The God of Sacrifice, Part 4-Doug Crum

Right, good morning.

We're gonna start off.

I'm gonna need some helpers.

I think I need six helpers.

Uh do we have six um kiddos in elementary school that can come and help me?

I'm just just somebody come forward.

I'm I need six of you.

I can okay, here's one.

Another one.

Anybody?

We got one here's two.

Here's three, four, five.

Okay, we have, okay, I need exactly six.

So um we're good right here.

Okay.

Oh no no no no no no no.

You have to stay up here with me too.

Come on.

Okay.

Uh I've I have something special for you in a minute.

Hang on.

Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six.

Okay, so here's what I need you to do is lower this a little bit and check and make sure it's on, because it'll be on.

Oakley.

Oakley.

How old are you, Oakley?

Five.

Five?

I'm Preston and I'm 10.

Okay, Preston is ten.

Ezra six.

Ezra.

Ezra five.

You're five?

Six?

Did you just did you just have a birthday like just a second ago?

You went from five to six.

Hey, when you get older, you're gonna change your number, but you're gonna go down instead of up.

So it's it'll be normal.

And I was like and some lines and okay, okay, here we go.

So we're gonna do something right now.

I need someone.

Carter, you look like you have you have shoes that will work, won't they?

Yeah, they will.

Okay, so here's what I need you do.

Y'all hang tight.

Um, so I just pretty happy.

Okay, here we go.

Carter, you wanna come here, boss?

You you know how to walk.

You gotta answer that.

You know how to walk?

Okay, so here I'm gonna have you walk on this thing.

Okay, stand on this thing.

Okay.

You ready for this?

Okay, I'm gonna turn it on.

You ready?

Can you walk?

You got it?

Is that too fast?

That seems a little fast.

Let's slow it down just a bit.

Think you can handle one mile an hour?

Okay, that's awesome.

Okay, so I have chocolate Hershey bars for all of you guys.

You're doing great.

Uh, so you have to answer a few questions I have for you.

Okay, now here's the thing, though.

If you answer it correctly, you get a chocolate bar.

Okay, um, but here's the other thing.

If you don't know the answer, you can ask somebody out here and they can help you.

Okay, so here we go.

Question number one.

Can you name the four gospels?

Okay, ask somebody for help.

Somebody, Giles, this looks like you might know.

Okay, what is it?

Yeah, but you gotta say it in here so everybody hears you.

And you've got to squat down because you're the only there you go.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Is that correct?

Okay, you get a candy bar.

Thank you very much.

Okay, you very good.

Okay, you can go have a seat.

Okay, I have a question for you.

Woo! Um, when is BBS this week?

You don't know?

Okay, so ask somebody.

Who sa who somebody is gonna help you out?

When is BBS this week?

Okay, you got it.

All right, it starts on Monday, so if you have a kid, a neighbor, a friend, or a stranger, invite them, thank you.

You can have a seat.

Okay, let's see.

Um, next question.

What old testament book what old testament book about a guy and a big fish did I preach about for 12 weeks?

You don't know.

Can somebody help him?

Somebody come help him.

Surely somebody knows.

Okay, you got it?

Yep.

Is that correct?

All right, very good.

Thank you.

Have a seat.

Okay, let's see.

Here we go.

Next question.

What?

I'm so glad you get this one.

What is a VBS song that we will probably sing this week?

Okay, do you want to sing it?

You don't have the time.

Look, you gave one like, no.

Okay, okay.

This here's one right here.

You ready for this one?

Who is someone who is really special in this auditorium?

Just somebody special to you.

God is oh, that is awesome.

Okay, can you think of a person who's in here right now that is also very special besides God?

Can you think of somebody out there?

Is there somebody out there who's really special to you?

Just one person.

So anybody?

No, no what nobody in your family?

Your dad is special?

Okay.

And he's in here?

Okay, so you get one for yourself for answering it, and then you also get one to take to your dad because he's really special.

All right, that is awesome.

Okay, thank you.

You can have a seat.

All right.

The fact is, there's really a lot of very special people in this auditorium.

There's a lot of special people in this auditorium.

Uh, this month marks, stay with me, people.

This month marks one year that my family have been here in Brownwood, and it has been really, really incredible.

Uh, some people uh have stopped by and and dropped off goodies.

Other people have been really encouraging.

Uh one elder came up and on the stage behind me uh publicly shamed me and likened me to a large blue desert dessert eating uh Sesame Street character.

Um so there's that guy, Chad.

Uh, but for the most part, everybody has been really special.

Um I also seriously um want you to know that one of the reasons why I'm here and why I'm still here um is because of Tom and Jew and the love that they have shown.

Um when when I first got the phone call several, well, I guess it was a little over a year ago, and they asked about and they wait, are you supposed to be oh you're supposed to walk on that?

Hop back on that Twitter?

Come on, kids these days.

Uh, and one of the questions that I asked was, um, is is is Tom, is he gonna be willing to support and encourage a new guy who comes in?

Uh who's very different and weird and goofy.

Um, and that answer has been a resounding yes over and over again.

There's a lot of ways that Tom could have made the last 12 months of my life terrible.

Uh, but he has been so gracious, he and Julie both to myself and my wife, and I am so incredibly grateful to you.

All of you, thank you so much for this being a really special 12 months.

I hope I get at least another 12 months out of this.

But if I don't change gears pretty quickly, some folks are gonna be really, really upset with me.

So, I guess, okay, I guess I'll let you come off.

So, can I ask you a few questions before we go?

Here we go.

I'm gonna hit this off.

It's gonna be weird because it's gonna stop and you're gonna, if you keep walking, you just kind of fly off of this.

Okay, so was that really hard?

It wasn't too hard.

Okay, um, did you notice how you had to walk a really long time?

And all they had to do is answer questions.

Did you notice that?

Did you notice that I had a pack of six chocolate bars?

How many did I give away?

Yeah, well, how about this?

How many are left?

I gave away six, but I told you I was gonna give you a candy bucket.

And I had you walk on there the whole time.

Did I tell you how long you were gonna walk?

Yeah, for a mile.

And you just had to keep going.

And sometimes, like a treadmill, it's weird.

You can walk and walk and walk, and you're still in the same place even when you did done.

And so I told you that I had a candy bar for you, but I gave all those candy bars away.

But what if, hey, guess what?

What if I told you that I have a gigantic candy bar just for you?

Does that make you feel better?

Alright, okay.

You get to take that.

Everybody give part of their hand and you go have a seat.

Look, now he's running.

Yeah, he may need to cool off.

He was like really hot.

So that, um, okay, so here we go.

Now I've got to see uh what's going on.

We are still in Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

We've been in here for a really long time.

But I want to ask this question.

We're gonna get to verse 5 again because that's where we always end up.

But I want to ask you this.

Ooh, we're short on time.

I'm I'm I've got that was more fun than I thought it was gonna be.

I want to ask you this.

It's Genesis 22.

What does God know about I'm sorry, what does Abraham know about God at this point?

I want you to think about this for just a second.

What does Abraham know about God at this point in his life?

This is not going to be that hard.

This is Genesis 22.

That means there's 21 chapters before.

There's another 1,167 chapters after this.

This represents a minuscule part of the Bible.

Abraham knows very, very little.

All of you in here could smoke Abraham on a Bible quiz test.

He knows almost nothing.

But real quickly, let's recap what possibly Abraham might know up to this point.

Genesis chapter 1 and 2, what happens?

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

God creates the world.

In Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve, they eat the fruit, and what does God do?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

God kicks them out of paradise.

He kicks them out of the garden.

Chapter 4, we're introduced to our first children in the Bible, Cain and Abel.

They go give a sacrifice.

God accepts the sacrifice that is given by Abel.

Cain is frustrated, he's mad, he kills his brother.

God comes down to Cain.

Hey, where's your brother?

You know, his blood is crying out.

God curses Cain and causes him to be a wanderer.

That's the first four chapters.

How about Genesis chapter 5?

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

There's this really long list of really old gods in there.

We'll skip over that one.

Genesis chapters 6 through 9.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

Um, years later, the earth was filled with lots of people, and the Lord saw how man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only on evil all the time.

And so God decides he's going to destroy the world and he's going to do it with a flood, but he decides he's going to save Noah and his wife and their three boys and their wives.

This is what we know of, this is what Abraham knows so far.

After the flood, God is going to make a rainbow, and it's to serve as a reminder that he's not going to destroy the world with the flood again.

Why did he make the rainbow?

Who was he reminding?

Himself.

When he sees the rainbow, it's a reminder to himself.

I'm not going to destroy the world in that way.

Genesis chapter 10.

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

We have a long list of unusual names like Gomer and Nimrod and Put.

How would you like to be named Put?

Or Nimrod for that matter.

I won't say anything else about that.

Chapter 11, time passes by, and a lot of people are going to gather together and they're going to start building a tower out of baked bricks.

God comes down, he sees what they're doing, and he basically says, look, if they get together and do this, what's going to stop them from doing anything?

And so he confuses them and he scatters them all over the face of the world.

At the end of chapter 11, we're briefly introduced to a guy named Abram and his wife Sarah, who just so happens to be barren.

That is pointed out in chapter 11.

This is what we know.

This is what Abraham or Abram knows to this point.

This is all that has happened that he knows about God.

Genesis chapter 12, verse 1.

Genesis 12:1

I don't know if there's a knock on the door, but somehow God is going to come to Abraham, or excuse me, Abram, and he says, leave your country and your people and go to the place that I will show you.

I will make you to a great nation and I will bless you.

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

And so in chapter 12, Abram at 75 years old, packs his bag, takes his wife with him, and his nephew Lot, and they go off to live in Canaan.

While they're in Canaan, there's a famine in the land, and he fears that he can't provide for his family.

And so they move down to Egypt.

While he's there, he is afraid that people are going to look longingly at his wife, and that's going to get him in trouble.

So what does he do?

He calls his wife his sister.

Guys, that's a really bad idea.

And it seems to get Abram in a little bit of trouble with Pharaoh because they end up with this plague, and uh they say, take your wife, not your sister, and get out of here.

In 13 and 14, he's going to go up to Bethel, and while he's there, he's going to split areas with his nephew Lot.

There, God is going to again promise Abraham that he's going to be with him.

There's going to be a battle.

Abraham is going to come in to save today.

And then Abram is going to be blessed by a high priest by the name of Melchizedek.

Great name.

Awesome story.

We don't have time for it this morning.

Chapter 15, the Lord comes to Abraham and says, I'm your shield and your reward.

And Abram says, I have no kids.

God continues to make these promises to Abram.

But he hasn't been making a grid on them yet.

And so Abram says, I have no kids, and God says, I want you to make a sacrifice.

So he sacrifices these five different animals, and then he falls into a deep sleep.

He has a vision.

And there in that vision, he's going to be told that he's going to have numerous children.

They're going to end up in Egypt, or we're going to be slaves, and then God is going to deliver them out of that.

So another promise in chapter 16.

Sarah tells Abraham, look, you're supposed to have this great family, but clearly it's not going to come through me.

Take Hagar, and through her, our family will go on.

And so Hagar gets pregnant, and then Sarah gets upset, and she turns to Abram and says, You're responsible for the reason why I'm suffering.

So that did not turn out well for Abram.

He did exactly what his wife said to do, and he still got in trouble.

So that can happen sometimes.

Hagar is going to flee, and God says, I want you to go back to them.

In chapter 17, Abram is now 99 years old, and God promises again.

And he's going to change his name and tell Abraham to be circumcised along with his family.

In chapter 18, Abraham is going to welcome three men who end up, one of them ends up being the Lord, and the Lord makes another promise again.

He says, This time next year, your wife will be with child.

He says this.

She starts giggling.

She laughs.

And the Lord asks, asks, Why did you laugh?

And she says, No, I didn't.

And he said, Yes, you did.

That's all in there.

That's exactly what it says.

It's just crazy, this back and forth that's going on.

At the end of 18, the Lord says he's going to destroy Sodom.

And this is where Abraham tries to negotiate to save Sodom.

And he gets out.

There's just 10 people and there wasn't enough.

And so in chapter 19, God is going to rain burning sulfur down on Sodom and Gomorrah.

And while that is also happening, he's going to turn Lot's wife into a pillar of salt because she turned and looked back.

It's all in here.

Chapter 20, Abraham's going to move near Kadesh, and he's going to lie a second time about how his wife is his sister.

How good looking is Sarah that at 89 years old, he's still telling people, that's my sister.

She is obviously a looker.

And so in 21, finally, finally God makes good.

And Sarah is going to have a child and makes Abraham get rid of Hagar and her son Ishmael.

God tells Abraham, he says, Let them go.

I am going to bless Ishmael and Isaac, like I said I would.

And I just, I love this.

I love this part of this story.

Because even when Abram, Abraham wasn't exactly faithful because he took Hagar instead of waiting for God, even though he was unfaithful in that, God was still faithful and says, I told you that I would bless your children and I will bless them, even though you were unfaithful to me.

And at this point in Genesis chapter 22, that is all we know, or this is all Abraham knows about God.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Now let me summarize, and correct me if I'm wrong, this comes across as harsh.

But what we know of Genesis 1 through 21, that there's quite a bit of punishment and violence meted out by God on different people.

This is undisputed.

He is going to destroy the world.

He's going to curse people, he kicks them out of the garden, he makes them wander, he changes their languages and scatters them all over the place, right?

Numerous commands in this time are given for Abraham to leave his home, to sacrifice animals, and to be circumcised along with his family.

And then there's all these promises that God makes over and over and over again.

And he's only made good on one.

He's only made good on one promise.

I just want you to think about that for a moment.

This is all that Abraham knows about God.

All he knows is, is that he seems to punish people when they do wrong.

And he makes a lot of promises, and he makes a lot of commands.

And of the promises he makes, he hasn't really come through with very many of them at all.

These are facts.

I'm not trying to be harsh towards God.

I just don't want you to sneak ahead and say, oh, but God is going to do this.

This and this.

This is all Abraham knows.

And I think that's really important.

Because when we get to chapter 22, God's going to say, hey, I want you to take your son and go sacrifice him.

And your son.

Raising reason.

Abraham agreed.

Let's look at this next verse in Genesis chapter 22, verse 5.

Genesis 22:5

Here we go.

I think it's going to work.

Abraham said to his servant, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy will go over there.

We will worship, and then we will come back to you.

We looked at a few weeks ago that we will worship.

But there's something else that I want us to see.

We will come back.

Did you hear that?

What is that?

What is it?

Confidence?

Trust?

Faith?

How in the world is Abraham, who only knows this much about God, a God who's punishing people, a God who's making all these commands, a God who's making all these promises, but so far the only promises he's really made is when he said, look, next year you're going to have a son.

Besides that, all these promises of being a great nation, and you're going to be blessed, and people will be blessed for you.

None of that has happened yet.

I want you to think about this.

Don't just, this is what we want to do.

We want to go to Hebrews 11.

Right?

By faith, Abraham, when tested by God, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

I love this verse 19.

Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, you did receive Isaac back to God.

Genesis 22, verse 5 says this.

Genesis 22:5

Abraham had such incredible faith.

And so my question is this When did Abraham become faithful?

When did Abraham become faithful?

Let's be completely honest.

I'm not trying to go after Abraham, but I want you to ask this.

Was he faithful to God when he took Hagar to have children because God hadn't allowed Sarah to get pregnant?

Was he faithful then?

You've got to help me out here.

Was he faithful then?

Okay.

Was he faithful when he lied to protect himself and his wife by calling Sarah his sister?

Was he faithful then?

No.

Abraham has an issue with always doing what he's supposed to do.

I'm not here to say that Abraham is a terrible person.

What I am here to say is Abraham is faithful, not perfect.

We started this sermon 45 minutes ago with Carter on this scene.

And when I asked him to get on this scene, I didn't tell him how long that he would be on it.

I didn't tell him exactly what he was getting, only that there was going to be a reward for him.

And he was just simply asked to walk.

And you saw the look on his face.

I'm going to have to go back and watch this, but judging by your snickers, and a lot of you were pointing like, you forgot Carter.

I didn't forget Carter.

But you're like, you forgot him.

Like you left him there.

He's just there walking.

I want you to know that for a lot of us, this is life right now.

God has made promises.

He's called us to be faithful.

He says to walk out, step out in faith.

And he has these promises and these commands, and we do them and nothing.

We're just here walking and we're walking and we're walking.

And we see other people.

Great things are happening to them, and God is showing his faithfulness to them.

And here we are, we're just on this treadmill walking, and we're confused, and we're exhausted, and we're frustrated, and we're not perfect.

And we want to step off the treadmill.

And we want to give up.

And we want to cry out, God, where are you?

You made these promises.

And I'm still here, I'm stuck, and I'm broken and I'm mad and my marriages and shambles, and I'm struggling in my job, and I can't make ends meet, and my kids aren't talking to me, and I'm having all these different struggles in my life, and God is as we walk.

And I think he was really scared.

And I think he was upset and confused and he didn't know what to do, but he packed everything and he followed God even when it didn't make sense, even when he didn't think the promise was going to be there.

He just had to trust.

I don't know how God is going to do this.

Maybe he'll raise him from the dead, but the Lord will provide, is what he said.

And so for you this morning, I just want to close out with this one thought.

If you're struggling and you're having a difficult time and it's hard being faithful, and you just want to give up, I just I just want to beg you, continue to make that next step.

Because faith means nothing when you're sitting down.

Faith is displayed when you saw that.

So I want you to stand up and walk for God, even when you don't have all these answers, even when you look back on your struggles in your life, even when you can't see a future ahead.

Come on, people.

God is faithful.

In our lives, in our brokenness, God is faithful even when we're not.