Names of God | Week 5 | Clayton York | Full Service

It must tell a lot about

Bill's character and the amount of trust that he has in Caleb and I because he literally let the only two male pastors on staff with long hair go back to back. Promise you, you can trust me. This morning is gonna be super fun as we dive in to God's word. That was a risky thing. Bill does some risky things. Speaking

speaking of risk, I want to I wanna explain something that happened this week. I had to I had to do a risky thing. I had to make a risky move and I just wanna let you in on a little part of my life. If you've been around for any certain time, you may have heard me speak about one of my really good friends. He's a really good buddy of mine.

But this week, something happened and I just wanna explain. In fact, Sarah, if you're back there, could you please come out and just make this sound a little bit more ethereal and emotional? Hey, can we just thank this is Sarah Guy. She's incredible. One of the most gifted individuals on the planet.

Okay. So you guys, this past week, I had to say goodbye to one of my one of my buddies. He we we've been through ups and downs. We've been through highs and lows. We've been through the hills and in the lowest valleys. We've been on mountain tops together and we've been through the desert in a lot of situations.

In fact, I I would spend every Friday in my garage hanging out with and building a relationship with my buddy. I call him call him big buddy. It's got a nickname. It's my ride or die. This past week, it pains me to say that I had to say goodbye to big buddy. I brought a picture of me and my friend. This is big buddy.

Been through a lot. You're just gonna stop?

Forget you too. Okay. This is Buddy. Yes. I named him. This is just spent a lot of time in my wife's money pouring into this Jeep.

But I had I had to I had to let it go this past week. It's been it's been a year that we built this relationship and you're like, Clayton, how did we get to this point? What brought us to this moment? Well, me explain something to you friends and family. A couple months ago, my wife thought it would be a great idea to purchase a horse. Alright? A horse. Mind you, we live in Eastmark.

There's no horse property there. Horses can't fit in my backyard. So my wife was like, I gotta get this horse, so we bought this horse. And so in my mind, I'm like, well, if we're gonna get a horse, then we've gotta get horse property. So we put our house on the market, We bought horse property. Keynote, if you buy a horse, you buy a house, just in case you didn't know that. So we bought a house with horse property.

And that gets us to to this point right here. I need to be able to to to tow a trailer. I need to be able to put some hay in the back so your boy got rid of his jeep and I'm a real boy now. I'm a cowboy. I got me a truck. I got me a truck. Okay? I got me a truck. But I wanna I wanna say something. It's really hard. It was real it was a really hard decision

to let go of something that I have invested so much time into.

And so I knew that I was gonna have to make this decision at some point. And so I I was looking all over, you know, social media and Facebook marketplace and OfferUp and Craigslist and came across this one truck that I absolutely love. And I was like, there's no way this guy is gonna go for this, but I'm gonna shoot my best shot. Sent him a message. He was like, yeah, I'm interested in the Jeep. I'll come check it out. So you guys, he came over to my house couple days ago and we started conversing in my driveway. And kid you not, he pulls up in his truck and I like, it's cool. But I'm sitting there looking at my Jeep and I'm just in my mind, I'm like, is it is this where it ends? Is this over? Is our relationship done for?

And it goes a little bit deeper than that. I start talking to these guys. It was a it was a a younger man and his dad came to look at the Jeep. And I find out over a short period of time, they've been long point rock pointers that I have never met before. His dad was actually a youth pastor for nine ten plus years in his

day, and I was a youth pastor for a number of years as well. And so I just built this relationship with these two guys in my driveway. And so as as crazy as this whole situation was, it was it was way better than I expected.

And I as funny as it sounds, I had to trust God in in this transition of going from a jeep to a truck. And he exceeded literally everything. I knew that if I trusted God enough, he would provide in a way that exceeded all of my expectations. And that's exactly what happened in this situation.

And so I learned something from this process that I want to bring to you today. And so our big idea is simply this, trust precedes provision. If you trust God, if you trust in hard situations, provision is on the opposite side of trust.

But as crazy as this story is with me and the Jeep and the truck, it begs the bigger question. The Bible says trust God and he will provide. But friends, how do you trust God when it seems like you're in the middle of life's biggest test? When you're in the middle of the biggest

battle that you're facing, an unexpected diagnosis, the loss of a loved one. You didn't get accepted to the college of your choice. You lost your job and you're trying to figure out how you're gonna provide for your family. It's those moments that we never really planned for

that make no sense at all, and you're like, God, how am I supposed to trust you in the middle of this? And so as we wrap up this names of God series that we've been in for the past couple weeks, I want to look at a specific name of God, one of my favorite names of God, which is Jehovah Jireh, God Will Provide. And so we're gonna look at that name as we unpack the life of a specific person in the bible, Abraham. If you don't know anything about Abraham, let me explain. Abraham was a man

after God. He listened to the commands of God. He was a yes man to the things that God was telling him to do. He's actually in what's called the hall of faith that we find in Hebrews. God said

many nations would come from Abraham's lineage. That's a little bit about Abraham. And if you didn't know Abraham based on that, you probably know Abraham based on this. Father Abraham had many sons. Come on y'all. Many sons had father Abraham. Yeah, stop singing. Y'all sound terrible. So we get to look at Abraham

this morning. This is a crazy story. Maybe you've heard it. Maybe you haven't heard this story. But here's my challenge to us. Would we all lean in this morning in hopes that God would speak to our hearts? Would we trust God enough to hit something that we would leave this place different and changed?

And so if you've got your bibles, I want you to open them up to Genesis 22. You don't know where that is? It's right after Genesis 21. Okay? It's before Genesis 23. Right in the middle of those two things. If you've got your Bibles, Genesis 22.

If you've got your iPhones, open up the YouVersion app. We would love for you to follow us on that. If you've got your Androids, do me a favor. Put them on the ground in front of and just kick them under the chair. Alright? Not Android fans. I'm kidding. If you have an Android, that's your fault. I need to pray. Pray

with me. Lord, we God, thank you that we can laugh and have fun. God, would you bring clarity from this story as we dive deeper into Abraham's life? God, we we trust you in this place, where would you move in a way that only you can move. God, would you speak. In Jesus name we pray. Amen? Amen. Alright, y'all. Genesis 22.

Here we go. Genesis 22 verse one. Sometime later, God tested Abraham's faith. Now just to clarify before we go any further than even just that, this isn't just a funny test that God's up there saying,

Abraham, you're going through something crazy right now and I'm gonna laugh about. No. That's not the kind of test that we're seeing right here. God doesn't tempt us to pull us

away from him. He tests us to push us closer to him. That's the kind of test that we're seeing. Do we have anybody in the room right now that is a teacher? Any teachers? Any teachers? Any teachers? Raise your hands high. Yeah. Hey, let's give a round of applause to our teachers. You have the hardest job in the world.

You have the hardest job in the world. But my question to you is simply this, do you ever give a test in hopes a student will fail? You're like, it depends on the student, Clayton. No, we don't. Tests are given to help us grow. Tests are given in hopes that we learn through the process.

You don't give a test in hopes that someone will fail. That's not what God is doing here. He's not hoping that Abraham will fail this. He's hoping that Abraham will see something and gain something from this. There's purpose in this test. So let's continue reading. Sometime later, God tested

Abraham's faith. Abraham, God called. Yes, he replied. Here I am. This is not the first time Abraham has said, here I am. He says that a lot to God. Verse two, take your son,

your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you. God, what? You want me to do what? How do you worship and trust God when he commands something like this?

How do you worship God when you can't even handle your own life and where you're at right now? God, how do I trust you with what I'm going through?

God, how do I go to church today? How do I worship you? How am I supposed to feel close to you when the things that you're commanding me, the things that you are asking of me are just far too deep? At how am I supposed to trust you? Check this out. Verse three.

The next morning, Abraham got up early. Someone say, get up. Get up. Say it with your chest. Someone say, get up. Get up. Okay. Thank you. Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey. See? Even Abraham was a cowboy. Saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son Isaac.

Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. Maybe for a lot of us in this room, it's hard to see God's goodness in the middle of a hard situation and hard to see his provision in our lives because we won't get up when he says move.

God, hear you, but I would rather stay right here. Where you're asking me to go, I can't see the end. So I'm just gonna chill right here. But it's even crazier than that because with what we just read, all we know is that God told him to go up a mountain and sacrifice his son.

That's the extent of the instruction that God gave gave Abraham. If that was me, I would've been like, God, you gotta tell me why I'm going there, what's gonna be up there when I get there, what's gonna happen during the process of getting up this mountain. I need to know what's gonna happen with my son. Am I really going to sacrifice him? Are you gonna pull through God? I need the deets. I need the details. God, is anybody in here detail oriented? Like you've gotta have the details before you do anything. What's crazy about this is Abraham

had to obey without all the details. Abraham had to obey without all the details. I think one of the reasons we don't see more more details from God is because he can't get us to move from where we are. And if there is no movement, there is no faith. And if there is no faith, friends, it's hard to trust him in any situation.

Far too many of us are stuck where we're at because where God's taking us, we don't wanna go. But Abraham, Abraham got up and set out. He trusted God's plan no matter how crazy it seemed, why? Because trust precedes provision. Trust precedes

provision. Now here's what I need you to do. I need you to mentally note verse four. We gotta make a mental note of verse four. So I want you to say this. Repeat after me. Remember verse four. Now say it say it like you mean it. Remember verse four. Remember verse four. What are you gonna remember? What

verse are you remembering? War. What are you gonna do with verse four? Remember. Okay. See? You'll understand this in just a little bit. You won't forget verse four. I promise you. Remember verse four. Verse four says this, on the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place

in the distance. I'm gonna read that again. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Stay here with the donkey, Abraham told the servants. The boy and I, Isaac and I, we'll travel a little bit farther, we'll worship there, then we'll come right back.

Okay. Pause. I'm gonna stop right there just for a second because that doesn't make any sense. That comment that Abraham just said makes absolutely no sense at all. Abe told his servants to stay back while him and Isaac

worship on the mountain and when they're done singing hymns and having church and doing the Cupid shuffle or whatever they're gonna do up there, they would come back. That's like me saying, you know, to my wife, hey babe, me and Trevor, we're gonna go get our haircut. We will be back.

Hey babe, me and a couple of boys, we're gonna head to the gym. We will be back. That's like me telling all of you guys, hey, me and my wife, we're heading to Jamaica for a week. Come on, we will be back. Abe told his servants, y'all chill here, me and the boy, we'll be back. You catch that? You understand that?

Are you hearing what this is saying? We means us. Us means we. God told Abraham to kill Isaac. There is no we coming back if only one of them is supposed to come back down the mountain. He'll be coming around the mountain when he comes, not we. Abe said, we'll come right back.

When you are called to faith, friends, speak truth in the middle of uncertainty. When you're called to faith, I'm gonna challenge you to speak truth in the middle of an unclear situation.

Let me show you something really cool. In Hebrews 11, which I mentioned briefly at the beginning, we see Abraham's life just kind of unfolded, the things God did through him, for him, and with him. And in verse 19, Hebrews eleven nineteen says this, I love this, I love how scripture speaks. Abraham

reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. Abraham believed that even if he did have to sacrifice his one and only son, God was able enough to raise him from the dead. Now, I don't understand. How how does Abraham have this kind of faith? Where did this come from? Because that logic

to our finite minds makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Can I remind you family of a little piece of Abraham's story? His wife Sarah was barren for ninety years. She could not have kids. And I'm betting Abraham at a 100 years old was thinking, you know what? This part of my life is over. This season is too far gone.

But through trust and faithfulness, God provided to them Isaac, their one and only son. Let me phrase it this way, for ninety years, Sarah's womb was dead. There was no life there. But Abraham was able to see what God did

through a dead womb, so it should not surprise you and I that when God is commanding him right here to sacrifice his one and only son, that Abraham's able to look back on what God did previously and say, you know what? I remember what God did. I've seen him bring dead things to life. So even if I do have to sacrifice Isaac,

I've seen what God can do. He can bring back dead things. Trust precedes provision. Trust precedes provision. Listen, when you're stuck in between what seems to be a rock and a hard place and a circumstance or situation that seems impossible and you might be there,

Don't you dare forget what God has brought you through before. Please don't you dare forget that. If you're like, Clayton, how am I supposed to remember what God has done when I can't even

thank him for what he he's given me, when I can't even see the outcome of the situation that I'm in? I'm gonna challenge you to do this. If you're a praying person and you like to get up and talk to God or maybe you haven't talked to God in a while, maybe you never have. I'm gonna challenge you to do this, before

anything else, before you say, God, here's what I'm needing from you, I want you to spend five minutes just thanking him for everything that you have. No matter how big or small that might be because when you thank him for what he's given you, that builds your faith. And if your faith is being built,

that trust with him goes a little bit deeper. That's my challenge to you. Thank him. Thank him and it will build your faith and your trust. So this story

continues as they make their their way to the place that God called them to go. Abraham gives Isaac the wood for the offering while he carries the fire and knife because you can't trust kids with fire or knives. And they're walking, having some good old father son time.

And then Isaac looks to his dad and says this, I can kinda you can kinda see Isaac catching on to something. He says this in verse seven. He goes, okay, dad, father Abraham, we have the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering? Abraham says, God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son.

And they both walked on together. Isaac's catching on to something here, y'all. He's like, hold on a second. We've got the fire and the wood and the pokers. Dad, where's the graham crackers and the marshmallows and the chocolate, right? Abraham looks at his son and says, son, God's got some more coming.

I had to do it guys. Abraham Abraham had to have started bad dad jokes, it was him, I promise you, but I get the credit for that one, that was all me, I made that up. But for real, Isaac, thanks for letting me do that. Isaac, listen. Isaac is wondering where the sheep is

for the offering and Abraham's response to his son is this, I don't know, but God will provide. Son, I'm not sure how this is gonna end. I'm not sure I'm not sure how this will work out. It's confusing and chaotic. It makes no sense, but God's got to provide this solution, Abraham says. And put yourself here for a moment.

Would you do that with me? I'm sure after this conversation that Isaac has with his father and the response that he gets, I bet Isaac, as silence overcomes the both of them. Isaac is wondering, well, how how is that gonna happen? How is god gonna provide? And Abraham wonders, when is it gonna happen, god?

When is it gonna happen? How will God provide and when is it going to happen? Is that where you're at, family? Are you wondering how God will provide in the situation that you're in the middle of or maybe you are about to walk into? When is it gonna happen? God, I just don't see how things are going to end well.

God, when are you gonna provide like you said you would?

Friends, listen. If we could really grasp and understand the depth of his love for us, How much Jesus loves you, that he would sacrifice and die on the cross for you and I. If we only understood that and trusted God in the moment that we're in right now, I guarantee you the provision would make way more sense.

Trust him enough to get you there. He loves you so much. If you don't hear anything else this morning, hear that. Maybe someone's doubting the love of the father. I promise you it's real and he does. What would it look like for us to choose Abraham's response in moments of our uncertainty to say, you know what?

I'm gonna try something different and I'm gonna trust God enough to provide without all the details. Remember, he wants to pull you closer. He wants to bring you closer. Trust precedes provision.

Let's see what happened next. What happens next? Verse nine says this, when they arrived at the place where God had told them to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

You know those moments that you prepare for something that's coming up in the future, maybe it's like a a work event, maybe it's a family event, you're like, you know what, I got time for that, I'm gonna prepare for that,

but I it's it's not here for a while. And then all of a sudden you wake up the next morning, you're like, oh, shucks. It's here. That's where we're at right now. This moment came so fast for Abraham. And can you imagine what's going through his mind as he sees his son laying on this altar? Abraham must be thinking,

how did how did we get here? How did we get to this moment right now? I wish I would have gone into the backyard and played catch with him a little bit more often. I wish I would have made it to all of his games. I wish I would have taught him how to drive and how to shave. I wish I had more father son tonight. God, how did we get here

so fast? How did we get here so fast? Come on, God. Provide like you said you were. And so this story friends, the story is now climaxed to this very moment. Genesis 22 verse 10, Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. You can almost taste this moment. It's so tense. Can you see it? Can you feel it?

As the sweat is dripping from Abraham's brow onto his one and only son's body, he wonders, God, come on, man. When are you gonna do this? Can you feel that? Can you feel the tension? Must be going through Abraham's mind? But at that moment, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham. Yes.

He replied, here I am. I see this as the moment where like things are blurry and there's confusion and chaos and you can't see clearly and it all comes to this very second where reality hits and now it's clear. God, I'm here. I'm listening. I'm listening. What are you going to say?

Don't lay a hand on the boy, the angel said. Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son. True faith is always tested. True faith is always tested.

I hope you understand what I'm about to say because this is the crux of this message right here.

God never wanted Isaac's life. He only wanted Abraham's heart. This was never about Isaac's life. This was about Abraham's heart posture, willingly ready to sacrifice

his only son, God interrupts the narrative and stops Abraham from swinging the knife towards the son of towards the body of his son. He wanted to be sure. Listen, this is why. He wanted to be sure that Isaac was not an idol

in the way of a relationship between God and Abraham. He wanted to know that Abraham held God closer than he did Isaac. And so the question I ask you is simply this, and I hope you think about it. What is your Isaac? What is the thing that you're holding so tightly to that God can't have because you're too afraid to lose it?

For some people, it might be the loss of a loved one. For some people, it might be divorce. For some people, it might be money and finances. For some of us, it might be the desire to have a family.

And that's what it is for me. My wife and I have tried for five years, still nothing. Do I trust god enough in the moments that seem hard? What are you holding on to that you need to give god?

For some people in this room, it might actually be your heart. If your heart is in your hands, that mean god, that means god does not have What is your Isaac? And let me say this, god's purpose in trials is not for you to suffer. I promise you, that's not his heart and that's not his character. It's not for you to suffer

but for your trust in him to grow. He's only ever wanted your heart. Outcome is God's responsibility, obedience is ours. So do you trust him? Trust precedes provision. Now watch this. Here it comes. The moment that we've all been waiting for, the name of God in this story.

You ready? You guys ready for this? You ready? You ready? Okay. Check this out. Twenty twenty two verse 13. Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh Yahweh,

means the Lord will provide. There it is, Jehovah Jireh, God the provider. To this day, people still use that name as a proverb. On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. Jehovah Jireh,

God the provider. He came through like he said he would. I want us to I wanna take you guys to class just for a brief moment because I I know you guys are all dying for a lesson. So check this out. I wanna teach us some Hebrew. Okay? I need you to repeat after me. I need you to say, Say it. That means absolutely nothing.

Just wanna see if you guys would actually do it. You're like, why'd you spit on me, bro? I I do wanna teach you Hebrew. Everybody say, Jairah. Jairah. The provider. God the provider. But it goes a little bit deeper than just God the provider. There's dual meaning. Jairah also means to see beforehand.

God sees before you even think. So God will pre see what you will be provided. And here's how we see this come full circle. Here's why I love scripture because it speaks so clearly and you can see it come to life. So remember, God pre sees what you will be provided. So

on this journey with Abraham and Isaac, as they're walking up one side of the mountain, guess what? Guess what? Guess what? On the other side of the mountain is a ram walking up. And so they all meet at the top as God presaw what was going to be provided even though Abraham had no idea that's what it was going to be.

So now they're all at the top of this mountain.

Abraham, Isaac, and the ram, they started from the bottom, now they're here. And I don't know if you know anything about farm animals. Anybody ever had a farm? Anybody own a farm right now? Any farm people? Anybody had a farm? Anybody been to a zoo? Do you guys know what farm animals sound like?

Farm animals do not stop talking. Right? Cows moo. Horses neigh. Goats just don't shut up. Right? It's fun. Yes. Exactly. Sheep, baw. My wife, it's funny, she's been trying to train this horse that that we bought.

And this thing is an off the track thoroughbred horse. If you don't know what that means, it means the energy level is past mine. He does not stop moving, but he's also terrified of absolutely everything. K? So while my wife tries to train him, if something comes up on the ground or something scares him, he freaks out. And so the neighbors just across the fence where our horse is boarded just had like 10 little goats.

I'm like, my wife is trying to train this horse and all you hear is, right?

Because that's what goats sound like. And I'm like, would you shut up? Come on. My wife is trying to train this horse. The reason I say that is simply this, farm animals do not stay quiet. Rams do not stay quiet, they talk. God provided the ram, correct? That was the provision that he gave Abraham. Isn't it incredible

That the very thing God provided, he kept quiet in the thicket until the very moment Abraham needed to see it. I think so many of us, so many of us in this room are just trying to listen for what god's providing. He might be saying, I'm not going to show you. I want you to know that you trust me. I'm going to keep it quiet.

I'm going to keep it quiet just for a little bit. Oh my gosh, that's that's so good. Whatever God is going to do in your life, he is already pre seen. Abraham didn't know how or when or what, but he had faith enough to know who would provide. Trust precedes provision.

And it might be common sense to say this but I'm gonna say it anyways, if you're in the middle of a mountain, if you're walking up,

do not stop moving. The easy thing to do is walk back down when it gets hard. My wife and I did a flat iron a year ago, hands down I'll never do that hike again because it was the hardest thing of my life. But there were so many times that I just wanted to stop. I just wanted to quit. Halfway up I was like, babe, this is a great view. Let's just go back down now and go eat some food. Right? She was like, we gotta keep going. We gotta keep going.

We got to the top and it was unbelievable what we saw. The experience was so worth it, but I wouldn't have seen it if I didn't keep moving. Delayed obedience is delayed provision. Don't stop moving. Be obedient to what God is calling you to even if you don't know what's on the other side. Trust him enough to provide.

Genesis twenty two fifteen, here's where we see the story end. 15 to 18 says this, then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. This is what the Lord says, because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son,

I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies and through your descendants all the nations of earth will be blessed, all because you have obeyed me. Abraham obeyed God's voice, trusted his plan and God provided Jehovah

Jireh. Now, if you're anything like me, you hear a story like this or you read stories in scripture and you're like, well, yeah, that makes perfect sense for Abraham.

Him and God must have been like two peas in a pod. It was just easier for them to get through. Abraham had this faith that I'll never had. No. No. No. No. No. Listen, Abraham did not get to this moment without failures, mistakes, and trials of his own. So what we see in Genesis one twenty two one, and it says this was a test,

God was testing him again. This was a retest. He wanted to know God still had his heart. Some of us have been retesting and God is eager to see you push through. He's calling you towards him, remember? He wants your heart. He wants the experience. Don't do it without him.

So many of oh my gosh. So many of us are looking for the mountaintop experience, the provision from the situation that you're caught in the middle of. But God cares more about you walking with him through it and trusting his plan than he does about what will be provided. He's providing it, trusting. Trust proceeds provision.

So again, what are you holding on to? What is that Isaac? And don't get me wrong, Isaac was a good thing. That one and only son, Isaac was a good thing, but too much of a good thing in your life can soon become a God thing. Don't let that happen. So here we go. What verse did I tell you guys to remember? What

verse? Exactly.

Twenty two four. Let's start. Let's let's end where we started off. Check this out. Genesis 22 verse four. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. It all made sense to Abraham right here. The walk, the struggle, the fear, the chaos, the uncertainty all led to this very moment as he looks up and he sees, oh my gosh, that's Mount Moriah. That's the place God is leading me. That's the place that we're going. But it gets way cooler

than that. Oh my gosh, this is awesome. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna fast forward a couple thousand years. We're gonna leave Abraham and Isaac right here for just a moment. Jesus is now on the scene. Okay? In John eight verse 55,

what Jesus is telling the Pharisees who he is. He's saying, you know what? I'm the son of God. I know God. This is who I am. But instead of me just telling you, I want to read it together. It says this, John eight fifty five. Jesus says, I know him, talking about God. He said, oh, I know him. If I said otherwise,

I would be as great a liar as you, but I do know him and obey him. Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.

All these Pharisees hear Jesus saying this like, bro, you are crazy. You must be out of your mind. They literally tell him this. They say, you aren't even 50 years old. How can you say you've seen Abraham? So to all my people in this room, 50 and under, the bible just called you young. Everybody else? Oh well.

After a tense pause, Jesus looks at them and says this, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I am. I am is the name for Yahweh. Jesus actually goes on to say that Abraham saw my day and was glad. So back to this moment, Genesis twenty two four, Abraham is on the way to Mount Moriah,

walking next to his son and he looks in the distance and he sees something. Now while we aren't exactly sure of everything he does see, he sees the place that the Lord was telling him to go, that God was saying that's the destination. But here's why this is so cool.

Mount Moriah is located just a few 100 yards away from Calvary.

So Mount Moriah, the place that Abraham led his one and only son to be sacrificed, is located just a few 100 yards away from a place God led his one and only son to be sacrificed. So in this moment, as Abraham looks up and sees Mount Moriah, it is here that Abraham said, on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

And isn't it cool that through Abraham's testing, we get to see how God provided for us. Trust precedes provision family. Now look, I'm not saying it won't be hard. I'm not saying that. Don't hear what I'm not saying. Faith is built in the process of God's provision. It's a lot less about the end result,

but more about the process

getting there. Couple years ago, my wife and I decided to take a trip to Sedona because we love hiking and Sedona is full of incredible hikes. So we were doing our research before we went there. We found this place called the 7 Sacred Pools. Maybe you guys have been there. And so

we knew that we wanted to do this, so we're on our way to the trailhead. We get to the trailhead and y'all the the the parking lot is just packed. So we have to park a mile away from the trailhead itself. We hike a mile to where it starts, and now we're starting this hike to see the 7 Sacred Pools. About a half a mile in, you get to this beautiful spot. It's just a plateau, an open plateau that looks a lot like this,

and the views are absolutely insane. It's beautiful. And I'm like, babe, check this out. And she's like, babe, stop. We gotta go find the seven sacred pools. I'm like, okay, wife, you're always right. Let's go. So we hike. We keep going. Mind you, this hike is a three and a half mile hike. Okay?

We go three and a half miles and I don't see the seven sacred pools anywhere. At this point, I'm doubting whether they're real or not. And so we walk back the way that we came and we're running past people and I'm like, have you guys seen the seven sacred pools? And everyone's like, yeah, they're just right up there. I'm like, you are a liar. I didn't see them at all. Y'all,

a three a three mile hike turned into 13.5 for for my wife and I. We hiked a half marathon that day. No joke, and didn't see the seven sacred pools anywhere. My feet are blistering.

I'm hurting. I'm like, babe, can we just go? The Internet's a liar. These aren't real pools. They're probably corny if they are anyways. So we get back to this plateau area where a bunch of people are hanging out.

And I'm I'm like, I'm done. I just wanna go back to the hotel and sit down. So I'm like, babe, can we just sit down for a second? So we walked to the edge of this plateau. I walked to the edge this plateau, and I just sit there for a moment. I'm looking up at the mountains. I'm like, man, this is cool. My feet hurt so bad.

And I look down. You know what I see below me? Seven sacred pools. I'm like, no freaking way. I'm like, babe, come here. God's got a sense of humor. Check this out. And so we both sit on the edge of this, and we look at the seven sacred pools. And now I will say this, they're not much to look at. Pools are about this big.

It's not much to look at. But to me, it was the most incredible thing that I had seen that day. Sometimes

God wants you to go 13 and a half miles for you to see what was just a half a mile in. It meant so much to me seeing them that day because I realized that the pain is just as valuable as the destination.

The process is just as valuable as the destination. I would not have appreciated those as much if I had not walked what I walked through to get there.

I'm telling you, hang in there. I'm telling you the process is worth it no matter how painful it might be.

I trust God enough to know that at some point we might have a family, but if we don't, he is Jehovah Jireh. He is God the provider.

In the middle of the biggest test of your life, in the middle of the biggest battle, I'm gonna challenge you to do something, and that is look up and see God the provider. Focus your attention on Jesus, the author and provider of your faith. He's the one that we need to look to.

Don't look to media, it will lie to you. Don't look to circumstances,

it will discourage you. Don't look to people, they will fail you. Continuously family, look to Jesus. When you don't know what the diagnosis is gonna end up like, look to Jesus. If you don't know what's gonna happen with the job situation, look to Jesus. If you're going through a divorce, look to Jesus. If you're in the middle of the biggest test of your life, look to Jesus because he will get you through it. I promise you, trust him and he will provide. And as incredible as it is, if Abraham

could look to Jesus in the old testament and he hadn't even come yet, how much more should you and I now that he has? Trust precedes provision. We get to do something really cool together right now. And so you

were handed these elements as you walked in. If you did not get one, just raise your hands, slip it in the air, we'll get you one, we'll have people walking down the aisles. Talking about trust and provision,

God provided the ultimate way. In sacrificing his one and only son on the cross for you and I, and we get to remember that, partaking in communion together. And so Jesus

took his 12 disciples and he took them into what was called the upper room. And it was there as they sat around a table before Jesus was to walk the lonely road to Golgotha. And he said, he passed around bread and they broke it together and he said, listen friends, listen family,

this bread represents my body broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me. And so they ate.

And then as Jesus passed around the cup, he said, this represents my blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins. Drink in remembrance of me.

Isn't it awesome that we get to remember the sacrifice that was made in our place?

You are loved. God loves you, and he cares about you. Trust precedes provision. God, we we pray right now in this moment, god, that your word goes forth. God, that it penetrates the hearts of the people in this room. Lord, I pray for the person struggling through what seems like the biggest test and the outcome is uncertain,

the middle of it is hard. God, would you just begin to whisper to them? Would you knock on their heart and say, would you just trust me? Would you just trust me? God, I thank you for a family like this where we can just get together in a building and discuss your word and talk and have fun and laugh. Man, you're so good.

But you provide in every situation. Would we remember that moving forward today? You are Jehovah Jireh God, the provider, and we trust you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Church, our God is sovereign, and he has provided, and we'll make a way. So we can go into this week knowing that and being confident in that. Amen? Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io

for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.