Faith | The Sacrifice - Genesis 22

Give it up for your students and everyone who helped lead that camp. I used to lead student ministry back in the day. And so I just know it takes so much work to put on one of those camps and leading up to it, me and my team would be like, is this even worth it? And then we would do camp and by the end of camp, we would be like, oh my gosh, that's the greatest thing we've ever been a part of. We should do it every single week. And that's just because Jesus just shows up in a big and different way at camp. So I'm thankful your students got to go and enjoy that. Many of you are like, who are you? Are you the camp guy? Are you camp salesman? No. My name is Ben. I am a pastor based out of Denver, Colorado, and I'm just buddies with your lead pastor, Scott. I've got an absurd amount of respect for Scott. We've known each other for quite a while now. He officiated my wedding to my wife, also named Allie. That was 17 years ago. We've just known each other since then. We worked together at a church out in Colorado for years and years. And we just got one of those relationships where like, you know, for years, I've been able to learn from Scott

on how to become a better teacher and a better communicator and pastor and leader. And then in return, I kind of taught him like how to get his act together and get ripped and all that stuff. And so it's just really mutual that way. For real though, I've had the great honor of getting the teacher a couple of times. And every time Scott has me out, I always feel humbled and thankful. So thanks for putting up with me for a morning. And what's great is I'm a guest. So, you know, if this is your first time at Southland and you first of all, welcome. If you end up loving every single thing except for the sermon, it's like, well, come back next week. Like, I won't be here. Here's what we're gonna do today though. Today we are wrapping up this six week study of faith. And we're gonna do that by jumping into this moment from Abraham's life that's recorded in Genesis chapter 22. And we're just gonna jump right into this thing because today's story has got some tough stuff in it, right? It's just some tough moments in the story for me, at least when it comes to moments like this in the Bible, I'm a fan of like, let's just rip the bandaid off. I'm not gonna start with some illustration. Let's just get into the Bible and try to figure this thing out together.

I will say though, before we jump in, that today's story is for everyone, of course, but it's especially for any of us who feel like we have ever been in or we are currently now in a situation where it feels like our faith is being stretched to the absolute breaking point, right? If you're in a season where it just feels like, man, God is commanding something of me that I don't know if I wanna do it because it feels too risky or it feels too scary. The sacrifice that he's asking me to make is too much. And so we're tempted to maybe just disobey him and not do what he's asking us or commanding us to do. Or maybe some of us, it's like our faith is about to break over it, right? It's for any of us who feel like God is telling us to do something, we just don't wanna do it, right? This story is for us. Some context before we tackle the first verse, you've been looking at Abraham's life. For this moment, Abraham's life is kind of looking up, right? Things are falling into place. He sees this everywhere. He's got some family drama that connected to what Scott talked about last week, the shortcut he took. He's got some family drama, but that's starting to calm down. That's good.

He's made a peace treaty with the local king and warlord. So that's good too. He's seen some peace in his family and some peace in his land. But the greatest thing going on in Abraham's life is that God had been telling Abraham and Sarah for a while, hey, I'm gonna give you a son. You're gonna name him Isaac. And through Isaac, I'm gonna give you so many descendants, they're gonna outnumber the stars. And that's a cool promise. It's just that Sarah has been barren her whole life. And by the time God makes this promise, Abraham and Sarah are pushing 100 years old, okay? 90 year olds can do many incredible things. Typically making a baby ain't one of them, right? And so they've been given this crazy promise. And yet, of course, before our story starts today, God has kept his promise, right? And Sarah gives this miraculous birth to this boy, Isaac, and now he's growing up and they're raising him. And so Abraham's just kind of in one of those seasons of life that I hope all of us have had in the room where it's like, he's kind of just riding high. It's like every day he wakes up and it feels like he can see the fruit of God's faithfulness. Like he was obedient and God was faithful. And now he gets to just enjoy the blessings of it. Every day that he wakes up is a dream come true, right? More specifically, every day that Abraham wakes up

is a promise by God kept until God decides to shatter that. by throwing him a curve ball in Genesis 22 verse one. And so we'll pick up for today right there. It says, after these things, after all this good stuff going on in Abraham's life, God tested Abraham. And he said to him, Abraham, and Abraham said, here I am. God decides to test Abraham. The word test in the original Hebrew, it refers to stretching a quality to its limits, okay? So for example, as parents sometimes we'll say to our kids, you are testing my patience. What we mean is you are taking my patience and you are stretching it to the breaking point, right? What we're saying is if you don't stop doing what you're doing, I'm going to break, right? Steam is gonna come out my ears, springs and cogs, and I'm just gonna break in front of you. You're breaking me. That's what God is doing to Abraham. He's about to test his faith to the absolute limits, the absolute breaking point. How? How's he gonna do that? Like God and Abraham, they've been in relationship for quite a while now. Like Abraham's seen God's faithfulness. What is left? What is there left to test Abraham's faith?

Well, next verse. He, God said, Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, the son that you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you what in the world, right? What is happening? Like this story got dark real quick and God's asking some stuff that we're like, why is he asking this? I got God commanded Abraham to take Isaac. He's the, this is the miraculous fulfillment of all God's promises, right? Isaac is the one through whom God promised to bless all nations. And Isaac is the absolute joy of Abraham and Sarah's late life. And God tells Abraham to take that boy and offer him as a burnt sacrifice. Needless to say, this is incredibly disturbing, but since we're here today, let's just lean all the way in and figure it out together, even though it's tough. Okay, some context that's helpful. Human sacrifice would not have felt as shocking to Abraham as it feels to us because human sacrifice was very, very common in Abraham's day. Okay, hang with me. In fact, it was so common that God's prophets, the Old Testament prophets, the Old Testament law,

you can go read it in your Old Testament. He had to command God's people not to take part in human sacrifice, which implies that some of them were still kind of doing this here and there. It's crazy. I don't bring any of that up to say that, you know, like human sacrifice is now less disgusting or disturbing because it was common. I also definitely don't bring it up to say like, now that you know that, we should all be cool with what God's asking Abraham to do. Okay, instead, I bring it up because it's important for today to know that if Abraham is shocked by anything right now, it's probably less about God's command to sacrifice his son, and instead he's more shocked by God's sudden decision to break all of his promises. Leading up to this moment, God has promised Abraham, I'm gonna make you into a great nation. He promised Abraham, I'm gonna do that through the miraculous birth of your son, Isaac. How is he going to do that? How is he going to keep all of his promises if Isaac dies on the altar? The disturbing tension that Abraham is experiencing right now, it has less to do with God's command and more to do with God's character, okay? Is Abraham going to believe that God is who he says he is,

and he's gonna keep all of the promises that he made to his boy, Isaac? Or is Abraham gonna believe that God is just as petty and bloodthirsty as every other pagan God out there? Next verse. Abraham rose early in the morning. He saddled his donkey and took two of his young men, some servants with him, and his son, Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him, okay? This is the first of a few clues that Abraham's in a different state of mind than probably you or I would have been in, because Abraham receives this shocking command from God, and he responds by just getting to work. He just immediately obeys. There's no mention of him telling Sarah what's going on, his wife. There's no mention of how Abraham feels about what God commanded. No mention of a last heart-to-heart final conversation with his only son, Isaac. It's like, instead, it's just immediate obedience, immediate obedience to God's uncharacteristic and promise-breaking command. What's that about? For now, just take note of it. We'll come back to it in a second. Next verse.

On the third day, Adam lifted up his eyes and saw the place. from afar, so they took a three-day journey to get there. And then Abraham said to his young men, his servants, hey, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and we'll worship and then we'll come again to you. Here's our second clue that Abraham's in a different state of mind right now. He tells his servants, hey, me and Isaac are gonna go up there, we're gonna make an offering, and then me and Isaac are going to come back to you. Is Abraham in total denial? Let's continue. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and he laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and so they went, both of them, together. And at one point, Isaac looks at his father, Abraham, and he says, my father, and Abraham says, here I am, my son, and then Isaac says, behold, look, we've got the fire and we've got the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Okay, in other words, Isaac's like, we are forgetting the most important part of the sacrifice, Dad. We are forgetting the sacrifice. Something's off, and Isaac can start to feel it now. Here's how Abraham responds. Abraham said, God will provide for himself

the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. And so they went, both of them, together. So our third clue that Abraham's in a different state of mind right now, there's just something inside of Abraham. Maybe you would call it denial, but also maybe it could be faith. Something resilient inside of Abraham that tells him, like, he just absolutely believes that this moment is not going to end in the death of his son, Isaac. He believes that God will provide for himself a sacrifice. It's just, that's very honorable of Abraham. He's running out of time, right? He's out of time. If God is going to intervene, if God is going to provide for himself his own sacrifice, he's got like hours left to do it. Next verse, they came to the place of which God had told him. Abraham built the altar there and he laid the wood in order. So at this point, Abraham's down to just, you know, minutes for God to intervene. He laid, bound Isaac, tied him up, laid Isaac on the altar, on top of the wood. Now he's down to just seconds for God to intervene. Then Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife to slaughter his son. So now time is up.

Abraham is out of time. For three days now, Abraham has clung to the faith that God is who he says he is. And even though he doesn't understand why he's commanding, what he's commanding, he's gonna keep his promises to his boy, Isaac. It's just now he's out of time. God has had three days to step in and intervene. And then he had hours and then he just had minutes. And then he just had seconds and still he's nowhere to be found. And so trembling, Abraham tightens his grip on the knife and he looks Isaac in the eyes for what might be the final time. And then just as he starts to plunge the knife downward, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. Abraham, I'm assuming shaking, barely speaking, goes, here I am. And then the angel of the Lord says, don't lay your hand on that boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son. From me, with a split second to spare, God intervenes. Abraham then lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. Abraham went, took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. And so Abraham called the name of that place

the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. And then the next few verses, the story ends with God just kind of doubling down on and restating all of his promises to Abraham and Isaac, all of his promises to bless all nations through them, to give them so many descendants that they're gonna outnumber the stars. He doubles down on those promises, the end. Okay, just a run of the mill Bible story. Nothing crazy about that one. It's disturbing, right? And it's dramatic. And now let's just try to figure out what in the world was going on in that story. And I think we should start with the fact that if we're being honest, I think for anyone in the room who's being honest, God frustrates us in this story. What is he doing? What is he up to? And why is he asking this of Abraham? We have no category for what God's doing. Part of that is because it is a totally unique moment in scripture. What I mean by that is this is the only time in all of scripture where God tests someone by commanding them to do something that he had never intended to let them do in the end.

It's the only time in scripture that God commands something that is repulsive and contrary to God's own nature. So. Why did he do that? Why did he do that to Abraham? Poor Isaac, poor Isaac. Why did he put Isaac in a situation where it's like, buddy, you're gonna need a pinch of counseling when you get a little older, right? Why did he do this? Why would he do that? This is where it's helpful to remember that every story that you encounter in the Bible, it's got three layers to it. And all three layers are happening at the same time. You've got the small picture and the big picture and the ultimate picture, okay? First, you got the small picture. This is where we simply try our best to figure out the bare bones of the story. That's what we just did together. We walked through Genesis 22, verse by verse. We're just trying to figure out who, what, when, where, and why, that's the small picture. Then there's the big picture going on. And this is where we try our best to understand like, what does this story have to teach us as Christians living in America in 2026? What can we learn today from this ancient story?

That's the big picture. And then there is the ultimate picture. And this is where we try to figure out what does this ancient story teach about Jesus, right? And about the rescue mission that he's on and the hope of the gospel. And for me, at least, it is the ultimate picture found in the story of Abraham and Isaac. That for me, it's like, it's the reason I can be okay with and I can kind of come to terms with God asking Abraham to do something terrible. But before we get to the ultimate picture, let's start with the big picture. What does this story teach us in 2026? There are many things we can learn from this story today. We'll focus on just one of them. We'll focus on unwavering trust, okay? Because one of the craziest parts of this story to me is just how obedient Abraham is. He doesn't complain. He doesn't ask for some more information. He doesn't complain and ask questions. He doesn't express anger. He doesn't express doubt. He doesn't just flat out refuse to obey God. Instead, he just kind of goes through the motions and obeys immediately, right? He packs up. He grabs some servants. He goes on a three-day journey.

He unpacks. He builds an altar. He binds Isaac. He lifts the knife. Like, that's always been strange to me. He just is immediately, he obeys. It's almost like he's emotionally removed or something, right? It's almost like he's acting like this is no bigger a deal than if God were to be like, Abraham, make a piece of toast. Like he acts like it's like nothing that God's asking him to do. Why? Well, what's cool is, and the Bible does this all the time. It's one of the reasons that this book is the greatest book of all time. But there's this book in the New Testament called Hebrews, and it gives us a little bit of insight into Abraham's heart and soul and mind during this harrowing moment of his life. And it's this little bit of insight from the New Testament that changes the way we understand this story from the Old Testament. And here it is in Hebrews, we're told, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises, that's Abraham, was in the act of offering up the fulfilled promise, his only son, of whom it was said through Isaac,

shall your offspring be named. So Abraham had the answer to the fulfillment of God's promise in his hand, and he was laying that promise down to die. How could he do that? Hebrews says it's because Abraham considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. And I'm so thankful for those few verses in Hebrews, because it unlocks the big picture of this story for us. We were just told that Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead. So why did Abraham go through all the motions of immediate obedience, right? Why did he just obey God's seemingly horrible command without looking back or thinking twice? Hebrews just told us. See, leading up to this moment, God and Abraham had been in a lot of communication. God had been making a lot of promises. First of all, God promised Abraham, like, I'm not gonna be like the pagan God you grew up with. First of all, I'm gonna be real. I'm also gonna be set apart. I'm going to be holy. I'm going to be powerful. I'm going to be compassionate. He promised Abraham, I'm gonna be so uniquely invested in your family. I'm gonna care about you and your wife and your kids.

God promised Abraham that his descendants would outnumber the stars, and he promised Abraham that that would happen through his son, Isaac. And according to Hebrews, Abraham trusted in those promises from God so much that even while he's standing there with the knife above his son, Isaac, he thinks to himself, if for some crazy reason, God lets me plunge this knife into my son, it could only be because he plans to resurrect him. resurrection for Abraham, which wasn't a thing, of course. It very rarely is. It wasn't a thing until thousands of years later when Jesus was resurrected from the dead. For Abraham, resurrection was more possible and it was more likely than God suddenly breaking his promises and character. For Abraham, resurrection was more likely than God suddenly behaving like an unjust, bloodthirsty, petty pagan God. And for Abraham, resurrection was more likely than God breaking any of his promises to his boy, Isaac. Listen, when you read through the entirety of Abraham's story, like you've been doing, like you see, this guy is, he's a little bit of a mess, okay? He's a man of great doubt. He's a man of great moral failure. He is a man who tried to shortcut God's promises.

In other words, Abraham is just like us. He's just like a little bit of a train wreck whose God decides to love anyway. And yet in our story from today, Abraham has his one shining moment. He has this moment where he displays true grit faith, right? Faith as Scott defined it in week one of this study. When Scott said, faith is demonstrable trust that God is who he says he is and he'll do everything he's promised to do. If I were to add one word to that definition just for our sermon today, I would add unwavering. In this moment with Isaac on the altar, Abraham demonstrated unwavering trust that God is who he says he is and he will do everything he promised to do for this boy right here. And so Abraham thrust the knife downward only to be interrupted by a God that deep down Abraham knew was gonna interrupt somehow and in some way. What is the big picture? What does this have to teach about you and me? What do we have to learn from this story in 2026? Well, for me, it forces me to ask myself a question which is, do I have unwavering trust in God's character and promises? Do I actually? Because here's the truth, right? Like for some of us, I'd probably say most of us,

God has commanded you to do something, right? He's commanded you to make a sacrifice. I don't know what it is for you. I know what it is for me, but you know what it is, right? You don't have to be told twice. It's the thing that you've been kind of thinking about in your head for the last 10 minutes, going like, God, please just don't ask me to do anything other than that. He's asked us to make a sacrifice. The reason we haven't made that sacrifice is because it feels risky and it feels scary and it's gonna cost us. The story of Abraham and Isaac challenges us and it forces you to ask, like, will I be faithful even when it costs me something and it costs me something great? Will I be faithful even when integrity might cost me a promotion at my job? Will I be faithful even if following God requires me to like sell my home and move across the country and change up my career? Are you gonna be faithful even if healing requires that you be honest with other people about your hidden sinfulness? Will you be faithful even when God's version of sexuality might cost you an entire relationship? Are you going to be faithful even when it costs you something? And for many of us in the room,

you know, I've been there before, I'll be there again, we would be wise to swallow a bitter pill of truth that goes like this. If we truly had unwavering trust that God is who he says he is and he'll keep all of his promises, we would have already made the sacrifice he's commanding us to make. We would have done it already. Why? Well, because we would have unwavering trust that God is telling us to make these sacrifices, not because he's crazy, but he's asking us to make these sacrifices for our own good as for the sake of our righteousness and our peace and our joy and our integrity and our mental health and our family and our friends, our careers, you name it, he's asking us to do this for our own good. And the fact that we haven't made any of these sacrifices yet, that's not an obedience issue as much as it is a trust issue. We're looking at him going, I don't wanna do that thing you're asking me to do. Why? Because ultimately I don't trust that you're for me, kind of worried you're against me. I don't trust that you love me, kind of worried you forgot about me. And I don't trust that you're gonna stick around.

I don't trust that you know what's good for my life. I'm worried you're starting to lose your touch. Like we have got to ask ourselves a question. Do I have unwavering trust in God's character and promises? And I'll let you in on a strange secret. The only way to answer that question with any degree of confidence is to follow in Abraham's footsteps and just do the thing. God is telling you to do and do it now. No more procrastinating. No more second guessing. Just make the sacrifice, even though you don't understand it today. And just make the leap of faith, trusting that God will catch you on the other side. Make the sacrifice He's commanding of you, trusting that in the kingdom of God, there's life on the other side of sacrifice. That's the big picture. But then what is the ultimate picture, right? What does this story teach us about Jesus and about the rescue mission that He's on and about the hope of the gospel? And this is the good stuff, right? It's also the reason why I think I can understand why God just this once would command Abraham to do something so horrible. It is also the only reason you and I should ever contemplate making any sacrifices that God tells us to make.

It's because this story is foreshadowing something about the ultimate picture. See this story of Abraham and Isaac in the moment when God graciously tells Abraham, wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop. In that moment, our hearts and our spirits and souls and minds are supposed to turn toward the ultimate picture that in the end, God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, because in the end, that was always a sacrifice that God was only ever gonna require of Himself. This story is supposed to remind us of the ultimate story. In case you don't know, just a quick snapshot of the ultimate story. Couple thousand years from this moment with Abraham and Isaac, and this strange man named Jesus shows up on the scene in kind of a backwater town called Nazareth. And for the first 30 years of his life, he's just kind of the son of the local carpenter, and then he's the local carpenter himself. But then around age 30, he begins his public ministry. And for three years straight, it's like Jesus just proclaims good news to the poor and freedom for a humanity that's been shackled by sin and death and shame. And he heals the sick and he feeds the hungry, and he proclaims that the kingdom of God is here and near. This Jesus guy, he starts to say some crazy stuff. He starts to say, for God so loved the world

that he gave me his one and only son. He starts to say stuff like, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to my father except through me. He claims to be God's one and only son. He claims that God is his father. People kind of wanna write him off as crazy, but it's also kind of hard to do because he's living this incredible and miraculous life. And so instead, some people just start whispering to each other and they start wondering, could this Jesus guy from Nazareth be the one? Could he be the Messiah? Could he be the long-awaited fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies and the fulfillment of all of God's promises to finally one day defeat sin and evil and death and forgive mankind and usher in the eternal kingdom of heaven? It's like people start whispering, they get excited. Maybe this is the one, maybe he is the Messiah. They get their hopes up until one day he is arrested and he's rung up on false charges and he's beaten within an inch of his life. He then carries his own cross on his own back, just like Isaac carried the wood for his altar on his back. He carries that cross to a hill called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. And at the place of the skull, Jesus is nailed to a chunk of wood,

agonizingly dropped into a post hole and left to asphyxiate on his own blood. And just like Abraham and Isaac, it's like, man, here is the living proof that God keeps his promises. That's what people were starting to think with Jesus. Here's the living proof that God keeps his promises. It's just, he's hanging on a cross. And just like Abraham and Isaac, it's like if God is gonna intervene, if God is gonna save the day, he is running out of time. God has had hours to step in and save his one and only son. And then he only had some minutes and then he only had seconds and then time was up. And so Jesus breathed his last and with his last breath, he said, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And unlike Abraham and Isaac, God does not step in. He does not speak up and he does not stop the sacrifice. And with the death of Jesus comes the death of the hope of his people. As they pull his limp, battered body off of the cross, his followers, they just hang their heads and they slink back home because they're thinking to themselves, there goes another one. That's just one more leader. One more guy that we thought for sure was gonna be the Messiah. We thought he was gonna set us free and he didn't. And then three days later, something history changing,

something existence altering happens and the man from Nazareth walks out of his grave alive and well and resurrected the risen proof of all of God's promises. And as Jesus walks out of that tomb, he proves himself to be the long awaited Messiah and he proves himself to be the ultimate Isaac, the one and only son who didn't just cheat death, he conquered it. And suddenly it's like the puzzle pieces of God's rescue plan start to fall into place and they make sense. And we realize, yeah, God had to take the eternal, infinite sin and death of mankind and put it on his eternal infinite shoulders so that he could put it to death on a cross. But then three days later, when Jesus walked out of that tomb alive and well, he promises you that your sin and your shame stayed dead, it's still buried. Because he is the ultimate Isaac, he promises you, you can just stop grave digging, pulling all of that sin and all of that shame back out of the tomb, it's dead. Because he is the ultimate Isaac, we have been promised that we can be set free. You can leave your sin behind, you can leave your chains behind, you are free to pursue the abundant life that Jesus promised you,

you are free to enter into the kingdom of heaven, like that is the ultimate picture. And the reason I think that God asked Abraham to do something so disturbing so long ago, I think it's because he knew that for thousands and thousands of years, he was going to take the story of Abraham and Isaac and use it to tune our hearts, to prepare the hearts of his people for the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate Isaac and the ultimate story and the ultimate picture. He was using Abraham and Isaac to teach us one of the great, mysterious, but beautiful truths of the gospel, which is that our hope and our peace and our joy and our salvation, these are all rewards that came at a cost. It's just that it was a cost that God was only ever gonna ask of himself. And what it means is once you capture the ultimate picture, it's like, you should be feeling, you should feel all the feels really. One of the things that you can feel is encouraged and you can feel empowered. Man, you can make the sacrifices he's telling you to make, you can do it, why? Because you and I don't just follow anybody, we follow, there's no other religion in the world who can say what I'm about to say. You and I follow a God who has already made

all of the ultimate sacrifices himself. That's the most blue collar God you could ask for. You can trust a God like that. A God who has made the sacrifices he's made. When he turns to you and says, I want you to make a few sacrifices, you can follow him. He's done this before, he went first. We can follow a God like that and what that means is you can do it. You can drag, I know it's scary, you can drag your skeletons out of the closet, you can make that sacrifice. You can call the person you need to call and cut the check you need to cut and make the apology you need to make and you can do it. You can forgive your enemy and you can love the lost and you can walk with the broken, you can make the sacrifices God is commanding you to make. Why? Because we have placed our faith in a God who knows personally both the cost and the reward of sacrifice. And the story of Jesus is that he is not asking you ever to do anything that he hasn't first asked of himself. And so Southland, just consider me a friend of a friend, some encouragement from a friend of a friend before I pray and we get out of here. If you put your faith in anything, put your faith in the ultimate picture of Jesus Christ and with your eyes firmly locked on the ultimate picture,

with unwavering trust in the sacrifice of your King and your Messiah, may we just make all the sacrifices God is commanding us to make, trusting that in the kingdom of heaven, life waits on the other side of sacrifice. Let me pray over us. God, thank you for this moment. Thank you for these people. God, thank you for this six weeks where we just get to learn a little bit about what faith looks like. Thanks for the life of Abraham. He was a normal, broken, messed up person and he has so much to teach us through his life because of that. God, I thank you for the truth today, even though it's a tough one. That story, every time I encounter that story, I'm like, ugh, I don't know if I like this one. I don't know if I like what you're telling Abraham to do, but once we see the ultimate picture, it becomes beautiful. That you weren't gonna ask him to do anything that you were just gonna end up doing yourself. God, thank you for the ultimate sacrifice that you made on our behalf. God, help us to figure out what it looks like to place our trust, our unwavering trust in that sacrifice. That way we can just get out there and make the sacrifices you're telling us to make. I truly believe that you want for us freedom

and joy and peace and an abundant life. You want that for us. It's just, we're gonna have to make some sacrifices to get there. God, give us the courage it's gonna take to make those sacrifices and help us to do it with our faith firmly placed in you. God, I love you. And I pray this in the name of your son, Jesus the Christ. Amen.