Pastor John Cooper ad creative
Pastor John Cooper
Pastor John Cooper

Active· since Apr 3, 2026

115
days running
0
relaunches

Ad copy

Most Christians think obedience means following rules. Do this. Don't do that. Stay in line. Check the boxes. But the most radical act of obedience in the entire Bible had nothing to do with rules. It had to do with a man who was told to destroy the one thing he loved most in this world. And most Christians who know this story have never understood what was actually happening. God told Abraham to take his son Isaac, his only son, the son he had waited twenty-five years for, the son God Himself had promised would come, and sacrifice him on a mountain called Moriah. Most Christians read that and think it sounds cruel. They rush past it to get to the ending where the angel stops Abraham's hand. They treat it like a test with a happy ending. But when you understand the context, this story will change how you think about obedience for the rest of your life. Abraham was over a hundred years old. He and Sarah had waited twenty-five years for God to fulfill His promise of a son. Twenty-five years of silence. Twenty-five years of wondering if God had forgotten them. Twenty-five years of watching their bodies age past the point where having a child was physically possible. And then Isaac came. The miracle. The fulfillment of everything God had spoken. Isaac was not just Abraham's son. He was the proof that God keeps His promises. And then God said give him back. Not symbolically. Not metaphorically. Sacrifice him. On a mountain. With fire and a knife. Here is what most Christians have never been told about this moment. The journey to Mount Moriah took three days. Three days of walking with his son. Three days of knowing what was waiting at the top of that mountain. Three days of carrying the wood and the fire and the knife while his son walked beside him asking questions. Isaac looked at his father and said, “I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham said seven words that contain more faith than most Christians will ever understand. “God Himself will provide the lamb.” He did not say “I hope God will provide.” He did not say “Maybe God has a plan.” He said God Himself will provide. Present tense. Absolute certainty. While holding a knife and walking his son to an altar. That is not blind obedience. That is obedience built on twenty-five years of watching God keep every single promise He ever made. But here is the part that should stop you in your tracks. Mount Moriah. The place where Abraham laid his son on the altar. The place where God provided a ram in the thicket at the last possible moment. That mountain did not disappear from Scripture. Two thousand years later, on that same mountain, God did what He stopped Abraham from doing. He sacrificed His own Son. Mount Moriah became Jerusalem. The exact place where Jesus was crucified. The same mountain. The same story. The same sacrifice. Except this time, no angel stopped it. This time, God Himself provided the Lamb. When Abraham said “God Himself will provide the lamb,” he was not just talking about that day on the mountain. He was speaking a prophecy that would take two thousand years to fulfill on the exact same ground where he was standing. And most Christians have read the story of Abraham and Isaac dozens of times and never once connected it to the cross. Not because they do not care. Not because their faith is weak. But because nobody ever gave them the context that ties these two mountains together and reveals what obedience actually looks like when it costs you everything. That is what I discovered three years ago sitting in a room with my Bible study group. I have been teaching Scripture for 18 years. And one Wednesday night I asked my group what obedience actually meant in the Bible. Not the Sunday school answer. The real answer. Someone said it means doing what God tells you to do. Another said it means following His commands. Good answers. Safe answers. Then I asked them what Abraham was actually thinking during those three days walking to Moriah. What it meant that the mountain of sacrifice was the same mountain where Jesus would be crucified two thousand years later. Why Abraham said “God Himself will provide the lamb” with such certainty while holding a knife. Silence. They looked at each other. Looked at their Bibles. Looked at their notes. These were not new believers. These were faithful people who had heard the Abraham and Isaac story since childhood. And they had no idea what they were actually reading. They understood my explanations of Scripture. But not Scripture itself. And the moment I was not there to walk them through it, they were lost. That night I went home and sat in the dark for a long time thinking about obedience. Thinking about how many men in my congregation wanted to obey God but had no daily structure to actually walk with Him. How many of them knew the stories but had never built the relationship that makes obedience possible. Because here is what Abraham's story teaches us that nobody talks about. Abraham did not obey God on that mountain because he was strong. He obeyed because he had spent decades walking with God daily. Building trust. Showing up. Listening. Following. Day after day after day until his faith was strong enough to carry him up that mountain with a knife in his hand and absolute certainty in his heart. Obedience is not a single moment of courage. It is the result of thousands of daily moments of showing up for God. And that is where most Christians are failing. Not because they do not want to obey. But because they have no daily rhythm of walking with God that builds the kind of faith Abraham had. You cannot climb the mountain if you have never walked the road. That realization changed everything for me. I started searching for something I could put in my congregation's hands. Not another Bible study they would quit in two weeks. Not a reading plan that felt like homework. Something so simple that even the busiest, most exhausted person in my group could actually stick with it and start building that daily walk. That is when I found the One Minute with God devotional. Sixty seconds a day. Three hundred and sixty five devotions built around the real struggles men carry. Each day gives you one Scripture on what you are actually going through, one devotion that breaks down exactly what to do with it, and one prayer you can pray right in the moment. The next Wednesday I put a copy on the table. “Every single one of you needs to start doing this everyday,” I said. “This will help build the relationship and trust with God that Abraham had.” One week later they came back different. One man said, “Pastor, I have been going to church for thirty years and this is the first week I consistently talked to God on my own. Every morning. It was only a minute but I understand now why Abraham could do what he did. He walked with God every single day. I never had.” Another man said, “I always thought obedience was about willpower. But it is about relationship. And I have never had a daily relationship with God until this week.” That is what this One Minute with God for Men devotional does. It builds the daily walk that makes everything else possible. Not just obedience. But prayer. But peace. But the kind of faith that carries you when God asks you to do something that makes no sense to anyone else. Because Abraham did not become the father of faith on the mountain. He became the father of faith on the road. One day at a time. Walking with God. Showing up. Trusting what he could not see. That road starts with sixty seconds. If you have ever wanted to obey God but felt like you didn't have the faith to follow through. If you have ever wondered how Abraham could walk three days to that mountain with a knife in his hand and certainty in his heart. If you have ever known deep down that your relationship with God is missing something but you could not figure out what it was. This is what was missing. The daily walk that builds everything else. Abraham did not become the father of faith on the mountain. He became it on the road. One day at a time. Walking with God. Do not spend another year believing in God from a distance. Tap below and grab yours before they sell out again.

If you’re a Christian believer read this..☝️

365 days of grace

SHOP NOW
🪄Crush AI

Like this ad? Make it yours.

Crush rebuilds this exact creative around your product — your brand, your colors, your offer — in about a minute.

More ads from Pastor John Cooper

Pastor John CooperPastor John Cooper
Active
115 Days
-Reach
Pastor John Cooper Facebook ad
Details
Pastor John CooperPastor John Cooper
Active
115 Days
-Reach
Pastor John Cooper Facebook ad
Details
Pastor John CooperPastor John Cooper
Active
115 Days
-Reach
Pastor John Cooper Facebook ad
Details
Pastor John CooperPastor John Cooper
Active
115 Days
-Reach
Pastor John Cooper Facebook ad
Details
Pastor John Cooper Ad — Running 115 Days | Crush Ad Library