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But today, I’d like us to turn our Bibles once again to Hebrews chapter 11. We have been on this journey through this New Testament book and today we are going to read of a story that is very, very well known in the Bible. In fact, I think this is one of the most famous stories in the entire Bible, and this story is the story of Abraham sacrificing his only son, Isaac. This story is given to us in Genesis 22 and the author of the book of Hebrews makes reference to this amazing account. Let me read to you verse 2 in Genesis 22, where it says:

He said [added by pastor: God said to Abraham], “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
(Genesis 22:2 ESV)

Now, this is an extremely bizarre command, I'm sure, to Abraham. I mean Isaac is the promised child, the promised son. God said that in your son Isaac shall all nations be blessed. But God, why is it that You would want me to kill my son now? He is my only son, the only son of promise. He is the son I love, I've waited for 25 years before he is born and now You want me to kill him with my own hands? And then you want me to set him on fire and burn him? What good will come out of this? I think he probably will be thinking about all that in his mind. How am I going to tell my wife Sarah? My wife is going to kill me for killing my son! And God, why must You tell me so suddenly? There is no time for me to acquaint myself with this amazing command You gave. So this is an extremely difficult command from God. Now Moses, who gave us the book of Genesis, did tell us the reason why. He said:

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
(Genesis 22:1 ESV)

After these things God tested Abraham. He is testing Abraham, He is proving Abraham, He is going to reveal what Abraham is really made of. A note of clarification: I don't think God is testing Abraham so that God Himself would know what is in Abraham. God doesn't need to test Abraham to know what is going on in Abraham. God is omniscient. It means, God knows all things for all times. In a sense, there is no discovery with God, God doesn't discover things. God doesn't, “Oh, now I realise how this works.” No, God knows all things for all times. He doesn't need to test Abraham for Him to know Abraham, He already knows. But this is to reveal what is in Abraham, to Abraham and to all those who will read and know of Abraham. So this revealing is so that people all over the world for all ages would say, “Ah, now I understand why Abraham is called the father of faith.”

So the intention of God here is a test and this is a difficult one. Every word here pierces the heart of Abraham, don't you see? “Take your son”, not somebody else's son, your son, “your only son”, “whom you love”. So God is calling him to sacrifice the apple of his eye, to give up 他的心肝宝贝 (“tā dè xīn gān bǎo beì”), in Chinese “his precious one”. So what would Abraham do? How would he respond? Very quickly, Moses tells us:

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him, his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
(Genesis 22:3 ESV)

You know when I read this, I thought to myself, if the person being tested is not Abraham but Jason Lim, the author would probably have to write something like this: But Jason complained the very next day. He kept arguing with God and he remonstrated with God because he could not understand and he would not want to do it. So the first word the author would have to write will be the word “but”. However, that's not the word that appears right here.

Timestamp 0:05:06.9

To me, it's a remarkable small word – “so” Abraham rose. Wow, amazing! Can you even begin to imagine what it looks like? Your son whom you've been with for the past 10/20 years, God calls you to sacrifice and early in the morning, you wake up and you are getting ready to sacrifice him. So Abraham obeyed. This is remarkable. He didn't drag his feet, there was no wasting of time, there is no procrastination whatsoever. He didn't go around, moping around and say, “Ah, I got to get…” No, he rose early in the morning.

You know when I think about my son, I say this obedience is amazing, because when I tell my son, “Go bathe,” you know what they'll do? Run around the house, play their toys, switch on the TV then maybe reluctantly, decide to eventually go to the bathroom to bathe. Well, there is no delayed obedience whatsoever. It's immediate. He arose early in the morning, got everything ready – the donkey, the servants, the wood, and he sets off on the journey to Moriah. The journey to Moriah is about 80 km. He's at Beersheba, going to Moriah on the average would take about three days and…

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
(Genesis 22:4 ESV)

That tells us there is no deviation for Abraham. He didn't purposely take any detours, didn't drag it all out, he obeyed, without denying, without delay and without deviation, right on, because in the heart of Abraham, he is going there to worship. He says this is what my God is worth to me. I'm going to give up, I'm willing even to give up my precious son, my only son, whom I love to Him. No excuses, no delay.

You could imagine this journey taken by Abraham and Isaac to be an extremely excruciating one. I think so. Abraham had travelled a long way from his home Ur of the Chaldees. People estimate it to be about 2000 km to go to the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. But this 80 km of his 2000 km journey is probably the most painful one he would have, isn't it? I'm going to kill my own son. I think I’d rather kill myself but God wants me to give my son up.

And along this journey, father and son must have a good talk. You know how it is for guys, you don't really talk so well over coffee. How's your life? Not that kind of… You journey together, you play football together, you hike together, then you start to share, you talk. And father and son must have had a wonderful time talking about the good old days. Dad, you remember how we went to Sentosa, then we went McDonald's, we had burger. Wah, we had a nice burger. Hey dad, I remember the day you caned me and I learned… Wah, it must have been a recounting of their journey together as father and son these three days. Every story that is brought up is extremely painful for Abraham to sacrifice and then finally there is this question: Dad, you said we're going to Moriah to worship God and to offer a sacrifice. Where is the sacrifice? And Abraham said, “Son, God will provide the sacrifice.”

So as they ascended the mount, it came to a time where Abraham, now I think, had to reveal that he, you Isaac, would be the sacrifice. Now, we again read of no resistance from Isaac. Scholars, commentators are very quick to seize upon this- that Isaac is someone who also believes the Lord, trusts the Lord and he was willing to be the sacrifice. I mean he's… According to, again, scholars, nobody really knows how old Isaac really is exactly. Estimates go from 15 years old to 35 years old. In any case, he's probably a young, strapping strong young man who could easily outrun a hundred-year-plus Abraham. But he didn't, he was willingly bound.

Timestamp 0:10:06.4

Abraham set up the altar, laid the wood and placed Isaac upon it. I believe tears must be streaming down Abraham's eyes, likewise for Isaac. None of them could understand why this has to happen but Abraham in obedience lifted up the dagger, the sword and was thinking to himself, I must really deal a fatal blow to Isaac. I really need to slit the throat real well. I must kill him with one blow otherwise I'm going to stab him many times. That would be too painful. And he caught his arm, ready to strike that blow when suddenly…

… the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” … “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God [added by pastor: this is an anthropomorphic way of speaking; God is speaking in human terms that we may begin to understand – “now I know that you fear God”], seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
(Genesis 22:11-12 ESV)

In the army, they say “Exercise cut. Good enough, you guys can do it.” And it is exercise cut right here. Abraham, don't take the life of your son. I've never really wanted Isaac's life. I just wanted your devotion. It's over. This test has sufficiently revealed that you fear God, you revere God, you have a high view of God. You deem God to be worthy of sacrificing your beloved only son, Isaac. Abraham, why do you fear God? Because you did not withhold your son, your only son. He did not come in between me and you. He's not more important to you then I am to you. You fear me. So Abraham proved his fear of God and Abraham also revealed his faith in God:

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,
(Hebrews 11:17 ESV)

The author of Hebrews says this is all done in faith because he trusted that God will be true to His promise that in Isaac will all nations be blessed. He trusted that even if Isaac is to be killed and murdered, God will still be true to the promises. You say, “How?” Somehow in the mind of Abraham, he worked out that if necessary, God will bring Isaac back to life:

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
(Hebrews 11:19 ESV)

For the promise to be fulfilled, Isaac's got to be alive. So if God wants me to kill Isaac, now then God will raise Isaac from the dead. Now this is remarkable faith because before this, there is no mention of resurrection in anybody in the book of Genesis. So this is totally unprecedented but the faith of Abraham reckoned, considered that God is able to do that. In fact, I think he sort of already had all this going on in his mind because he said to the servants:

... “Stay here with the donkey [added by pastor: while we go up]; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
(Genesis 22:5 ESV)

So, both Isaac and myself, we will go and we will come back. In King James, it's even clearer: “We will return to you.” So this is a test. God never wanted Isaac as a sacrifice. God wanted Abraham's devotion to reveal his fear in God, his faith in God, his high view of God, his worship of God, his heart that is willing to give up Isaac.

Are you willing to give up Isaac, Abraham? And that's the question I want to ask each and every one of us this morning: “Are you willing to offer Isaac?” What is your Isaac? You know, Isaac is a good thing but are you willing to give it up? The heart, the assessment of a true worshiper is not how loud he sings. I think, for many of us, we can sing louder actually, but a true estimate of a worshiper is not how loud he sings or how well he waves his hand. No, the assessment of a true worshiper is this question: “Are you willing to give up your Isaac?” Do you fear God and so trust in Him that even if He calls you to offer Isaac, you will do it because you have a high view of God, you regard him as worthy?

Timestamp 0:15:07.6

You know Isaacs can easily become idols, idols that take first place in our hearts instead of God, idols that come in between God and us, God and you. Idols are not statues. They can be statues, but they're not just statues. An idol is anything or anyone that takes the place of God in our hearts. And let me tell you something tricky about an idol: an idol is usually something good, by the way. You always think idols must be terrible things. No, idols can be very good things and ironically, they can be things that are given to us by God.

Your job can be an idol, do you realise that? It's a good job. God gave me this job, good career, good prospects, but your job can become an idol in your life. Maybe God is calling you to something else, to serve in and so on, but you say, “I can't give up my Isaac.” Your Isaac can be your kid, it can be your wife. God is saying, “I'm going to take away your wife.” And you won't, and you're angry and you're bitter against your God, because you say, “How could You take away my Isaac? My wife is a great blessing in my life. You gave me my wife. How could You now take it away? You are not God.” Not Abraham. You gave me Isaac, Isaac is the person through whom all nations will be blessed. But Lord, I fear You, I believe You and if You want me to do this, I will. It may be your health, it may be your comfort, whatever it is. God may call us to offer our Isaacs.

Watchman Nee, Chinese name is 倪柝声(“ní tuò shēng”), a preacher, pastor in China in times gone by, he gave this illustration. He said: sometimes Christians, we pray to God and God answers our prayers, He gives us good things. He gives us a good job, He gives us a good family, He gives us a good ministry, He gives us good health, He gives us an easy, comfortable life. We have all these things and our hands are full. We are very happy God gives us health and family, and good ministry and so on. Then it comes a day when God says, “Hey, give me your hand, I want to hold your hand.” And then, that Christian then says to God, “God, I can't give you my hand. My hands are full. I've so many blessing.” “You've got to let go of some of them, son.” “I can't.” “You've got to.” “But God, these are good things.” “I know.” “These are things You have given to me.” “Yes, I did.” “So why do You want me to give it all up?” “Because if you don't, I can never hold your hand.” God sometimes calls us to give up our Isaacs that He may hold our hands. Elizabeth Elliot, the wife of Jim Elliott who is a martyr, wrote this:

“There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops.”

She says there is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. Sometimes we think Christianity is about adding and adding and adding and adding and adding and adding. I tell you the Christian life is a lot about subtracting, willing to give up this life; that's what it is.

The spiritual life is not trying to live with all the goodies of this world and say, “God, I also want You.” No, sometimes God calls you to give up the things that are precious to you. And you may grow; there is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. At the precise point where we say, “No, I want my Isaac, I would never let go of my Isaac,” you'll never grow close to God. It's a process of letting go of the idols of our hearts, spiritual sanctification.

“Many deaths must go into reaching our maturity in Christ, many letting goes” [by Elizabeth Elliot]. Oh yes, Christian living, Christian growth is about adding, understanding of the Bible. We need to read the Bible, we need to add, we need to add, we need to add, we need to grow, we need to study, we need to know more about God, there's no doubt about it. But spiritual growth with just reading the Bible, without actually letting go of some of the Isaacs of our life, will not bring you anywhere.

Timestamp 0:20:24.2

I read about this man who was drunk and he wanted to go home, sail or get to his boat to paddle to the other side of the river where his home is. And he did that the whole night and he was so exhausted he fell asleep in his boat. The next morning, he woke up and he realised he's still at the very same side of the river, he had not moved on. He says, “Why? I paddled very hard!” The reason: the boat was still tied to the tree. He spent his entire night paddling and paddling and paddling and he got nowhere, because there is no letting go.

There is no spiritual growth if we're holding back through our Isaacs and we say, “God, You shall not touch this.” So what are your Isaacs? Your job, family, your career, your dream that you would live here and here, have this property there and there? What are your Isaacs and are you willing to give up your Isaac?

Maybe some of you are called to serve God in greater ways, in more direct ways. Now you serve God in your workplace, let's not undermine this. You're called to shine for God in your workplace, in your home and there's beauty in that calling. But I'm speaking to those who maybe feel that God is calling you to something else and you say, “No, no, no, I cannot give up this lifestyle I have, this standard of living I have.” Well, will you be willing to let it all go?

You say, “Pastor, it's so hard. I already feel in turmoil thinking of this. How can I ever do this? It doesn't feel easy.” I don't think it's easy at all for Abraham. He must be feeling miserable inside. But let me say this, the entire account in Genesis 22 and in Hebrews 11 has no mention of how he felt – nothing, just what he did. You see, faith is not really how you feel. If we live by our feelings, there will be no faith. Nobody would ever feel like sacrificing Isaac, seriously. Who would? But faith is deciding to follow God even when it feels so difficult to us.

I remind you of the definition of faith when we began this study in chapter 11: “Faith is that confidence in God's Word regardless of circumstances and consequences that results in our obedience.” It's not whether you feel like it, but that you know, you trust that God will be faithful and so you simply obey even when it goes against your feelings. And Abraham demonstrated that beautifully in this story. He, no doubt, is the father of faith.

Times are going to be hard sometimes for you. God may say, “I'm going to take away your Isaac, your health.” You feel terrible but faith says, “I was still honour the Lord and follow Him and obey.” That's what faith is all about. So what happened to Abraham? He passed the test, if I may say, with flying colours and so God said:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
(James 2:21-23 ESV)

Now, Abraham is justified by works. Now, this sounds very confusing to Christians. Huh, I thought we are justified by faith without works. Sure, you are absolutely right. Everyone is saved not because he did something for God. We are saved because we trust Jesus has done everything for us. But James is talking in the context of justifying our faith, not before God but before man.

Timestamp 0:24:49.6

He has already believed… Sorry, he has already believed God and counted it to him as righteousness in Genesis 15 – that is between God and Abraham. Now, in Genesis 22, it's before man. So Abraham's faith is proven and revealed in Genesis 22. So that's why James says he's justified by works because man can only see our works, not our hearts. And Abraham is now called a friend of God. Nobody doubts that. Look at his faith. Not only this, God reaffirmed his promise to Abraham…

I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
(Genesis 22:17-18 ESV)

… to bless him and the offspring and God is assuring him: “I've never backed down from that promise.” And then there is something else Abraham saw and that is Abraham saw God's provision:

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
(Genesis 22:13 ESV)

And Abraham went on to say this place will be called “The Lord will provide” or Jehovah-Jireh as we would know it today, as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
(Genesis 22:14 ESV)

This week I was with my two sons, in MacRitchie reservoir. And when we got there, we of course parked where we were supposed to park, we walked in and immediately we saw a lot of monkeys. You know there's a Mushroom Cafe there, an eating place and on the roof, we saw lots of monkeys- papa, mama, little ones running around. We went to the back, we saw a bunch of guys sitting there watching one particular monkey and we also join in the show.

So we saw this monkey, very industrious, very clever, very intelligent. He got on top of all those styrofoam boxes in which there are the scrap food left behind. So he got on top of those styrofoam boxes and started to rip them off. And he was very strong, he was very clever. He managed to rip it off and he got the food and he ate. After he ate the food there, he was not satisfied. He jumped onto the big green garbage bins and he started to rip… The owners, they have already placed two large stones on the bin lids to prevent the monkeys from doing it, but this guy was really going at it. He was fierce and trying to lift it to grab the food. I don't think he succeeded in the end, but he went back to the styrofoam box and continued to scavenge for more. My kids saw that and they were like a bit impressed. These monkeys are really quite fearsome.

We walked on, we went to another part and it's at a corner of that reservoir and this is where lots of monkeys were in the trees. There were a bunch of people there and the monkeys were coming down the trees. They hang by the branches, lowered themselves, drop down and papa, mama and lots of them came along. They were absolutely not scared of humans, not at all. You could walk by them as if they are your neighbours and they will be looking at you, that's all.

And then, there was this one particular monkey, a bigger one. I saw a lady walk near and she was holding a plastic bag. You know what's coming up, right? A plastic... I held my son back really tightly but she walked along with a plastic bag. The monkey went to her, wanted to give a good swipe at the back and the lady of course “shoo, shoo, shoo” and she managed to escape that attack. So again my son saw it and now they are even more impressed and a bit more terrified of the monkeys. We walked a bit nearer and the monkeys came down and my son Shawn ran for his dear life. He… Wah, he never like… ran like never before. He didn't look back, he never say anything, immediately turned and ran… I say, “It's okay, son.” Well, finally he came back. We walked on. So the monkeys in MacRitchie are quite something.

Then we were going back home, we crossed the… you know there's this bridge part at the top there and we were walking… That's the only path to go, right? So we walked along the only path and there's this tallest structure right in the middle of it and one monkey was sitting there. My two sons were in front of me, I stayed behind. The monkey saw us, fixed his eyes on my two sons, crawled down, walked towards us and then began to run, gathered pace, faster and faster and faster towards us.

Timestamp 0:29:57.1

I saw that the monkey was going for my kids, so I ran in front of my kids, I stood like that… You know how it is, in the animal kingdom, you got to threaten them and show that you're bigger, right? Now I know I'm not big, I'm a small-sized guy. So I got to do this even more lah. So I actually did all that and I stared at the monkey. I watched the monkey, and I turned like this… called my sons to go behind me, stared at him the whole time. My sons were just cowering somewhat. They were really scared of the monkey by the way, because they knew the monkey was going after them. So they were cowering and when they walked by this side, they ran and they looked back and they say, “Daddy, daddy.” They think that I'm going to be sacrificed to the monkey.

In any case, they didn't care about me, they ran off and after that, I caught up with my kids and I asked them, “So, what do you think, guys?” They say, “Daddy, you saved us. Daddy, you saved me.” Wah, I feel “shiok” [expression of happiness and pleasure in colloquial speak]. Then the older son said, “Daddy, you're nice, you're strong, you're brave, you're courageous.” I feel even more “shiok”. I thank God for the monkey because I think these are things I could not, and they would not learn if it was just the two of us, or three of us sitting in a room and I'm telling them, “Daddy is nice, daddy wants to save you, daddy wants to help you, daddy wants…” To them, it's… don't register, head knowledge but not experiential knowledge in the heart.

You know why God calls Abraham to Moriah? To show and to help Abraham realise personally and experientially God is faithful to provide. And Abraham says, “I learn that now. Forever, Moriah will be a memorial of God's faithfulness, not just theory. I've been through it.”

But maybe there's something more, you know, in this text that I think many of us don't quite realise. Abraham is not lousy in his vocabulary, or English, or Hebrew. It's translated [in Gen 22:14], “The Lord will provide.” It's interesting because I would have thought he should have said, “The Lord has provided.” I mean the ram was a given event. Maybe there's something more Abraham saw. Yes, he saw the ram, but maybe Abraham also saw the coming lamb. He also saw that God will provide through Isaac the one who will die for the sins of the world, the one through whom all nations will be blessed, because Abraham knew, I think, the promise of God in Genesis 22 [verse 17-18] that “I will surely multiply your offspring”.

Apostle Paul, I don't want to get too technical here, but apostle Paul in Galatians 3 explains that this offspring or this seed is singular, not plural. In other words, Abraham knew and the apostles knew and the theologians knew that God's promise is in a promised Messiah that is to come and Abraham probably knew that too. Lord, I've come to Moriah. You didn't need me to offer Isaac, you have provided the ram but I know God, this is just a foretaste, this is just a little glimpse of the supreme provision of sacrifice through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Now, he didn't know he's going to be called Jesus Christ, but through the promised Saviour; and maybe that is what Jesus was referring to in John 8 when He said:

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
(John 8:56 ESV)

He knew that God will provide. Moriah was a place Abraham sacrificed or offered his son. A thousand years later, on the mount of Moriah, would be where the temple would be built. Jerusalem is a city of Israel and in Mount Moriah will be where the temple of God will be built and centuries later, this same temple would be the temple Jesus entered into and said, “I would die, destroy this body and three days, I will raise it up again.”

Timestamp 0:35:25.2

My question to you today is: Who is willing to offer Isaac? Maybe at the end of this sermon, you say, “Pastor, this is a ridiculous message. Which father would ever sacrifice his own son?” I tell you the story of the Bible is this: the heavenly Father is willing to sacrifice His own son. Not only is He willing to sacrifice His own son, He actually sacrificed His own son even before you were born and this is how God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Our God is great, not just because of His power and wisdom, and knowledge and holiness, but He's great in His amazing love. He spared not His own son, but freely gave him up for us all that you who are in sin might be redeemed and washed and forgiven. Worthy is the Lamb that is slain. Let's bow for a word of prayer together.

Who is willing to offer his Isaac? There is one who offered it unreservedly. There is one Isaac who was willing to be bound, to be slain, to be offered up – the Father and Son, God and Jesus Christ. Genesis 22 is not just about Abraham and Isaac. Actually, the Bible is not about Abraham and Isaac, it is all about God, it's all about Jesus. And so this morning, I like you to realise the amazing love of God in Jesus Christ.

If you're here today, you do not know Jesus, the message of the Bible is that God loves you and He sent His Son to die for you. You say, “Why does His Son have to die for me?” Because you are a sinner and you are a sinner who can never be reconciled to God by yourself. God is holy and He cannot tolerate sin. Sin cannot come in between His creation and Himself. But in order for God to forgive, He has to do what is right and what is right is that sin must be paid for and so Jehovah-Jireh – God sees and God provides, He provides that sacrifice, that solution in none other but His Only Son, because there is no one else who can save you from your sins, but His Son. Only Jesus is worthy, and so He did it for you because He loves you. And the Bible says, whosoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. So this morning, if you're here for the first time, or if you have been a church goer, but you never had a real life-changing relationship with Christ, come and receive the love of God in Jesus, repent of your sins, believe that He died and rose again for your sins.

Maybe this morning, you are a Christian, you are a believer, but there is something you will not let go in your life. Maybe you're bitter with God because you have ill health today. You are angry with Him, because you've just lost your job. Maybe God is calling you to step out in a fresh new way, but you say it is too hard for me to give up my comfortable lifestyle. Maybe God is pointing out to you right here, right now, the Isaacs in your life. They are good things, they are things given by God, but maybe you've allowed that to come in between you and Him. You have allowed it to take first place in your life, you've allowed it to become an idol. So He says to you, “Son, would you let that go? Will you fear me, believe me, worship me?” May God work in your heart this morning that you will not just be adding some truths to your mind, but you would be willing to let go of some anchorings that have kept you from moving forward in faith. So why do we do all this, because He first loved us and gave His Son for us.

So Father, we pray that You will bless Your Word to each and every heart once more. May spiritual decisions and acts of faith take place. May Your church grow in obedience toward You and may Your name be praised as they see the power of faith. Thank You for this time. Bless each one, we pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

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