Climbing the Mountain

How many of you enjoy hearing Brother Schuller sing and play? I really enjoy. Let me hear you say amen. Amen. How many of you know and believe that Jesus is gonna come back? Like he said, Amen. He'll come back.

I love watching and hearing you sing. It's always interesting to me because he comes up here.

Typically, he sings songs that are older songs, and he's not a spring chicken, per se, but he always has the most, the nicest things up here. This nice piano that hooks into. Or piano, piano, guitar that hooks into the system. He's got an iPad up here. He's up with the times.

And so I appreciate what he sings, though. It's always a blessing. You can tell he means it when he sings it. Amen. Well, it's my distinct pleasure to introduce our speaker tonight.

And you all know Mr. Lepper as he's called into school.

But Brother Nick Leper serves at Northside Baptist Church, served here for three and a half years as the school administrator and worked with the Sunday school and many other programs in the church. God gave him great influence with many people here in our school, but also with many of you.

And he has been used to see many lives changed here in our church. And still to this day, many students will give him a phone call at times just to ask and say, hey, what should I do here?

Or God's working in my heart about this. And his influence has extended beyond his presence here.

And the Lord's still using him to reach and help people here while he's serving just an hour and a half south of here in Nolenville at Northside Baptist. So he's the administrator and principal, the head of school at that school, also serving in the church.

His wife serving along with him is the elementary principal, and so she keeps all of them in line. She spoke in our elementary chapel this morning. It was awesome. She even gave us a little science experiment up here. It was wonderful.

And her husband preached in our secondary chapel and the Lord really used it. It was a great encouragement to our students to be able to see him again and to see and hear from his wife again.

It's been a blessing having you all here tonight. We're glad that they're here. And so, Brother Lep, if you would come and please preach the word of God to us tonight.

Amen. Thank you so much, man. Appreciate it so much. It is good to be back with friends and people we love. It's a blessing to see you here this evening.

And we recognize most of the faces around the auditorium, but there are a few new ones, too, and we're encouraged by that. We've had a great day today and a good late night last night, fellowshipping with some folks that we love here.

And can I tell you, it's not easy to leave a great place. God led us away from here just a few years ago and we had wonderful times here and God's blessing where we are as well.

It's never easy to say goodbye to wonderful people. But can I tell you how encouraging it is to come back and see that God's at work and that things are growing and developing?

So many things going on on this property tonight in master clubs and in the youth group and of course here as well in the auditorium and HBBI and just active ministry. We're encouraged by it. God's work is very big, isn't it? And we're thankful to have any part in it, and I know you are as well.

It's a privilege to be back with you tonight and I do want to say how kind everyone here has been to us. Sometimes it's a little awkward to go back to the place you left, but it hasn't been. We felt very welcomed today and last night.

We're so grateful for it. Take your Bibles, if you would, please. Turn to the book of Genesis, chapter number 22. Genesis, chapter number 22.

We're going to talk tonight and study God's word a little bit tonight about climbing mountains. In fact, the title of the sermon is Climbing the Mountain. This may shock you, but climbing mountains may not be the easiest thing for me physically.

Is that shocking to you? How many of you would find climbing mountains a little challenging at this stage in your life? Yeah, several of us. Climbing the mountain.

And of course Brother Crawford and I, I always loved traveling with him. He was as free as a bird when he traveled. And I was meticulous to a schedule when I traveled. And the two didn't always mix right.

It was a little unique sometimes.

We were down in Estes park, one of the most beautiful places in the country, and in this giant field filled with animals all around us and just beautiful place. And we decided we were going to take what I thought was going to be a very brief hike up in Estes Park.

We're going to climb up the mountain a little bit. And I said to Brother Crawford. Now, this was at a stage, brother Crawford and Mrs. Crawford were exercising.

I mean, day in and day out, best shape of their adult lives, I would imagine. And brother Crawford, of course, had something to prove at this stage, you know. So he said, hey, how far can we go on this hike?

I said, well, we don't have time for much. We've got an appointment tonight, don't forget. You know, I'm trying to keep him on, on track, you know.

And I said, plus, we know already as we drove into this park, we know the sign said that there's snow and ice after a certain level and it's dangerous. And I'm responsible for these young people, right as we did. They would lead at the front of the hike. We'd be in the back.

And it really was for safety of the students and also so I could be at the back because I could take my time. And we had agreed we'd go maybe a mile up the hike and then turn around and come back.

As soon as we hit the snow line, we were going to turn around and make our way back. And can I tell you, four and a half miles later, we had been struggling up this I icy trek. Ms.

Tanya's tiny little bird feet were just skimpering on the top of the snow, no problem. And my giant size 14s with plenty of gravitational pull above them.

We were on this little ridge where we had a little bit of hard surface we could keep our foot on. But if we stepped, no kidding, it couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 inches wide if we stepped anywhere here, I kid you not, was hip deep in snow.

And the whole time, every step, my wife heard me say, what is he doing up there? What is he doing up there? Every step, you know, it's an amazing thing, by the way, everything was perfectly fine. Everyone was totally safe.

I survived without having a heart attack before I got down to the bottom. It was a great. It was a fun thing. Can I tell you that hiking or climbing a mountain does have a purpose? There's some work involved in it.

There's some labor that's necessary, but there's a great reward when you get to the end of it.

That hike, even though we hiked through the snow and ice and all these things, we got to this clearing with this beautiful lake that was absolutely breathtaking. It was worth the work, but there was a lot of work to it. But it was worthwhile.

Climbing back down is always a little easier, but not on this particular hike. We had Ms. Riley Jordan, who used to teach here. And my wife and I were kind of together in a little package.

And every step that she took, she would slide and fall. And I'm talking for probably an hour. Every step, Every step. Just slick surfaces. But the hike was worth it. It's a lasting memory.

I mean, a lasting memory and a good one, a fond one. We took a few different senior trips here in the academy, and one was there, and one was in Glacier National Park. We hiked up the mountains there.

We went to East Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains. We hiked up there. All of those hikes were a little bit of work, but they had purpose.

There was something that the people who went through that journey got to see that no one else got to see. It was worthwhile because there was value to it.

Tonight in Genesis, chapter 22, we're going to look at two mountain climbers, two men who had to make a journey. And it was a difficult journey. In fact, I would say it was almost the most difficult journey up a mountain that anyone ever made.

It was almost the most challenging journey that anyone had to make, both physically and spiritually. And I say almost because the most difficult journey had to be the journey that Christ himself took up, the Mount Calvary.

He bore the sin of the whole world on that journey. But here in Genesis 22, we see two men, Abraham and Isaac, that had to make a very difficult journey.

At the top of that journey, they were going to discover something that no one else had ever seen and no one else ever would see again. But they had to labor through the journey to even get to the point where they could see that special thing that God had for them.

Can we look in Genesis, chapter 22? Look at verse number one with me. And we'll begin here. The Bible says, and it came to pass after these things that God did, temptation Abraham.

And he said unto him, abraham. And he said, behold, here I am.

And he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. We'll continue reading in just a moment, but we're going to look at this challenging journey up a mountain that Abraham and Isaac took.

And we're going to start with number one, the testing of Abraham. The testing of Abraham. In verse one, it says that God did tempt Abraham. That word tempt literally means to test or to prove.

God was giving Abraham a challenge to test his love for God himself. To test, to see If God really was trusted in Abraham's heart and mind, God gave him this testing.

When students take a test at school, it's supposed to measure their learning. There's no such thing as a perfect test. There are always errors on any test that's given.

But the idea of a test is learning has taken place and let's measure to see if that learning is exactly what it's intended to be. Abraham had been learning all through his life up until this point. And can I tell you, that is what the Christian life is.

God is giving us teaching and learning all throughout our lives and he's allowing us to grow as the Bible says about Christ himself in the nurtured admonition of the Lord, so that we can be ready for whatever that next test is that God has for us.

The series of the Christian life in every moment of every day is that God prepares us for the next step and then he takes that and prepares us for the next one and the next one and the next one. But if we had experienced this late test early in life, not ready for it, the learning has not yet taken place.

It'd be like taking a five year old to the senior class and giving them a very challenging test in whatever subject you'd like to say is challenging. It's different for all of us. They're not ready for doesn't mean they're not capable of it someday, but they've not been prepared for it yet.

Abraham, all throughout his life had been asked by God to do some pretty challenging things. Abraham was told to leave his family and everything familiar to him.

God made clear to him, if you're going to experience my full blessing on your life, you have to leave everything that's familiar so that I can work. And God allowed some learning to take place in Abraham's life. Through that he experienced the death of his father.

He experienced the sin of his own life in doubting the Lord when God promised to make of him a great nation. Abraham bore that burden as part of his learning process. He had experienced famine and blessing and everything in between in his walk with the Lord.

God never stopped working in Abraham's life. And by the way, he'll never stop working in your life if you'll let him. He'll never stop working in my life if I'll let him.

God is at work at all times in the lives of every Christian, every one of his children. But sometimes we don't see it because we're not paying attention.

Sometimes we're so unaware of his working, our eyes are on ourselves or on other things we're doing, and we just miss what he's trying to do. And can I tell you that if we miss what he's trying to do, we're not making that journey up that mountain.

And we'll never get that prize that he has for us. We'll never get that special thing that he has laid aside just for you and just for me. Abraham had been learning all throughout his life.

And with each one of these trials and each one of these tests and each one of these learning and growing experiences, Abraham is scaling new heights all along the way.

And all of that brings him to this point in Genesis, chapter 22, where God tells him to do something that is unfathomable to any of us and no doubt unfathomable to Abraham himself. God says to Abraham to take his son Isaac and to offer his human being son as a burnt offering, as a sacrifice.

If we heard that people were doing that in our day, and there are people all around the world that still do participate in that kind of behavior with their own children, we'd be disgusted by it. We'd be so grossed out by the thought of it, so bothered by it.

And God himself, our perfect, holy God, told one of his choice people to do that to his own son. Can I pause here for a moment and tell you? There are times that God will ask you to do things that make no sense, none at all.

He'll ask you to go through things that are unfathomable to every one of us, things that'll break your heart, things that will rock your world, things that you will look at and think, God, how? How could I ever do this thing you're asking me to do? But can I tell you?

If you're not willing to dwell with the Lord and climb that mountain he's put in front of you, you will never get that blessing he has for you at the top. God allows us to do things that seem impossible. This word Moriah means. Means foreseen of Jehovah. What a beautiful name.

Mariah means foreseen of Jehovah. What does that tell us?

It tells us that while Abraham and Isaac did not fully understand what was going to be at the top of that mountain, God was not taken by surprise. God knew exactly what he had already laid out to occur at the very top of Mount Moriah.

He knew exactly what he had planned for Abraham's life and for Isaac's life. But they did not know. God always knows what he's doing in our lives and often we don't know what he's doing. But it's not ours to know.

It's ours to trust. It's ours to trust God for who he is and because of what he promises us in his word, Abraham was tested. Secondly, we see the trust of Abraham.

Not only did he have a test, he had a trust. And it was a special trust. Look at verse number three.

The Bible says, and Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and clave the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw that place afar off.

And Abraham said unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.

And he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood.

But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.

So they went, both of them together, and they came to the place which God had told them of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Can you imagine as Abraham's hiking up this mountain and he's got Isaac there with him, the heaviness of his heart.

Can you imagine the dread that's in his mind already about what's going to occur at the top? You ever been with someone and you know something about them that they don't know?

You know something's coming in their lives and you're aware of it, but they're not. Yet you ever know that pain is coming their way and you wish you could help them or cushion them or prevent something.

Abraham knew exactly what was about to happen, or at least he believed he did because God had commanded him to go up and sacrifice Isaac. No doubt there was a physical element to this challenge climbing up the mountain.

But emotionally and spiritually it was much heavier than the physical burden. He was supposed to kill his son, to kill him. Remember, God made a covenant to Abraham a long time ago that he would make of Abraham, a great nation.

That wasn't all of the covenant. He said, I'm going to bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee.

And through you, Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. But all of that covenant, that promise from God himself began with, I'm going to make of you a great nation.

Imagine the thrill that would be to a father to know that he would be the patriarch of this giant family that's going to serve God. And now God tells him that his only son needs to be sacrificed. His only son, who has not yet had any children himself.

Abraham's only opportunity to fulfill that covenant that God has made to him is gone, or would be gone soon. What must be going through Abraham's mind as he's experiencing this? I find it interesting that Isaac doesn't go kicking and screaming.

He does ask the question, Dad, I see the wood and I see some other things we need, but it feels like there's one pretty important piece of this sacrifice missing. Where's the sacrifice? Isaac was not a small child, by the way. I think so often we see depictions and pictures that are a little confusing here.

Most theologians believe Isaac was between 20 and 30 years old at this time. Abraham's no spring chicken, nor is his son a baby anymore.

Abraham has to be thinking, we've been developing him and investing in him for this long and now he's going to be gone. And we can't even perpetuate this promise God's given us to make. By the way, Isaac had to be surrendered, just like Abraham had to be surrendered.

I don't know if you've ever tried to pick up a 20 to 30 year old man and throw him on an altar, but it's not the easiest thing, I imagine. Isaac had to submit his will to the will of his earthly father, and Abraham had to submit his own will to the will of the heavenly father.

Can I pause there for a moment and say, dads, God has given us a role to be a picture of God on earth. The name that God chooses for himself when he describes himself is Father. And I as a dad, I'm supposed to be a picture of that heavenly father.

That's a convicting thought, isn't it? Every word that I say should be pointing them to Christ. Everything that I do should be pointing them to Christ.

Every reaction to their foolishness sometimes, because foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, should be pointing them to a heavenly father, who, by the way is immutable, doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today and forever.

What kind of emotional roller coaster as a dad can I be sometimes if I'm not careful that's not pointing them to the heavenly father. Abraham had to have faith in God, and Isaac had to have faith in his own father. And so he asks, well, where's the sacrifice?

And Abraham said, God will provide one. Now, Abraham, in his mind, had to believe God had already provided one and he's carrying the wood. But he pointed Isaac in that moment to God himself.

He's really saying, isaac, I don't know exactly what God's about to do, but I trust him. You ever had to look your kids in the eyes and say, I don't know what God's doing right now, but I trust him?

Or maybe in the eyes of your spouse and say, honey, I don't know what God's trying to do in our home or trying to do in our life, but I trust him. I choose to trust him. We have a heavenly father that can be trusted. Abraham is a picture here of our own Christian life.

We can do the will of the Father and we can trust him to carry out the things that we don't understand and to do them in such a way and carry them out in such a way that it's for our good and for his own glory. I've pictured so many times Abraham preparing this altar, knowing full well that Isaac himself is about to crawl up on that altar.

He had to be trusting that God was going to do something.

In fact, in the book of Hebrews, the Bible tells us that Abraham believed he probably would kill Isaac, but that God could bring him back from the dead by faith. Abraham trusted God. I've thought so many times, what must Abraham have been thinking every time he put a piece of wood on that altar?

Every step of that process. Lord, we're almost here. We've made this journey. I've trusted you so far. Have you forgotten about me? I need you right now.

I'm about to kill my own son. Abraham has taken the knife in his hand and raised it up. And he has to be wondering where God is.

Has God ever brought you to a point where you're just wondering where he is, if he's forgotten about you? Lord, you've given me something impossible to do. Why would you ask me to do this? Don't you love me? But he does love us.

He's allowing us to go through this journey, to get to this destination, to experience something so special from him. And Abraham did exactly that. Abraham trusted God even through this point where he was ready to slay his son and trusted God to take care of it.

The testing of Abraham, the trust of Abraham, and now the truth of God. Number three. The truth of God. Look at verse number 11. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, abraham, Abraham.

And he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him.

For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

We see here two things from God. We see his protection of Isaac and His protection of Abraham, emotionally and spiritually.

But even more than we see his protection, we see his provision. God provided the exact thing that Abraham and Isaac needed in the exact moment, in the exact location that they needed it.

God loves you more than anyone else on earth will ever love you or ever could love you.

And can I tell you, as you're dwelling in the presence of God and you're dwelling in his will, and you're living day in and day out, spending time with him and building your relationship with him and allowing him to remove things from your life that he does not want there, and add things to your life that he does want there. God is building you into what he created you to be.

And every step of the way, God is providing for you new challenges and new heights and new scales that you never could have reached in your Christian life if you're letting Him. And can I say, if I'm letting Him. But there is an alternative. There's an alternative to hiking up this challenge. We can just stay put.

We can never have the gifts that God has for us at the top of the mountain. We can just stay comfortable.

We can avoid all the risks and avoid all of the challenges that we think we can avoid and just hang out down in the bottom, down in the valley, never achieve what God has for us. But if we choose that, we're missing out on all the good that God has for us.

And by the way, even dwelling in the valley doesn't mean that bad times aren't going to come and challenges aren't going to be Facing us. But it does mean we're going to go through those things all alone, without God Himself guiding us through.

See, as Abraham and Isaac were climbing this mountain, the two of them were together. But they, as two, were not alone. God was with them. God was guiding them every step of the way.

He was helping them, he was providing for them, and they never even knew it. He was preparing Abraham, he was preparing Isaac. He was preparing the ram.

As Abraham and Isaac got to the top of that mountain, they achieved way more than we got to see. In those beautiful views at the top of that mountain, there was a prize far better for them. Was it the ram? No. It was a small thing to God.

He could provide that, no problem. Was it the fact that Isaac would learn to be submissive? No. Isaac did that joyfully. Was it some beautiful view there where they were? No.

God had the greatest gift for them at the top of that mountain. It was himself, God in His fullness. And they could have never experienced him in his fullness had they not been obedient every step of the way.

Can I tell you, I don't know everyone in the room, and I don't know what God's doing in your heart, but I think I can say with confidence that you're going through one of these great challenges. Now, how could I know that? Because I am. And I can't remember a time where I wasn't.

Every part of the Christian life is going through new challenges and new difficulties and seeking the Lord and asking, lord, what are you doing here? What are you trying to teach me? And can I tell you, at the top of every one of those climbs, we experience the same thing Abraham and Isaac did.

If we're following the Lord, we experience his gift. And his gift to us is not a beautiful view at the top of a hike. It's Himself. It's more of Him.

And there's no greater gift that any of us could ever experience than more of Him. It's getting to live with him and live our lives and do the things God's called us to and allow him to change us from the inside out.

And we know the end result once we've been there is that he's preparing us for something even more difficult, even more challenging. He is going to require more faith from us every time. But as that extra faith is required, we get even more of him.

The Christian life is a pursuit of God, not of doing something for God, not of serving him in some way. It's Him. He's it. He's the best thing we could have at the top of that mountain.

Can I tell you, God is going to ask of us what he's asked of so many people in Scripture. Time and time again, we see God challenging these Bible characters in Scripture. Which, by the way, we're not just Bible characters.

They're real people, just like you are, just like I am. They lived real lives on this earth, just like we do. God told Adam and Eve to trust him. Don't eat of the fruit. Trust me. I'm protecting you.

But they chose their own way, and the end of it was destruction. God told Noah to build a boat, and thankfully, Noah obeyed. And what did God do?

He protected him and his house while everything around him was getting destroyed. Noah's family was just fine. God cared for them because of their obedience. God told Jonah to trust him and to go to Nineveh to reach souls for him.

And at first he didn't do it. So what came? A whale to swallow him up? That's no good. Life. But it was due to a choice that he made to reject the truth that God gave him to do.

Esther was told by God to trust him and that he would use her to save his people from a wicked king. Esther trusted God so much that she said, and if I perish, I perish whatever God wants. That's what I'll do. And God blessed her for it.

And the entire nation was saved. Because of her faith and her obedience. Every one of us is climbing on this journey in the Christian life, or at least we should be.

Maybe it's more appropriate to say God has placed a journey in front of every one of us and we have a choice to make, whether we're going to follow him and do what he tells us to do, no matter how difficult it may be. I don't think God's ever told any of us to slay our own child. I don't think he'll ever ask us to do anything quite that difficult.

But he is going to ask us to face challenges that we didn't think were possible sometimes. And as we go through that journey with him, we discover more and more and more of Him. He's the prize.

We shouldn't be seeking more of God to get something else. We shouldn't seek to be obedient to God, to try to achieve something else or get recognition in some way, or even feel better about ourselves.

God is his own reward. Being with him is the greatest thing we could ever experience, and he desires for us to have him fully. We can believe God. We can Trust God.

Even through these extremely difficult times. What great mountain of faith has God put in front of you right now? I don't know your life and you don't know mine.

God has put challenges in front of me right now. Heavy burdens, difficulties, things that, once again, I'm going to the Lord and saying, lord, I don't know how this is going to work out.

I don't know. I need you. I'm trusting you, Lord, even though I'm looking at the circumstances and thinking, this is not going to be a good one.

How could this possibly end? Well, a word of just brief personal testimony, then we'll be done.

A couple of Saturdays ago, we were spending time together as a family, and I stood in the kitchen speaking to my wife, and I said, shared a little challenge that we were facing. I said, you know, I trust the Lord completely. I'm not even worried about it. God's going to take care of it. What a moment of great things, faith, huh?

Within about two hours, I was the biggest baby you've ever seen in your life. Worried sick about this little problem. Not physically sitting in the corner in a fetal position, wringing my hands, but pretty close, pretty close.

I don't know. What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? Any of you natural worriers. I've got to fight that all the time. It's. It's part of my sin, my flesh.

My wife had had enough of it, but in her kind Christian spirit, she was being sweet. But we ended up talking about it, and she said, in godly wisdom, in the right spirit.

Didn't you just tell me this morning you were trusting the Lord for this? And I said, close your mouth, woman. No, I didn't. I said, yes, but everything's changed. Things are different than they were just a few hours ago.

I'm sorry you don't feel the same burden I feel feeling pretty good about myself. In about 45 minutes after that discussion, God took care of the problem completely. Completely. And we did nothing. We just discovered it.

We found out that God had done it. And while I would have liked to, in my flesh, go back to her and say, see, I was right about this. I had to go to her and say, honey, I'm sorry.

But before I could even do that, I had to go to the Lord and say, lord, I'm sorry. You can be trusted. How do I know God can be trusted? Because I've experienced it every day of my life. How can you know that God can be trusted?

You've seen him do Things that are not explainable. You've seen him care for you and care for your family and provide beyond your needs every day of your life.

And if you're like me, even though we've seen that, our eyes often start to drift away from him and they get on our circumstances or they get on ourselves and we forget. We forget how capable and able our mighty God is. But even when we forget, it doesn't change the fact that he's still mighty. He's still able.

God has in front of each one of us right now a journey. It's different. Mine's different than yours and yours is different than mine. And I don't pretend to know what some of you are going through right now.

But can I tell you, at the top of every one of these mountains, God is there. He's everywhere. But there's some of him we've never experienced at the top of that mountain.

And if we'll follow him in faith, step by step, every moment of every day, allowing him to work as he desires to work, we're going to see something beyond what we imagined. You tell me, is God good? God is good. Is he able to take care of you? He's able. Then trust him to do it. And I'm preaching it me tonight, not you.

Trust him to do it. Let him care for the things. And just like he provided that ram in those bushes, let him clear the way.

And then he's going to give us all an opportunity to testify for him and say, I know you're going through a difficult time. Can I tell you by testimony God's able? Can I share with you how God's taking care of me in the difficult times?

Abraham's life is a testimony in and ours are as well. God desires to use us. He desires to fill us with himself. And then he gives us these testimonies to share to encourage one another.

Can we bow our heads and close our eyes together for just a moment? Lord, we're so grateful for your word and for the truths we can glean as we dig into your word. God, our desire is and always is to have more of you.

But to have more of you, we must experience the things that you've laid out and set out in front of us. And by the way, Lord, you've never asked us to do something in climbing this difficult journey that you've not done yourself.

You gave your only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins. As our example, you've asked us to do the same thing that you've already done for us. God help us to take this walk of faith and follow you.

And Lord, help us to discover you in a new way beyond anything we've ever discovered before as we follow you. In Jesus name, amen.