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00:00:00 We're going to read it together as a family. It's in Hebrews chapter 12
00:00:03 verses 28 and 29. Before we read it, can I just thank God for all of our social global family
00:00:10 that's watching literally from around the world. Come on to all of the inmates that are watching
00:00:16 on the Pando app, our brothers and sisters, for part of our social family. And y'all right now,
00:00:22 right now, right now, we have serve team that were at the Echo location for the soft launch
00:00:29 next Sunday. We will be one church at two locations. Y'all
00:00:32 what churches are closing down. Your church is growing and expanded one church and two locations.
00:00:41 It's a big deal. You better see what we've got. So start next Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday,
00:00:47 you can pick, you can come here to fair park, or you can go to the Echo location. Their service
00:00:52 is at 10 30 and it's going to be awesome, but let's read our scripture together. Anybody got it
00:00:57 memorized? Come on. You got to memorize. That's what, if you got to memorize, go on the gram or
00:01:03 some and just, and let me see, let me see. I want to see if you got to memorize I'll repost it.
00:01:08 There's something about my kids. My kids almost got to memorize Remy right here on the front row.
00:01:13 She's got to memorize. She was saying it in the house the other day, but come on, by the end of
00:01:19 the year, you'll have it memorized. Let's read it together. You ready? Do you see what we've got
00:01:25 an unshakable kingdom? And do you see how thankful we must be not only thankful,
00:01:32 but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God for God is not an indifferent bystander.
00:01:40 He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all
00:01:48 cleansed. God himself is fire. Oh, it sounds good. That sounds better every week. I love when y'all
00:01:57 do that himself. You got to say that part with your chest. Himself is fire. Last week I talked
00:02:03 about being thankful. Do you see how thankful we must be? Can you put it back up there? I love that
00:02:08 scripture. Can you put it back? Yeah. Watch this. Watch this. It says not only thankful, but brimming
00:02:16 with what? Brimming with worship. How many of you would like to be brimming with worship? Can I see
00:02:25 how you like to? For real? You want to be brimming with worship? All right. I'm going to ask you that
00:02:35 later. Go with me to Genesis chapter 22 real quick. After this, you can sit down, I promise. Genesis
00:02:42 22, and this is where we're going to get our thoughts from today. Starting at verse number
00:02:47 one, it says, "Some time later, God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham, here I am,' he replied.
00:02:54 Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah.
00:03:03 Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain. I will show you.' Early the next morning,
00:03:10 Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.
00:03:16 And when he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told
00:03:20 him about. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his
00:03:27 servants," listen to what he says, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.
00:03:34 We will worship, and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering
00:03:46 and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of
00:03:51 them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, 'Abraham, father.' 'Yes, my son,'
00:03:57 Abraham replied. 'The fire and the wood are here,' Isaac said, 'but where is the lamb for the burnt
00:04:04 offering?' Abraham answered, 'God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.'
00:04:11 And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about,
00:04:16 Abraham built an altar and there he arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him
00:04:21 on the altar on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
00:04:26 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham, Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied.
00:04:33 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God
00:04:42 because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.' Abraham looked up and there in a
00:04:49 thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt
00:04:55 offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the place the Lord will provide. And to this day,
00:05:04 it is said, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. Can you say amen? That's
00:05:10 a whole lot of scripture and a heavy passage brimming with worship. And Abraham said,
00:05:21 'Me and my son are going to worship.' I want to preach today using this as a title,
00:05:26 'The Song That Never Ends.' The song that never ends. Would you look at your neighbor one last
00:05:33 time again, whichever one you like the best. And just say, 'Neighbor, there is a song that never
00:05:40 ends.' Let me see where some older people are. Look at your other neighbor and say, 'Other neighbor,
00:05:45 I'm telling you there's a song that never ends. It just goes on and on. My friends,
00:05:53 some people start it.' Okay, stop, stop, stop. If you Gen Z, you don't even know what that is
00:06:00 because you're too young. Let's pray before we jump into this word, then you can chillax. Long
00:06:06 prayer. Bear with me. God, you're awesome. Please speak to us today. Amen. You may be seated in the
00:06:14 presence of the Lord. The song that never ends. Can I see your hand one more time if this is your
00:06:24 first time ever to Social Dallas? Can I see your hand? Come on. Make some more noise for them.
00:06:29 I never want to take that for granted. I'm thankful. I saw a whole lot of churches in
00:06:37 DFW. I'm glad you pulled up to Social. The song that never ends. Believe it or not,
00:06:45 one of the things that is distinctive and unique about our faith is that we don't just gather
00:06:52 together to hear the teaching of the Word of God. We don't just gather together to join in prayer,
00:07:00 but we also gather together to sing. Christians, believers, are a singing people.
00:07:10 I don't know whether you know this or not, but Muslims don't gather together to sing.
00:07:16 Hindus don't gather together to sing. Buddhists, although they have chants,
00:07:23 they don't typically gather together to lift up their voices in unison to sing. But as believers,
00:07:31 singing together in worship is integral to our gathering. Judah, think about it. Of the 52
00:07:38 Sundays we will gather this year, you will not just hear the preaching of the Word of God,
00:07:43 but before somebody gets up to preach the Word, how many of you know we are going to fill whatever
00:07:47 space and whatever place we gather in with singing, with praise, with worship, with clapping,
00:07:55 with jumping, and with shouting? I told you all the time that Social is one of the only churches
00:08:00 that you will close your rings on your fitness app because we are going to praise and we're going to
00:08:06 sing exuberantly. I know some of you are thinking, "You know, PR, that ain't me. That ain't me. I
00:08:12 mean, I come to Social and I don't do the whole singing thing. The whole singing thing is really
00:08:17 not my thing. That's really for the praise team to do. I sit and I spectate and I watch them,
00:08:23 you know, for 17 minutes. I watch them sing and perhaps if they sing a song that I like,
00:08:28 I might be moved enough to sing just a little bit or maybe I'll just lift up one hand. But
00:08:34 singing is not really what I do. That's not my thing. That's for them. And if that's what you
00:08:39 say, first of all, I love you, but maybe that's why you don't get a breakthrough because something
00:08:46 powerful happens whenever you actually lift up your voice with other believers and you begin
00:08:52 to sing. Understand in your Bible, there are over 400 scriptures on singing and on praise,
00:09:00 and a multiplicity of those scriptures are commanding you to sing, not suggesting,
00:09:05 commanding that you sing. Bible says in Psalm 96 that you should sing praises to the Lord.
00:09:12 It says in Psalm 33, sing a new song to the Lord. Matter of fact, the longest book in the Bible is
00:09:18 a book of songs because God does not suggest that you sing to him. He commands that you lift up your
00:09:26 voice and you sing to him. He didn't say sing if you feel like it. He didn't say sing if you're
00:09:31 having a good day. He didn't say sing if you're on key, off key, or around the key. He commands
00:09:36 you to lift up your voice and sing because something happens in your spirit and in the
00:09:41 atmosphere whenever you begin to sing to God. Not only that, God sings over you. Can you give us the
00:09:49 scripture? Uh-huh. Zephaniah 317 says that God rejoices over us with singing. Think about that,
00:09:56 that we sing to God, but God even sings a song over you. And I'll be it like our God to command
00:10:03 you to do something that he will do himself because something happens whenever you sing a truth.
00:10:09 There's something about stating a truth, but there's something totally different about singing
00:10:14 a truth. I can state a truth and I can say something, but there's a huge difference between
00:10:20 stating a truth and singing a truth. This is how God has wired our bodies and our brains. When you
00:10:26 begin to sing the truth, that truth begins to seep down into your soul. When you lift up your hands
00:10:33 and do it, it's like you're becoming what you're singing and we rehearse the truth of who God is
00:10:38 by singing because whatever truth you sing will seep into your soul. This is a principle that is
00:10:44 not just sacred, it's secular. Some of y'all got truths in your soul that you've been singing and
00:10:51 they tricked you because they put the truth to melody and it's stuck in your soul. It's stuck in
00:10:57 your soul. Okay, let me try. Let me try this. Let me think, let me think. Best part of waking up.
00:11:04 When's the last time you had some Folgers coffee? You know your bougie coffee drinking self ain't
00:11:12 had no Folgers in a long time, but you still know according to their truth that the best part of
00:11:19 waking up is Folgers in your cup. You know how long ago that commercial was, but that truth has
00:11:25 seeped down into your soul. I could do this all day. Nationwide. Some of y'all ain't even got
00:11:33 insurance, but they have gotten this truth down in your soul that nationwide is on your side. This
00:11:44 is the power of singing praises to God. It's not enough for me to just say my God is great. That's
00:11:50 powerful, but it's something different when I sing, "How great is our God." When you start doing
00:12:00 that, it's different. It gets in your soul. It's one thing to say that God is the rock of ages.
00:12:06 That is a powerful truth to declare, but whenever I start lifting up my voice with you, especially
00:12:11 when I'm going through and I just start from my spirit saying, "Christ is my firm foundation,
00:12:17 the rock on which I stand." Truth has gotten in your soul when you sing. And hear me, I love
00:12:26 singing. Singing is powerful. I love lifting up my voice to God and not caring who thinks about
00:12:33 what I'm saying. I just love to sing. The only problem is that singing is an expression of
00:12:42 worship. It is not the full definition of worship. I think most of us, when we read our verse of the
00:12:48 year and we heard brimming with worship, you thought brimming with singing. That's why you're
00:12:53 like, "Oh, yeah, I want to brim." But I came to tell you that singing is an expression of worship.
00:13:00 It is not the full definition of worship. Worship is much deeper than that. And here's the reality
00:13:06 I found in my own life. It is very easy for me to lift up a song to God. Oh, I have no problem
00:13:12 lifting up a song. I'm telling you, I will lift up a song. I will lift up my hands. I have no
00:13:15 problem singing a song because singing a song doesn't place a demand on my life.
00:13:21 Singing a song doesn't really require a sacrifice. So what do you do, ladies and gentlemen,
00:13:27 when the worship God wants is not singing, but the worship He wants is for you to give Him the thing
00:13:35 that you want to hold on to the most? What do you do when God says, "The worship that I want
00:13:42 is not the song that you sing on Sunday, but it is the life that you live." He says, "I want the
00:13:48 thing that your fingers are holding so tightly and you say, 'God, you can have everything else.
00:13:53 Yes, I'll sing, but you can't have this.'" What happens when God defines worship by asking for
00:13:59 the thing that your heart desires? I dare say to you that there are some people who come to church
00:14:05 and sing songs and you think you worshiped, but you didn't. Because if you sang the song,
00:14:11 but you didn't give God the thing that He asked for, you were just giving lip service. What you
00:14:16 did was Christian karaoke. Worship is deeper than that. Often God will ask you to let go of the
00:14:24 thing that you were holding so tightly. I love what Corrie Ten Boom, the Holocaust survivor and
00:14:31 writer of The Hiding Places said. She said, "I have learned to hold all things loosely so that God
00:14:39 will not have to pry them out of my hands." In other words, it is easy to lift up your hands
00:14:54 on Sunday, but true worship is living with loose hands on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
00:15:02 Friday, and Saturday, saying, "God, whatever you want, if you're asking it, I'll give it to you."
00:15:09 Brimming with worship is easy if it's just singing, but am I brimming with worship with a yes
00:15:14 when God asked me for something? This is the tenor of the text in Genesis chapter 22.
00:15:21 To be honest, what drew me to this passage of scripture that we read is something that you
00:15:25 have to understand if you're ever going to become a student of God's word. If you're ever going to
00:15:29 be a student of God's word, you have to learn this principle of Bible study called the law of
00:15:33 first mention. The law of first mention. And law of first mention is this. It's when you find the
00:15:39 first time that a word is used in the Bible, and you use that as the starting definition. When you
00:15:45 search for a word and you find the first time it is mentioned in the Bible, use that as your
00:15:50 starting definition. And the thing that blew my mind is that the first time we see the word worship
00:15:56 in the Bible, the first time you ever read worship in the Bible, understand that there is no stage,
00:16:02 there is no microphone, there is no guitar, there are no praise singers, there is no Nord,
00:16:08 there is nothing musical at all. The first time you hear the word worship is what we read in
00:16:15 Genesis chapter 22. The first time worship is mentioned is with a hundred year old father
00:16:22 named Abraham and his teenage son and him saying, "I'm going up this mountain to worship."
00:16:30 When God told him to sacrifice his son. Notice his language. He does not say, "I'm going up this
00:16:37 mountain to kill my son because I served this crazy sadistic God that asked me to do so." No,
00:16:43 no, no, no. He says, "I'm going up this mountain and I'm going to worship." Y'all, I'm going to be
00:16:49 honest. I was stressing this week because this is without a doubt one of the hardest biblical
00:16:54 passages to exegete or to preach or to even wrap your mind around the fact that God would even ask
00:17:01 Abraham to do this. This is one of those passages that make you uncomfortable and might put some
00:17:06 little theological consternation and I dare say even constipation in your spirit because in this
00:17:12 text, the God of the promise is the problem. The God of the promise is the problem and we really
00:17:20 don't know what to do with passages like this because it's easy when it's a clear devil to
00:17:25 fight. Oh, come on somebody. If this was the devil coming around Isaac, we would know what to do and
00:17:31 if he was trying to take Isaac away, we'd be like, "Uh-uh, Abraham, we know what to do. You better
00:17:35 just intercede and say, 'Devil, back up off of my child.'" We know what to do when it's the devil,
00:17:39 but the devil is not in this. This is God that is asking of something. It almost reminds me of
00:17:47 our Savior Jesus when you begin to look at his fight with the enemy in the wilderness versus
00:17:54 his fight with God in Gethsemane. There's a difference between the fight in the wilderness
00:18:01 and the fight in Gethsemane because in the fight in the wilderness, you're fighting the devil.
00:18:04 You remember what happened? He fasted 40 days and 40 nights. Come on, remember that? Fasted 40 days,
00:18:08 40 nights? 40 days and 40 nights. Come on, y'all. We did 21 and some of y'all cheated on day two.
00:18:15 Forty...no condemnation, no condemnation. Forty days he has fasted. Forty days and 40 nights.
00:18:22 And right after the fast, look at the strategic pointed specific attack of the enemy. He just
00:18:28 finished fasting, turned these stones into bread. As soon as he finished fasting, and look at your
00:18:33 Savior right after the enemy said that and tempted him. He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone,
00:18:38 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Oh, I love that scene because everything
00:18:43 the enemy threw at him, come on, it was like he was playing pick a ball. He was just hitting them
00:18:47 right back, hitting them with the word of God. Every temptation that came against Jesus, he
00:18:51 defeated the temptation by quoting the word of God. Let me pause right there and tell somebody,
00:18:56 are you fighting with the right weapon? You could actually win more battles if you got the word of
00:19:01 God in you because the way you fight temptation, oh, it's not by willpower, it's by word power.
00:19:07 You better get some of this word in you and start eating the word of God so you have something to
00:19:13 fight back against the enemy when he comes your way. Every temptation Jesus thwarted and stopped
00:19:19 with the word of God and he finished it to the point the devil was like, "Oh, I got to go away."
00:19:23 But in the golden Gethsemane, this is a different fight because there is no devil.
00:19:30 This is God saying, "Go to the cross. It is my will to crush you for all of humanity."
00:19:39 You can't pray the cross away. And Jesus, although he had the emotions and the pain saying,
00:19:47 "I don't want to do this," he finally gets to the place that every believer will have to get to.
00:19:52 He says, "Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done." And the reason why everybody's quiet and
00:19:58 nobody wants to shout on that, because you think God's will is always for you to get a raise and
00:20:03 get a Tesla and to go tiptoeing through the tulips and Kool-Aid to come out of your water fountain.
00:20:08 But that's not what produces resilience in you. Often God will take you through suffering.
00:20:14 Can I ask you something? Does God always ask you to do the things you want to do?
00:20:19 You're saying no, but that's what a lot of us think. If God always asks you to do the things
00:20:25 you want to do, I want to suggest that you ain't following God, you're following you.
00:20:29 Because God will often ask you to give something up, to do the very thing that you don't want to
00:20:39 do. He will ask you to forgive the person that says something so sideways on your profile page,
00:20:44 and he'll say, "Bless them." He'll ask you to do something you don't want to do.
00:20:49 And this is where Abraham is. He's being asked to give up the thing that he loves the most.
00:20:55 Now, one thing I want to note, just to help some of you in here today, there is a cultural nuance
00:21:00 that we are not aware of in this text. Because understand that Abraham's culture, within that
00:21:05 culture, there were already different people groups that actually practiced sacrificing their
00:21:10 children. That's why God even condemns it in the Old Testament, that they practiced sacrificing.
00:21:16 Not only that, Abraham would have had a framework in that culture that the firstborn already belongs
00:21:22 to God. Now, I'm in no way, shape, or form trying to mitigate the severity of what God is asking
00:21:28 him to do, but you have to understand, this is a different culture where they already understood
00:21:32 that the firstborn belongs to God. It's his anyway. The firstborn child, the firstborn cattle,
00:21:38 everything first is his because God wants what is first, he wants what is best.
00:21:42 So it wasn't completely outrageous for this request to be made, you're dealing with a
00:21:46 different culture, but that does not negate the fact that Abraham has been asked to do something
00:21:52 different. And the question that Abraham had to be grappling with is, "God, why now? Why would
00:21:59 you ask me to give this up now? Why in the world would you let me go through 75 years with my wife
00:22:05 Sarah of not being able to have the thing that my heart wanted the most, to have a child? Why would
00:22:11 you let me experience the pain, the shame of years of watching everybody else have their child and
00:22:17 going to other people's baby showers and sitting there saying, 'I'll never have anybody to pass on
00:22:22 my legacy to.' Why would you let me go through 75 years of that shame and that pain and then all of
00:22:28 a sudden show up and get my heart excited with a promise that I will have a seed and then wait 25
00:22:34 more years for it to come to pass and then finally at 100 years old, when I finally get the baby
00:22:40 and he's grown and I have memories with him and now you're asking me to give it up? Why would you
00:22:48 ask me to do it now? You shouldn't have gave me the child in the first place. Why now?" And maybe
00:22:54 you're in a "why now" season, where God is asking us something and you're trying to figure out, "God,
00:23:00 why now?" And perhaps the answer that we need to understand is the writing, the text that Abraham
00:23:05 got in verse number one. Here's the "why." It's in verse number one. "Sometime later, God tested
00:23:14 Abraham." Why God? Because you're in a test. Abraham, welcome to your final exam. You are in a test.
00:23:24 Now let's be clear. God does not tempt us, but he does test us. James chapter 1 verses 13 and 15.
00:23:30 Can I just teach Bible just for a little bit? It says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, he's
00:23:34 being tempted by God. For God does not tempt anybody with evil, nor does he tempt anyone."
00:23:38 God does not tempt anybody with evil, but God will test you. He will test you. Because how many of you know,
00:23:45 a faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted? It's easy to say, "Oh, he's Jehovah-Jireh, my provider,"
00:23:52 when you got the bonus and you got the company car and everything's going well. Of course it's easy
00:23:57 to shout and praise God. The question is, can you say, "He's Jehovah-Jireh, my provider," when you got
00:24:01 an eviction notice? Can you say, "He's Jehovah-Jireh, my provider," when they say, "Hey, we're downsizing."
00:24:07 Can you say, "He's Jehovah-Jireh," and still praise when you're in the unemployment line?
00:24:11 Anybody can praise God if you got a clean bill of health, but can you still praise God with the same
00:24:17 passion when they find a lump in your breast and they don't know what it is? Can you still
00:24:22 praise them when the cancer is spread? That is the test. God does not tempt us with evil, but he sure
00:24:29 will test. And Abraham is going through a test, and I hear some of y'all, you're like, "Hey, PR, I don't
00:24:35 like tests. I got test anxiety, so God can go ahead and pass me with the test. I don't want a test."
00:24:41 And I want to take you back to school. You remember school when you had a test? Remember school when you
00:24:46 had a test? Oh, y'all didn't graduate? Remember? Y'all just there, some of y'all like, "Did you go to school?"
00:24:52 Remember the test? Here's what I love about school. You know what my favorite day in school was?
00:24:57 The first day. I love the first day of school because the first day of school, the assignment
00:25:01 is clear. It's the outfit. It's the outfit. That's what the first day of school is about, and the
00:25:06 syllabus, and the syllabus. But the first day of school is about your outfit, and I love the first
00:25:10 day because no teacher, I dare say, in the history of teaching has ever given a test on the first day.
00:25:16 You don't get a test on the first day of school. That's why I love the first day of school. You
00:25:22 know the reason a teacher does not give you a test on the first day? It's evil to give a test
00:25:27 on the first day. You are not a good teacher if you give me a test on the first day because you
00:25:32 cannot test me on what you have not imparted to me. Some of y'all gonna get it in a minute.
00:25:39 If I'm going to be tested, something has to be imparted. Now, if it's three weeks in or in the
00:25:46 middle of semester, you are well within your right to give me a test, and if I flunk, that's my bad.
00:25:50 I'm the one that was falling asleep during your lesson. I'm the one that didn't study, but you
00:25:54 can't give me a test on the first day because if I'm going to be tested, something first has to be
00:25:59 imparted. I'm trying to show you how to shout when God takes you through a test. God wouldn't let you
00:26:04 go through the test if he hadn't already imparted some type of strength on the inside of you for
00:26:09 the test. The reason you can handle the test is because God gave you the strength that you needed
00:26:16 for that test, and I want to prophesy over somebody who's going through a test right now,
00:26:20 you are not going to lose your mind. You are not going to commit suicide. You are not going to end
00:26:25 up in depression. The reason you still standing is because God already gave you everything you need
00:26:31 for the test that you in. Oh, I feel God right there. Somebody needs to take at least a 10-second
00:26:36 praise break and just thank God that he's already given me the strength for the test. I got the
00:26:42 shoulders for this burden. How you still standing? Because I got the strength for the test. How you
00:26:48 still lifting up your hands? I would have lost my mind. Yeah, you would have, but he already graced
00:26:52 me for this test. Baby, I've been graced for this test. You know why I can smile while you walk away?
00:27:02 Because I've already been through that test. I've watched other people walk away, and I thought it
00:27:06 was going to kill me, but when they walked away and I was still here, when I realized that my
00:27:10 purpose didn't have to be connected to them, I realized God already graduated me from that test
00:27:16 so I can take on the new one. Y'all recording this? I'm going to watch it later. It's blessing me.
00:27:22 I was graced for this test. Abraham was graced for this test. God wouldn't have gave him the
00:27:32 test if it wasn't graced for it. He got the first test in Genesis 12. That was his first test,
00:27:37 remember? He said to him, "Go to a land I will show you." The first test was leave your family.
00:27:43 That was his first test. Where do we get to the crib? Abraham was like, "Say less.
00:27:48 I don't like them anyway. I'm out." You know he was ready to go because God said, "Go to a place
00:27:53 I will show you." He's like, "You ain't going to tell me? I'm gone, wherever it is." He passed that
00:27:57 test to step out in faith to a land I will show you. That's all throughout Abraham's life. I will
00:28:05 show you. When you going to show me? I will. When? When I do. See, y'all don't like that right there
00:28:14 because you need your 15-year plan. You wonder why you're stuck in life. You wonder why God's
00:28:19 not speaking. Maybe God's not moving his lips because you ain't moving your life.
00:28:22 When you move your life, God will move his lips. When you start taking a step, God said, "Okay,
00:28:31 now you obey. Now I'll start speaking to you." But if you wait for him to lay it out crystal
00:28:35 clear, you're going to be stuck and waste years of your life. God will move his lips when you move
00:28:42 your life. What's the directive? Go. All right. Here we go. He passed the test of breaking up
00:28:51 from a toxic relationship with lot. You know those people that you feel bad for and you keep
00:28:56 connected to you and you know they ain't supposed to be connected to you and they a parasite and
00:29:00 they stealing the life from you because you got a savior complex. You just keep them around and
00:29:05 everybody around you, Stevie Wonder can see that they are draining you.
00:29:10 You're like, "No, you don't understand. I need to help them." He went through that test.
00:29:16 God said, "Separate from lot." Passed that test. Here comes the next test.
00:29:21 Can you trust me for the promise when it takes a long time to come to pass?
00:29:27 He failed that test. He felt it bad. He felt it so bad. Him and his wife, Sarah, felt it so bad.
00:29:35 They said, "Maybe ..." This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. Maybe we'll talk about this
00:29:40 craziness next week in the relationship series because I ain't never seen nothing crazy like
00:29:44 this. They were like, "Oh, maybe God meant the promise was going to come through you but not
00:29:50 through me, Sarah. So let me get this side chick, Hagar, and you go ahead and you sleep with her
00:30:00 and maybe that's how God will get the promise to come to pass." And that's what they did.
00:30:07 It sounds crazy but before you laugh, can you check yourself before you wreck yourself?
00:30:10 And think about the crazy things that you did trying to help the promise of God come to pass
00:30:16 in your life. Anytime you're trying to help hurry the promise of God, you produce an Ishmael.
00:30:24 That's what Ishmael was. Ishmael is Abraham and Sarah helping God bring the promise to pass.
00:30:31 If I had time, I'd talk about the Ishmaels, some of y'all dating an Ishmael
00:30:37 because you don't want to wait for the promise. So I'd rather stick with ... Okay.
00:30:48 Ishmael is so much easier when God is taking too long.
00:30:54 And Abraham and Sarah failed that test but thank God for his grace
00:31:00 because as they waited, they waited, they waited and at a hundred years old with dentures,
00:31:08 here they come with their baby boy. Do you know what it's like to get the thing you've
00:31:17 been believing God for? To pray and believe. I'm talking about to be struggling financially,
00:31:24 to pray and believe for the business and then the business pops off. Do you know what that feeling
00:31:28 is like? To be hoping for God to do something, to hope and hope year after year and to finally see
00:31:36 the fruition of something that you've wanted your entire life. It's a beautiful feeling.
00:31:43 And right after that feeling, God brings another test. Now the test is, do you love the promise
00:31:53 or the promise giver? Are you more in love with the blessing than you are with the blesser?
00:32:06 That's the test. The test is, can you give up the thing that your heart wanted the most
00:32:14 even after God gave it to you? Ladies and gentlemen, all of us would love to say,
00:32:19 of course I would give it up. He's my savior. He's worthy of it. Oh, but you don't know
00:32:27 what you would give up until he asked you for it. And there's many of us who are worshiping,
00:32:34 but all we're given is a song because we haven't learned to live with loose hands.
00:32:39 We're holding on to what we want so bad that God can't even ask us for it. This is why some people
00:32:47 don't ever come to faith in Jesus. There's some of you, you want to come to faith in Jesus, be like,
00:32:51 "But when am I going to have to give up?" God, I'll come to you, "Hey, but don't touch my money."
00:32:56 God, I'll come to you, but don't mess with my dreams. Don't mess with how I saw my life
00:33:02 plan and I don't mess with that. And whatever you say, God, I'll come to you, but don't mess with
00:33:07 this. Whatever that is, that is your God. That is what you worship. When it comes to worship,
00:33:14 the question is not if you are going to worship. The question is what you are going to worship.
00:33:19 All of us are worshipers and Abraham has come to the test where God says, "Can I have that?
00:33:28 I know you waited your whole life for this baby boy, but can I have it?" It's funny,
00:33:33 we sing these songs and the whole point of this message is that it's more than a song.
00:33:38 We sang it today, I think. Didn't we sing it today? You are worthy of it.
00:33:41 I just told you there's power in singing and that's what you're going to give me.
00:33:45 Let's try one more again. You are worthy of it. You are worthy of it.
00:33:56 For from you are all things. And... There it is right there. That's the hard part.
00:34:05 I didn't want to get to you deserve the glory yet. Because we sing, "You are worthy of it all."
00:34:11 And we love, "For from you are all things." Don't you love when God just gives you what you've been
00:34:18 believing for? This is the song every believer say, "Oh, from you are all things." Keep singing
00:34:23 it team. From you are all things. From you are all things. Oh, I finally got the bonus. From you
00:34:29 are all things. Oh, my dream came to pass. From you are all things. Oh, my video went viral. Oh,
00:34:33 from you are all things. I don't want to lie though. From you are all things. They finally
00:34:38 said yes to go on a date. From you are all things. That's what we want. It's that. That to you.
00:34:50 Because that to you says, "God, even if you gave it and I love it, if you ask for it back,
00:34:55 that's my worship to give it to you." Abraham is in the test of true worship. And I want you to see
00:35:05 how quickly he responds. I'm almost done. Look at it. In verse number three, look at what Abraham
00:35:10 does. God tells him, "Give me your son. Give me the one that you love." I love how specific. I've
00:35:18 had time. I love how specific. He said, "Give me your son, your one and only son." And then he
00:35:21 finally says, "Isaac." You know how God has to get specific with us? Because I'm convinced he had to
00:35:26 be specific because he's been like, "Oh, you want Ishmael? Oh, I'll give you Ishmael. Take him."
00:35:32 You know how you do. You want to give God the stuff that he don't want. "Now, take him. When
00:35:37 you want him, I'll FedEx Ishmael to you." God had to be specific. "Now, the one you love, Isaac."
00:35:45 He said, "Give me Isaac." But even after he asked for it, look at what happened. Please don't miss
00:35:49 this. Early the next morning, y'all. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.
00:35:58 Early the next morning. No wonder he in the hall of faith. God says, "Can I have it?" And
00:36:04 the next... Y'all, I'm going to keep it 100. I preach the gospel. I love them. But if he
00:36:10 asks me or something like that, I'm sleeping in the next day. Oh, I'm sleeping in until at least
00:36:14 six o'clock. And then I'm going to pray about it and say, "I don't know. I just got to really discern
00:36:18 whether..." Can y'all agree with me? I'm just trying to figure out if he really met Isaac,
00:36:22 because I don't know. It might be Ishmael. Early the next morning, look at not just the obedience,
00:36:31 the immediate obedience. See, there's something powerful about the immediate obedience,
00:36:38 because the late obedience is still disobedience. Abraham has got to a place with God where he
00:36:43 says, "Okay, early. I can't even sleep in." Early the next morning. See, some of you are waiting for
00:36:49 understanding before you get obedience, but God doesn't work like that. In the kingdom of God,
00:36:55 it's when you obey, then you get understanding. That's how the kingdom of God works. Some of
00:37:00 you are waiting for understanding, and you say, "God, when you make it clear, then I'll obey."
00:37:04 And that's why you've been stuck in the same space in life for years. God says, "No, you give me your
00:37:09 obedience, and as you obey, then I'll give you understanding." Oh, y'all got to help me. I feel
00:37:16 this thing. We had no understanding in planning this church. It made no sense. Y'all, I was
00:37:24 chilling. I was traveling. Do you know how beautiful it is to travel all over the world and preach
00:37:29 to a church and then leave? Literally be like, "Pastor, take care. I don't miss you." Just preach
00:37:36 fire down and be like, "You got to shepherd her." It made no sense to start. I shut down everything.
00:37:43 I was doing good. And God said, "I want you to plan a church and call it social." I was fighting.
00:37:50 I was like, "Are you sure? Thank God for a godly wife. We'll talk about that next week." He's like,
00:37:55 "This is the will of the Lord." I said, "I don't know. Let me keep praying." "You sure you don't
00:37:58 want Ishmael?" Some of you are waiting for the understanding to perceive the obedience,
00:38:07 but that's not how God works. Look at what he did. Put it back up there. It says, "The next
00:38:11 morning he got up." Oh, this is my favorite. Just a little nugget. It says, "When he had cut enough
00:38:16 wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God told him about." Some scholars suggest
00:38:22 that there was not enough wood in the region of Moriah where God called him to go. So Abraham,
00:38:27 it says, "I'm going to go ahead and cut up the wood now so that when I get to the place,
00:38:32 I don't have the excuse." So I don't get there and go, "Well, Lord, I tried. Ain't enough wood. I
00:38:38 guess we got to go back." Look at how deep his obedience is that he's cut up the wood
00:38:45 before the journey. And now he is with his son on a three-day journey to the place that God is
00:38:55 going to show up. Can you imagine the memories that are flooding his mind as he walks with his
00:39:04 son, thinking of the day he was born, thinking of times that he spent with him, knowing that as he's
00:39:11 walking, the death sentence has already started. I have children. I can't imagine the memories that
00:39:20 would be flooding my mind. I don't think I could do it. But look at Abraham walking for three days
00:39:28 in complete obedience. Abraham understands that the song that never ends is the song of obedience.
00:39:38 Anybody can sing during a 15-minute worship set,
00:39:44 but can you sing the song that will never end? And the song that will never end
00:39:49 is the song of obedience, living a lifestyle of saying, "Whatever you want me to do, Lord,
00:39:55 the answer is yes before you ask it." God says, "If you're just content with worshiping on Sunday
00:40:04 and not giving me your life, you're just singing karaoke. Keep your song." But the song that will
00:40:13 never end is the song of obedience. And right when you obey one time, guess what? You get another
00:40:20 lesson of obedience and then another chance to obey him. And you will spend all your life singing
00:40:26 the song that will never end, the true worship song of obedience. Oh, come here, Apostle Paul
00:40:33 in Romans chapter 12. That's why he says, "I urge you in view of God's mercy to present your bodies
00:40:40 as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual act of worship."
00:40:47 A living sacrifice. That means every single day. It's not a one-time thing. Otherwise,
00:40:54 he would have said a dead sacrifice, which I would prefer because that means just one time.
00:40:58 No, he says every day, surrendering your flesh, saying, "God, here I am."
00:41:06 I want you to see in verse number five what happens. He said to his servants,
00:41:12 once he got to the place, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there
00:41:19 and we will worship." What is worship? Obeying what he told you. No microphone,
00:41:33 no stage, no fog machine, but I'm still going to worship because my worship is the song that'll
00:41:41 never end. It's the song of obedience. But do you notice what he says in the second clause?
00:41:48 This is the one that made me start shouting at the crib. He says, "We will worship and then we
00:42:01 will come back to you." Excuse me? Abraham, maybe you don't understand the assignment.
00:42:09 God said, "Take your son and sacrifice him." He should have said, "We're going to go worship
00:42:19 and I'll be back." He should have pulled a Terminator. "I'll be back." What is he talking
00:42:28 about? "We will come back to you." Why has Abraham gotten to a place of we? That we shows me that
00:42:39 Abraham has been paying attention to the test. Abraham has been paying attention in class.
00:42:45 That we lets me know that Abraham knows the history of his God. Whenever you start hearing
00:42:51 we talk, that is faith talk because he did not have confidence that it was going to happen,
00:42:57 but faith is actually knowing it's going to happen and speaking it before it actually happens.
00:43:02 He said, "We will return. I don't know how we're going to return, but we are going to return."
00:43:09 See, Abraham started thinking about what God did when he wasn't able to produce a son,
00:43:15 and he reasoned in his mind that if God can raise a dead womb like Sarah and raise my dead body,
00:43:21 then maybe God can just raise a dead boy too. So, I'm going to be obedient and sing the song
00:43:27 that never ends, but please believe I'm trusting that this God who is the God who can do the
00:43:32 impossible, I'm trusting that he can resurrect this boy back to life. Why? Because I watched
00:43:38 him resurrect a dead womb, and if he did it before, he can do it again. I'm trying to tell you
00:43:44 why you can have confidence in your God. If he's opened up a door before, he can open up a door
00:43:50 again. If he's healed you before, he can heal you again. If he's provided for you before, he can
00:43:57 provide for you again. I need somebody that's got some history with God just to give them a "we"
00:44:03 praise. "We" means I believe. I believe that God is able to resurrect this boy even if I lay it down.
00:44:13 The Lord get it, and the Lord take it away, but blessed be the name of the Lord.
00:44:19 You want to be unshakable? Start living your life like that. Have some "we" talk. "We" says I have a
00:44:34 history with God, and I know if he did it before, he can do it again. Somebody's like, "Well, you're
00:44:40 just shouting, preacher. You got any scripture for that?" I sure do. Hebrews chapter 11, the writer
00:44:47 of Hebrews lets us know what Abraham was thinking. He says, "It was by faith that Abraham offered
00:44:52 Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God's promises, was
00:44:58 ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac, even though God had told him, 'Isaac is the son through whom
00:45:04 your descendants will be counted.'" Abraham reasoned. He reasoned. He thought about it,
00:45:11 that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. Oh, don't tell me that I'm crazy.
00:45:18 Don't tell me that walking with God is making me lose my mind. I reasoned. If he did it before…
00:45:28 Faith is not logical. It doesn't make sense, but it's also not illogical.
00:45:34 I got a history with God. Faith is theological. It's theological. In other words,
00:45:43 I see all the facts, but I also know who my God is and what he's able to do.
00:45:50 I see the scenario and the situation clearly. I don't got my head in the sand. I just know that
00:45:57 when God enters in the equation, walls fall down when you shout, red seas start to split.
00:46:05 All kinds of things can happen. He reasoned God was able. Watch this. He puts the wood
00:46:14 on Isaac. The Bible fills the need to tell us that on the third day,
00:46:23 Isaac carried the wood up the mountain and Abraham had the knife and the fire.
00:46:31 When they get to the place, Isaac, the only time he speaks in the passage, he looks up to his father
00:46:37 and says, "Father, I see the wood. I see the fire and the knife, but where is the lamb for the
00:46:48 sacrifice?" Think about this. If Isaac is aware enough to see that there is no lamb, but there is
00:46:59 wood and there's fire, I believe he could have got up off that altar when Abraham tied him down.
00:47:07 If this boy is old enough and aware enough to see, "Wait a minute, where's the lamb?" How many know
00:47:14 when Abraham was getting ready to do it, he could say, "Hold on, pops. You lost your mind, not me."
00:47:18 What in the world would make a son willingly carry the wood up a mountain?
00:47:29 What would make a son look up at the father and say, "If this is your will, then let it be done.
00:47:37 I'm not going to get up off the altar. I'll stay here on the cross." This is a picture of what our
00:47:44 Savior did. No wonder he stayed on that cross. He could have gotten off. He could have called a
00:47:49 legion of angels, but I want to thank God for the foreshadowing of our Savior, Jesus pictured in
00:47:55 Isaac, who willingly laid his life down for you and for me. Somebody ought to thank God that he
00:48:02 willingly laid it down. No man took his life. He said, "I lay it down. I'm not going to get up, Dad."
00:48:14 "Do whatever you have to do. If God told you to do it, I'm going to lay here and let you do it."
00:48:22 As Abraham got ready, the angel calls, "Abraham, Abraham, stop. Now I know
00:48:31 that you fear me. Not fear of being afraid, but that I'm the most important one in your life.
00:48:43 That you reverence me." Do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with
00:48:50 worship, deeply reverent. You haven't worshipped until you have obeyed. That's the song that'll
00:48:59 never end. When you give him the thing that your heart wants to hold onto so tightly,
00:49:04 you're saying, "God, I revere you. I reverence you. You are the most important one in my life.
00:49:12 You're worthy of it all." If that's what you desire, would you just lift up your hands
00:49:18 all over this place today? I want us to sing that song, "Worship Team." Come up. I want us to sing,
00:49:25 "You are worthy of it all." But I want you to sing it with a different mindset, because it's easy
00:49:32 to sing, "For from you are all things." But there's something that God is asking you to give to him.
00:49:42 And even before we pray, I want you in worship to give it to him.
00:49:48 Can we sing that, "You are worthy of it all?" Come on.
00:49:51 Father, all that we are is yours.
00:49:58 You are worthy of it all.
00:50:00 For from you are all things, and to you are all things, you deserve the glory.
00:50:16 Come on, declare it to him today. You are worthy.
00:50:20 You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all.
00:50:30 For from you are all things, and to you are all things, you deserve the glory.
00:50:46 Come on, turn up the volume of your worship and declare it.
00:50:56 You are worthy of it all.
00:51:02 For from you are all things, and to you are all things, you deserve the glory.
00:51:17 You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all.
00:51:26 For from you are all things, and to you are all things, you deserve the glory.
00:51:42 Come on, just the voices. Let's declare it. You are worthy of it all.
00:51:49 I'll make that real in our hearts.
00:51:51 Oh, thank you, Jesus.
00:52:03 For from you are all things, you deserve the glory.
00:52:12 Father, I pray today that we wouldn't just give you lip service,
00:52:18 but God truly from the depths of our heart
00:52:22 will sing the song that will never end, the song of obedience.
00:52:31 God, I pray for my brother, for my sister, that
00:52:33 there's something that you're calling them to give to you, and they know it,
00:52:41 but they're holding on to it so tightly.
00:52:46 Father, would you give them the strength and the grace of loose hands?
00:52:53 Not just lifted hands, but loose hands.
00:52:58 To say, like Job said, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but blessed be the name of the
00:53:08 Lord." Father, thank you that there is nothing that we let go of that is as priceless as you.
00:53:22 You are the prize. You are the reward. So much so that when we get to eternity, we will take
00:53:31 off our crowns and our achievements because we will be in awe of your glory and your presence,
00:53:37 and we will know that you are the goal.
00:53:40 So, God, I pray that over my brother and my sister. God, I pray that over me,
00:53:49 that whatever you ask, Father, before you ask it, the answer is yes. The answer is yes.
00:54:01 Heads are bowed. Eyes are closed in this moment. I just sense this is such a holy moment for
00:54:08 somebody. I feel in this moment the pain of somebody who's going, "God, I don't know. I
00:54:14 want it so bad," but I also feel the strength of the Holy Spirit coming to somebody and God saying,
00:54:22 "Lay it down. Lay it down. I'm better than any dream that you thought you had, than any career."
00:54:32 That's true worship, not just a song.
00:54:41 So, when heads bowed and eyes closed today, if you know God is speaking to you
00:54:44 and there's something he's saying, "Hey, I want that. Give it to me. Give it to me,"
00:54:53 just as a sign of your yes, hear me, that will have to be lived out once the emotions of the service
00:55:05 are over. Don't allow the three-day journey to make you rationalize whether you heard his voice or not.
00:55:12 Abraham knew, and he kept walking.
00:55:18 It will be worth it, but if you know God is speaking to you and there's something he's
00:55:25 saying, "Give it to me. Give it to me," would you just lift up your hand as a sign of saying, "God,
00:55:34 if you're asking me for it, I'll give it to you. I don't know what that is
00:55:37 for you. I do know that if he's asking you to give it up, it'll be worth it. Thank you, Jesus."
00:55:44 Hands going up all over this place today. Thank you, God.
00:55:48 Thank you, Lord. Thank you that you are a trusted God.
00:55:57 We can trust you. Thank you, God. You can put it right back down.
00:56:02 If you're here today and you've never taken that first step, which is to say, "Jesus, my life is
00:56:08 yours," so many people have a problem with this passage because they don't understand why a God
00:56:14 would ask Abraham to do that, even though God stopped it. But those same people who asked that
00:56:25 question never stopped to think that he did not stop it for his son, Jesus. The one who was truly
00:56:33 innocent, who knew no sin, was slain. The Father rejected him so that we could be accepted,
00:56:46 so that you could have an opportunity to respond to him. How can you deny a love like that?
00:56:54 And so, with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you've never surrendered your life to Jesus,
00:56:58 maybe you were walking with him and your heart's gotten cold and you turned away, but you're here
00:57:02 and feel the love of the Father in this moment saying, "Come back home. Come back home. Come
00:57:07 back home." Is that you? Would you lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I can
00:57:11 see it saying, "I need to give him my life today? Yes, yes, yes. I see those hands. I see those
00:57:16 hands. Thank you, Jesus." Hands are going up all over this place today. Thank you, God.
00:57:21 Here's what I want to do. There's something powerful about movement. I said it earlier.
00:57:26 When you obey and you move your life, I'm telling you, God will move his lips and start speaking to
00:57:30 you. So, this is not to embarrass you. There's something powerful about moving from where you
00:57:35 are. If you lifted up your hand that second time, or you should have, saying, "I need to give him
00:57:39 my life and surrender my life to him," I'm just going to ask you to be so bold and so brave.
00:57:44 When I count to three, just come right up here to the front. Come on. You know if God's speaking
00:57:48 to your heart. One, this is between you and God. Two, don't worry about what anybody else thinks.
00:57:53 We're going to be praising God. Come on. Three, would you come? I don't care if you're all the
00:57:57 way in the back and you've got to walk up to the front. If you just lifted up your hand, or you
00:58:01 should have, I want you to come. I want you to come. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
00:58:05 Come on. We say it all the time. You can always come home. You can always come home. Come on.
00:58:13 This is not a God that's upset with you. This is a God that loves you, that cares for you. He's
00:58:18 been waiting for this moment. He's been waiting for this moment. Come on. I promise it's worth
00:58:25 the walk. I promise it's worth the walk. I promise you it's worth the walk. Thank you, Jesus.
00:58:32 Thank you, God. Thank you, God, that we can come just as we are. I don't have to clean myself up
00:58:39 to come to you. Father, thank you I can come just as I am, broken, hurting, dirty. God,
00:58:47 I can come to you. Come on, y'all. Don't stop clapping unless people stop coming.
00:58:52 There are still some people coming today. This is why we're here. This is why we came.
00:58:56 I'm just standing as a spokesperson of a God who loves you so much.
00:59:03 Come on. Come on. Come on. Coming all the way from the back. I promise it's worth the walk.
00:59:12 I promise it's worth the walk. Come on. Thank you, Jesus. Come on. They're still coming.
00:59:21 They're still coming.
00:59:50 Anybody else? Anybody else? Yeah, come on. Come on.
01:00:07 Thank you, Jesus. Anybody else? Do you see what we've got?
01:00:19 Yeah, yeah. Come on. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord.
01:00:30 We're singing that song, "Do You See What We've Got?" in Unshakable Kingdom.
01:00:41 While y'all were walking up here, I just got this thought. Do you see what you've got?
01:00:47 You were made in the image of God. There is value on your life.
01:00:52 People don't rob people unless they believe they have something of value.
01:00:57 The reason the enemy attacks, the reason he comes after you is because of the value
01:01:06 that is on you, because of the call of God that is on your life. See the attack through the lens
01:01:12 of the value of what you carry. Do you see what you've got? Do you see what you've got?
01:01:20 You were bought with a price. He laid down his life just to give you the option.
01:01:29 And if it was just you, he would have done it just for you.
01:01:33 The fact that you've been through so much, that there's been so much attack,
01:01:39 some of you from the moment you were born, is because of the deposit and the value that is on
01:01:44 your life. Thank you, God. Can you just lift up your hands like this? We're all going to do it
01:01:52 as one big family. Don't you let none of these bougie church people fool you. They got issues,
01:01:58 too. All of us have been at this place and continue to live a life of obedience. This is a
01:02:05 lifestyle of long obedience in the same direction. I just want you to pray this prayer. I'm going to
01:02:11 give you the words, but the power comes when you say it from your heart. Would you say this?
01:02:17 Say, "Jesus, I need you. Lord, thank you for sacrificing your life for me. Jesus, I know
01:02:34 that you lived the life that I was supposed to live. You died the death that I was supposed to
01:02:42 die. You took my place. So, Lord, my response is to give you everything. I give you my heart.
01:02:56 I give you my mind. I give you my soul. Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God.
01:03:06 You died for me. You're coming back for me. Until that day, I'm going to sing the song
01:03:19 that never ends, the song of obedience. Before you ask, my answer is yes. In Jesus' name. Amen."
01:03:35 Amen. Amen. Amen.
01:03:37 Come on, if you meant what you prayed, could you give God praise today?
01:03:42 Come on, y'all can do better than that. Can we give Jesus a praise today?