What's up, real life family. We are so grateful for the opportunity to worship with you today. We're excited because we know that all it takes is one encounter with God to change your whole life. And we believe that day could be today. We would love it if you would share this experience. Click the share button or copy the link and send it to a friend. Also, be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can stay connected to your real life family. Well, it's abo
ut time to get started. Thanks again for joining us. What's up? What's up, man? I wanted to make sure for marketing, I put my real life water, you know, right here so everyone can see it. And so, hey, what's going on friends? It's so good to see you, man. If you love Jesus, can we make some noise? Man, man, man, I love, love, love being back home with friends and, and, uh, to all of our incredible, um, campuses all over central Florida, man, we love you. And, uh, and to those of you who are watc
hing online all around the world, what's up? Welcome, man. I love being here. Um, back here, um, always with you guys for a couple of reasons. One, the love in this place is just unequivocally real. But then, um, because I have a, a dear friend who leads us in worship, pastor Daniel, I love, uh, being reminded that I have a dad bod and, uh, and so he, he's really good with body shaming people, you know, you know, without even knowing it, you know, I'm convicted and angry and jealous all at the s
ame time. And, uh, and so thank you Pastor Daniel for reminding me that, um, I need to put the Snickers in the mountain dew down. God bless you. Uh, but friends today, I just really wanted to take a little time and just share from my heart and just, uh, speak life prayerfully to each and every last one of you. Today. As la as you know, last week, pastor Jay, he concluded the Bold and Babylon series. And, and, and that was such an incredible series. And so if you enjoyed that series, can we make
some noise for that man? What an incredible series. And next week we're gonna start a brand new series. So trust me, you do not want to miss next week. And so, um, I apologize that you thought we were gonna do something, uh, new this week. And, uh, and I, pastor Dave was gonna be here, so it's just me, ta-da. And so, um, but, but today I really just wanted to share a message that I simply just entitled. It's possible, it's possible, and, and to really challenge us all to understand that we serve
a God who specializes in making the impossible possible. And, and we serve a God who, who knows how to push us and, and to test us, and to stretch us so that we can become the best versions of ourselves. And so, so I wanna, I want us to understand that today is really about asking the question, uh, you know, what are we willing to sacrifice as we recognize and acknowledge our title? It's possible. Now, about a month ago, um, about mid-September, I had the privilege and honor with my Ss l u team
. We went over to, um, Egypt, and we had an opportunity to do one of the first ever, uh, Christian leadership conferences there in Egypt. And we were right smack in the middle of Cairo and Alexandria. And it was really, really cool because we got a chance, uh, to, to minister to about 800 Egyptian students. And it was broadcast to about four of the major, uh, conferences, or excuse me, four of the major broadcast, uh, TV stations that they had there, um, in Egypt. And so this is, um, you know, t
he room is full of Egyptian students that were really there. And it was really cool because also, there's one picture that we had that there was a gentleman by the name of Dr. Andrea Sky, right here, Dr. Andrea, with the, um, the gray shirt there. And Dr. Andrea is actually the head of the entire Protestant movement there in Egypt. Nothing happens in Egypt when it comes to outside Christian organizations or ministry coming into Egypt, minister into Egyptian students without, uh, his say. So. If
he says, no, it ain't happening. And, and actually fun fact, because I'm just an American and I don't know any better. And when we take pictures, we put our, our arm around people. And so I actually had my arm around Dr. Andrea and I wasn't supposed to touch him, and I didn't know that. And so I was about to get arrested, if you would've saw, there was a guy behind us in the picture there. When you saw me there, he was literally about to arrest me because I touched Dr. Andrea. Now he, yeah, so t
he guy right there, yeah. So this guy right here, he's smiling, he's not really happy. He's like, oh my God, the crazy American touched, uh, Dr. Andrea. So they were talking, I heard him talking, um, uh, there, I didn't understand what they were saying, but I just understood arrest, arrest and, uh, and so, um, so, uh, but, but just, it was an incredible, incredible time. And just a side note, obviously we want to continue to pray, um, for, uh, the people in Israel and all that's going on, uh, th
ere in Israel. But, but I'll tell you about that because while I was there in this, uh, conference, um, there were two groups of students that were in the room. There were one, what they call the Coptic Christians, which are Egyptian Christians that are in the room, and then there were Muslim students. And when you're born, um, there in Egypt, you don't really have a choice to discover your faith on your own. You're either born as a Coptic Christian, or you're born as, um, a Muslim. And so what
happens as you grow up and you have your own encounters with life and religion, it is easy to convert from Coptic Christian to Islam. That is acceptable. But if you try to convert from Islam to, to Coptic Christian, you can actually, uh, put your life in danger. And so it was, it was really heart wrenching, uh, to hear so many of these students that we got a chance to minister to who, who were, were living in fear because they are part of Muslim families, but, but they want to, uh, well, they, t
hey're, they've given their lives to Jesus, uh, in secrecy, actually. And, uh, and, and how do they navigate that? And, and so we had to help a lot of these students really kind walk through that because they realized that if they were to articulate the truth of their faith and what they believe that it would cost them something, it was a great sacrifice that they would make. And, and we, here, just as a side note, we enjoy our religious freedoms here in the United States, where, where there's c
ertain parts of the world where if you profess Jesus as Lord and Savior, it will cost you your life. And, and why do I bring that up? Because I'm, I'm, I'm bringing that up because it brought me, as I was thinking about that moment, it brought me to a very, um, important story in Genesis 22, uh, that really helps us understand what does it mean to sacrifice and what are we willing to sacrifice? Because these students had to be willing in order to, to be who God's called them to be and to really
live out their faith, they were going to have to make some sacrifices. And so, so we want to really kind of lean into this idea that it is possible, yes, to experience the beauty of God, the greatness of God, you know, and all the, the blessings of God, but it's going to cost us some things. And we gotta ask ourselves, are we willing to sacrifice some stuff? Now, why would a loving God ask us to sacrifice some stuff? Because he wants to know, do you love me more than you love your stuff? So ther
e's a man named Abraham who had to make some, some sacrifice and a very significant sacrifice in Genesis 22. And so let's read, we're gonna, we're gonna kind of start by reading verses one through five, and then we're going to end, um, by reading probably about 13 through 19. But let's start with one through five. The Bible tells us this, that after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, here am I. He answered, take your son. He said, and, and your only son, Isaac, whom you l
ove, and go to a, uh, the land of Mariah and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took, uh, with him, two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering, and he set out to go, uh, to the place God had told him about. On the third day, uh, Abraham looked up and he saw the place in the distance. And then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. The boy an
d I will go over there to worship. Then we'll come back to you in Genesis 22. Here. Uh, we know that the Bible opens up and says that God tested Abraham. That word tested, um, is a, um, uh, uh, a Hebrew word that really just simply means Nisa, Nisa. And that word, Nisa, uh, just means that, um, to prove quality of when he talks about being tested nisau is to prove quality of where we think of the word tested. It does not mean to entice to do wrong. And, and, and when we think about the neau that
was given to Abraham right here, uh, God is using this neau to prove the quality of, of Abraham's faith. And he, he used this event that we're, we just read about, uh, to really kind of solidify the character of Abraham as being the father of faith and understanding that if Abraham was willing to move through this Nissan, that that God will eventually blessed him. And it surely was a test that Abraham was about to embark upon. And so Abraham, as the Lord spoke to Abraham, he gets up, uh, this m
orning and this next morning, and he takes his son, whom the Bible says he loved. And this son Isaac, he waited for, he waited for for so many years to have this son, him and Sarah. They waited so long to finally have a son. And, and as soon as they have a son, and he's, he's blessed to have the son, now the Lord is asking him to take this son whom he loves to go and actually just kill him. And I, I, I wonder, I wonder as, as, as the night falls and Abraham is there sleeping in his bed with Sara
h, and he's contemplating, uh, this, this, this reality of this test that is before him, I'm sure there was a lot of yearning in his heart. Why would the Lord thy God, why would a loving God ask Abraham to sacrifice something that he loves so much? Why would Abraham, excuse me, why would God allow Abraham and Sarah to go through this long period of time of waiting to have a son finally to have one? And then now God is saying to sacrifice this child, and for many of us, we can relate to Abraham b
ecause there are some things that we have waited for for a long period of time. And it seems like as soon as we get it, God is saying, will you sacrifice that? And so here, Abraham, he lays awake at night and he's wondering about and reflecting on this test. And, and, and I wonder, the Bible doesn't say, obviously, we don't think that he, he, uh, disclosed this, this test to Sarah because we didn't see Sarah be a mama bear and jump up into Texas like, oh, not my baby, right? Because I'm thinking
to myself, I'm laying beside my wife and the Lord tells me to go kill my son. I don't think I'm going to tell my wife that. Now listen, that is not good, uh, marriage, you know, counsel, you should disclose everything to your spouse. But me telling my wife I'm about to go kill her baby, I don't think that will end well. And so we know that Abraham, he's sitting here and he's contemplating what should I do? And when we really study Abraham, we know that Abraham kind of went through a lot of diff
erent tests throughout Genesis. Some he passed and some he failed. The first test he passed, when, when, when, um, he was asked to leave his family and his country and go to a land in which the Lord was going to show him in Genesis chapter 11. But then the second test, he actually failed when the famine came, uh, to the land. And then Abraham, what he did was he took Sarah, uh, his wife to Egypt so they can escape. And before entering into the land, Abraham actually conjure gi. He conjures, uh,
up this lie, and he says that he's actually Sarah's brother and not her husband, so that he wouldn't be killed. He fails that test. But then there is another test, the third test, he actually passes when, when, when Abraham generously gives lot, um, the first choice to the pastor land in, in Genesis 13, he passed that test. He passed the test in Genesis 14 when he, he defeated several kings, but then he would again fail a test when, when he and and Sarah were impatient because they wanted a chil
d so much. And, and he would fail the test because he will allow Sarah to, to, or he would go with the idea that Sarah had when she told him to sleep with their handmaiden, uh, Hagar to have a son because they were impatient about waiting for God to move. And what I've learned about the life of Abraham and in all of our lives, guys, can we just tell you that the Lord has these tailor-made tests just for us to see if we are really about his business? See, it's one thing to call yourself a Christi
an, but it's another thing to walk through the test that is going to come our way as believers, because in this life, the book of James tells us that we will have trials, tribulations, and trouble in this life. We're going to have times of testing. But the question is, how are you going to handle the test? And so Abraham, here in this, this text in, in Genesis 22, Abraham provides a great portrait of what it looks like to trust God and to experience what is truly possible. Abraham shows us here
in this test what it means to trust God and experience God's sufficiency and his marvelous and be beautiful manner. And we know that we can learn so much here in, uh, this text. And so, so there's just three questions when we talk about it's possible, there's three questions when we think about this text. I just wanna to ask us all to consider as we look at this text here in Genesis 22 in Abraham's life. So the first question, let's just jump right into it. Question number one that we must ask o
urselves that we really wanna experience what is possible. We gotta ask ourselves these questions. Questions number one, simply this, are you willing to listen to God? Are you willing to listen to God? Because here, the Bible says, we open up on our text, it says, after, uh, these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, here am I. He answered. Then he says on that says, take your son, uh, your only son Isaac, whom you love, to a lamb of Mariah, and go sacrifice. And so, so here Abra
ham has a, it is a defining moment in the test. The first thing is when the Lord speaks to Abraham, Abraham acknowledge him, he says, here I am, Lord, I hear you speaking to me. And then, uh, the Lord God gives Abraham the, the, the test, basically the golden and sacrifice. Uh, Isaac and Abraham now has this defining moment in his life where he either goes back to sleep and say, Ooh, that was gas. I'm not listening to that. That wasn't the Lord. Or he's going to say, yo, this is crazy. I I have
to respond to God. And so the question my friends, is this, when the Lord speaks to you, are you willing to listen to him? Now, we wanna listen to God when he speaks life to us. We wanna listen to God when we, when he speaks blessings or promotion. But the truth of the matter is, we gotta also speak to God when he's saying to us that you gotta sacrifice some stuff. There are some things that you gotta let go. And if you wanna experience the possible, if you wanna experience the, the bountiful bl
essings of God, you gotta really be willing to listen to God in every aspect of your life. And before you move left, right, north, south, east or west, you need to say, God, what would you have for me to do? And wait for him to speak to you. And then you respond accordingly. 'cause we know that our ways are not his ways and our thoughts are not his thoughts. And so, so the question is, are you willing to listen to God? It's number one question. But then the second question I believe this test ca
n show us is, are you willing to trust God with what you love and care about the most on earth? Man, it's quiet. 'cause I'm hoping you're reflecting on this thing. Are you willing? Are you willing to trust God with what you you care about and love the most? What do we see here in verse three? Abraham, he got up early in the morning, he saddled his donkey and took with him two of his young men with his servants and his son Abraham. And now he's up here and he splits the wood on the birth offering
. And he goes to the place that the Lord told him. And on the third day, he sees the place up in the distance. And Abraham says to, as we read to those men, stay here and use the word worship, he says, me and the boy, we're going to go up. So I love, I love some translation of the Bible. He says, me and the boy, we're going to go up yonder to worship. And he knows, because like Abraham is the only person right now outside of the Lord, thy God knows what's about to happen. Isaac himself don't eve
n know what's going on. All he thinks he's doing is it's kind of like a Father Sunday where they're just going to sacrifice an animal on the altar. And here as Abraham is obeying God, I can imagine his heart is breaking in this moment. But Abraham has made this commitment to God. And I wonder if we're willing to make this same commitment to God, that God, even if it is some things that I love and that is near and dear to my heart, God, it's going to hurt me. It's gonna be hard, but I'm willing t
o obey your word and to sacrifice those things that I love. So are we willing, are we willing to sacrifice the things that we love most on Earth? And that's a hard thing. Now, we can say here in the body of Christ, yes, I am willing to sacrifice. That sounds really, really good. But when, when the rubber meets the road and it's time for you to really do it, that's a whole nother conversation. And if I'm being honest, guys, I don't know if I could, there are some things I, the lord's gonna have t
o really, really work with me on some stuff because there are some things that I absolutely unequivocally adore and love and, and man, I'm praying to God that he will not allow me or ask me to let it go. But if we really want to experience intimacy with God, that means that there can't be anything that is in between us and God. Because intimacy is the, the ultimate closeness. And if there's things that we, we value more than our relationship with God, we will never experience full intimacy with
him in Abraham in this moment. He's saying, I want to experience the fullness thereof. I know that I have, I've experienced some blessings with God, but I know that there's even more that the Lord would have for me in order for me to experience the more, in order for me to experience what is possible, I gotta be willing to trust God with what I love. Man, that's a hard, hard thing to think about. Like, will you trust God with what you love? So one, will we listen? Two, will we be obedient? Trust
God what we love? But then here's the third question. Are you willing to follow God and be obedient even when times are tough and circumstances don't make sense? Let's be honest, this doesn't make sense. Abraham and Sarah waited a lifetime to have a child. They finally have them. And now God says, kill 'em. Does it make sense? If you ever had those things, you know, when you think about, man, I finally arrive and now the Lord says, go and leave it behind. When before we moved down here before,
before I moved down here to Orlando, I served as executive pastor at a, at a church there in Atlanta. And the idea and what was written kind of in with our elders and what our church had really kind of settled on is that I would be the successor to my pastor there at my church. So everybody knew that I was on this trajectory to be the next pastor of my church. And I was, you know, reluctantly comfortable, you know, with it. I started off for so many years being a student pastor. And then I got d
emoted to an executive pastor. I hated it. 'cause I had to make the hard cause I had to my first, oh, I wish pastor my, oh, there you are, man. My first, my first fire was my Sunday school teacher growing up. I had to fire my Sunday school teacher. Man, it was fine. All she knew was little Jeffrey. And now I'm Pastor Jeff, executive pastor, and, sorry, you're the weakest link. Goodbye, right? And I hated it, but I finally settled into this place, okay, God, this is what you would have for me. An
d then I kind of got excited Pastor Mike, because, because I, I got a, when, when I got promoted to executive pastor, I got an office, we had a bathroom in it. And so, so I had my own bathroom. You don't have a bathroom, bro. We need to talk to somebody. Lemme talk to Pastor Jay. And so, so I had my own bathroom. I was like, yo, I have made it. I'm, I'm ready. And as soon as I get settled into what I thought was the, the rest of my life in this back end of ministry, the Lord says, haha, just kid
ding. I'm going uproot your family and send you down to Orlando to a place that you've never been to you don't know about. And you know no one, I'm going to make you leave your family, your children, the place that has birthed you and raised you in ministry so that you can go and do the ministry I've called you to do and be and, and be the person I've called you be. And it was hard, but oh, can I tell you, when you obey the Lord and release the things that you love most is that those moments whe
n you experience the beauty and the blessings of what is truly possible. And so we see right here, right now in this moment that, that Abraham, let's, let's fast forward to what's happening. So Abraham, he's, he's made this alt, he's made this altar. He, he bounds up Isaac. He has the knife in his hands. He's about to sacrifice, uh, his son. He has tears in his eyes, I'm sure. 'cause I know I would. And, and as soon as he's making his way down, there is little, somewhere in the bushes, there is,
there is this, this ram that's, that's caught in the thickest of the bush. And, and, and, and Abraham, I'm sure he's like, oh, thank God. 'cause I know Sarah was going to leave me if I come back without Isaac. And because of Abraham's obedience, God provided the best blessing possible and provision. See, when we obey the Lord thy God and are willing to follow him and be obedient to him, even when times are tough and the circumstances don't make sense, man, God will give you a blessing that you
can't even think or even imagine. And what I love about this story is it doesn't just stop right there. It's not just the fact that be oh, um, because of his obedience. The Lord provided a, a ram in the bush. But if we continue to read on in verse 15 through 19, guess what happens? The Bible says this. Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from having and said by myself, I'm sworn this is what the Lord's declaration for you is. He says, because you have done this thing, and
if not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you. But get this, keep reading babies. It's like this. Keep reading this. I love this. I'm getting this sign. I'm about to do a cart where he says, I will not only bless you, but I'm gonna make your offsprings as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. What? Because of your obedience, I'm not only just gonna bless you, but I'm gonna bless the people that are connected to you and then connected to you and connected to you
and connected to you. When we are obedient to God, it's not just that we receive the blessings exclusively by ourselves. Everybody that's connected to us are blessed because of our own obedience. You're talking about wanting to break generational curses over your life and your family, then obey God and watch God not just bless you, but he will also bless your family. He says, man, not only am I going to do that, but your offspring, if you keep on reading, your offspring will possess the city ga
tes of their enemies. And all the nations on earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command. What I don't know about y'all, but that gets, I listen, I'm all happy all by myself. The fact that the matter is when I obey God, not only is he gonna bless me, but he's gonna bless my wife, my kids, my grandkids, my great grandson, my great great grandson. All of my friends, the people that are connected to me are blessed because of my obedience, because of the obedience of o
ne man. An entire nation was blessed. And when we put that in context and think of our lives, we see that when we're willing to join the move of God and we're willing to sacrifice our Isaacs man, we receive and experience a redemptive love kind of story. It's a story that's really threefold. It's a, a redemptive love story begins with the holy and heavenly calling. When we experience a redemptive love story, it's a holy and heavenly calling that we have. The Bible says to us when we read, he say
s, man, the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time. Like, Hey, listen, because I called you the first time to tell you to sacrifice Isaac, I saw you obey God. Uh, you obeyed the Lord your God. So I'm gonna call you a second time and say, Hey, because of your obedience, I'm not just gonna bless you, but I'm gonna bless everybody that's connected to you. So when we obey God, there is this redemptive love story that we receive where we see that there is a heavenly, it's a heavenly and holy
calling that we begin to walk in. It is possible, my friends, for you to experience a heavenly and holy calling and blessing over your life. But the redemptive love stories, it doesn't just stop right there. When we obey God and experience what is possible, it's number two, it's a story that's characterized by obedience, but it leads to opportunity, leads to opportunity because of what Abraham did. It led to a blessing of his offspring in all of the nations to come. Man, when you obey God, it's
not just, again, it's not just about you, it's about the people that are connected to you. That's why you wanna make sure that one, you are living a life that is wholly acceptable and pleasing to God. But then two, you wanna make sure you're connected with people who are doing the same thing so we can all collectively experience the blessings of God. So we see that there is, there is not only this, this, this love, this, this redemptive love story where, where God will redeem our story by, by I
understand it begins with the heavenly and holy calling. But number two is categorized by obedience that leads to opportunity. But then number three, it's a story that focus on God's wants for God's world. What does God want for God's world? He wants, he desires that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. When we talk about, when we talk about being real, a real life for real people and experiencing change lives, what that means is that we're all joining the move of God. So we can experie
nce a corporate, a corporate move of God. So individually, we are joining the move of God so we can experience the corporate move of God. And you are a part of the real life story. You are a part of the real life movement in, in order for, for the movement to really maximize its efficiency, that means all of us have to be committed to this process of ob being obedient to God and letting the things in our lives that we hold near and dear to our hearts. We gotta be willing to let it go. So you see
church, the fact of the matter is if we want to experience the love of God, we gotta be willing to join the move of God. We can't just be participants here in what God is doing at real life, man, excuse me. We can't be spectators. Excuse me. We can't just be spectators on what God is doing here at real life, man. We gotta be participators. We gotta say, God, I want to join the move of God. I I want to get out of my seat. I wanna feel it with somebody who's lost. I wanna join a ministry. I want
to join the move of God. I wanna see, I wanna see the corporate body be blessed. But I recognize in order for that to happen, it starts with me. It starts with my willingness to sacrifice the Isaac in my life. And maybe you don't have an Isaac, you got some Isaacs plural, and there's some things that you gotta let go. You say, God, I know I, I know it's possible to, to experience more love. I know it's, it's possible to experience more blessing, but, but until I am willing to let go of my Isaac
and sacrifice my Isaac on the altar, I know God, I won't experience true intimacy with you. So the question for us all is, you know, what are you willing to sacrifice today? What are you willing to sacrifice? And and can I just say, practically speaking in our lives, there's four areas that, that we may need to consider starting with categorizing. How do we sacrifice when we think about cat sacrificing, this is there's four areas that we may need to sacrifice in our lives. The first area is simp
ly our, our, um, the idea of carnality. Maybe we need to, we need to sacrifice, um, our worldly thinking. We need to change our stinking thinking. And we got some worldliness. And the reason why you can't be blessed is because you can't get outta your own way. The reason why you can't be blessed is because you are a self-sabotage. Or the reason why you can't be blessed is 'cause you don't see yourself as a son or a daughter of the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. So maybe that's your Isaac.
You have the Isaac of Carnality where you just cannot get out of your own way. So the question is, man, hey, when you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see a king's kid? Or do you see what the world says? You are not, or you should be, or you rise above carnality. Maybe that's your Isaac. Maybe your Isaac is the Isaac of criticism. You, you, you struggle with people telling you about yourself and pride and arrogance. It gets in the way of you being humble. And if criticism
is your issue, man, can I just tell you, man, you gotta you gotta lay that at the altar right now. You gotta lay that at the feet of Jesus. Here's the thing, when the Lord puts wise counsel in your life, you always take it personally. Uh, you always take it seriously, but you never take it personally 'cause they're trying to help you become the best version of yourself. So lean into the criticism. There's a difference between hate people hating on you and gossiping about you and trying to tear y
ou down. People who are trying to lovingly build you up so you can be who God's called you to be. So maybe your Isaac is pride and arrogance and envy. So much so that you cannot handle the criticism. So would you rise above that? Or maybe number three, your Isaac against the crowd. There are people in your life who are liabilities in your life and they're pulling you down and you love them more than you love yourself. You love being pleased and accepted and loved by man. You care about being, um
, the one who pleases the, the audience of many instead of the audience of one. Will you lay that desire, that Isaac at the feet of the cross? Because the truth of the matter is the crowd, they fake funny and fickle, they change like the weather. But the only thing that is forever and ever and ever, the only thing that's sustainable and transferrable in life given is a deep, intimate relationship with the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. So, so your desire to be loved and accepted and liked
when that desire supersedes your desire to have a deep close intimacy with with God, man, that's an Isaac. And maybe you need to lay that, lay that down. Or maybe number four, finally, your, your Isaac is your circumstances. What are circumstances? Circumstance are things that get in the way of you experiencing what is possible. There's some things in your life, the pain of your past, the situation and challenges of your present man, you're like, God, I wanna have a deep, intimate relation with
you. I wanna follow you, I wanna obey you. But this thing that I'm dealing with right now is getting in the way of me having an intimate relationship with you. And my circumstances are they wreck my life. I'm in the middle of a divorce or I've been divorced and I don't think that there is life after that. I've been unemployed or laid off. I've had to file bankruptcy, I have financial problems. I've got some legal issues. I I have some substance abuse problems. I'm struggling right now with my fl
esh. And all of these circumstances have become a, a crutch and have kept me from getting close to you. What happens is those circumstances, those situations become idols. They become our Isaac. And I'm telling you friends, if you want to be who God's called you to be, if you want to have this deep, intimate relationship with God, you need to lay all your Isaacs down here at the altar, right here, right now, the Isaac of Cardinality. Lay it down, the Isaac of criticism, lay it down, the Isaac of
wanting to please the crowd. Lay it down and then your situation, circumstances, lay it at the feed of the altar. Why? Because we serve a God who specialize in making the impossible possible. Whatever you need, whatever you have, man, will you just lay it down at the feet of the altar. So I'm praying today as we, as every head is bowed and every eyes closed, and I want you to think about your own Isaac. And as you're praying over that, Isaac, maybe even after service, maybe you will, you will c
hop it up with one of our prayer partners. Maybe if you're watching online, man, if you just drop something in your chat that we can be praying for you about, but just begin to pray. And here's what I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna pray and but after that, it's one thing to, to pray in the the place that you're in. But my prayer is that if you need to get connected with somebody, you'll be bold and courageous to do just that. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for being so amazing to us. Thank you fo
r what you're doing in this place. And God, if we're honest, we all have an Isaac and we all have things that we hold near and dear to our heart. Things that we love or things that just things that we wanna hold onto more than just laying it down and getting connected to you. And so Father, I pray as we acknowledge today that we have some Isaac, that we don't just pray about it to you, but but God, that we'll also connect with others about it. God. 'cause we recognize that there are some Isaacs
that we can't deal with in a silo by ourselves. We need community. And so God, I pray that you will just give boldness and courage to those who are wrestling through their Isaac, that they will share it so that they can experience what is really possible in their lives. God, thank you for what you're doing here at real life. God, we thank you that it's real people who take real issues and they lay it all at the feet of the cross and point people to your son. Jesus, we love you and we honor you.
Thank you for what you're doing in this place and what you're doing with your people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining us today for Real Life Online. We hope this video encouraged you as part of our real life family. We want you to know that we are here for you. If you need prayer or would like to get connected to any of the resources we mentioned, you can find it all at real.life/connect. And if you'd like to stay up to date with what God is doing here at real life and a
lways know when we go live, subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also find links to our website and other real life resources available for you in the description area below. Thanks so much for spending part of your day with us. We want you to know that God loves you, we love you, and we'll see you next time.
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