As we get started tonight, we have a couple of important items to discuss!
We are getting ready for our next Israel experience in May. Join us to walk where Jesus walked.
Right now, we have around 30 people going on this trip. It’s our largest group ever!
This trip will literally change the way you read your Bible. You’ll never see the Scripture the same again.
Registration deadline is now DECEMBER 5.
Our 2026 Hope Tree begins on Sunday. We’ve got more kids this year than last year, and they need your help.
Hope tree participation is just an easy three steps:
1. At the Hope Tree, select the kids you wish to provide for
2. Get the items on their list
3. Return gifts by December 6
Hope Tree deliveries will be made on December 12.
To kick off this message series, I have been talking about being “soul sick,” or weary and heavy laden. Have you felt that way? What are the things that have recently contributed to that feeling?
On Sunday, we talked about practicing gratitude. But, how do we typically self-medicate our soul hurt? What are the things we fall into? Do those things help, or do they hurt?
How does the social media scroll affect us?
Abraham’s Story
Do you know the story of Abraham and his son, Isaac? It starts like this:
Genesis 22:1–2 NLT
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Can you imagine that? Why in the world would God demand human sacrifice?
Genesis 22:3–7 NLT
The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
Did you ever wonder what Isaac was thinking while they were walking up the mountain?
Did you ever wonder what Abraham was thinking during that three-day journey? What can we possibly deduce by his actions?
Genesis 22:8 NLT
“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
How do you interpret Abraham’s response here?
Genesis 22:9–12 NLT
When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.
At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
Abraham had so much faith that “God will provide a sheep,” that he was obedient all the way up to the critical moment.
When things seem absolutely critical in my life, do I have that kind of faith?
Genesis 22:13–14 NLT
Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the LORD will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
The Scripture does not record any specific gratitude response from Abraham. The story just moves on. But how do you think this father of a young son must have felt after Isaac’s life was spared by God?
Do you think Abraham ever thanked God? Would you?
Psalm 103:2 NLT
May I never forget the good things he does for me.
On Sunday I talked about prayer as a complaint list, and how we often come to God with seemingly nothing but complaints. What if we used our prayer time tonight to just pray prayers of gratitude, remembering back to God the things He has done for us?
1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 NLT
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.