Steven Furtick - Release Your Need for Details
This is an excerpt from: When God Says Let Go
What do you do when God says, «I want my promise back»? «Not because I don’t intend to fulfill it, but because I’ll fulfill it when I want to fulfill it, how I want to fulfill it, and I need you to trust me». Now, if you don’t have deep trust with God in this moment, you will need details. You’ll start trying to control everything. You’ll start trying to manipulate things. That is why some of us are so stressed right now. There is a dream that you thought God gave you, and maybe he did, but there are details to that dream that are not being met on your deadline.
You can’t call him «God» and give him a deadline. The boss sets the deadline. I know what I thought I should have been by now, but it’s not my deadline. Let me set you free with one sentence. I like to say one thing that makes it worth coming even if you’ve been asleep the rest of the time I’ve been up here talking. It’s not my deadline. If God waited until Abraham was 100 to give him a baby, you think God is going to do everything you want him to do within the first quarter of this year? What do you do when God says, «I want you to hold on»?
I’ve been thinking all week how to say this. I just got it. What do you do when he says, «Hold on to the promise. Let go of the plan»? What do you do? That’s our question. Right? Some of us are really good at «Let’s go». «Let’s go; I’ve got my vision board. Let’s go; I’ve got my goals. Let’s go». So, you’re really good at «Let’s go». I was looking for a way to illustrate this yesterday, and I thought, «God, if I don’t illustrate it right, they won’t hear what they need to hear, and I really want to speak to the person who is holding on so tightly to their idea of life». I’m praying about this. I’m thinking about Abraham and Isaac and this crazy scene where he is about to take the life of his son, because he doesn’t know that God doesn’t want to take Isaac. God wasn’t taking Isaac; he was testing Abraham. There’s the «Let’s go» moment. There’s the «Hold on» moment. You will find yourself in both.
When God says, «Let go,» that can be hard to hear. «This is something I think he wants me to have, but he’s not doing it how I think he wants me to do it, what I prayed for or asked for». As I’m thinking, praying about this illustration, I’m thinking I’ll look in a book, but then Bo runs over. Our Boston Terrier runs over, and he brings me a ball. I first think, «I don’t have time to play fetch with you, Bo. I am working on a very important sermon for very important people about a very legendary Bible text, and it is a serious text. I don’t have time for this, because I’m talking about 'Let’s go' and 'Let go' and all of that». And he brings me the ball as if he is saying, «Let’s go».
So I take the ball, and I throw the ball. As I’m throwing it, I remember, «Oh, this won’t take long, » because Bo is terrible at fetch. I’ll tell you why he’s terrible at fetch. He’s really good at «Let’s go». He’ll run and get it real quick, but once he’s got it… He did not hear my sermon today called When God Says Let Go. He is better at retrieving it than he is at releasing it. I can’t get him to understand, «We could do a lot more if you would say 'Let’s go' and then let go and get in the rhythm of retrieving and then returning and retrieving and releasing. I give it, and you bring it back. I give it, and you bring it back».
Now I understand why God will sometimes call us to bring him something we thought he promised so he can clarify what he actually promised, so he can do what he said he would do. Not what I thought he would do, not what I wanted him to do, not on my deadline, but on his destined schedule for the purpose for which he intends my life to be a small little piece. So, I want to tell every Bo in the room, «Let go». Let go. «How can you say that? This is important to me. How can you tell me to let go? I have to make some plans, don’t I»? Yeah, you’ve got to make them, but don’t hold them too tightly that you choke them. Is it possible…? I’m asking the question. Is it possible that your problem isn’t that you don’t hold on to what you think God told you but you hold it too tightly? Because sometimes his timing is different than yours.
I don’t know who this is for, but the Lord really wants you to get this today, because he’s saying, «Let go. Let go». What would that journey have been like to the mountain region named Moriah? This is the same region where Jesus would die thousands of years later, where God would give his Son. Different mountain, same region. Abraham had no context for that. So, what do you do when your faith is being tested but you have no precedent? I wanted to call this message «A Promise With No Precedent». In other words, «I’ve never seen this before». «I’ve never seen this before. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be a father of many nations. I don’t know how to do this». And you’ve got to lead your son too? Isaac is 15 by this time, by the way. He’s a teenager. He’s a teenager. We talked a little bit about teenagers and trust earlier.
Now this teenager… Watch the journey. There’s a conversation that happens, because they go three days. Remember, Abraham was tested not in a moment but in a process. The test of your faith will be continual. You’ll be good one moment, Poof! the next. Why are y’all so fake today? I said you’ll be tested one moment, and your faith will be really, really good, and then it’ll tank the next. You are only one text message away from your trust in God tanking to an all-time level, and that’s true. Need I go further? They’re talking about it, and the farther they get, the more questions Isaac has. This is not the dad trusting the teenager; this is the teenager trusting the dad. This thing is flipped. So now Isaac is walking with Abraham, and he doesn’t know either. I should do a parenting seminar on this.
What do you do when you’re leading somebody and you don’t know either? «I don’t know». Abraham is like, «Let me tell you about me and God. He doesn’t give me many details». Because when they start walking… And I’m not cheapening the text by lightening the tone. I’m trying to bring you into it so you can understand that God doesn’t call us all to sacrifice our sons (he sacrificed his Son for all of us), but he does call us all to trust in him at times, times where we can’t understand. They’re walking three days, and then comes the point where they can’t take the servants any farther, because there will come a place where you get to a point with God where no one else can help you figure it out. I mean, to a point, people can give you advice. To a point, people will give you wisdom, but don’t worship their wisdom, because their wisdom is based on their experience.
God has to show you some things for your life. Genesis 22:6 says, «Abraham took the wood…» Get the picture. «…for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac…» Do we not see Jesus all the way in Genesis 22, that he took the wood and put it on his son? «…and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together…» Isaac started to wonder a little bit. «[He] spoke up and said to his father Abraham, 'Father? ' 'Yes, my son? ' Abraham replied. 'The fire and wood are here…'» «I’m doing an inventory. We’ve got everything we need except one thing». «Where is the lamb for the burnt offering»? In other words, «I need some details». «Abraham answered, 'God…'» He only said one thing…one thing…one thing that he had found to be true over 1,500 miles of traveling, one thing that he had found to be true when he went to Egypt to survive for a little while, one thing that he knew to be true even though he didn’t know where this was leading.
«God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering». In this moment, we wonder, was Abraham bluffing? Did he really know that was going to happen? Because that is what happens. It’s not a lamb, but it’s a ram, because God isn’t going to ever do it exactly like you think he is. But he says it like he knows it. «God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son». And watch this. I get the picture here that Isaac has seen Abraham trust God before. He has seen his father trust God before. Why? Because the deeper the trust, the less the need for details. Abraham told him, «God will provide». «And the two of them went on together». He said, «God will provide, » and Isaac said, «Let’s go». So, Isaac is saying, «Let’s go» while Abraham is letting him go. And the moment comes.
Now, just lock in with me for a minute. «When they reached the place God had told him about…» Not the place he knew in his mind. God showed him when he got there. «…Abraham built an altar…» Which was a place of sacrifice, which was a place of death, which was a place of worship. «[He] built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood». I know how hard this is for us to get our minds around. That’s why I was hesitant to preach it, but the one I was most hesitant to preach in this whole series is the one that healed me the most. What I saw in verse 10 changed my life. «He reached out his hand…» He is reaching for the instrument, the knife. He’s wrapping his fingers around the knife, letting go of his son.
«Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham! '» He said it twice, because he was holding the knife, and he thought his son was about to die. He didn’t know what sense to make of it, but in the moment that he’s holding the knife over his son, here comes the angel at that moment, saying, «Abraham! Abraham! Let go». God says, «Let go» at the very moment that Abraham, Abraham thinks it’s over. When God said what he said, «Abraham, Abraham…» «'Here I am, ' he replied». Verse 12: «Do not lay a hand on the boy». Somebody shout, «Let go». Shout it again. «Let go». Let go.
I know you came this far thinking this was how it’s going to end. The moment the angel spoke, he said, «Don’t lay a hand on the boy. Don’t do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God…» «Now that you’ve let him go, let go. Now that I know I can trust you with what I taught you, that I can trust you that you don’t love it more than you love me; now that I can trust you that you’re embracing my promise, not your plan; now that you have let go…» Verse 12: «…because you have not withheld your son». «You have let go of your son. Now let go of the knife». God is so strategic that at the moment Abraham was letting go of the knife, which is what he thought he had to do… At the moment that God said, «Let go of the knife…»
Verse 13 says he heard something other than the angel rustling in the background. «Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son». Verse 14 says, «So Abraham called that place…» The place where he thought Isaac would die. That place, the place where he thought it was over. That place, the place he didn’t even know he was going or what God would do. But he said he would provide, and he did provide. He called that place The Lord Will Provide. It wasn’t called «The place where Isaac died». It was called «The place where Jehovah provided». I declare… Glory to God! Let’s rename this place.
Now, this is for all of the people who are letting go of something you thought would happen, letting go of the way you thought somebody was supposed to change, letting go of what you expected from yourself, letting go of what you thought God was like, letting go of what you thought this season would include. This is for everybody who’s letting go. At the moment Abraham was letting go of the knife, the thicket was grabbing hold of the ram. What am I trying to say? God’s got you in this place! God’s got you in this place! His name is Jehovah. He is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide for me. The Lord will provide for my family. The Lord will provide for this church.