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When-God-Says-Let-Go-Msg-18-22 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: No journey through the life of Abraham would be complete
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Speaker 1: without taking time for this inimitable story that appears as
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Speaker 1: the man has reached just about one hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: years of age. It would clearly be one of the
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Speaker 1: great great stories in all the Bible. Not just a story, however,
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Speaker 1: and not just a historical account, but as a matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, a marvelous picture of our heavenly Father who
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Speaker 1: released his son to this earth to be sacrificed for
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Speaker 1: our sins. But it isn't simply Abraham's story from ancient days.
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Speaker 1: It's your and my story. As we learned the value
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Speaker 1: of releasing rather than being caught in the grip of
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Speaker 1: the gift. Our worship is to the giver, the one
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Speaker 1: who gives every good and perfect gift. Abraham was to
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Speaker 1: learn that and was to model that in this story.
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Speaker 1: As we will see if you have your Bible Genesis
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Speaker 1: twenty two, the first fourteen verses will take us through
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Speaker 1: the story of this morning, and may we stand together
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Speaker 1: for the reading. Now. It came about after these things
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Speaker 1: that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and
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Speaker 1: he said, here I am. He said, take now your son,
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Speaker 1: your only son, whom you love Isaac, and go to
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Speaker 1: the land of Moriah and offer him there as a
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Speaker 1: burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I
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Speaker 1: will tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning
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Speaker 1: and saddled his donkey and took two of his young
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Speaker 1: men with him, and Isaac his son, and he split
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Speaker 1: wood for the burnt offering, and rose and went to
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Speaker 1: the place of which God had told him. On the
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Speaker 1: third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place
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Speaker 1: from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, stay
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Speaker 1: here with the donkeys, and I and the lad will
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Speaker 1: go over there, and we will worship and return to you.
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Speaker 1: Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid
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Speaker 1: it on Isaac his son, and he took in his
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Speaker 1: hand the fire and the knife. So the two of
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Speaker 1: them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father
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Speaker 1: and said, my father, And he said, here I am
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Speaker 1: my son. He sat, behold the fire and the wood.
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Speaker 1: But where is the lamb for the burnt offering. Abraham said,
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Speaker 1: God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering,
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Speaker 1: my son. So the two of them walked on together.
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Speaker 1: Then they came to the place of which God had
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Speaker 1: told him. And Abraham built the altar there and arranged
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Speaker 1: the wood and bound his son Isaac, and laid him
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Speaker 1: on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched
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Speaker 1: out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
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Speaker 1: And the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven,
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Speaker 1: and said Abraham, Abraham, and he said, here I am.
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Speaker 1: He said, do not stretch out your hand against the
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Speaker 1: lad and do nothing to him. For now I know
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Speaker 1: that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son,
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Speaker 1: your only son, from me. Then Abraham raised his eyes
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Speaker 1: and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in
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Speaker 1: the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took
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Speaker 1: the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering
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Speaker 1: in the place of his son. Abraham called the name
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Speaker 1: of that place. The Lord will provide, as it is
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Speaker 1: said to this day, in the mount of the Lord.
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Speaker 1: It will be provided. Please be seated. Today's message is
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Speaker 1: about letting go. I know a few people who aren't
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Speaker 1: clinging to something. Virtually every person, if not everyone, in
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Speaker 1: this room is clutching someone or something too tightly. So
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Speaker 1: today's message speaks to all of us about that it's
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Speaker 1: possible even to cling to your own life so tightly
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Speaker 1: that you forget you're not your own. You belong to
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Speaker 1: the one who gave you life, and he longs to
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Speaker 1: have a relationship with you that is deep and meaningful.
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Speaker 1: And in his plan, his providential plan, he brought you
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Speaker 1: to this place today. We believe that God has done that.
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Speaker 1: You're not here by chance. You're not here simply because
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Speaker 1: someone invited you. You're not here because you stumbled in
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Speaker 1: out of curiosity. God planned for you to be here.
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Speaker 1: And his desire for you, who've never met his son Christ,
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Speaker 1: is that you release yourself to him. By faith you
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Speaker 1: trust him with your life. Please bow with me as
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Speaker 1: we pray briefly, Oh, the great, great plan of you,
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Speaker 1: our Father. Wonderful to be caught in the sweep of it,
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Speaker 1: and to realize that it is unfolding exactly as you
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Speaker 1: have arranged our lives. All the surprises, all the tests,
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Speaker 1: all the trials, all the great and sad moments, notwithstanding,
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Speaker 1: you are there and your plan is unfolding. And Oh
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Speaker 1: the blessedness of the spirit who takes the word of
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Speaker 1: God and unfolds it for us, removing the scales from
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Speaker 1: our eyes, and as we read the black print on
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Speaker 1: white pages, we see the coloring of life unfolding, and
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Speaker 1: we watch from one's story or one account to the next.
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Speaker 1: As you you, the spirit of our God, directs our thoughts,
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Speaker 1: reveals your will, and implants within us an understanding of
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Speaker 1: what you have written. Otherwise there is no way we'd
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Speaker 1: ever get it. And oh the deep, deep love of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: thank you Father, that you were assigning him. The task
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Speaker 1: was not a did not result in a fight across heaven,
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Speaker 1: but a willingness to release his own will and to
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Speaker 1: submit to yours, driven by the passion of your plan
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Speaker 1: and walking in the power of your spirit. He was
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Speaker 1: fueled to carry it out by his love for us
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Speaker 1: and loving his own. He loved us to the end.
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Speaker 1: Because of that, Lord, we pause at this part of
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Speaker 1: our worship, and before placing anything in these offering plates,
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Speaker 1: we lay ourselves before you, submitting ourselves to your plan,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the truth of your word, and bowing before this
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Speaker 1: deep deep love of Jesus. In his name we give,
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Speaker 1: and for his glory and purpose we pray. HM and
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Speaker 1: everyone said, Amen. Clinging and clutching are too bad habits,
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Speaker 1: but we all have that habit. What we have we
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Speaker 1: tend to cling to, and what we love, we we
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Speaker 1: we clutch. It's just it's just part of our part
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Speaker 1: of our nature. It isn't our nature to let go.
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Speaker 1: It's our nature to hold on. And what makes it
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Speaker 1: interesting is the more the thing means to us, the
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Speaker 1: tighter we grip it, the more precious the individual is
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Speaker 1: to us, the more determined we are to clutch to cling.
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Speaker 1: It's not our nature to let go. A nature is
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Speaker 1: to possess, to clutch to cling. No one ever described
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Speaker 1: it better than a w Tozer in his book The
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Speaker 1: Pursuit of God, where he writes, there is within the
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Speaker 1: human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life, whose
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Speaker 1: nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets things
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Speaker 1: with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns mine and
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Speaker 1: mine look innocent enough in print, but their constant and
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Speaker 1: universal use is significant. They express the real nature of
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Speaker 1: the endamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology
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Speaker 1: could do. Mine. We learned the word early. We use
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Speaker 1: it in the little sandbox. That's mine, This is mine,
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Speaker 1: It's not yours. We clutch, we cling. Let's think about
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Speaker 1: that a little further. Seems to me there are at
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Speaker 1: least four major categories and we tend to cling to
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Speaker 1: and don't want to let go of. First, of course,
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Speaker 1: would be possessions, tangible valuable things, maybe as large as
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Speaker 1: a piece of property or a house or a car,
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Speaker 1: maybe as small as a ring or an heirloom pocket watch.
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Speaker 1: Could be as expensive as an original oil or a
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Speaker 1: Persian rug, a treasured family portrait, or as inexpensive as
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Speaker 1: an old pair of sneakers and a T shirt. We
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Speaker 1: just want to hang on to everything. Truth be told,
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Speaker 1: tangible things easily become fetishes if we're not willing to
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Speaker 1: let them go. And then I would name our occupation
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Speaker 1: as one of those things we hold on to, our work,
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Speaker 1: our profession. For some of us are calling. Does it
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Speaker 1: take long for panic to set in when we hear
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Speaker 1: that our job is being threatened. But if it's just
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Speaker 1: a job, we look for another. However, if it's one
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Speaker 1: we love, and that's another subject entirely, and if it
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Speaker 1: is a calling, how difficult to come to the day
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Speaker 1: when you realize you can no longer fulfill your calling.
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Speaker 1: Every minister faces that who lives a long life, one
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Speaker 1: day each of us must look in the mirror and
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Speaker 1: say it's time. It's hard to do, especially if you
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Speaker 1: love what you're called to do. Third, I would list
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Speaker 1: our dreams and our hopes, our long awaited desires. Cherish
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Speaker 1: dreams die slowly and a painful death, they are. Many
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Speaker 1: live their lives preoccupied with some great achievement, and then
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Speaker 1: the day arrives that you realize you will not achieve that,
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Speaker 1: and you have to let it go. Not easy to do,
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Speaker 1: How easy it is to make a dream a mental idol. Fourth,
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Speaker 1: and certainly not the least, maybe the most, would be
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Speaker 1: people people we love. Maybe a parent that you dread
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Speaker 1: the thought of losing, or a son a daughter. A
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Speaker 1: good friend. Could be a coach who trained you and
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Speaker 1: believed in you, a mentor who meant so much to you.
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Speaker 1: How we cling and clutch. On the twentieth of February
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Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, word reached me that my longtime mentor and friend,
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Speaker 1: Howard George Hendricks, died that morning at five point fifteen.
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Speaker 1: It was almost unbearable to hear those words. I had
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Speaker 1: loved him for my well over fifty years, This man
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Speaker 1: who touched the lives of thirteen thousand students who were
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Speaker 1: part of his class. Flashing across my mind were hundreds
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Speaker 1: of memories that began in nineteen fifty nine when I
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Speaker 1: said in that classroom and drank in every word. I'd
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Speaker 1: never heard a teacher in my life like that. Ever,
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Speaker 1: no one could command a class like he could. His
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Speaker 1: words were compelling, his logic was gripping. We who not
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Speaker 1: only watched him but studied him, who learned from him
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Speaker 1: and listened to him. And of all things, in God's
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Speaker 1: providence brought him to us here at Stonebrier Community Church,
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Speaker 1: where he served as an elder, and I had the
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Speaker 1: pleasure of being his pastor. Who would have ever thought that?
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Speaker 1: And when I preached, of all things, he listened. He,
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Speaker 1: even in weak moments, took notes. I thought, what an
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Speaker 1: amazing man. I wanted him to live forever, forever. I
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Speaker 1: didn't want to ever see the day that I would
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Speaker 1: watch that casket go down in the ground. I had
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Speaker 1: to release Jean, his wife, has had to release Bob,
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Speaker 1: and Bev and Bill had to release him. And on
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Speaker 1: the twentieth of February I had to let him go.
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Speaker 1: I confess to you I will miss him for the
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Speaker 1: rest of my life. It's hard. Maybe you have someone
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Speaker 1: like that and you're seeing them slowly fade from the
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Speaker 1: scene as death comes closer. Or perhaps they're going to
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Speaker 1: move away a long ways away, letting them go sorrd
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Speaker 1: we clutch, we clan because we love. Today's message is
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Speaker 1: all about that. But God isn't telling this old man,
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Speaker 1: now well into his one hundred almost one hundred twenty years,
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Speaker 1: that he's to release a professor, or to release some thing.
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Speaker 1: It's his son, it's his beloved, long awaited son, Isaac.
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Speaker 1: God knew what he was doing. Now, you may wonder,
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Speaker 1: if you don't think through the story, and if it's
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Speaker 1: new to you, you may wonder, why why would a
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Speaker 1: good God say this to his faithful friend Abraham. My
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Speaker 1: answer is going to sound like one of those electronic
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Speaker 1: banners that flashes across your television screen at times. This
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Speaker 1: is a test. This is a test. Abraham didn't know that.
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Speaker 1: We the reader are told that Isaac didn't know it.
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Speaker 1: But the reason was that God decided it's time to
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Speaker 1: learn where his priorities lie. Is the deepest level of
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Speaker 1: his affection falling upon his son. The gift I provided,
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Speaker 1: or is he still the one who worships me first
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Speaker 1: and foremost. It's a question that's a test you and
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Speaker 1: I must pass several times in life. So the story
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Speaker 1: begins after these things. A smile when I read that,
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Speaker 1: a lot of things have gone on before, and you
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Speaker 1: would think by now the tests are over. It's kind
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Speaker 1: of like taking a long course at school and you've
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Speaker 1: done rather well, and you've done even well on the quizzes,
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Speaker 1: and you think the tests are passed, and you walk
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Speaker 1: in one day and the teacher says, take out a
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Speaker 1: clean sheet of paper another But this isn't a piece
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Speaker 1: of paper. Take now your son, your only son, the
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Speaker 1: one you love. I think, yes, that name. Laughter. There's
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Speaker 1: nothing funny here. I want to find out, Abraham, where
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Speaker 1: your heart really is. We're impressed as we come to
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Speaker 1: Abraham's response in verse three. Look at it. There's no reluctance,
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Speaker 1: there's no resistance. There's no argument, there's no bargaining, there's
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Speaker 1: no pleading. There are no tears through the night. There
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Speaker 1: is no clinging, there's no clutching. There's no word that says,
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Speaker 1: but God, God, you promised me this boy. You told
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Speaker 1: me that we would have this sun. And now that
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Speaker 1: we've waited and you've given the son. No, it's none
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Speaker 1: of that. Why because he isn't clutching. He isn't clinging
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Speaker 1: except to the Lord God in faith. He gets up
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Speaker 1: early in the morning. He rose early, and he saddled
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Speaker 1: the donkey, and he took two of the young men,
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Speaker 1: and he split the wood for the for the offering,
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Speaker 1: the burnt offering. And he was cutting the wood to
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Speaker 1: put his son on the altar. This, this isn't just
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Speaker 1: another morning of cutting wood, chopping wood. This is the
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Speaker 1: altar on which his son will die at his own hand.
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Speaker 1: There isn't a resistance. And he arose and went to
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Speaker 1: the place of which God had told him. Get up, Isaac,
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Speaker 1: Get up? What's up? Dad? Get Get up, son, Get up,
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Speaker 1: get dressed. We're gonna we're gonna take a long walk together.
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Speaker 1: So as he gets up, his father leads him through
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Speaker 1: the early morning darkness out to the donkey. And there
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Speaker 1: are two men that are waiting to go with them.
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Speaker 1: And there's a three journey where we know nothing of
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Speaker 1: a conversation. I think it was silent. I'm not sure
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Speaker 1: there was even small talk. Isaac must have wondered, what
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Speaker 1: on earth is this about. But he has been trained well,
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Speaker 1: he's learned to trust his father. So when his dad says,
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Speaker 1: let's go, they went. And the third day they came
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Speaker 1: to the place where Abraham was able to see where
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Speaker 1: the altar would be built on Mariah. And so he
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Speaker 1: said to the young man, looked very carefully at this
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Speaker 1: fifth verse, stay here with the donkey. I am the lad. No, carefully,
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Speaker 1: I am the lad. Will go over there and we
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Speaker 1: will worship, and he adds, first person plural, we will return.
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Speaker 1: Think about that. I thought he was going to offer
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Speaker 1: off Isaac on the altar. He was that was a command.
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Speaker 1: But he says, we're not going to go up on
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Speaker 1: the mountain and cry our way to the altar. We're
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Speaker 1: going to worship, and in the worship, we're going to
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Speaker 1: go through with this and we will return. He and
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Speaker 1: I the servants know nothing of the plan. But in
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Speaker 1: Abraham's mind it is settled. How could it be settled?
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Speaker 1: How could this father pull this off? Put yourself in
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Speaker 1: that man's sandals, feel the warmth of the presence of
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Speaker 1: your almost grown son beside you. The reason I say
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Speaker 1: that is no little boy could carry this kind of firewood.
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Speaker 1: This is a boy getting up into his young adult
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Speaker 1: years with the wood. How could Abraham do it? Let
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Speaker 1: me show you. Quick glance at Hebrews eleven. Stay right
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Speaker 1: where you are in Genesis. Turn put your finger on
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Speaker 1: Hebrews eleven, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. Got it. You must
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Speaker 1: look at this Hebrews eleven seventeen to nineteen. By faith,
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Speaker 1: that's it. That's it. By trusting in God, by knowing
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Speaker 1: that God knows what he's doing, believing in him, counting
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Speaker 1: on him to guide you all the way through risk,
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Speaker 1: and all by faith. Abraham, when he was tested, offered
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Speaker 1: up Isaac, and he who had received the promises, was
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Speaker 1: offering up his only begotten son. It was he to
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Speaker 1: whom it was said in Isaac, your descendants shall be
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Speaker 1: called Verse nineteen. Here's the secret. He considered that God
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Speaker 1: is able to raise people even from the dead. That's
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Speaker 1: how he could do it. The new Living translation makes
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Speaker 1: it even clearer. Listen. Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died,
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Speaker 1: God was able to bring him back to life again.
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Speaker 1: That's it. So he goes on the altar, so God
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Speaker 1: is able to raise him up. And if the knife
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Speaker 1: is thrust into that chest. He will come back somehow,
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Speaker 1: because God has promised, and God keeps his promises. Now,
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Speaker 1: then back to the account, and let's not miss something
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Speaker 1: in this dialogue. There is abandonment written all over it.
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Speaker 1: A love of the way als All Chambers describes this.
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Speaker 1: Faith is the heroic effort of your life. You fling
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Speaker 1: yourself in reckless confidence on God. God has ventured all
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Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ to save us. Now he wants you
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Speaker 1: to venture. You are all in abandoning confidence in him.
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Speaker 1: The real meaning of eternal life is a life that
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Speaker 1: can face anything it has to face without wavering. Now,
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Speaker 1: Abraham is still human. Let's don't paint him with a
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Speaker 1: halo here. He's still a daddy. He still has feelings.
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Speaker 1: Remember he hasn't read Genesis twenty two. He doesn't know
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Speaker 1: what's coming. By the way, this is one of those
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Speaker 1: wonderful passages where the reader knows even more than the characters.
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Speaker 1: I love scenes like that. You see that at time
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Speaker 1: the novels, or you see it in certain docu dramas,
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Speaker 1: and you watch it acted out on your television set,
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Speaker 1: and you see things happening and you know who's behind
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Speaker 1: the door. Remember those scenes, and you find yourself saying,
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Speaker 1: don't open that door. You know, funny things happen when
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Speaker 1: you start talking to your television. But you know what's there.
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Speaker 1: You know what's gonna happen here. Isaac still doesn't know.
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Speaker 1: And so that's why we find this conversation so meaningful.
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Speaker 1: On the way up the hill, please observe verse six.
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Speaker 1: He took the wood, the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac.
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Speaker 1: He took in his hand the fire and the knife.
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Speaker 1: So the two of them walked on together. Picture Isaac
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Speaker 1: spoke to Abraham, his father. It isn't it interesting as
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Speaker 1: your children get older, how they're able to put their
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Speaker 1: finger on the core issue that you may not have
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Speaker 1: yet addressed. You may have deliberately overlooked at are chosen
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Speaker 1: not to mention it. Kids won't let you do that,
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Speaker 1: And so they're on their way. And if I may
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Speaker 1: rebuild it in today's language, Hey dad, Yeah, what's going on?
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Speaker 1: What's up? You have the torch, you have the knife,
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Speaker 1: I have the wood. Where's the lamb? Where's the animal?
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Speaker 1: You know how you could ask that he's done sacrifices
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Speaker 1: all through his life, He and his Daddy have built
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Speaker 1: altars many times before. He knows the drill. But in
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Speaker 1: this case there's no animal. Normally there's an animal. I
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Speaker 1: don't get it. It's a little difficult to put the
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Speaker 1: scene into words. And I have John Salehammer to thank
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Speaker 1: for his writings and his work on Genesis. Listen, the
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Speaker 1: writer gives no hints as to the nature of Abraham's
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Speaker 1: inner thoughts, but who cannot imagine what Abraham felt? When
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Speaker 1: at last someone in the narrative speaks, it is Isaac,
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Speaker 1: not God, who breaks the silence, and the question he raises,
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Speaker 1: where is the lamb for the bird offering, served only
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Speaker 1: to heighten the anguish that the Lord's request brought to Abraham.
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Speaker 1: And by now the reader, if you hadn't known the story,
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Speaker 1: oh what if that had been me? Selhammer continues, Abraham's
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Speaker 1: words cast a new light on his silence. Amid the
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Speaker 1: anguish that the reader has read into Abraham's silence, there
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Speaker 1: is now also a silent confidence in the Lord who
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Speaker 1: will provide. I love that love those words. He listens
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Speaker 1: to the question, he rolls it over in his mind,
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Speaker 1: and he offers the perfect answer. Verse eight. Abraham said
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Speaker 1: God will provide for himself elohimrah lo helloheim lirah lo God.
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Speaker 1: Interesting verb translated, but the Hebrew word is to see.
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Speaker 1: God will see to that for himself. Isn't that a
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Speaker 1: great answer? At this point, Isaac, we're going to together
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Speaker 1: trust God to see to that. There'll be a sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: but we'll trust him for the details. That's exactly what
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Speaker 1: they do. He will provide for himself the lamb for
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Speaker 1: the bird offering my son. So the two of them
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Speaker 1: walked on together. Before we make this too spiritual, I
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Speaker 1: can imagine Isaac going or whatever. Maybe it's some kind
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Speaker 1: of deal that my daddy's got going on with God whatever.
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Speaker 1: Verse nine. And then came to the place. I love that.
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Speaker 1: There must have been a chill up to Abraham's back.
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Speaker 1: They came to the place which God had told him.
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Speaker 1: Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. And
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Speaker 1: now Isaac knew he bound his son. There is no fight.
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Speaker 1: It's a big boy, but there is no fight. Wait dad, wait, stop, wait,
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Speaker 1: what are you doing? None of that? Lie down, Isaac,
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Speaker 1: Lie down sun on the altar. There was no fight.
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Speaker 1: This the big boy could easily whip his dad. He
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Speaker 1: crawls up on the altar. How could he do that?
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Speaker 1: He knew now what was going to happen, especially when
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Speaker 1: he saw the rope that would tie him. You know
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Speaker 1: how he could do it. He was trained right, He'd
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Speaker 1: learned to trust the words of his father. When George
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Speaker 1: Jagger took his three sons and an elderly grandfather out
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Speaker 1: in the Atlantic Ocean for a fishing trip, he had
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Speaker 1: no premonition of the horror that he would face. In
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Speaker 1: a matter of hours before he would step on the
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Speaker 1: shore again. Jagger would watch each sun and then his
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Speaker 1: father die victims of exhaustion and lungs filled with water.
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Speaker 1: The boat's engine had stalled in the late afternoon while
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Speaker 1: increasing winds whipped the sea into great waves. The boat
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Speaker 1: roll helpless in the water and then began to list dangerously.
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Speaker 1: When it became a parent that they were sinking, the
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Speaker 1: five Jagger men put on the life vests, tied themselves
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Speaker 1: together with a rope, and slipped into the water. It
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Speaker 1: was six point thirty PM when the sinking craft disappeared,
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Speaker 1: and the swimmers set out to work their way towards shore.
35:33
Speaker 1: Six foot waves in the strong current made the swimming
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Speaker 1: almost impossible. First, one boy and then another, and another
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Speaker 1: swallowed too much water. Helpless, George Jagger watched his sons
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Speaker 1: and then his father die. Eight hours later, he staggered
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Speaker 1: onto the shore, still pulling the rope that bound the
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Speaker 1: bodies of the other four to him. I realized they
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Speaker 1: were all dead, my three boys and my father. But
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Speaker 1: I guess I didn't want to accept it, so I
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Speaker 1: kept swimming all night long, he said to reporters. My
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Speaker 1: youngest boy, Clifford, was the first to go. I had
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Speaker 1: always taught our children not to fear death because it
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Speaker 1: was being with Jesus Christ. Before he died, I heard
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Speaker 1: him say, I'd rather be with Jesus than go on fighting.
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Speaker 1: Performance under stress is one test of effective leadership. It
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Speaker 1: may also be the proof of accomplishment when it comes
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Speaker 1: to evaluating the quality of a father. In that awful
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Speaker 1: Atlantic night, George Jagger had a chance to see his
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Speaker 1: three sons summon every ounce of courage and self control
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Speaker 1: he had tried to build into them. The beautiful way
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Speaker 1: they died said something about the kind of father George
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Speaker 1: Jagger had been for fifteen years. Get on the altar, Isaac,
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Speaker 1: and he crawled on the altar without a word. Further.
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Speaker 1: Abraham bound his son, took the blade, held it high
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Speaker 1: above his head. Now Son host still all of a sudden,
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Speaker 1: out of nowhere, Abraham, Abraham, don't touch him. Abraham's response is,
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Speaker 1: I'm here, I am here. Do not stretch out your
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Speaker 1: hand against the lad and do nothing to him. For now.
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Speaker 1: I know. Look at those words. That's what the test
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Speaker 1: was all about. I need to know in a tangible way.
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Speaker 1: You're not clinging and clutching. You're loving him, you're training him,
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Speaker 1: you're rearing him. But you will release him to me.
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Speaker 1: And I'm saying, Abraham, let him go. Now. Now I
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Speaker 1: know that you fear God, since you have not withheld
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Speaker 1: your son, your only son, from me. It must have
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Speaker 1: been the greatest moment of Abraham's entire life. He looked,
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Speaker 1: here's a ram caught in the thicket. It's no big
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Speaker 1: deal to God. He owns all the rams. Okay, Ralph
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Speaker 1: getting the thicket. So old Ram goes in the thicket.
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Speaker 1: Boy is he ready for a future? Huh? He don't
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Speaker 1: even know what the plan is. Their's are the ram
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Speaker 1: and Abraham goes, slices the throat, unwraps the rope from Isaac,
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Speaker 1: puts him on the altar, and there's a whole bird
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Speaker 1: offering the Hebrews o lah is the word. It means
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Speaker 1: from tail to snout, from hoof to maine, and ears
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Speaker 1: every bit of the animal. Every bit of the animal
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Speaker 1: is burnt up in a sacrifice, and he and Isaac
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Speaker 1: witness it. Please observe Verse fourteen, Abraham called the name
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Speaker 1: of that place, Oh, this is beautiful. Called the name
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Speaker 1: of the place yali yida. We use the words Jehovah, jirah.
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Speaker 1: Yiddah is from that verse began rah, which means to see.
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Speaker 1: The Lord will see to it. The Lord has seem
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Speaker 1: to it. The Lord will forever see to it. Name it.
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Speaker 1: I suggest you use it when you come to that
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Speaker 1: place that looks like it's the jumping off place, Wira.
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Speaker 1: The Lord will see to this. There's a risk involved.
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Speaker 1: The Lord will see to that. Your son is on
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Speaker 1: his way in that uniform to a deployment. The Lord
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Speaker 1: will see to that boy. Your daughter steps into marriage
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Speaker 1: earlier than you had anticipated. The Lord will see to her.
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Speaker 1: You get to worry from the doctor and you're on
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Speaker 1: your way in and you realize this is not going
40:53
Speaker 1: to be good news. He tells you to bring your
40:56
Speaker 1: spouse with you to sit in his office and hear
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Speaker 1: what he has to say. Yah, Yah, we're here. The
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Speaker 1: Lord will see to this. He's in this. He's Heaven's provision.
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Speaker 1: There will be a ram somewhere along the way that
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Speaker 1: will tell you the Lord is here in this. Now
41:22
Speaker 1: here we sit in the twenty first century, reading a
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Speaker 1: story from a little section of the Bible in Genesis.
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Speaker 1: You wonder where can we go to put this into
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Speaker 1: our lives. That's my task right now. I will take
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Speaker 1: you to three places, and I want you to hear them. Well. First,
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Speaker 1: I want to address what you cling to, and next
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Speaker 1: I want to address when you release, and then when
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Speaker 1: God replaces. Okay, here we go. Number one. What you
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Speaker 1: cling to is usually what God asks you to release.
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Speaker 1: It's a funny thing about him. He knows exactly where
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Speaker 1: our heart is, and he wants to have us prove
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Speaker 1: to him that he occupies the place no other He's there,
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Speaker 1: and he reigns without a rival. Again, what you cling
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Speaker 1: to is usually what God asks you to release to him.
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Speaker 1: That's your turn. What are you clinging to? Some possession,
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Speaker 1: some hope, some calling, some job, some place of prominence,
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Speaker 1: some achievement, some cherished dream, some treasured relationship. Willingly release that,
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Speaker 1: willingly release it, let it go. You cling, I can
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Speaker 1: assure you there'll be a way the Lord has of
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Speaker 1: saying you let that go. Number two. What you release,
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Speaker 1: he often replaces with something or someone far more valuable.
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Speaker 1: I've seen this happen over and over again. What I
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Speaker 1: thought was a cherished possession, and I finally let it go,
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Speaker 1: I discover a dimension of the living God I'd never
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Speaker 1: seen before, and in fact often realize how much better
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Speaker 1: this is than that ever would have been. What you release,
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Speaker 1: he often replaces with something or someone even more valuable.
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Speaker 1: And I know when I'll tell you release, you think risk.
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Speaker 1: I've got to risk this. It's good for you. It's
43:59
Speaker 1: another word for faith. I like the way Eileen Guder
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Speaker 1: writes in her book You can live on bland food
44:06
Speaker 1: so as to avoid an ulcer. Drink no tea or
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Speaker 1: coffee or other stimulants in the name of health. You
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Speaker 1: can go to bed early and stay away from night life.
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Speaker 1: Avoid all controversial subjects so as never to give offense.
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Speaker 1: You can mind your own business and avoid involvement in
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Speaker 1: other people's problems. Spend money only on necessities and save
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Speaker 1: all you can. You can still break your neck in
44:32
Speaker 1: the bathtub and they'll serve you. Right. Some of you
44:39
Speaker 1: are so blame, blame careful with everything, God cannot get
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Speaker 1: your attention. You got life all wired, all put together,
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Speaker 1: all figured out, all bound up around your plan. And
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Speaker 1: it isn't about you. How many times do we have
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Speaker 1: to hear that before we believe it? Not? Even your
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Speaker 1: children are yours, your God's, and the loans them to you.
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Speaker 1: Let it go. Let them go for goodness sake. Don't
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Speaker 1: try to live their lives. They'll try to create in
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Speaker 1: them what you didn't accomplish in yours. It's not fair.
45:25
Speaker 1: We are so careful, so afraid of risk, so tight.
45:35
Speaker 1: If we don't have it in the bank account, how
45:37
Speaker 1: are we going to exist? And listen to the news
45:41
Speaker 1: hoping there will be good news. There's never good news
45:46
Speaker 1: on the news. Stop listening to that nonsense. They never
45:51
Speaker 1: know the hope there is in Christ. All they tell
45:55
Speaker 1: you is this doc market is falling lower than it
45:59
Speaker 1: has ever in the history of mankind. Today there were
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Speaker 1: nineteen murders and the outside of the city it is
46:08
Speaker 1: right where you live. Them guys on the loose. It's
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Speaker 1: always bad news. Risk, hold on, you trust your God.
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Speaker 1: I'm not asking something stupid or foolish. We set our
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Speaker 1: alarm every night. We lock our cars every night, even
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Speaker 1: though they're in the garage. Hey, I was raised by
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Speaker 1: Daddy who wore a belt and suspenders. You can never know.
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Speaker 1: You want to be sure. Risk, But whoever you release
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Speaker 1: to the Lord, trust me. He often replaced it with
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Speaker 1: something and someone far more valuable. Could there ever be
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Speaker 1: a better mentor than the one I lost? Maybe I
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Speaker 1: don't know. I just know I have to release him
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Speaker 1: risk trust in God, which is no risk at all.
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Speaker 1: Number three, When God replaces, he also rewards. This is
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Speaker 1: the good part. When God replaces, he also rewards. You
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Speaker 1: know what happened unbound Isaac ram on the altar, consumed
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Speaker 1: in fire and smoke. Don't stop reading. Take a glance
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Speaker 1: at what's ahead of us. Verse fifteen. Then then that's
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Speaker 1: a word of continuation. Then the Angel of the Lord
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Speaker 1: called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said,
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Speaker 1: by myself, I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you
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Speaker 1: have done this thing, you have not withheld your son,
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Speaker 1: your only son. Indeed, I will here's the promise. This
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Speaker 1: is where it gets even better. I will greatly bless you.
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Speaker 1: Not just bless I will greatly bless you. I will
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Speaker 1: greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens,
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Speaker 1: and as the sand which is on the seashore. And
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Speaker 1: your seed shall possess the gait of their enemies. In
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Speaker 1: your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
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Speaker 1: Because you have obeyed my voice. It was worth it.
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Speaker 1: A great blessing I have for you. And to this
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Speaker 1: day he preserves his people Israel with great plans for
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Speaker 1: their future. Why because God keeps his promises. Abraham, you've
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Speaker 1: proven to me where your love is. Now let me
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Speaker 1: tell you my reward. You have one son. You will
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Speaker 1: in the generations and the unfolding of centuries, you will
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Speaker 1: have multiple millions, and through them the world will be blessed.
49:27
Speaker 1: Now still clinging, aren't you still thinking? Well, maybe Chuck
49:35
Speaker 1: isn't talking to me. I'm glad she's here because she
49:40
Speaker 1: needs to hear that. I'm glad my husband came today
49:46
Speaker 1: and he's wearing a belt and suspenders and he needs
49:50
Speaker 1: to hear this. No, you need to hear this. I
49:59
Speaker 1: started with a comment from A w Tozer. I close
50:02
Speaker 1: from the same book the end of every chapter of
50:05
Speaker 1: the Pursuit of God, which you must read The Pursuit
50:09
Speaker 1: of God a w Tozer. He ends every chapter with
50:13
Speaker 1: a prayer. And this great chapter, titled the Blessedness of
50:17
Speaker 1: Possessing Nothing, ends with the prayer that I close with Father.
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Speaker 1: I want to know thee, but my coward heart fears
50:29
Speaker 1: to give up its toys. I cannot part with them
50:33
Speaker 1: without inward bleeding. And I do not try to hide
50:36
Speaker 1: from the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but
50:44
Speaker 1: I do come. Please root from my heart all those
50:50
Speaker 1: things which I have cherished so long, and which have
50:53
Speaker 1: become a very part of my living self, so that
50:59
Speaker 1: thou mayest enter and dwell there without arrival. Then shalt
51:04
Speaker 1: thou make the place of thy feet glorious? Then shall
51:09
Speaker 1: my heart have no need of the sun to shine
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Speaker 1: in it for thyself. Will it be the light of it,
51:18
Speaker 1: and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' name,
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Speaker 1: everyone said, Amen, let it go, Let it go.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message when God says let go, was copyrighted
51:41
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, and twenty seventeen, and the
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Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty seventeen by Charles R.
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Speaker 2: Swindall INK. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted
51:55
Speaker 2: material for commercial use is strictly prohibited