The providence of God shall make us full of His goodness. Our old nature can no longer dominate us. He gave us the Lamb as it was given to Abraham and Isaac. (1 Timothy 6:17; Genesis 22:1-14; Hebrews 11:17-22; Romans 7:21-8:2)

Speaker(s): Justin Schaller, Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12419
6:30 PM on 12/04/2022

P. Steve Andrulonis –

Awesome. Great. That will be a great moment. Won’t that be a great moment when we’re
sitting at the lamb, at the table all together close to Jesus. Everyone of us close to Jesus. I have
it in my mind that since he’s everywhere present, that I have a seat as close as everyone else to
him. I know there’s millions of us. Probably billions of us, but we’ll all be right there with Jesus.
It will be amazing.

First I’d like to welcome anyone that is here for the very first time. If you are a guest with us
tonight, would you raise your hand? Anyone here for the very first time, just raise your hand.
We’d like to applaud you. Maybe you’ve never gotten an applause before. This is your chance.
Anyone? Very first time. Okay. Well, we do have a gift for you, too.

Anyway, thank you for being here and a couple of things coming up this week. Greater Grace
Christian Academy, we will let the elementary school lose on the stage with permission. Yes,
you should know that. That’s a joke for those that let their kids on the stage without
permission. We’re going to let the kids on the stage on Wednesday, 5:45. It will be an amazing
time, a musical. Come and be a part of that. That’s this Wednesday.

And then on Saturday, we’ll turn our parking lot into a stable. Manger. Live Nativity with real
animals. Face painting. And as P. Eugene said this morning, the animals will not be doing the
face painting! The animals will be there for your enjoyment and also there will be food for sale.
So that will be a part of Saturday. That’s Saturday beginning at 4:30 here on the campus.
Amazing.

So, this is the season, this is the season of caroling. How many have already been out caroling?
George. George and Linus. George, you had 24 people or something with you? Yep. Someone
got saved, too, right? Sort of. Okay. We know that only the Holy Spirit does the salvation.
Alright. That’s good. Stand if you’ve gone caroling already. If you’ve been out. Look at that. Stay
standing. Stay standing. We’re just going to take names for the choir! See, you did it. You did it.
You sang in front of people. You sang in front of people. There’s an awesome movie. Singing is
just like moving your voice around. You probably know the movie. I’m not going to name the
movie. I’m not sure that everyone agrees with it but I kind of enjoy it. But anyway, that’s
amazing.

What am I thinking about here before? Just thinking about singing and singing has this amazing
thing cause the first really, maybe the original, the original Christmas carol was given to a
woman who really needed it. We learn that in Luke 1. We know that Mary got a visit from
Gabriel and she was told something amazing was going to happen to her. That she was going to
give birth even though she had never known a man. And as a virgin, who knows? She may have
been 14, 15, something in that range maybe. A little simple girl from Nazareth.

A town of about 400. It’s amazing and Gabriel says to her you are going to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
Think about that. That’s amazing.
One of the songs they sang today, I need thee every hour, without thee life is vain and the word
“vain” in the Hebrew, is the word for smoke or vapor. And like it’s here and it’s gone. But we
heard this morning that Jesus will come in the clouds. Like smoke is our fire that goes up. It’s a
result of what we burn. But the cloud, it comes down. We know that Jesus would come down.
And Mary, the cloud of the Holy Spirit came upon her and she conceived.

Now it would be nice that the Scriptures would say, hey, it would be really awesome because
Gabriel never left Mary. She always had the angelic presence with her as she went through this
amazing ordeal. No. It says, “let it be unto me according to your word.” And that was the signal
to Gabriel to exit the situation. He was gone. It’s like well you just told me that, wow! This is
going to be interesting. I’m going to be untimely pregnant in a small village where a lot of
people talk and we know each other. Hmm. And Gabriel is not walking with me in this.
But she did get something. She got a song. And we know that song. My soul proclaims the
greatness of the Lord. My spirit exalts in God my Savior. For he has looked with mercy on my
lowliness and holy is his name. That was the thing that carried Mary. I think whenever she was
in trouble, I think she sang that song.

And that song came back to her whenever the sword was piercing her heart as she saw the
Savior go to the cross, her son. Son of the Most High and her son. Both of those are a reality.
The moment of conception, that was an eternal reality. Mary’s son. Mary’s son. Jesus took on
the humanity from Mary’s womb, and he was always the Son of the Most High. That’s amazing.
What did Mary have to carry her through the misunderstanding and maybe the gossip that was
told about her and Joseph?

And then all of the things that she witnessed that Jesus experienced. It was this song. It was this
song. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit exalts in God my Savior. For he has
looked with mercy on my lowliness and holy is his name. That’s the Christmas carol. That’s the
one that did a great work, that carried her all the way through the manger, all the way through
the cross.

And she’s in the upper room in Acts 2. And the cloud comes down again and the Holy Spirit is
on – that’s an amazing thing. Anyway, that’s enough of that. Let’s just pray for the offering now.
May the cloud come upon you and may your soul proclaim the greatness of the Lord as you give
all of your money! No, as you give. As you are led to give by the Holy Spirit who comes upon
you just now. (Prayer).
*****

P. Justin Schaller – Good evening. Thank you, Zoe. That was great. That was fantastic. The other
day, I was taking a catnap on the couch. Who loves catnaps? Come on! Can I hear it for the
people out there that love catnaps? We love catnaps. I always wake up and I’m like, I just need
more.

But I was having a dream. I don’t have dreams too often, but I was having a dream and in the
dream it was like I had this pressure on me and I felt so uncomfortable that it woke me up. And
then I realized both of my kids were sitting on top of me watching cartoons eating popcorn!
And they’re upset that I woke up and I was moving. They’re like, hey! Stop moving! You’re our
chair. Go back to sleep. You’re nice furniture. But I just thought it was so funny that I had this
vivid dream and in the dream I had this pressure crushing me. It’s my kids! So many metaphors
we could use with that. Just joking! Okay.

You know, before you were a believer, you didn’t have the weight of sin. It’s like the analog is a
dead man. If you put an elephant on a dead man, the dead man can’t feel the elephant. But if
you put an elephant on a living person, then they can feel that pressure. There was a point in
our life that the Holy Spirit convicted us of sin and we felt the weight of it. And that weight was
a crushing weight.

But that was the grace of God, was it not? Because if it wasn’t for the righteousness of God and
the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we would never really think that we had any weight on us
whatsoever. Or we could say the judgment of God. We became alive to God and we are alive to
God. And the weightiness of who God is, is alive to us for the first time. Isn’t that amazing? Not
only the weightiness of our own sin but what comes into our life is the beauty of who he is. We
are alive to it. So, let’s pray and we’ll just go to a few portions of the Scripture tonight. (Prayer).
If you want to turn to 1 Timothy 6. I’m just going to go to a few different places. I won’t speak too
long but just I want to make one point really tonight and just to edify us.

Is there any people out there that like C. S. Lewis? I mean of course, right? Maybe early on in your Christian walk you
get “Mere Christianity” and you read it. Have you ever read C. S. Lewis and you go, man, why
didn’t I think of that! But a great author, you know what a great author is? They are able to put
in words things that you feel but you don’t have the words to express. A great author has the
ability to take something that is very complicated and to put it into words that we can
understand. And the Bible does that as well. In your spirit, you have the Holy Spirit and the Holy
Spirit is saying amen to that! I didn’t know how to say that. I didn’t know actually how to put
that into that proper thought but when you hear it, doesn’t it ring true back to you? You go
that’s it. That’s it.

Paul does that in 1 Timothy 6:17. He’s writing to a young paster and giving Timothy some words of
encouragement about how to deal with the people in his church. Vs. 17. This is the part right  here. Don’t you love that? Don’t you love it. You know, sometimes when you get legalistic
people you’re like hey, you’re liking that a little too much!

I remember in my Christian walk early on I was kind of battling. I liked to golf and I’m battling
I’m I golfing too much? Am I setting my heart on it too much? And I remember my dad gave me
that verse. He said the Lord has given you all things to enjoy. I’m like woohoo! I’m playing 36
holes today! I love that our spiritual life is not confound to rules and regulations. But rather,
that God’s given us all things to enjoy.

Isn’t that beautiful? Beautiful meal. A trip. Nature. A walk in the park. Whatever it might be. But
here’s the thing: look at us on a Sunday night, 6025 Moravia Park Drive and we’re here. Why
are we here? Because we’ve found a reality that is not so much material but invisible. And
we’ve found that the one who has given us all these things to enjoy, we love the things he’s
given us to enjoy but we love the one who has given it to us. He’s the source of all goodness.
He’s the source of all pleasure.

We always say if you are going to take something away from someone, you better give them
something better. If you take sin away from someone, you better give them something better.
And hasn’t God given us something better. People say, what is it? Where is it? Did he give you a
big house? Fast car? A boat? What did he give you? Nothing really materially. I actually lost
maybe something but I’ve gained something that’s invisible that you can’t measure, that you
can’t put a value on. He’s given me a person.

Look in Genesis. We going to go from almost the end of the Bible to the beginning of the Bible.
Genesis 22 to a very familiar story, and then we’ll go to one other Scripture and then we’ll close it.
This story we know very well but I just want to bring out one point. In Genesis 22, God gave
Abraham the son of promise. He gave him his son to enjoy. Isn’t that a beautiful thing, too. That
when you have a child, he’s given you that child to enjoy that child. And Abraham enjoyed his
son, Isaac, so much.

Not only was it showing him how good God was and how faithful God was in the sense that he
gave him this son miraculously, supernaturally. But Abraham must have had just a beautiful
relationship with this boy. And he was precious to Abraham. And Abraham probably we could
imagine just as a father and a son in the sense of training him and speaking to him and traveling
with him and talking and telling Isaac about the miracle of what happened. In the sense that he
was even born from these two elderly people. When he looked at Isaac, he had so much
pleasure in him. God gave him that pleasure to enjoy that relationship.

We know how the story goes that Abraham is tested by God and this test is based upon
Abraham’s understanding of who Yahweh is. Sometimes we think we have so much knowledge
of who Yahweh is but Abraham’s had very little. You know much more about who God is than Abraham knew. He’s just being introduced to who this God is. It’s amazing that God brings him
to this place that he says you need to sacrifice your son. How did you do it, Abraham? I don’t
think if we surveyed everyone in this room that has a child that any of us would ever even
admit or even think that we could say yes, I would do this and pass this test. How did he pass
the test? And what was the test based in? I’ll just say this. The test was based in the goodness
of God.

We have this term in the Scriptures. It’s a theological term and it’s called providence.
Sovereignty is God knows the beginning from the end and he controls all things and he
orchestrates all things and he knows what’s going to happen in the end and he even tells us
what’s going to happen in the end. And there’s nothing that man can do or angels can do or the
spiritual realm can do to thwart the purposes of God. He is sovereign. He is King of all Kings,
King of the universe. So, we have that term sovereignty.

Providence, it is the grace that he gives to fulfill that purpose. So, the Hebrew word is actually
this word that’s this phrase to see. We have that idiom or we have that – what’s the word I’m
looking for – that use of speech in the sense that if something needs to be done, we say, we’ll
see to it. We’ll see that it will get done. In the Hebrew, that is what the word “providence” is or
to provide. I will see to it that it will be accomplished.

God has purposes in his plan and he is going to provide providentially. He will see to it that it
will come to fruition. Even your own volition and your own free will in the sense of I hope I
don’t fail God, won’t thwart or change his purpose. He will see to it that it gets done. The one
who began a good work in you, he will see it to completion. Because he’s sovereign. If he saved
you, he’s going to see to it that you will be ultimately saved. And we have that phrase, you will
be glorified.

So, Abraham, this is the test. He’s going to see if God is providential or is he going to provide. So
how does the story goes in vs. 2-3. I read in one commentary Abraham rose early because he
probably couldn’t sleep. Martin Luther said whenever he had to exert energy, he would go out
and try to find physical tasks to be able to do.

Have you ever felt anxious and you got out and do some yard work? He rises early and he’s
chopping wood. He’s chopping wood. He’s chopping wood. He’s thinking how can I do this?
How is this even possible that this God has called me out of this pagan nation and he’s
promised me all these things? How is he going to have me do this task of sacrificing my son?
But he’s obedient. He has the energy to be able to do it. it’s amazing. He’s chopping the wood.
And he’s probably – who knows what’s going through his mind. And he rose early. vs. 4-8. God
will see to it. God will provide. That’s the test. The test is, is God providential? Will he provide?
Vs. 8-9.

The whole scene, we could go into the scene and I know that we’ve heard this so many times
but to just think of the scene of the father and the son and no God anywhere. Where is he? Just
you two. The wind blowing as they are climbing up the mountain with the wood, the knife, the
fire and the boy. And Abraham being tested, is God sovereign? Does he have a plan? Is he
sadistic? Or is he going to provide? But Abraham knew something about Yahweh enough that
he made that statement to his son, God will provide. Vs. 10-14. We know that wherever
Abraham was, God provided for him the sacrifice.

The amazing thing is 2,000 years after this occurred on this same mountain, God provided his
beloved Son on Mt. Moriah which is in Jerusalem where the temple is and he sacrificed his
precious Son on that place where Abraham should have sacrificed his but God provided.
This is an amazing attribute of God. That all of us can rest in, in the fact that God will provide.
We say God’s going to provide a job. God’s going to provide the finances. God’s going to
provide the housing. God’s going to provide everything. This is probably the furthest extent of a
test that any of us would ever face in the sense that I have to give up my child but he will
provide a way out of it. Do you think Abraham was worried about finances after this? Do you
think he was worried about shelter after this? That he had a deeper understanding of who
Yahweh was and the fact that he would provide for him every step of the way.

In closing, let’s just look at Hebrews. 11. Don’t you like that, God will see to it? A relaxing thing and
we’re all learning this. I’m terrible at it but I’m learning. I’m growing. The amazing thing is that
he lays out his sovereignty and his providence so that we can rest in it. He doesn’t want us to be
frantic. He doesn’t want us to be afraid. He wants us to enjoy the fact that he does provide for
us. We all know like when we get something miraculous, we can’t pay the BGE bill but
something miraculous comes in and we pay it. We say God did it.

Those are the times that we remember. Not when I pay my BGE bill every single month. But
when God provides, that’s a spot in history that we set up a pillar and we go back there and we
worship there and we say, Lord, you provided. Hey, you provided then. Aren’t you going to
provide now? He goes, ahh, yes. Now, you’re getting it.

Look at Hebrews 11:17-22, you read through the chapter and this is the heroes of faith. It says at
the end of it they never received the promise but they did these great works. These great feats.
This is all I want to say tonight. Our ability to go through testing by God, our ability to go
through it is based on his goodness in the future. It goes on and talks about Moses. Moses had
all the pleasures of Egypt, everything at his disposal. Education, power, authority, women. Any
pleasure he wanted. But he considered the fleeting pleasures of sin not worthy to be compared
with the reward that was in front of him.

This is how our Christian walk is. It’s all based upon the goodness of God. How much of your
Christian walk is based upon Lord return unto me the joy of my salvation? Our Christian walk is
based on his goodness and us driving after the pleasures we can find in him. Those pleasures
are grace that he gives us. How do we overcome sin in our life? We overcome sin by his
goodness. How do I turn from my sin and go towards him? I don’t go towards him thinking I
have to do it through law. I have to do it through effort. I have to do it through will. I simply
turn and I’m drawn by his goodness.

I don’t know about you but you guys, anybody in here like cheesecake? If you are eating
cheesecake, ahh I got to take another bite! Ahh, I got to eat another piece of cheesecake. I’m
drawn to cheesecake! I’m drawn to it. Give me a little bit more of it. That’s how God draws us
to himself. And Abraham is saying, I want to see the goodness of God show up. He’s chopping
the wood. He’s saying this test is brutal. I don’t want to go through this anxiety again. I don’t
want to go through another night like that ever again but I am believing in the grace that I am
going to meet tomorrow morning when I go to the top of that mountain. And I’m going to see
another attribute and another aspect of who this God is.

And what a celebration that would have been when him and Isaac look over astonished and
they see a ram in the thicket. And they are going, the goodness of God! Can you even believe it!
He is so good to us. Can you even believe it. And they sacrifice that lamb and they’re thinking
how good you are, God. Do you ever think they would sit down years later and they would talk
about that episode? Probably all the time. How good he is.

And all these faith heroes, you look at them and they got so much faith. Do you know what
their faith was in? The goodness they were going to meet the next step. We’ve all experienced
it haven’t we when we walked by faith. God doesn’t – if we’re kind of like I don’t really feel, I
don’t know if God is that good. I don’t know if I can enjoy him that much. He goes, okay. Just sit
there with your arms crossed and you’re just going to get even more frustrated with yourself.
But by faith, if you take, step out by faith, you open up the word and you say by faith, Lord, I’m
drawn to my sin every easily but by faith I believe that you are better than my sin. Guess what
he’s going to pour out on you? His providence which is grace. And that grace is going to be
better than life. Therefore, my lips will praise you.

Let me just in closing. Are you guys with me? Let me just in closing one little lesson just on this
because I think this is so important. Our Christian life is based on his goodness and he is just
glorified when we enjoy him to the fullest and his grace. Look at this in Rom. 7 just in closing.
Vs. 21. Wouldn’t it be great when we don’t have a sin nature? Oooh, man! That’s going to be
great. Just one day, Lord. Just one day give me on this planet with no sin nature. That would be
amazing. That would be the greatest day of my life. No sin, no tug, no pull, no evil thought.

Just think there’s going to be a day when you won’t have even one evil thought. Not one
negative thought. Not one fearful thought. Not one angry thought in sin. That’s going to be
amazing, isn’t it? That’s going to be good. Come on! Let’s get happy tonight. That’s going to
happen and it’s soon. It’s coming but he’s allowed this flesh to have sin still dwell in it. You
know what that sin does? Pulls ya. Pulls ya. Tugs ya. Pulls ya. It’s my kids on top of me eating
popcorn. Heavy weight. Not that my kids are sin. I love them to death. I love my kids. But you
got that heavy weight that pulls you. Look at vs. 21-22.

You never had that before but when you are born of God, all of a sudden the weight of
goodness just rests in your spirit. And you say I don’t even know how to express it, but I know
you are good. And I want to serve you and love you the way I’m supposed to but the stinkin
flesh that is dwelling in me. Paul uses the phrase of the sarx nature. It’s a dead corpse that is on
us. Vs. 22-23. What’s members? My physical body. Making me captive. I’m enslaved to it.
Have you ever felt that way? If you are a jealous person, you’re enslaved to that jealousy. How
do I get out of it? If you are an angry person, you are enslaved to that anger. It takes over. The
motions of sin that dwell in the flesh can overtake.

Have you ever been in a service – Praise the Lord! You get in the car; you get in a fight with your wife or your husband. What happened? I was just in the presence of the Lord praising the Lord and then I get in the car and someone cut
me off. I’m confessing before you guys tonight. What happened? It’s the law of sin. I hate it.
Before you didn’t hate it. Now, you hate it.

But you look at what’s interesting. He calls it a law. It’s a law. What does a law do? A law
doesn’t judge based upon anything that’s blind, right? The judicial system is blind. It gives the
same sentencing to everybody. Its consistent. That’s what a law is. It’s consistent. My little
analogy is the law of sin is consistent. It has power in it. The law of gravity. Power in it. It
doesn’t change. Never will change. Can’t overcome it by the will of man. I can overcome the
law of gravity for one second. Pulls me right back down. I can take something and hold it there
and defy gravity for two minutes and then the bottle drops again. Law of sin is waging war on
me but it’s in my flesh. It’s in my body.

But there’s a new creation inside of me, 2 Corinthians 5:17. That is delighting in the goodness of God.
It’s delighting in the righteousness of God. It’s delighting in the grace of God. I want to trust him
more. But the outer man is pretty strong. And I try to do it. I do it on a Monday and a Tuesday
and I use my will to try to overcome that sin but I find every single time that I am finite in my
energy and the law of sin is infinite. It doesn’t change. Ever notice that? Gravity was here 100
years ago, 500 years ago. It’s going to be here in the future another 500.

Law of sin that reigns in my flesh is consistently pulling me towards that sin. I can say it like this:
it’s pulling me away from having faith in his goodness. Always it’s working against me to pull
me.

You know why God did that? Because he wants to glorify his grace even more. Peter, the devil
desires to sift you like wheat. And guess what? He is. He’s going to sift you. That’s going to
teach you a lesson. You know what the lesson is? The power is not coming from your will. It’s
not coming from your energy. He says the devil, he wants to sift you like wheat and he is and
you’re going to deny me three times but not will you turn but when you turn go and strengthen
the brethren. Tell them it’s not based on the will of man. It’s not based upon religion.

It’s not based on some moral code. It’s simply based on the new creation having an appetite for the
goodness of God. And saying, Lord where could we go to get these words of eternal life?
There’s nowhere on the planet that I could get this kind of goodness and it doesn’t matter
where you go. I’m going to be a little dog right behind you saying just give me a little bit more
of your goodness and your grace. And what does Paul say in Rom. 8 that overcomes the law of
sin? Look at what he says, vs. 1. You get pulled in. You get pulled in. You get pulled in. Hey,
guess what guys? No condemnation. If it was up to you always you guys would be in the dust
every second of the day. No condemnation.

But look at this, “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin
and death.” There’s only one thing that overcomes the infinite ultimate power of the law of sin
and it’s the law of the Spirit. That is it.

My little analogy. Pump up the helium balloon. Let it go. Gravity is saying, hey, come back here!
Come back here! Come back here! It’s gone. He’s created in us a nature that cannot be pulled
into sin. It can’t. it’s not so much that I have to try and do this war with the flesh, but it’s rather
that I turn to him and say your goodness. Fill me with your goodness. Paul says when you are
filled with the Spirit, you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You won’t even know that there is
any pull towards sin. Colossians 3, be filled, be saturated with the Word of God and that’s the same as
being filled with the Spirit.

What’s he saying to us? I’ve given you all things to enjoy and you know what all things are? Me.
Fill yourself with me and watch what happens. Don’t live by law. Don’t live by works. Don’t live
by will power. Don’t live by thinking that you have to try to achieve. Simply rest that he has
seen to it that you will have a full salvation in the future. Rest in his grace. If he did it that at the
point of salvation, is he not going to continue to do it all the way to the end? He’s going to see
to it. He’s providentially providing for us his goodness on a daily basis so we can rest in the fact
that if you are good to me today, you will be good to me tomorrow. I’m going to rest in that
faith and I’m going to see that my unbelief, my doubt, my skepticism of who he is goes out the
window and I’m floating in the heavenlies. Set your mind on things above like the helium
balloon up there.

Do you notice that when you are in the fellowship, when you are in the Body of Christ, you are
not thinking so much about yourself or your sin? But have you seen when you get separated from the Body of Christ and you take a long walk in the woods at Loch Raven trying to figure
out your problems, all of a sudden you come out and you’re all tangled up even more so? But
when you’re in the Body of Christ, there is freedom and you are just worshipping and you’re
praising and you’re receiving and you’re saying how could it be this good? It’s because it’s the
goodness of God that’s he’s given that to you. If he’s given it to you in the past, he’s going to
continue to give it to you in the future.

Our victory is already won. Our victory is in Christ. All we have to do is reckon ourselves dead
unto sin and alive unto God in the Spirit and we will continue to see his goodness and we’ll get
to taste it on a deeper level as we walk through this life until we get to heaven where we can
come to the full fruition of, that’s what I was tasting. That’s what I was experiencing. Thank you,
Jesus, for giving me that. (Prayer).

P. Schaller –

Okay. Alright. So, wow I enjoyed that a lot. I enjoyed that message. Wasn’t that
good? I enjoyed it really. It was so good. And I just shared, I go there’s one verse I never had
seen it before just recently. I want to, it’s one of those Bible that just touches your heart. I just
want to put it up on the screen. It’s Jeremiah 7:31. Okay. Do we have it? Jeremiah 7:31, just as we close.
Okay.

The context is the Jewish people were living amongst pagan -Jews and pagans – but they had
other gods and idols. And they offered up their children. Now notice this. Vs. 31. “which I
commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.” They sacrificed children unto the gods.
What did God say? They are doing this but that has never come into my heart to sacrifice your
children. So how do you explain that with God saying to Abraham offer up your son, right? How
do you explain it?

I think he explained it. I thought it was amazing. God had no intention of Abraham offering up
his son. Cause it says there in this verse it has never come into my heart to do that. Is that what
it means? God doesn’t have us offer up our children. It’s never come into my heart for you to
do that. So, when he asked Abraham to do it, it was a test. Can you do it? Yes, I can do it. And
he did. He was ready to do it, but as he was doing it, he believed in the goodness of God that
God would raise up his son from the dead if he was to go through with it. He actually believed
that God would give him his son back. Cause why would he give him his son by a miracle and
take him away? If he didn’t have the intention of giving him his son.

Isn’t that good? I’m not complementing the message in that way. I think it was all complete and
fulfilled and amazingly touching to me. It was such a good message. I enjoyed it. Thank you,
Lord, for that. We’ll have a rap in the café. And then this message, Dr. Stevens preached this
Genesis 22 message many years ago. And I left the room and I went for a walk and I just decided I
want to give God my life. I want to give God my life. Everything precious to me.

My family, my future, everything. I want to give him everything. I want to give him my life. And look at what
happens to us. We see the goodness of God. Wasn’t that good. Wow, God!
I like the part Abraham and Isaac having that as a reference for the rest of their lives. Dad, do
you remember when you tied me on the altar? Yeah, I remember. Were you ever going to
plunge that knife into me, dad? Huh, dad? It’s good. (Prayer).

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.