I had all the feels. I was anxious and nervous and excited and giddy, because I had been in your seat before, and I had been deeply impacted by the words men like myself standing on stages like this had spoken into me. I had been fascinated by the Word of God, and I had been marked, etched out by all of the things he said were true.

So, having been impacted by it, I was so eager to be a part of that work in the lives of other people. And I'd been affirmed in some communication gifts. So, whenever my moment came to finally climb the platform and get in front of a crowd like this, I was ecstatic. I was so expectant…that is, until I froze in front of 3,000 people for the very first time I ever stood on a stage like this.

And it wasn't for just a couple of seconds; it was for a lot of seconds…like, an uncomfortable amount of time…to the point that, ultimately, I felt deeply humiliated. It's one of the most embarrassing moments in my life. It was miserable, and yet it was merciful. It's actually where I learned the tagline "Miserable mercies," because though that felt so wrong in me, it was so right for me. God knew, as I climbed that stage and stood before that crowd, I didn't love him. I didn't love his ministry. I loved that stage and the chance I got to stand upon it.

So, what did God do? For years, he kept me long and far away from any stage like it, because he needed to work something out of me before he would ever work something through me, so that now, as I stand here, I know I don't need anything from you; I just want everything for you. I can be a fool to the glory of God, because he is crazy about you. And I know, for he has been crazy about me as well. This is what he will do.

Now, does that mean he'll never let you have what you love? Does it mean you're never going to get to achieve your dreams or live in the fulfillment of all your hopes? No. I'm standing here. But what it does mean is God is not content to be second best in your life because he doesn't want second best for your life.

Do you see what I'm saying there? He knows he's the best thing for you, so anything that would ever get in the way of it, he will challenge it, obstruct it, and oppose it, because he ultimately wants your satisfaction, and that satisfaction is not found in this world; it is found in him. He wants you to have as much of him as you can get.

Here's the thing. He loves you so much that if there was anything better out there for you, he would be the first to point you to it, but because there isn't, he is the first to point you to himself. He says, "Come to me, because in me you will have life and life abundantly." So, how do you know if he's first in your life? Well, it depends on your response when he calls, which is what we see as we keep going. Look at verse 3.

"So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar."

In just these two verses, we learn something really big about the level of Abraham's trust in God. Again, it reads kind of normal, but there's nothing normal about this. This is an insane request from God, yet it is an even more insane response from Abraham. Because what does he do? He gets up early, and he gets to work. He starts cutting the wood, and he makes his way out. He is in no way, shape, or form contesting or protesting this call from God. He just snaps into action and begins to act obediently.

How? How can he do that? Because he has a massive faith in God. Abraham has massive, massive faith in God. That's why God tests him, and that's why he tests you. God tests us to reveal the quality of our faith. The bigger the test you face, the bigger the faith required. We actually know this idea, because we see it all the time in reality television. It's not enough to just have people go and compete for a prize. No. Instead, we need to ship them off and strand them on a deserted island.

It's not enough to just look at people and see who's the best cook. Instead, we need to package the very worst ingredients possible and see what they can make out of them. It's not enough to just put people on a show and see if they can find love with one another. No. What we need to do is see if they can do it blind. This is always perpetuating this idea that if we raise the stakes, we'll see if their belief also rises. The difference, though, between them and Abraham is they are filled with a self-belief, and he has a God-belief.

Abraham's faith is not in his strength; it is in God instead. What happens because of it is he does something completely insensible. Like, what are you doing if you're in this position? I'm probably protesting the logic on this one. I'm probably looking at God and being like, "Did you get enough sleep, big guy? You know, this seems a little bit shaky. I'm not really sure. You said this one thing. This feels contradictory to that. So, why don't we just sleep on it, and we can revisit tomorrow?" That's what I would do.

What would you do? I would expect you'd probably come up with some kind of justification, because the reality is we do this all the time. We come up with weak justifications to justify our disobedience. Like, "I know my friends think he's bad news, but they just don't know him like I do," or "I know I should delete those apps, but how then would I know what's happening in the world or what my friends are up to?" or "I know I should stop hanging out with those people, but when would I ever get to go out and hang with people I actually enjoy?"

Here's the reality. Abraham does not indulge a weak justification because he doesn't feel confident in what God has asked. Instead, he looks at God, he considers what he has asked, and he says, "Yes." How? How can he do it? Because this is genuinely insensible. How does he find himself in a position where he can say "Yes" to God?

I love that it tells us he rode from Beersheba to Mount Moriah and it took him three days. The reason I love that is because if you look on a map and consider how far someone would have been able to travel by way of donkey in the ancient Near East, more than likely, the trip from Beersheba to Mount Moriah should have taken something like one to two days, depending on how fast you're pushing it, but he takes three.

Why does he go three days? Because Abraham obeys quickly, but he processes slowly. He knows, "God has asked it of me, so I'm going, but I'm going to need some time to work this thing out as I go." Notice he is not in any way slow to the draw. He does not have a delayed obedience. He gets up and goes. He prepares all of the mechanics for what God has asked him to do with his son Isaac.

Yet, though he has done all of it, he's just driving a little bit below the speed limit. He knows the destination, but he's just taking his time, because he wants to make sure he's not just begrudgingly going along, that he's not just blindly following God but instead is in agreement with everything God has asked. Do you see it? He wants to get his heart on board.

Man, some of us really need to do the same in our own lives, because too often we hear the commands of God, and we want to be good Christian soldiers, so we just say, "Yes," and we go and do, and we actually don't ever let it trickle from our head into our heart and change who we are. You need to process slowly. You need to really consider.

For others, that's not our issue. Do you know what we do? We're quick to process and slow to obey. We don't like what God has asked, so we want to pray about it a little bit longer, maybe talk to community, get a little bit of counsel, sleep on it, wake up in the morning, and maybe sleep on it again. We want to take our time because we're not confident, nor are we convinced of whatever it is God has asked us to do.

Abraham doesn't do any of that. He gets himself on board, head, heart, the entirety of who he is, and he says, "Yes," which is a really big deal, because if you remember what God has asked, it is a seemingly contradictory request. I need you to hear this, because this is so important to the crux of this story. He knows God has told him, "It is through Isaac that you will become the father of many nations, and it is Isaac I want you to kill." How does Abraham make sense of that contradiction? Hebrews 11 actually tells us. It's what's amazing about the Bible. It often interprets itself. It tells us in verses 17-19:

"By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death."

It says he reasoned. It's the product of processing. He processed, "How is God going to keep his promise if he kills my son?" and he arrived at this conclusion: "It must mean, then, that he's going to raise him from the dead," which is a crazy conclusion to draw, because by this point in human history, no one had ever experienced resurrection. Yet, though this is such an unreasonable thing in the eyes of the world, in Abraham's mind it is more reasonable to believe the impossible with God than reasonable to think he would ever contradict his character. He believes in God.

I know some of you here have been asked by God to do something that feels pretty unreasonable. You've been asked to end that relationship, even though you've been together so long; to admit you lied, even though that person may never forgive you; to follow Jesus, even though your parents may disown you; to get some help, even though it's hard to admit you're suicidal; to keep the baby, even though it's probably going to mess with your future.

But just because it feels unreasonable to the world does not mean it's unreasonable to God. See, God is still in the business of writing stories. He is still in the business of making miracles, and he is still in the business of keeping his promises. All of that is available for you. If it's available for Abraham, it is available for us, because he is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Amen?

Now, does that mean you're going to understand the details of how God is going to do all of it, how he's going to work it all out? No. We see Abraham didn't. Look at verse 5. "Then Abraham said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.'" Do you see it? "We'll come again to you." The confidence. "God will do something to save my son."

"And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, 'My father!' And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' He said, 'Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?' Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.' So they went both of them together."

Hand in hand, side by side, in complete complicity with each other, they went toward Mount Moriah. There's a lot of debate around what's actually happening in this scene, because conservative scholarship puts Isaac at 13 to 20 years old. He's not a young boy. He's a young man, in some respect. Yet what you see is, though he could get away from Abraham, who's north of 100, close to 120 by this point, he goes with his father. Why?

It's not because Abraham has pulled the wool over his eyes. It's not because he's planning to stab him in the back when he's not looking. I think the reason they go together is because Abraham is just honest with him. He tells him. "Father, where's the lamb?" "I don't know, son, but the Lord will provide." He doesn't make anything up. He doesn't hide his cards. He just deals honestly, because he actually believes the Lord will provide, which tells us the last thing you have to know about why we face tests.

Tests teach us that God always provides. You see, Abraham's confidence isn't in understanding the details of how God is going to work this out, and ours should not be either. Last week, we talked about how you do not need to understand everything to trust God. Here's the second part to that idea: but you do need to understand God to trust everything with him. Does that make sense?

You don't have to know how things are going to play out to know how God will play it out, but therein is the reason some of you struggle to trust God. Some of you struggle to trust God because you actually don't know him. I don't mean that as a jab. I'm not trying to stir the pot or get anybody upset or insecure. Whenever we distrust God, it is the byproduct of not knowing God. It's not crazy to distrust someone you don't know. It's actually recommended. If you don't know them, don't get in the car with them.

Yet it's a good telltale sign. If you distrust God, there may be something about him that you don't actually know. The real danger of this, because we live in the buckle of the Bible Belt, is you know just enough about him. You grew up in the church. You've sung the songs. You know when to raise your hands in the right moments. You can answer the questions. You pray before your meals, even out in public. You can even answer questions to all that the world might ask.

Yet, though you can do all of that, your distrust of him, the fact that you rely on your own strength, the fact that you take safety in your insecurity, the fact that you live a double life, testifies against you that you do not know him, because if you did, you would trust him. You would do what Abraham does. Verse 9:

"When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'"

Question: Does it bother anybody else that God waits until the last possible minute to stop him? He waits until after Abraham has taken every single step. Like, he rose early in the morning. He saddled his donkey. He cut the wood. He gathered his servants. He made the journey three days long to Mount Moriah.

He works it all out in his mind. They arrive there together. He leaves the servants. He and his son ascend at the same time. They get to the top. He builds the altar. He lays the wood. He binds his son. He puts him down. He picks up the knife, and he raises it above his head. Then God says, "Hey, stop." Why? Why does God do that?

Here's the thing that's really confronting for me: God is omniscient. He knows everything. He knew already what Abraham was going to do before Abraham did any of it. Isaiah says God knows the end from the beginning. So, there's nothing here that God is learning for the first time. In fact, Abraham is walking right in step with everything God already anticipated. Why, then, does God have him go this far?

This is big. God does not need to know that Abraham trusts him; he needs Abraham to know that he trusts God. That's why he has him go through with it. That's why he has him go this far. It's why God will test you in this life. The truth is he's already testing some of you here tonight. You know it for yourself. You know the situation, the circumstance you're in right now, yet you can know God is testing you because he wants you to be affirmed, to have this strong confidence, this rooted conviction that you trust him.

You may not be able to make sense of why it's all happening the way it's happening. You may not know how this accords with his goodness or purposes, yet you can be assured God is, in fact, good, he does have a great purpose, and he will lead you forward in his great kindness. Because you do, it leads you to do what Abraham himself does. It leads you to put everything on the altar because you actually believe nothing is better than him.

You see, this is the crazy thing. When you do, when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you trust God, do you know what happens to you? You become unlocked from the cares of this world, and you become unleashed to move through this life in a way that the rest of the world knows nothing about.

It frees you. It compels you. It drives you to be completely different. You become a force of nature for the kingdom of God. That's what God wanted for Abraham. He had great purposes. He had better plans. And that's what he wants for you, but just as Abraham had to come to the altar, so too do we, because the ultimate act of trust is always surrender.

I'll close with this. When you have a newborn, every night feels like a test. I don't know if you know, but newborn babies don't sleep very much, which means you don't sleep very much either. When my wife and I brought our little boy Kash home for the very first time and through the first few months with him, I realized, "You know what? I'm going to be up a lot, so I should take advantage of the opportunity. God, how do I maximize this time with you?"

I remembered the words of what some friends, some other fathers had told me in the past, that I should think about my theology when I hold my son, that God will teach me much about himself as Father when I myself, as father, hold my boy. So, here's what he taught me. Lessons from a father for a father, the things God taught me in the wee hours of the morning as I held my own son.

"Every time he cries, I come running. O God, how much quicker do you come running when I cry to you? Kash never misses a meal, and look at how he's growing. O God, how foolish am I to not feast on your Word, for by it I grow too. If ever he's hurt, I'm never inconvenienced to care for him. O God, what a sweet reminder that I'm never an inconvenience to you either.

When we dropped Kash at day care for the first time into a situation unfamiliar and unknown to him, he may have feared that we abandoned him, but nothing could be farther from the truth. O God, you too never abandon me, no matter what my circumstances may say. God, I often sing over Kash in the middle of the night to comfort him. Thank you that you sing over me too. Does he ever reach for me that I don't, with love, scoop him up? O God, so too are you compassionate to me."

God taught me a lot in those early days, in those early hours with my son, but it was just a couple of months ago when I found myself in what felt like a long-forgotten memory, asking the same question, "God, what would you teach me?" Because as I put my son to bed, he was a little sick, so he laid his head on my chest. Normally, he's reaching for the crib and trying to get away. This night, he just wanted to rest.

As I held him again, I asked God, "God, is there anything you want to teach me tonight?" Only this time God did not want to teach me about his heart; he wanted to teach me about mine, because as we were talking with one another in the dark of that room, I sensed the prompting question come to mind. "Kylen, do you trust me enough to surrender your son fully to me?"

As I stood there, sound machine in the background, swaying back and forth, tears filling my eyes, I thought to myself, "I do trust you, God. I do trust you." The reason I trusted him then and the reason you can trust him tonight is because he has provided. We see it at the end of the story. Verses 13-14:

"And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, 'The Lord will provide'; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.'"

On that day, God looked at Abraham and said, "Only one of us will sacrifice our son." So God did. For on the same mount, Mount Moriah, which Abraham ascended to offer his son, God had his own Son ascend that same mountain to lay down his life for the sins of the world. By his own blood, every curse of sin has been cleansed for those who place their faith in him, and we can know, just as God surrendered his Son that we might trust in him tonight in response, we can surrender whatever it is that might be obstructing our affections as we trust in him again. Let me pray that you would.

God, I ask you now to do what only you can do. First, God, I pray that you would impress upon my friends here in the room how real this moment is. In this moment right here, right now, it would be so easy to just get up and to move on, to feel all of the distractions of an inbox and a calendar and other preoccupations that would lead us to disconnect. Yet, God, I know, I believe that we move through these evenings and, over the course of it all, but particularly right now, you minister to us.

So, God, I pray we would do what Abraham himself did, and this is secondly. I ask, God, that we would come to the altar and, O Lord, we would lay down whatever it is that we love, we cherish, we value, God, even possibly more than you, as a declaration that for you, God, who loved us so much that you would send your only Son, we who love you in response would offer up anything and everything that might stand to challenge you.

Jesus, I pray, would my friends here know you did ascend that mount, you carried that wood, and you even, Father, by way of your Son, took the instrument of your death and slayed yourself so that we, God, might not die the death deserving of our sin, for you died it instead, but rather, because you rose in victory, we can place our faith in you and we can rise ourselves. Would you help us now to respond? O God, let us respond, please, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.