Transcription
Have you ever been asked or told to do something that you didn't want to do? We all have, right? I can think of a multitude of times that my mom asked me to do chores or to drive my sister to dance class. Because once I got a license, it did not equal the freedom that I thought it would, but it actually meant I became my younger sister's chauffeur.
With my kids right now, my daughter knows that she is supposed to share her toys with her younger brother, but it is also very obvious that she does not want to share her toys with her younger brother. Maybe you can relate. Maybe your parents asked you to do chores or take care of your younger sibling, and it was the last thing that you wanted to do.
Maybe it's more serious. Maybe God has told you that you need to end the relationship you're in. He's not the one for you. Maybe you've said your whole life that dance, basketball, drumline, whatever your passion is, that it is your first love. But now, as you've grown in your faith, you feel God asking you to rethink things and put Him first.
We've all been asked to do things that we have not wanted to, and tonight as we get into God's word, we're gonna see that there will be times when God asks us to do something that we may not want to, and having the ability to follow through requires faith. The story we're gonna look at is of a father who God asked to make an ultimate sacrifice, and even though the father probably didn't want to, his faith did not waver. He loved God, and he followed God's command. The man tonight that I'm talking about is Abraham.
When we first meet Abraham, God gives him a promise. In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham to leave his homeland and to follow God's lead, and in turn, God will bless Abraham and his family and turn them into a great nation. Abraham is given the option: will you choose the comfort that you know and keep your life the way it is, or will you choose to embark on a great journey into the unknown with God promising that his offspring will develop into a great nation? When Abraham could have chosen comfort and security, he instead chose faith, and the journey that God takes him and his wife on, it leads them to foreign lands and different situations.
Along the way, God promises Abraham and his wife, Sarah, a son. Now, this promise isn't fulfilled right away, and so Abraham and his wife, they struggle through infertility. But because of their struggle, they eventually tried to take matters into their own hands and go outside of God's will. But even when they made a mistake, God did not abandon them; but He showed His faithfulness and His love to them. And so, after 25 years from when God first gave Abraham the promise of being a great nation, his son, Isaac, is born.
You see, Abraham is often referred to as the father of faith for the way that he faithfully followed and served God. And so what we are going to see tonight is that the way that we best love God is by putting our faith in God. The way that we best love God is by putting our faith in God. What does it mean for us to have faith? You see, faith is trust based on evidence that leads to obedience. Faith is trust based on evidence that leads to obedience.
Now, where we pick up in the story is in Genesis 22. You see, some time has passed since Isaac has been born. We don't know exactly how much time, but Isaac is certainly not a boy anymore. Scholars believe he was either fully grown or at least close to it. So Genesis 22:1, it says, "Sometime later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' Abraham replied. Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.'"
Pause. What on earth did we just read? God wants him to do what? God promised that Abraham would have a son and that his son's descendants would lead to a great nation. Was God all of a sudden turning His back on this promise? No. You see, God tested Abraham. Sometimes we get asked to do things that we don't wanna do, but even in those moments where there might be confusion, chaos, or fear, we can learn from Abraham in the way that he did not waver in his love, trust, and commitment to God. Even when it doesn't make sense, we trust in the character and the promises of God. Even when it doesn't make sense, we trust in the character and the promises of God.
Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, said it like this: "God is too good to be unkind, and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we trust His heart." And as we are going to continue to see, that is exactly what Abraham did.
Picking back up in verse three: "Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son, Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey, I and the boy go over there, and we will worship, and then we will come back to you.' Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son, Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, 'Father?' 'Yes, my son,' Abraham replied. 'The fire and the wood are here,' Isaac said, 'but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' Abraham answered, 'God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.' And the two of them went on together."
Now, some context: At this point in the Bible, lambs would be offered as a sacrifice by those who followed God as a way to be cleansed of their sins. So Abraham and Isaac, they're going to this place to set up an altar, and Isaac is starting to get a little suss because he knows there's an altar and a sacrifice requires a lamb, but currently, there is no lamb in sight. You almost wonder if this is how Isaac is feeling in this moment. If Isaac is thinking, "I might be the lamb," he's starting to freak out a little bit, and can you blame him? And I can't even imagine what his father, Abraham, is thinking. This is his only son that God is asking him to give as a sacrifice. But again, Abraham's faith did not waver, because even when it doesn't make sense, we trust in the character and the promises of God.
Verse nine tells us: "When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham 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. Then he reached out his hand, took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I am,' Abraham replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son from me, your only son.' 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. So Abraham called that place 'The Lord Will Provide.' And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.'"
You see, Abraham had been faithfully following the Lord for many decades at this point. Abraham had proven time and time again that he would follow God when God commanded him to do something. Now, was Abraham perfect? No, but he continued to prove that he trusted in the character and the promises of God, and this is what it looks like to have faith. You see, faith is continuing to trust in God even when it feels confusing. Faith is knowing that God will work out a purpose through the pain. Faith is saying yes, even when we haven't heard the question yet.
In Hebrews 11, we're actually told that Abraham's faith was so great in God that even if he did end up sacrificing Isaac, he wholeheartedly believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. He believed this because he had seen the faithfulness of God at work in his life, so he knew that God would not go back on his promise of a great nation coming from Isaac. We can be faithful to God because God has been faithful to us.
Finishing out in verse 15: "The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, 'I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me.' Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba, and Abraham stayed in Beersheba."
Now, all of this, everything that happens in the story of Abraham and Isaac, is a preview of how God is going to bless the world through Jesus. Jesus is the offspring, the descendant that will bring forgiveness and freedom to everyone who believes in him. And one of the coolest things about the story we just read is how many parallels there are between Isaac and Jesus. And so here are just a few of the parallels that we see in both of them. The first, both Isaac and Jesus, their sons that are loved by their fathers. Both Isaac and Jesus carried wood on their backs. Both Isaac and Jesus went up the same mountain. Both of them were willing sacrifices, and both of them, their stories ended in life. You see, everything we just read is a preview of the good news that God would bring through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which is why we can be faithful to God because God has been faithful to us.
So what do we do with this tonight? What do we do with this story? What does it look like to be faithful to God? You see, faith is trust based on evidence that leads to obedience. This is why in John, in another one of his writings, he says, "This is love for God, to keep His commands." Said simply, loving God means doing what He says. And that's the story of Abraham's life, and it's the thing that so inspires me about both my grandpa and my dad.
You see, my grandpa and my dad both are pastors, and so my grandpa, first, faithfully served God for his entire life. When he first stepped into being a pastor, he moved around a lot with my grandma. Eventually, they would land in Ohio, where he would faithfully serve a small congregation of about 100 people or so. And through those decades of service, he never questioned God. "Should I go here? Should I go there? Is there something better for me?" He stayed put. Why? Because he faithfully loved God. And then my dad, I've seen him faithfully serve God despite the different challenges that he's faced. In even all the challenges he's gone through in life, never once have I seen his faith shrink. Instead, I've seen his roots grow deeper and deeper and deeper and his love for God grow greater.
Who is that person for you? Maybe it is a family member. Maybe you don't have a family member to look to, but it could be your Switch leader, a teacher, a coach. Who is someone in your life that you can look up to and admire for the way that they love God. You see, that's what it looks like to be faithful. That's what it looks like to love God. It's trusting him and doing what he says. So if you wanna love God with all you are, if you wanna get in your relationship with Him and make it right, commit to do everything God asks you to do. Commit to do everything God asks you to do.
Maybe for you, this looks like you need to watch the words that come outta your mouth. You know that some of the words you say, the jokes you tell, that they're not honoring to God, and it's time to make a change. Maybe it looks like praying consistently, getting into your word daily, actually prioritizing time with God. And maybe going back to that first question, maybe it looks like actually doing the thing that you haven't wanted to do, knowing that God has been nudging you for a while, and instead of continuing to ignore it, it's time to submit and obey.
You see, the way that we best love God is by putting our faith in God. Back when I was in college, I felt God call me into ministry to become a pastor, and it was not what I wanted to do. I wrestled with this calling until eventually, it got to a point where I couldn't say no, and my answer was yes. Eventually, the Lord would give me an opportunity to go and to step into full-time ministry, but it would require moving 12 hours away from home to a part of the country I'd never visited before and to a place where I did not know a single person. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.
On one hand, so much was unknown. Literally, the day that I left my house to drive down from Illinois, where I grew up, to Alabama where I was moving, I did not even know where I was going to be living. But even when it doesn't make sense, we trust in the character and the promises of God. And on the other hand, was knowing that God had proven himself faithful in my life before, so I knew he would be faithful again. And because God is faithful, he blesses those who obey.
Somewhere along my drive down, I get a call, and someone tells me that they found somebody at the churches who had a spare bedroom in their attic that I would be able to stay in while I got my feet under me. You see, I said yes, even when I didn't have all the answers figured out, and God provided the things that I needed. And I can confidently tell you today that saying yes to God about moving 12 hours away from home, it was hard, it was terrifying, but it was so worth it. My faith grew in a way that never would've happened in the comfort of my hometown. My love for God grew deeper than ever had before. I've seen it in my life that the way you and I can love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength is by putting our faith in Him.
Let's pray. God, I thank you. I thank you for what you're doing and every single student here at Switch. Lord, I pray that you would help us, give us the courage, give us the inspiration we need to take a step closer to you. Whatever it is, we need to trust you with, whatever maybe that thing is that we haven't said yes to yet, help us tonight to say yes, to put our faith in you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
The greatest calling of our lives is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others the same way Jesus says. So don't wait. Learn more about how to get it right in relationships by checking out this playlist here.