A bible with you.
I encourage you to go ahead and grab
it and open up to Genesis chapter 22.
And if you have your bible and an
app, that's fine. If you wanna grab a
Pew Bible,
that is also
okay.
But our text this morning isn't gonna be
Genesis chapter 22.
But before we dive too far into our...
Passage.
Let's just recap for a second, the story
of Abraham.
Who...
By all intents and purposes, looks like a
man that is similar to David after God's
own heart, he's been so willing to listen
to God to leave his own land to
leave his family and to go where God
has been calling him.
But the also, we've seen that he's not
perfect
that he's had his
trust issues with God. In fact, so much
so.
That just recently, we talked about how when
he was going down into Egypt because of
a famine. He said, hey,
wife let's make sure that they think that
you're my sisters that I can benefit from
it.
That's that's not that great.
Right.
And then
just
last week,
Abraham can't seem to
figure out how to trust God in the
promise that God made that he would have
an heir,
a sun.
That would inherit
and be a part of this grand plan
of blessing the God house for the world.
He has this trust issue.
And last week, in chapter 15, we just
hear
Abraham crying out, God.
Where's is this where is this air coming
from? How how is this gonna happen? I
don't understand and god is just silent.
Which I think is really interesting as we're
singing in our song trust in God this
morning, You know, the bridges, I saw the
Lord and he heard and he answered and
that's why I trust him.
In here,
Abraham hears nothing in the silence.
Why
And we talked about how that break in
the text,
where it says Abraham spoke again
is
indicating that there's a period of time that
has passed since the first time he inquired
of the Lord.
And so he asked the Lord again, in
this time he's a little more Kurt.
He's a little more
intense toward the lord and he's like, okay,
God. Look,
I need and answer what's going on here.
And God just gives him a little bit.
It's like, no. I I promise you will
come from your seed from yourself, you will
bear
a child.
You will have
an air.
Do so hard for
room to trust
to sit in the waiting to wait
for God.
And how all long that
this process
was god to get
Egypt out of Abraham.
Because all of us have a little bit
of Egypt in us. In fact, We've been
talking about how all along the way these
stories were being heard for the first time
as the people of Israel traverse through the
wilderness,
after being led out of Egypt by Y.
But they brought a little bit of Egypt
with them into the wilderness and they had
a lot of trust for Y. In fact,
many times, they said, wouldn't it just be
better if we went back to Egypt? Like,
yeah, we were enslaved, but it was comfortable
there. It was easy
you know, like, we knew what we were
getting, but now we're out in this place
where we have nothing, and we have to
rely fully on this, you Y who let
us out, but can we trust him?
Can we believe that he's gonna provide for
us
every
step of the way.
And you would see these moments of
mistrust where God's like, I'm gonna provide Mana
in the desert and you're gonna collect it
for 6 days, and you're only gonna collect
enough for each day, but on
the day before the sabbath day, you're gonna
collect twice as much so that it'll last
into the next day.
But then what would peep do they would
go out and they would collect more than
they needed for a day
because they didn't trust that God would provide
the next day. And then the next day,
they... Found maggots and worms in the manner
because
they didn't trust.
But then there were those that
only gathered
enough for themselves on the day before the
sabbath and not enough the next day.
And so in the next day came,
and Man didn't appear because they're not supposed
to work on that day.
They were frustrated.
There's a mist mistrust, a dis
disobedience.
And that's kind of where we're heading to
today is like, So what does it mean
to trust God?
So what really is the the indicator of
having this this faith and this trust and
the lord? Okay. In spite of everything else
going on when when God is silent and
when he doesn't give you the full picture
because God is never gonna give you the
full picture. Because if you had the full
picture, then there's not faith.
You don't have to take your next step.
You're just gonna... You're just gonna run ahead.
You're gonna get too far ahead of what
God wants to do in your life.
And so that's what we end up seeing
in this story of of Abraham. Right? Is
like,
he
cannot trust that God is gonna provide a
son? And so him and his wife
Decide to cons,
how is this gonna happen? And so he
takes H,
Egyptian servant,
in
has a son through her
ishmael.
And he so believes that what he did
was the right thing that
He cannot see the bigger picture of what
God has planned.
But before we get too much in today's
passage, I just wanna sit there for just
2 seconds.
Is that what ends up happening when we
aspire to do things in our own power.
When we try to use our own strength
when we try to come up with our
own
plan for god's purpose,
when we try to create it in our
own timing.
What might end up happening is we end
up using abusing and hurting people all along
the way.
H ga ends up suffering, and Ishmael end
up suffering
because Ryan Abraham couldn't trust the process that
God wanted to put them through because
he couldn't trust that God had a better
plan and a bigger plan
than what he could only think up in
his small
feeble mind.
And it's unfortunate
that through the story
H in Ish ishmael,
get hurt.
End up getting forced
out
am getting
pushed away
because
of their inability to believe in trust in
God.
And by the time they finally have Isaac
13 years later,
When the promise is finally fulfilled,
Sarah and her
insecurity
sends them away.
Because now is she she trust... She couldn't
trust God to have Isaac. And once she
finally highs... Has Isaac she can't. Trust in
God that he's gonna be the 1 that
inherit
inherit everything that he's the 1 through whom
the blessing is gonna come. And so
More hurt is thrown on top of H
and
ishmael is they're sent out.
From the only clan, the only protection that
they've ever known.
The god is good.
And he allows it to happen,
I don't want us to be clear that
God allows it. In fact,
Abraham like, no. Don't know. This
needs to stay and God's like no. Let
this happen.
Listen to Sarah, your wife,
send her out,
and so they're sent out,
and God of meats
Hi in Ish ishmael and the wilderness
and promises them
that he will take care
of them.
But as we hear all this story leading
up to our passage today.
I want us to keep reflecting back that
God is using
imperfect people
to fulfill his works and purposes in the
world.
God is using
imperfect people to fulfill his purposes and works
in
the world.
But
even though God uses
imperfect people like you and like me,
something is
required from those imperfect people.
God does want something
out of us in order for him to
use us.
And so let us read our passage today
in Genesis chapter
22,
and we're just gonna read versus 1 through
19.
And now it happened after these things that
God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham,
and he said, here I am.
And then he said take now your son,
you're only 1 whom you love, Isaac and
go forth. The land of Mori mariah,
and offer him there as a burnt offering
on 1 of the mountains of which I
will tell you the So Abraham rose early
in the morning and saddle his donkey and
took 2 of his young men with him
in Isaac his son, and he split wood
for the burnt offering in a rose and
went to the place
of which God had told him. And on
the third day, Abraham lifted up, his eyes
and saw the place from a distance.
And Abraham said to his young men stay
here with the donkey while I go in
the boy with the boy. Over there, and
we will worship
and we will return to you.
Then Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering and put it on Isaac his son
and he took in his hand the fire
in the knife, so the 2 of them
walked on together.
And then Isaac spoke to Abraham his father
and said my father,
And he said here I am my son.
He said behold
the fire and the wood, but where is
the lamb for the burnt offering?
And Abraham said,
God will provide for himself the lamb for
the burnt offering my son.
So the 2 of them walked on together,
And then they came to the place of
which God had told them in Abraham built.
The altar there and arranged, the wood and
bound his son, isaac and put him on
the altar on top of the wood,
an Abraham stretched out his hand and took
the knife to slay his son,
but the angel of Y called to him
from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he
said, here I am.
And he said, do not stretch out your
hand against the boy. And do nothing to
him. For now, I know that you fear
god since you have not withheld your son,
you're only 1 from me.
And then Abraham lifted up his eyes and
saw and behold. There was a ram after
it had been caught in the thick by
its horns, And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered it up for a burnt
offering in the place of a son.
And Abraham called the name of that place
Y will provide.
As it is said this day in the
mount of Y, it will be provided.
And in the angel of Y called to
Abraham a second time from heaven and said,
behold... By myself, I have sworn declares Y
way because you have done this thing and
have not spared your son your only 1
Indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I
will greatly multiply your seed as the stars
of the heavens, and is the sand, which
is on the sea shore, and your seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies.
In your seed, all the nations of the
Earth shall be blessed because you have listened
to my voice. So Abraham returned to his
young men. And they arose and walked together
to Beers toshiba, and Abraham lived at beers.
Let us pray. Good and gracious God as
we hear these words this morning.
Tough though they may be. God I pray
that our hearts will be open to hear
and to receive. What it is that you
want to speak to us
because this week, Lord, we want to hear
your voice.
As last week, we wrestled in the silence.
Speak oh lord, how it is that we
can put our trust in you.
What does trust in you look like?
How do we go forth from here?
It's the name of Jesus Christ that we
pray.
I'm amen.
As we open up this passage,
you know, I think there's something that happens
a lot that we kinda just kinda brush
over. We don't wanna sit in it, or
we don't really wanna talk about it, but
there's this moment in verse 1 where it
says, after these things. So after all that's
happened before and maybe a significant amount of
time has passed because we can see that
Isaac at this point is old enough to
to walk on his own and not just
old enough to walk on his own, but
to climb up a mountain and climb up
a mountain with all the wood on his
back and carrying the fire because Abraham put
all of that on his son.
So we don't really know how old he
is, but he's not a toddler. He's not
a
child of young age, but he's old enough.
But
it's this part that says, that God tested
Abraham.
And I think a lot of us don't
wanna wrestle with the fact that god tests
his
people.
That we go through
trials that there is an intention
of the testing
Remember, we were talking about this being something
being spoken to the stories being heard for
the first time in the wilderness
is the... People traverse to the promised land
from
Egypt and in exodus 15 25, it clearly
says, there he set for them a statute,
and a judgment in there, he tested
them.
So the wilderness was a test.
Makes me also think about this moment in
Jesus life where he was tested and tempted
in the wilderness.
And we're gonna make us distinction a little
bit later between testing and temptation.
In judges chapter 02:22,
in order to test Israel by them, whether
they will keep the way of Y to
walk in it as their fathers did or
not.
D 08:16. And in the wilderness he said
Human man which your fathers did not know
that he might humble you and that he
might test you
to do good for you in
the end.
I think that we're really quick to just
throw out that god doesn't tempt us.
But we also con testing and tempting in
the same, as being 1 in the same
and they're not.
A temptation is something that the devil
brings up upon you in order that you
might sin,
that's the work of temptation,
but a test
in from God
is an opportunity
to grow in faith.
To say, Lord, I am going through this
moment
at which I can either put my trust
in you
or I can turn
away from you.
And again, and again, we kinda see in
the wilderness story this wrestling of the people
about whether or not they're gonna trust God
or turn away from him.
And we see it again and again in
the life of
Abraham, whether or not he's gonna trust god
or turn away from him.
And this time,
Abraham
hears this call,
from Y way,
Abraham.
And immediately,
Abraham responds
here I am.
Now,
some scholars might put a lot of weight
into that here I am statement by
Abraham because it might be a little bit
familiar
to the Israelites in the desert because
Who was it that Moses was to say
that sent him,
I am sent
him.
And so maybe there's a little bit of
weight there to to kind of let us
hone in on this story
to maybe be like... Maybe this is the
significant moment as the israelites are crossing the
wilderness.
This is the test.
Will you trust me?
Will
you
trust
me?
What I think so interesting too is how
often
do we hear the the call of the
lord and we respond as quickly as Abraham
does?
Hey. Here I am.
It also makes me think of that
moment in Isaiah, chapter 6 verse 8 when
God says, whom can I send an immediately
Isaiah says, here I am, Lord send me?
Are we so willing when we hear the
call of God in our lives to be
like, God me. Me. Pick me.
Here I am.
I'm gonna I'm gonna trust whatever you're about
to tell me I I can go and
do.
Now let me just
say this.
You're thinking I've never heard
the lord speak to me.
Well, I would say that if you've...
Read your scripture,
you've heard God speak.
Second Timothy 03:16 affirm as much.
That all scripture is god breathed.
And so we cannot say
that we have not heard the lord that
we have not heard his call because if
we've read anything in here, we've heard him
speak to us. We've heard his call.
In fact, our call is not much different
than Abraham call. Our call isn't that much
different than Isaiah call.
There I say our call is not much
different than Jesus call.
And so we've all heard the call, but
are we all as quick as Abraham to
say, here I am.
What is it that you will have me
do?
And so here is the test.
Take now your son.
Your only 1,
which mind you, obviously, Ishmael is also a
son,
but the only son of the promise, is
Isaac.
So take the only 1 whom you love
Isaac and go forth to the land of
Mariah and offer him there as a burnt
offering.
On 1 of the mountains of which I
will tell you.
Now,
we've talked about this before at the... When
we were talking about the fall.
And the snake that speaks in the garden
and how we also kind of sometimes just
gloss over that because we've heard it so
many times and
we've heard, we've talked about how Rabbi form
and caused us the Lull by effect where
we've heard a story so many times that
we just kind walked past it. We just
kind of ignore some of the really significant
things that are happening.
But I'm curious how many of us just
gloss over the fact that God's test was
to sacrifice
his son.
Like I want you to sit in the
text for just a moment as if you're
hearing it for the first time, not the
hundred thousand time
that God says to Abraham,
I want you to offer Isaac is a
burnt offering.
What if God said to you, I want
you to offer your first firstborn.
As an offering to me.
I I would think that most of us
would hesitate.
I would think that most of us would
be like,
wait a second.
God,
I have Have issue with that. I'm a
little I'm a little bit shocked. I'm a
little of gas. I'm a little bit in
all,
and I'm gonna hesitate for a second
because 1, this is my son.
I love him.
How can I sacrifice him? How can I
how
Can I do that?
I mind you cultural context is a little
bit different right? Because
We know
that the ultimate offering has already been given
for us.
The sacrifice has been made
And luckily, we don't have to give up
our son, God gave up his,
Jesus.
On the cross
that our sins might be forgiven through him
He no longer requires a sacrifice from us.
So if we hear these words, we probably
would be taken aback.
But maybe Abraham wasn't so surprised.
I mean, remember, he's...
From
of the Cal that
place in mesopotamia that's home of the Sum
and the Babylon
and
Child sacrifices isn't new to them.
But also,
This is his only son,
who god promised
would be his heir,
and now he's telling him that I have
to take him up the mountain
and offer him to the Lord.
And Abraham doesn't hesitate.
Verse 3. And so, Abraham rose early in
the morning,
gathered everything with him that he would need
to to gather
and they left.
And on the third day, he lift up
his eyes and he sees the place from
a distance that He's supposed to offer
Isaac.
It's a prompt obedience to what God is
asking.
It maybe be that's what it means to
trust God.
His obedience to obey when he calls
to not hesitate to not ask all the
questions
to not try to come up with your
own answers to not try to come up
with a way to get out of it.
I can't tell you how many friends of
mine are in ministry after resisting the call
for decades.
The god finally had to whittle them down
in Now they're pastor.
God calls and he will get his way,
and every single 1 of them said it
would have been better fight. Answered the first
time.
It would have been so much better if
I just said yes, when I heard the
call immediately if I didn't
hesitate.
But verse 5, and Abraham said to his
young men stay here with the donkey
While I and the boy go over there
and we will worship
and we will return to you. Last week,
the first time
that
scripture ever talked about fear of the Lord...
Sorry. Last week is the first time we
ever saw in scripture this idea of fearing
Y.
And we talked about, Well, what was that
fear about is was about
provision about Abraham not trusting that God would
be the provider?
And how often is our fear
swelling up within us because we're afraid that
we won't have all that we need.
This week, the first time the word worship
appears in scripture
occurs.
In verse 5.
We haven't seen the word worship. We've been
through a lot of Genesis so far, and
we know that the bible is a... That
we should worship God. Right? That everything points
to us worshiping the Lord,
the chief end of man.
Is that we should glorify I god and
enjoy him forever Doesn't that sound a lot
like worship?
And here we hear worship for the first
time, this word,
n.
We
will worship.
We will bow down. We will go and
make ourselves pros for god... Before God, and
then we will
return.
But I find it so interesting that the
first occurrence of worship in the scripture is
about sacrifice.
It's about making a sacrifice
before God.
Worship requires sacrifice. If you if you think
that's changed at all, I encourage you to
opened to Romans chapter 12 verse 1.
Therefore I ex you brothers and sisters by
the mercy of God to present your bodies
as a
sacrifice,
living
wholly and pleasing to God, which is your
spiritual service of
worship.
Sacrifice in worship are still tied intimately together.
Nothing has changed.
Maybe the way in which we sacrifice
ourselves has changed
because no longer do we have to put
ourselves on an altar
Thank you, Jesus.
What it still requires you to give something
up of yourself.
It requires a humility.
It it requires
obedience.
Because dis disobedience really ends up landing in
1 vein is that
I know better than God does.
I know better for myself than God knows
for me, and so I'm not gonna obey
what God is calling me to do. I'm
gonna do what I wanna do.
And so we have to be willing
to worship
and sacrifice.
They're so
closely associated and linked with 1 another.
But even in Abraham
knowing
what's about to happen? Says to his servants.
And we will return to you.
We will return
to you
It may be because III don't know if
it's about you, but I've done this before
where I just... It's wish thinking.
Or, like, I'm just gonna throw it out
there in hope,
upon every hope that that this is a
true statement.
And maybe Abraham just like,
and we're gonna return to you,
maybe,
or maybe there is a full assurance in
Abraham heart,
I'm trusting God this time.
We're both coming back. And I don't know
how he's gonna do it just like, I've
already messed it up enough
where I couldn't trust god to provide an
air through me and through Sarah.
I've already messed that up enough times this
time
God said,
so we're gonna go and we are both
going to return.
And so they go.
And as they're going,
Isaac has this moment
in verse 7. It says, and Isaac spoke
which in Hebrew,
that word spoke is often used as a
moment of interruption. And so maybe he's interrupting
While his dad is just rambling on about
something going on as they're walking up the
mountain?
Or maybe he's interrupting the deafening silence.
Because that hasn't said a word
as they head up the mountain.
But no matter what it is, Isaac
interrupts and says to his father, my father.
Neighbor
responds. Here I am son.
And he said behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb
for the burnt offering.
There's this moment where
Isaac trying to piece everything together and
Abraham responds to his son
God will provide for himself
the lamb for the burnt offering
by son.
Now what's interesting
In the English, there's a comma
between burnt offering and my son.
As if that is to whom he is
addressing
and reassuring Isaac.
But in Hebrew, we don't have
punctuation
And we don't have a grammatical structure that
says that you have to go subject verb
object.
And so 1 way that you might be
able to read this
is God will provide for himself
the lamb,
my son for the burnt offering.
Does Abraham tell Isaac,
you are the burnt offering? You are the
sacrifice.
Maybe.
Because as we look at verse 9 and
10,
They came up to the place of which
God had told him and abraham built the
altar there and arranged the wood
and bound his son Isaac.
And put them on the altar
on top of the wood.
Seems like Isaac just re.
Isaac knows about what's about to happen and
You're just like, bind me dad.
It's okay.
And we can't say for sure. That's what
happened, but
Isaac ends up there either way?
I mean, I would be struggling. Wouldn't you?
But Isaac Re.
He's bound and he's placed
upon this altar that his dad has made
and all of a sudden, all of us
are probably going through that... If we're hearing
this for the first time we're like, what's
gonna happen. How
Is he gonna follow through? Is this...
Like, my anxiety starts to build up as
I read this story?
What is y gonna do? How is this
gonna happen? What's what's the rest of the
story?
How is the promise gonna be fulfilled?
But the angel of Y called to him
as Abraham stretched out his hand and said
Abraham, Abraham, and he said here I am.
We talk a lot about chia
in Genesis, and we have 2 here I
and we have in the middle of those
here I,
that question by Isaac,
which leads me to believe that
Isaac is actually a part of the importance
of the story of trust.
Because my guess is that Isaac is growing
up. He's being told by his father that
he is the son of the promise
that through him
nations will be blessed.
Because of him, he he is the 1
who makes us laugh. Right,
because how is it that you are even
born to
a dad who is 99 and a mom
who is 90?
I wonder if this is as much about
Abraham as it is about Isaac,
trusting the story that he has heard all
along.
God provides.
Somehow, even as you lay on the altar
God is going to provide.
And so Abraham
has his
arms stayed
And says do not stretch your hand out
against the boy and do nothing to him
for now I know
that you...
Fear
God. You trust that god will provide? Didn't
we just talk about that?
The first time fear of the Lord appears,
it's about provision. Now we're reading about fear
again. It's about provision.
I know that you fear God since you
have not withheld your son, your only son
from
me.
You finally get it.
You trust me.
Abraham, you trust
me.
You believe in the story,
And what I have called you to do
1 of the hardest things in your life,
you didn't hesitate
you obeyed.
And maybe there were some doubt in that
3 day journey leading up to the mountain
top, but you stayed your course and you
never...
Stopped going forward
even to the point of binding your son
and placing me on the altar and drawing
the knife,
You
obeyed.
You trusted me.
And that's really where this
story
ends where...
The text kinda
leaves us,
where we have to stop
because we have to wrestle with the fact
that we have a god who tests.
James 01:12
through 14,
blessed is the man who persevere
under trials
under tests.
For once he has been approved, he will
receive the crown of life,
which the Lord has promised to those who
love him.
James
1 2 through 4,
consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters
when you encounter various testing,
knowing that the testing of your faith brings
about perseverance,
and let perseverance have its perfect
work so that you may be perfect and
complete lacking in nothing.
I told you that God loves to use
imperfect people for his works and purposes,
but he requires something out of his per
out of those imperfect people.
That they would obey
that they would trust what he is saying
and take that next step
What's the next step of obedience for you
in your life? What is he calling you
to trust him in that you have...
Been struggling to believe him for?
How has he been calling you to
take that next obedient
step to trust him to provide in your
moments of greatest weakness.
In your moments of greatest trial in the
storms of your life, how can you trust
God and just take that next obedient step?
And here's the thing that I want to
both
encourage you and warn you about that in
the test, there will be temptation.
But the test is from God so that
you may flourish in faith, the temptation is
from the devil that you might fa into
sin.
In the beginning, God created a garden with
a test.
A tree from which Adam and Eve were
required not to eat of.
It was when the enemy stepped in that
that test became attempt patient.
And that they might fall into sin
And so my encouragement to us
I think that the encouragement from the lord
is that
you demonstrate your trust
in me.
Through obedience. All the things that I have
commanded
you,
you are to fulfill.
And we're not gonna be perfect.
It's a growth.
It's a it's a growing pain that we
are all gonna have to go through, but
it's 1 that you have to go through.
If you expect to get to that place
that James talks about to of perseverance,
perseverance having its perfect work so that you
may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing.
I love it.
It's hard.
It's hard, and there will be tests along
the way,
but it is good
In fact, in that d taxonomy passage, we
read earlier, what did God say he was
putting them through the test 4 for their
good.
We're tested for our good.
But what is so good about being tested?
So it it causes our faith to grow
in God.
That's the greatest gift that we can possibly
have is increased faith.
Faith for all things,
faith
for the impossible.
Let's pray.
Good and grace God. You're calling us fourth.
You're calling us fourth Lord, and maybe you've
settled some things on some hearts
today. Maybe you've settled some things on heart.
In the last week or the last month,
and
there's been some hesitation to take that next
step, some
hesitation to say yes,
to you,
hesitation to respond in obedience because we don't
know how it's gonna happen. We don't know
how you're gonna provide, but God,
I pray that this morning,
whoever that is heard this message and
their hesitation will become a yes.
And they will be able to see you
at work because of that yes this morning.
How do we trust you?
Lead us to be more obedient every day.
Let us
follow you wherever you go
as the spirit leads,
it's in Jesus name.
Amen.