Genesis – Trust through Obedience

A bible with you.

I encourage you to go ahead and grab

it and open up to Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

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.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

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

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

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

Isaiah 6:8

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.

2 Timothy 3:16

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.

Romans 12:1

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.

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

James 1:12–14

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.