Episode Transcript
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Would you turn with me, please, to Genesis Chapter Twenty Two, genesis
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twenty two, and will hear God's
word concerning what is sometimes called the sacrifice
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of Isaac. For those of you
who are perhaps unfamiliar or not remembering these
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this early history of God's people,
just want to remind you of one thing
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before we begin, and that is
that Isaac, on the son of Abraham,
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here is the promised son, the
long awaited son, the miraculous son
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that God had provided for Abraham.
And with that in mind, let's go
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ahead and hear Genesis chapter twenty two. After these things, God tested Abraham
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and said to him, Abraham,
and he said here I am. He
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said, take your son, your
only son, Isaac, whom you love,
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and go to the land of Mariah
and offer him there as a burnt
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offering on one of the mountains of
which I shall tell you. So Abraham
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rose early in the morning, saddled
his donkey and took two of his young
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men with him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the
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burnt offering and arose and went to
the place of which God had told him.
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On the third day, Abraham lifted
up his eyes and saw the place
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from afar. Then Abraham said to
his young men, stay here with the
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donkey. I and the boy will
go over there and worship and come again
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to you and Abraham. Abraham took
the wood of the burnt offering and laid
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it on his son. Laid it
on Isaac, his son, and he
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took in his hand the fire and
the knife. So they went, both
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of them together and Isaac said to
his father, Abraham, my father,
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and he said here I am,
my son. He said, behold the
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fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for the burnt offering?
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Abraham said God will provide for himself
the lamb for a burnt offering, my
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son. So they went both of
them together. When they came to the
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place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid
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the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on
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the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and
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took the knife to slaughter his son, but the angel of the Lord called
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to him from Heaven and said Abraham, Abraham, and he said here I
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am. He said, do not
lay your hand on the boy or do
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anything to him. For now.
I know that you fear God, seeing
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that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
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and Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold behind him was a
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ram caught in a thicket by its
horns, by his horns, and Abraham
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went and took the ram and offered
it up as a burnt offering instead of
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his son. So Abraham called the
name of that place, Yahweh will provide,
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as it is said to this day, on the Mount of Yahweh.
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It shall be provided. And the
angel of the Lord, the angel of
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Yahway, called to Abraham a second
time from heaven and said by myself,
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I have sworn, declares the Lord. Because you have done this and have
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not withheld your son, your only
son, I will surely bless you.
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I will surely multiply your offspring as
the stars of the heaven and is the
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sand that is on the seashore,
and your offspring shall possess the gate of
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his enemies, and in your offspring
shall all the nations of the Earth be
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blessed, because you have obeyed my
voice. So Abraham returned to his young
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men and they arose and went together
to Beersheba and Abraham lived at Beersheba.
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Now, after these things, it
was told to Abraham, behold, Milka
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has all has borne children to your
brother Nahor us, his firstborn, buzz,
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his brother Kemuel, the father of
all Ram kesed Hazo, Pildash Jud
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Laugh, Jid laugh and Bethuel.
Bethuel fathered Rebecca. These a Milka bore
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to Nahor Abraham, Abraham's brother,
moreover, his concubine, whose name was
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really a Rhuma, Bor teba,
Gemma, to Hash and my co praise
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God for his word. What is
one of those chapters in the Bible that
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is so, so very rich,
so much to reflect on, so much
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to think on, and yet at
the same time it's a very simple story.
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It's not complicated on there aren't a
lot of twists and turns and confusing
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things, except that it is very
humbling, and in that there are important
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things for us to learn, and
one of those things, I think,
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that we learn from this passage is
it puts a check on our desire for
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an easy life, particularly and easy
spiritual life. A lot of people,
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more than anything else, want life
to be easy. We want the path
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to be smooth, we want guaranteed
success for our work. We want assurances
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that if we invest our money we're
going to get a return, that if
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we invest in a person, that
that person will be friendly in return.
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If we plant seeds the the seeds
will grow. If we live a moral
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life, then we will do well
and things will be okay. We want
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success and that's not a bad thing. Those all of those things that I
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mentioned tend to lead to those things
and God has ordered that to be so.
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Ordered that to be so. Is
a way to express this, as
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we read in the fifth commandment this
morning in the shorter catechism, when we
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obey the Lord's command we tend to
have longer lives, we tend to have
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better lives, easier lives. But
you may remember from our reading this morning,
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the catechism also says as far as
it is for our good and for
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God's glory. The one thing,
and one thing I should say, we
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also know from scriptures that are good
and God's glory doesn't always mean easy,
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it doesn't always mean longevity, it
doesn't always mean external or even internal blessings.
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In fact, the scriptures tell us
very explicitly both in both directly and
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by examples that God tests us and
that God sometimes makes our lives very difficult.
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Consider, for example, Isaiah forty
five seven, which says I form
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light and create darkness, I make
wellbeing and create calamity. I am the
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Lord who does all these things.
Mocking false gods, the prophets will say,
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look at this false idol that can
neither do good nor evil, a
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contrast to the Lord, our God. Or consider ECCLESIAST fourteen on. Those
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of you who've gone through this recently
in our afternoon processions will appreciate this.
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Remember this, ecclesiast fourteen. In
the day of prosperity, be joyful and
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in the day of adversity, consider
God has made one as well as the
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other, so that man may not
find out anything that will be after him.
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Pay attention to this. This is
a very important life lesson right.
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If you get this, you will
get something that so many people do not
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understand and are constantly frustrated by.
Let me read it one more time.
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In the day of prosperity, be
joyful and in the day of adversity,
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consider God has made one as well
as the other. Why? Here's the
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reason. So that man may not
find out anything that will be after him.
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In other words, God makes life
unpredictable on purpose. He makes things
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difficult to discover, he makes a
certain amount, he makes the world with
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a certain amount of order that we
tend to exp back certain effects from certain
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causes, but not a hundred percent. Why? So that we may not
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know. It's a humbling thing,
isn't it? It's a humbling thing to
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know that we go out each morning
into the world and we don't know whether
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it's going to be a good one
or a bad one, a good day
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a bad day, a day of
wellbeing or a day of calamity. Now
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I do realize that for many of
us this kind of teaching is a real
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challenge because we tend to think that
God, when God does all things for
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our good, that means God does
all things to make our lives easy.
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We take these two words good and
easy and we put them together in a
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way that God didn't intend. Good
does not necessarily mean easy, especially in
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a world where there is sin.
If you're plumbing gets plugged up underneath your
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home, getting its unplugged is not
going to be easy. Were cheap.
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But will it be good? Yes, it will be good. Or take
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a more personal. Example, if
you are choking on a piece of food,
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will getting it unstuck be easy?
No. Seeing somebody remove a blockage
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from someone else's throat may even look
violent to you. And yet is it
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good? Of Horse? It is
saves life. Good sometimes does mean easy
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life, and heaven, for example, will not involve these kinds of things
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that I'm describing. Frustration, obstacles, days of calamity, but that's heaven.
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Good here on earth, however,
doesn't always mean easy. Sometimes good
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means hard, because God is solving
problems, God is taking care of the
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curse, he's resolving difficult things,
and sometimes that requires difficult ways. Why
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am I talking about this? Well, of course you know, because this
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is a difficult story. Abraham is
in a very difficult place. Abraham is
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called here by God, our God, his God, to do a very
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hard thing, to sacrifice something not
only valuable to him, but something that
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doesn't even make sense at all.
A Ram, some food, my money,
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these things might make sense, but
the promised child that we've all been
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waiting for, the one that you
told me, no, not Ishmael,
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this one, this one shall be
your offspring, the one that came from
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a barren woman. A one came
in his old age, the son of
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promise. How confusing that must have
been to be have been given this promised
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child, this chosen son, by
God and then, by that same God,
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have him command that same son to
be killed by you. How does
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that fit with God's promise? How
does that fit with God's commands? Isn't
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this even murder? Noticeably missing from
this story is the fireside chat where God
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sits down with Abraham and explains all
these things to him. God never sits
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down with Abraham and says, I'm
going to ask you how to do a
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tough thing here, but I want
you to understand this is why, and
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he lays it all out for him. It's not there. If I could
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leave you with just one thing tonight, it's this. Sometimes God doesn't make
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sense in the world and in your
life. He simply doesn't. But that
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doesn't mean that God is doing the
wrong thing and it doesn't mean you can't
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trust him, because our job isn't
to trust God when he only makes sense
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to us or when we've achieved a
certain level of whatever our God is to
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our job is to trust God,
period. That's it. Now, does
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this mean we turn off our brains? No, of course not. God
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calls us to use our minds,
to study, to pay attention, to
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focus, to watch and pray.
But there are times when you know what
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God wants you to do and you
don't understand why or you don't want to
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do it, and you have to
do it anyway, and you do it
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because you trust him. You do
it because you know that you're not God
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and he is. Now, if
you think this is totally impossible, totally
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unreasonable to do, remember that our
kids do this all the time, every
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day. Children, are you not
required to obey your parents, even when
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it doesn't make sense to you,
even when you haven't got it all figured
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out, even when you haven't been
told and sat down and all the explanations,
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at least the ones that you feel
are sufficient? Doesn't always happen that
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way. And of course, Isaac
here in this story, just as God
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didn't sit down with Abraham and explain
either everything, neither did Abraham sit down
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with Isaac and explain everything. I
want you to know, son, here's
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what God has told me and this
is what we're going to do. He
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doesn't get that. Instead, in
the same way that God calls Abraham and
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Abraham says here I am. In
Verse Seven, Abraham Calls Isaac and Abraham
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says here I am. There're a
lot of people, I think, a
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lot of people who say that they
want a close relationship with God, but
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honestly, I don't always believe them. I think that what some people want
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when they say this, when they
say I want a close relationship with God,
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but they're really saying, is I
want a good life, and not
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just good is in financially good.
If they would if all they wanted his
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money, they'd probably say that.
But if they say I want a closer
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relationship with God, but they don't
really want God, what they're really seeking
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is good things like meaning, inner
peace, closeness with other people, calm,
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rest, wisdom, all good things. But they wanted on their own
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terms. They wanted on their own
ways. And how do we know?
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We know because when God gives them
things to do that they don't want to
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do, they say no. If
you really want a close relationship with God,
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you have to have that on his
terms, because he's God. Right.
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This would be like if I said, Oh, I want a close
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relationship with my wife, but not
really my wife this imagination version of my
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wife or some other woman. That's
not a relationship with my wife. A
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relationship with women in general or a
woman in general is not a relationship with
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my wife. A relationship with my
wife is a regaliation relationship with her in
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her desires, her feelings, her
thinking, all of these kinds of things.
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Same thing with God or the same
thing with God. If we want
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a relationship with simply meaning and wisdom
and goodness and these morality, that's different
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than saying I want a relationship with
God. Closeness with God, and closeness
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with God demands that we trust him
even when we don't understand him, because,
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I said, he's God and we
are not. He does things in
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this world purposefully to keep us in
submission to him, to keep us a
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little bit unsteady, not because he
hates us, but because he knows that
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our ultimate life is not found in
our finding steadiness in ourself, but our
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finding steadiness and resolve and peace and
all these things in him. That's where
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happiness is, that's where satisfaction in
life and peaces. God gives these things,
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but he gives it to those who
trust him. Going back to the
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parent child relationship. To deny all
that and wanted a different way is like
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a child who wants mom and dad
to love him, provide for him,
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have fun with him, give gifts, spend time, always be there,
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but won't listen to advice, refuses
to obey the house rules, ditches off
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whenever they suit, whenever it suits
them. A parent who gives into this
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and continues to, let's say,
encourage this sort of unhealthy relationship, we
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say, is a parent that spoils
a child. They create a bad child.
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In a way. Good parents love, give, cherish and courage,
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pray, support, love, laugh, Love, love, love, but
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they do so also in a way
that says no, sometimes in a way
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says trust me, sometimes in a
way that says sets boundaries. Sometimes,
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sometimes they tell their kids you're just
going to have to trust me on this
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one. And if that's what a
good parent is, why do we think
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that God should be a bad parent
in order for us to call him good?
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Why do we think that God should
be different than what we would even
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expect of like basic human parenting?
We think of God? No, I
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want God in all of his closeness, all of us, communion, all
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of his time, all of his
gifts, all his blessings, but I
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don't want to trust him, I
don't want to obey him, I don't
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want to follow him, I don't
want his wisdom and less of course,
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it already agrees with what I think, already agrees with what I feel.
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Again, God is God and we
are not. He knows things that we
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don't know. His wisdom is beyond
our wisdom. He knows also, by
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the way, how to love better
than we know. He knows how to
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create good things for us and ways
that we can't even begin to imagine.
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And sometimes that means life is hard. Sometimes that means things don't make sense,
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but ultimately in God they do find
holy resolution. Just because they don't
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make sense doesn't mean God isn't at
work and doing God undo and doing good,
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and we see that in this story, in this heartwrenching story. So
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what does God do here? God
tests Abraham. We read that right there
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at the very beginning. After these
things, God tested Abraham. He tests
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his faith, not just only for
Abraham to see and of course the Lord
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to see, but us to public
testing. And you know what happens?
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Abraham remains steadfast. He trusted God
above everything else, even more than his
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immediate circumstances, even more than what
probably made sense to him in the moment,
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what caused him emotional pain. And
he remains steadfast. James One hundred
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and twelve says, blessed is the
main man who remains steadfast under trial,
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for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life
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which God has promised to those who
love him. As I said, very
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simple story. God is God and
you are not. Sometimes God will test
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you and it's our job to trust
him. But it's worth trusting him because
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those who trust him will receive the
crown of life. And that's what happens
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with Abraham here. At the end
of the story. His faith is proved
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true, he goes through this trial
and on the end, there and God
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repeats all the promises that he had
promised to him previously. Now you may
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ask why did God desire to test
Abraham here, and in the spirit of
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the rest of the sermon, I
will ask, before we can give any
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answers to this question, why did
God Test Abraham? It's important that we
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check our own hearts if we ask
this question. Are we asking it to
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be judge over God? Or we
asking it to draw close to God?
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Are we looking for ways to excuse
ourselves from obedience or to accuse God of
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unrighteousness? Are we looking to stand
over God and we say we'd make this
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make sense to me before. I'm
willing to submit to your word, or
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are we willing to know the word
and ask questions of the word so that
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we might submit to him more so
that we might draw close to him?
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God doesn't give us all the reasons
why he tests Abraham. He never gives
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us all the reasons why he does
the well, the reasons why God does
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things are Mirriad. Any single event
has perhaps millions of possible reasons behind them,
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all simultaneously working by the marvelous hands
of God. But so that we
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might draw close to God, considered
just a couple things as we close.
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First, we know that this taught
Abraham something, and Isaac and his servants
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and the world this unforgettable lesson,
the one that we're learning tonight. Was
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Abraham's trial worth that? Well,
God seems to have thought so, and
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I'll agree with that. I'm blessed
by this story and I hope that you
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are to his faith is recorded for
us as an encouragement to us. Hebrews
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seventeen through nineteen says this. By
faith, Abraham, when he was tested,
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offered up Isaac, and he,
who had received the promises, wasn't
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was in the act of offering up
his only son, of whom it was
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said, through Isaac shall your offspring
be named. He considered that God was
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evil even to raise him from the
dead, which, figuratively speaking, he
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did receive him back. This is
the lesson for us. This is the
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lesson that God teaches us through Abraham. And, if we remember, God's
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been teaching us many lessons through Abraham
and his life, this father of our
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faith. As we look back on
our spiritual ancestry, as we look back
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and understand more of what God has
done, these are the things that he
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is teaching us. Praise be to
God. A second thing we might know
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is that our our father, our
heavenly father, was preparing the way for
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his own work and his faithfulness to
fulfill these promises. Just as the birth
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of Isaac God there were many ways
in which God proved that this would be
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his work. Even in the call
to kill Isaac, God was still proving
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that this would be his work.
If Isaac would die, he'd rise again
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from the dead. God would provide
a lamp. Something was going to happen
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here that God was going to take
care of. The promises of the Covenant
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are going to be taken care of
by God. It is, after all,
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God's Covenant Of Grace, are Covenant
which in which He grants to us
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of these promises. It would not
be by Abraham's protecting of these blessings in
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a man centered, earthly centered way, but his trusting God to protect these
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things for him that they would come
to be the birth of the son of
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Abraham was, of course, the
beginning of the fulfillment of these promises,
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and the end of it would be
the death of the son of God.
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In promising grace to Abraham and his
son, we note that God was promising
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death to Jesus, his son,
who went willingly not to his almost death
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but to his actual death. Here
in Genesis twenty two, the plans are
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being laid. God is at work
and, as we close, notice it
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in just this one small detail.
The God commands Abraham to go, who
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read at the beginning? He calls
him to go to Mariah, the land
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of Mariah, and offer him there
as a burnt offering. This is interesting
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to note because it is on Mount
Moriah that the temple is ultimately built,
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the place where God would dwell with
his people. In second chronicles one,
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there's a lot of interesting context around
this which we don't have time to get
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into tonight. But in this one
verse Second Chronicles One, we read that
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Solomon began to build the House of
the Lord. Hear that language of House,
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family and Temple and dwelling. Solomon
began to build the House of the
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Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David
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his fought his father at the place
that David had appointed, on the threshing
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floor of or an m the Jebu
side. That whole those details are referencing
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a whole other instant instance and which
Israel was about to die and God saved
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them. Ultimately, of course,
Jesus was crucified in on this spot.
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We can't say for sure whether it
was on this exact spot, but in
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this general vicinity of the Temple of
this Mariah, this place where Abraham took
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his son. God, the father, put his son, by the power
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of the Holy Spirit, to die
for us so that these promises to Abraham
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would be fulfilled. So, brothers, sisters, do you see the faithfulness
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of the Lord? That's what the
story is about. It's about the faithfulness
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of the Lord, but also the
mystery of the Lord and our call to
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trust him, to trust him,
to trust him no matter what. So
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I can promise you that God is
true and I can also promise you from
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the word that your life not always
be easy. But sometimes God will call
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you to do hard things. Sometimes
those are things which maybe amazingly hard,
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like this, or sometimes things of
it simply feel very hard and indeed are.
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Maybe you find your value in being
busy all the time and God asks
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you to trust him and risk resting. Maybe that's very hard for you.
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Maybe it's hard to trust that you're
going to be okay in the Lord.
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Or maybe you seek your salvation from
troubles in alcohol or the Internet, and
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God asks you to wait on him
instead, just wait on me. Or
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maybe you're involved in a relationship that
you think will make you happy, but
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you know that God has not called
you to it and it has to end
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and it's going to be hard and
difficult. In all these things and the
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thousands of other things we might think
of in life. Know that you can
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do the hard things when you trust
in the Lord. Rely on his strength,
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put your faith in him, find
your identity in him, trust in
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his promises. He will provide.
He already has. He's given you everything
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in Christ and you can rest in
him. Let us pray.
