Transcription
[Music] And I am challenging you to ask God to give you an encounter, regardless of the test that you have to take, because when you pass it, it becomes an oath, and He takes over from there. [Music] [Music] [Music]
God's promises come at two levels. There are the recorded promises in His Word, and then there are the applied promises in our experience. That's where He takes a principle or precept from the Word but applies it to your unique situation. It's when the Holy Spirit lifts the print off the Bible and says, "This is for you." We're going to take you to one of the big tests in scripture, and through this test, we're going to tell you and me and us how we can have an encounter with God and His promises.
In Genesis 22, we have one of the most recorded events in history, repeated over and over again in the New Testament, although it happened in the Old Testament. And that is Abraham offering up Isaac. Let me read the first two verses of Genesis 22. "Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham.' He said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.'" Somebody say, "This is a test." That's what He said. God tested Abraham.
So, before I get any further, let me explain something. When God wants to give you an encounter with Him, it will typically involve a test. This is a test related to a promise. I'll explain. This test is unique because it involved a series of contra-actions. A contradiction is when God says one thing and appears to be doing another.
Number one, there was a theological contradiction. You see, God had promised way back in Genesis chapter 12 that He was going to make a great nation out of Abraham, and it would come through the son of Sarah, whose name was Isaac. God had made a promise, but here in Genesis chapter 22, God tells Abraham to kill the promise.
Not only is it a theological contradiction, it is also a biblical contradiction, 'cause that's murder. To offer your son on the altar as a burnt offering means to kill him, and that's murder. But isn't it You, God, who said, "Thou shalt not kill"? Isn't it You, God, who in Genesis chapter 9, verse 6, said, "If any man kills another man, he shall by man be killed, for man is created in the image of God"? Didn't I hear You say that? Well, if You said that over here, how You asking me to kill him over here? That's a contradiction.
It's involved in a test. It's not only a theological contradiction, it's not only a biblical contradiction, it's an emotional contradiction. Because He says, "Sacrifice your son, your only son," and then He says, "whom you love." My only son, you asking me to turn over and even take his life? That's killing my emotions.
The worst of all, it's the spiritual contradiction. Because He says, "I want you to offer him as a burnt offering," which is an act of worship. That's worship. In fact, He's gonna say, "I'm going to worship." Worshiping God in a crisis. He says, "I want you to sacrifice your son and worship," even though I'm calling on you to make the biggest decision in your life.
Because when God wants to give you an encounter with Him, it will be a test, and the test will often involve something that doesn't make sense. What is Abe going to do? Because this is certainly not something he wants to do.
First three says, "Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and he arose and went to the place which God had told him." It says, when it was told to do this thing that he didn't want to do, that didn't make sense, he got up early.
Hebrews chapter 11, verses 17 and 19, says, "Abraham offered up Isaac, and he considered that God was able to raise him from the dead in order to keep His promise." The reason he got up early is because he had such confidence in God that even if it didn't make sense, and even if he killed his son, God would get him up out of the grave. See, you have to have a bigger view of God, particularly when He doesn't make sense.
He said, "Because they believed that God could raise them from the dead." Why would Abraham believe that God could raise the dead? Abraham was a hundred years old when he had Isaac. Sarah was 90 years old when she had Isaac. So Abraham is figuring, if God can bring life out of death when I was a hundred years old and my wife was 90 years old, He can handle this new situation as well. You have to learn to remember what God did yesterday for the new stuff you're dealing with today. Now, that's a problem if you've never had God do anything for you, because you don't have anything to remember. So this situation you're in now is your first memory. But those who walked with God and who've been through a little something, and then they're coming up with something new, some new challenge, some new contradiction, you can look back on the stones of remembrance.
Abraham is now going. He tells the young men, the lads, the servants, "They hear that we coming back." He says in verse 8, "God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." Isaac asked him, "Look, Dad, I see the fire, I see the wood, I see the stuff to make the fire, but I don't see any lamb. Every other time we went to church, we had we had a lamb, but there's no lamb today." He says, "Son, only God can fix this one."
Now watch this. "They come to the place, verse 9, which God told him, and Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, bound his son Isaac on top of the wood, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son." Can you imagine what he's thinking and feeling right now? Because this doesn't make sense.
"The angel of the Lord, verse 11, Jesus in the Old Testament, called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham.' Watch it. When God calls your name twice, and he said, 'Here I am.'" This the second time he said that. "I'm here. I'm submitted to you. 'Do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'"
Now, this is difficult and deep. "Now I know that you fear me because you've not withheld your son, your only son, from me." The problem is those three words: "now I know." So now I want to give you a tidbit of theology. The doctrine of omissions refers to God's all-knowing. Omniscient means to know all. There is nothing God does not know. Anything that can be known, God already knows. God knows everything actual, God knows everything potential, but He does not know everything experiential. So He never experienced sin, although He knows all about sin. He knows what it is, He knows where it came from, He knows what it does, but He doesn't know how it feels to do it because He never did it. So He has admissions about the information, but not admissions about the experience of the data.
When God wanted to know what it feels like to be human, guess what He did? He became a man. Hebrews 4 says, so that He could sympathize with our infirmity, so He could feel it. So guess why God put you in a trial that doesn't make sense? 'Cause He wants to feel your love. He don't just want to hear, you don't just want to hear discussions about it, He wants to feel it. And what makes Him feel it? When you choose Him over something you already love.
He says, "I know you fear me because you've not withheld your son, the only one you've got, whom you love, from me." When you had to choose between Me and him, you chose Me. And now I know, 'cause now I feel it.
What happens when this takes place? "Now I know that you fear me." Abraham raised up his eyes, look verse 13, and behold, there was a ram caught in the thicket. Now, this is the quietest ram in history. If a ram is caught in a thicket, it's trying to wiggle, it's trying to get out of the thicket. He does not see the solution until the obedience occurs. Okay? See, a lot of us are looking for the ram when we haven't finished the obedience. So God is keeping the ram quiet. The solution was already there, it just wasn't revealed until after God felt him caught in the thicket. If the ram is caught in the thicket, that means the ram is already in the thicket. It was just not revealed.
Abraham called the name of the place, verse 14, "The Lord will provide." That's one of the big names of God, Jehovah Jireh. You, you've heard that, you've sung it, that's Jehovah Jireh. It is said to this day, "In the Mount of the Lord, it will be provided." The Greek word Jireh means to precede. It means to precede. So God provides when He precedes. He needs to precede so that you can see Him provide. So if you don't give Him something to see, then you may not see what He can provide.
He says, "Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time." That's a big principle in scripture. When God wants to confirm something, He does it a second or third time. The angel of the Lord calls to Abraham a second time for confirmation. "This is really Me talking, okay?" So the Lord calls to him a second time, and He gives him a zinger. We read you the zinger, verse 16: "And said, 'By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.'"
He says, "I have now sworn to you. I swear." Okay, they use it in everyday language, "I swear." So here you have an important principle, and that is the distinction between God's promise and God's oath. God made a promise to Abraham way back in Genesis chapter 12, same promise, but He doesn't swear by it until Genesis 22, the passage we're reading today. Between Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, when He swears by something, He said, "Are dozens of years." It took Him 25 years from the time he disposed of Isaac to the time he actually had Isaac, Isaac as a teenager now. So we've got decades that have gone by when nothing has happened about the promise.
There are those who feel like God has said something in His Word or says something to you years ago and nothing has happened yet. That is because you must understand, between God's promise and God's oath is space. In that space between what He says He's going to do and when He's actually going to do it, is a time when He's getting the promise ready for you, and He's getting you ready for the promise.
Between Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, Abraham made a bunch of mistakes. He almost got his wife hooked up with another man. He had a baby by another woman. I mean, he's been lying over this face. A time Abraham has had some issues. So God was not ready to give Abe the promise because he was not ready to handle it properly. So in the space between God's promise and God's oath is His preparation, and you have a part to play in how long it lasts. 'Cause He says, "Now that you've obeyed Me, now that you've come fully with Me, I can now do what I said I was going to do."
Let me help you out with the New Testament. Because in Hebrews chapter 6, guess what the author of Hebrews says about this story in Genesis chapter 22? In Hebrews chapter 6, here's where we read, verse 13: "For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself." Remember, God said, "I swear." Okay. It says, "Saying, 'I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you.'" We just read that. "And so, having waited patiently, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way, God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us." So He could swear by nobody greater than Himself, so He swore by Himself.
Now let me tell you what happens when God takes an oath related to a promise. He plans to bring you away, even though you don't know how in the world He's gonna do it, 'cause it doesn't make sense. It's totally contradictory. How in the world is God gonna pull this off? He says, "I swear by Myself," which means I don't need anybody outside of Me to make it happen. In other words, when God is ready to make a promise an oath, there's nothing left for you to do. All you got to do is finish the obedience until He's ready to take it over Himself.
Hebrews chapter 11, verses 17 and 19, it closes with this phrase: "Abraham offered up Isaac, and then it says, 'and he got him back as a type.'" Okay, don't miss this. This is rich, it's deep, and it matters. That's in Hebrews 11. All of Hebrews 11 is about what folk went through in the Old Testament, but it's written in the New Testament. He said, "He got Isaac back." God told him, "You know, you don't have to sacrifice me." As a ram, and he got him back as a type.
Now, a type is something physical in the Old Testament designed to teach us something spiritual in the New Testament. The reason why Abraham's story is being retold over and over again is God wants us to use something now based on the principle we learned from what happened then. What happened then was God using a test to bring about His promise and oath.
At Helton, Inc., we have 65 acres. 65 acres of land that OCBF owns. That particular piece was up for sale, and I knew, I knew God had told me that this, you know, everything else that was ours, and I knew in my spirit, with a number of things, that that was ours. We got, we got a bunch of the folk from the church. We marched from here down to the 65 acres. Some of the elders who are here now were here then, and then they were reminding me, they were in the march. So we walked from here, and we walked down to the 65 acres, and we walked out there. We got in this huge circle to pray a prayer of confirmation that this was ours. So we prayed.
The way the land would be sold was through a bid. You had to bid it. So we prayed, and we lost the bid. Somebody bid in higher than us, and the land was sold to another. After I was convinced it was ours, I can't tell you how disappointed I was because I was fairly sure God had said, "This is yours." But the opposite happened. It went to somebody else. And so it was confusing.
Years later, not days, not weeks, not months, years later, word came out that the folks who bought it could not keep up with the payments. Come on, man. Couldn't keep up with the payments. The land was coming back up at a crazy price, and that's why we have it today. God allowed us to lose it so we could trust Him in the loss in order to use it as a type.
Because when we first moved out here, it's nothing but land and trees out here. And the A-frame, built a little A-frame built house. All this out here. And right next to us was a daycare called Apple Ridge. Apple Ridge was a daycare owned by somebody. So all we had was the two acres with the A-frame building. And the owner knew that we would want to buy his land. He knew that. So he had the price way up there, okay? Way up there for this little building that was their price was way up there. And he knew he kind of had us cornered because we needed the land, we wanted the land if the church was gonna expand. But we were caught because he had the price up there 'cause he knew, you know, it was a seller's market. So we would not buy it at this crazy price he was asking for.
All we could do was ask God to, you know, come up with a way to provide it. How he would know, the Lord would have to provide it. He was over there one day when somebody broke in and held him hostage with a gun. Didn't hurt him, but threatened his life. There were kids in there. So now parents are pulling out their kids. So now the value is going south because the parents don't want the kids in that place where that can happen. That can happen anywhere, but at that time. So then he comes to me, knocks on my door, say, "I've been really rethinking this. I believe God wants y'all to have this."
[Applause] He reminded me, whoever would think that God would use a crook to answer a prayer? What I'm trying to tell you is, you don't know who you're dealing with. That's what I'm trying to tell you. And I am challenging you to ask God to give you an encounter, regardless of the test that you have to take, because when you pass it, it becomes an oath, and He takes over from there. [Music]
One of the ways we encounter God is when He provides. And sometimes God provides in the most odd ways. When Elijah needed a provision, God went to a Gentile widow who was poor herself, told her to provide for Elijah, and then He would provide for her. When we walk by faith, because Elijah was told to go to this widow, we experience how God can use unorthodox. Because the Gentiles were not the place you would go for provision. He can use unorthodox people, unorthodox circumstances, to make supernatural provisions, and use that supernatural provision to also provide for the provider. God is a circle in the way He provides. He does it for us, and then He uses us to do it.
Rogers, when you have a need, God promises to meet that. Philippians 4:19. Not all about once, but to provide for our needs. He is your source, and He can supernaturally bring manna from heaven or bring people from earth in order to address the need you have in your life. But when God provides, particularly when you're down to your last dime, particularly when you don't know how this issue is going to be resolved, it's because He wants to give you a divine encounter. He wants you to experience His supernatural provision.
You know, when, when you know where it's coming from, when it's already in the bank, or already in the refrigerator, already in the freezer, then you don't so much look for a divine encounter because you can predict it. So God many times lets us get into situations where we can't predict it, so that He has to resolve it, so that we encounter Him. And so, when the lead shows up in your life, look to God. Don't look to the circumstances, because you often can't figure out the unforgivable God and how He's going to provide for your life and your situation. [Music] [Applause] [Music] you you [Music]