The God of Sacrifice, Part 2-Doug Crum

Okay.

Don't get too comfortable if you thought, well, this is going to be a good 45-minute nap.

Who says I will only go 45 minutes this morning?

But more importantly is I want us to have a little bit of a conversation this morning.

I don't believe that I'm the only person through which God can speak through.

Certainly, that is not the case at all.

I feel like God is continually using all of us to help glorify him.

And so this morning, I want you to join me as we kind of walk through a passage that we started last week.

But before I do that, I just want to ask the question: what is worship?

What's worship?

Adoration?

What's worship?

Praise?

What's worship?

Thankfulness.

Renewing your minds.

Pouring out your hearts.

Wow, lots of good answers.

Um is this kind of what we're is this what worship is right now?

It is?

Is worship sitting?

It can be.

Worship could be standing, it might be running, it might be falling down on your face.

I mean, I I'm a little intrigued by this word.

Um I'm I was never good at school, uh, especially when it came to English.

And so I don't understand how this works.

Um, but it seems like the word worship can be um different words.

It seems like in some ways it can be an adverb as though it's some kind of action, right?

That I am worshiping.

Um, but it seems like it also can be a noun.

And I was going through this in my head.

It's weird because you can come to worship, but you can also come for worship.

And I was trying to go through my head as I was studying for this.

I'm like, how many words can you do to and for?

There's really not very many.

It's worship is really a unique word, but somehow we got the idea that this is worship and almost like this alone is worship.

Right?

I mean, sometimes we get this, and our verbiage, our language seems to convey that message that this is worship.

Sometimes we'll even put on a bulletin after class we're going to have worship.

Right?

We we start worship, right?

We begin worship, we have a call to worship, we enter into worship, and that one really bothers me because if we enter into worship, does that also mean that we exit worship at some time?

Um I I I don't want to go off on a tangent too much, but there's I've I have published one writing in my life, and it was it was in a a very uh just um it was an incredible um uh paper that picked it up.

Uh it's called the ACU Optimist.

I mean, it's world renowned, right?

I mean, they are just begging for people to fill the space.

And so I was a senior one year, and there were some things going on at Chapel that really kind of bothered me and confused me a little bit.

And and the whole deal was back then it's changed now, but back then we had mandatory chapel.

You had to be at chapel every day, which which wasn't bad at all, but they were always trying to fill that space.

And so sometimes they would do some things in chapel that were different, they weren't what the normal was, right?

Because normally in chapel you would get up, you would, somebody would read a scripture, or they would sing a song, and and somebody would come up and speak, and that was chapel.

But every once in a while they did something that was a little different, which is fine.

Because I'm like, hey, worship can look like a lot of different things.

We have a room back there, it's not an auditorium, it's filled with needles and uh and pot and quilts, and there are women who meet that.

Oh, you're not gonna lie, there are women who meet that on Tuesday mornings and they worship in that room.

Not because it's close to the auditorium.

They worship in there because they are they are bending their knees for the Lord, they're doing something to glorify him.

And so I love that idea.

But here we are, we're uh it's back ACU, this is back in the 90s, a long, it was in the 1900s.

It's a long time ago.

We're back there, and they had this weird thing, they didn't want to offend some people, and so what they would do was they would start the chapel, they would sing a song, and then literally like five minutes in, that chapel was supposed to last 25 minutes, five minutes in, they would literally have a dismissal prayer.

But there was no expectation that anybody could get up and leave.

What they were trying to do was, okay, chapel worship is now over, and so now we can do some things that other people not might not be comfortable with.

And so I remember just wrestling with that, and I I sat down and I wrote this little mini article.

It it probably was pretty terrible.

I don't even know if I kept the perfect memory, but I remember I put I put the title of uh of the uh article was Jesus Has Left the Building Question Mark.

And my whole premise was, and still is, can we invite and uninvite God based on what we want to have happen?

Is worship a place?

Or is worship a time period?

Do we come into worship?

Do we worship now?

And then do we leave worship?

Could there be worship if you don't sing a song or have a prayer or read a scripture?

Can it really be worship?

What really is worship?

That's a big question for me.

Can we say, God, this this is worship, but that over there isn't throughout the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

God seems concerned about our worship, but he never seems to indicate that worship can only happen at a certain time or in a certain place.

In fact, there were times in which God's people would come together to do what everybody would recognize and call worship, and God would later say, stop doing that.

I don't want to hear your noise rising up as a song because you're not glorifying me when you show up to worship with a group of people, if you're mistreating the poor and the oppressed, and you're not loving justice, and you're not showing mercy, like these are the things that I desire.

God wants more.

Worship is more than a few songs that happened between now or 10 minutes ago and will end in 25 minutes.

Your worship has to be something more than that.

So we can look at this first slide.

We talked about this last week.

We entered into Genesis chapter 22, and we were looking at what is the beginnings of what ultimately we believe, if we don't know the story, that this guy right here, who seems to be like the bad guy, because he's holding a knife, and it looks like he's about to kill someone.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

This guy named Abraham had a son at a very old age, and God has now come down.

You know what?

I don't want to summarize it.

I just, why don't we just, why don't we just read this?

Genesis chapter 22, starting in verse 1, it says, some time later, God tested Abraham.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied.

Then God said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah, sacrificing there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you about.

I shared this last week, but I want to make sure I go back over this and and and make sure you understand how wildly uncomfortable I am with this passage.

It really, really bothers me.

It bothers me a whole lot because we talk about a God of love and a God of mercy and a God of sacrifice, and now we have God who, yeah, a God of sacrifice, he's saying, I want you to take your son, and I want you to go, and I want you to, I want you to slit him with a knife and watch his blood bleed out, and then you are going to burn him.

That bothers me a lot.

Now, I know what a lot of you are doing.

A lot of you are already jumping to the aid of God and saying, no, no, no, that's not right.

We know the story.

There's gonna be a ram, and but that I don't want, don't go there.

The ram has not showed up.

It is God coming down to Abraham and saying, I want you to sacrifice your son.

Okay, I want you to be, I I really feel like it is okay for you to be uncomfortable with this passage.

I want it to bother you.

You're going to Hebrews.

I know what you're doing.

No, no, no.

I know what Hebrews 11, 19 says.

We know what's going to happen.

Oh, he had such great stop.

Don't go to the end.

You know, but but remember, Abraham is not there yet.

Here are the facts of the story, which are undisputed.

God has come down to Abraham and he has told Abraham, go sacrifice your son.

Pause right there.

I don't want you to go to the end of the chapter.

I don't want you to go to Hebrews.

I don't want you talking about, oh, but wait on this mountain and several hundred.

No, don't go there either.

I want you to just sit right here for a moment.

And the fact that God has said, I want you to sacrifice for sin.

If you have never read the Bible, if you knew nothing of God and somebody walked up to you and said, Here, I want you to read about God, and you just happen to open up and it lands in Genesis 22, and you start reading about this.

I'm two verses in, and I'm closing and said, No, no, no, this is not for me.

I mean, there's there are some religions in which they, you know, they want child sacrifice.

I don't want to be any part of that.

That's not the kind of God that I want to serve.

That is like a violent, maniacal God.

I have a real problem with this.

I'm very uncomfortable with this passage.

I'm uncomfortable with what God has called Abraham to do.

And here's, I'm going to go out on a limb, but I'm going to say this.

I really think Abraham was too.

I think Abraham was wildly uncomfortable with what God had asked him to do.

I think it meant something to see his son walking and playing and running, and God say, I want you to kill him.

That's a huge sacrifice.

Don't jump ahead and say, oh, it's not that big of a deal.

It's a huge deal.

And it's going to happen later on, not with Abraham, but a different father who's going to do that.

And so I don't want to sit around and you say, oh, it's not that big of a deal.

I think it is really okay to be uncomfortable with this passage.

I think it was just appropriate for Abraham to be uncomfortable with what God was commanding.

I think that God intentionally wanted Abraham to be.

Can you imagine that?

What's enough wood for the burnt offering?

Well, how much wood would I need to burn my son?

Measured out, figured out what enough wood was.

He set out for the place God had told him.

On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

Okay, so let's stop for here.

Just a second.

What's so significant about the third day?

Why is the third day so important?

I knew you were going to say that.

I told y'all not to go there.

You're like third day.

Oh, that's when he rises.

Everything is going to be good.

We don't know that.

Just to help you out, Genesis happens to be the first book in the Bible, which also happens to be in what we call the first or old testament.

It came first.

Then we're going to have later on a New Testament that comes after.

We have the luxury and the privilege of having both of those.

Abraham did not.

He had Genesis 22, 1 through 4 at this moment.

This is all nothing else has been written.

He can't tell you about what's going to happen on the third day, thousands of years later.

This is what he knows.

That God has said, I want you to sacrifice yourself.

So if the third day isn't important because it's the third day in which Jesus rose, why is the third day important?

Why would you why would it be important that it's the third day?

Think about this.

What do you mean by this?

Have you ever got in trouble when you were a kid?

You didn't raise your hand like you're not telling the truth, okay?

I think almost all of us have probably been in trouble for.

Man, I can remember getting in trouble.

I only got in trouble once when I was a kid.

And it started when I was born and it just kept going.

I was always in trouble.

I was the youngest of three boys.

Like I was always looking for a fight.

Like I was just, I was always making trouble.

I was always pestering my brothers.

I don't know why, but I just I loved getting beat up.

It was just like I was gonna get a good shot in there, but I was gonna get railed on.

I got duct taped to a tree.

I mean, she was phenomenal.

And I deserved it.

I was I was I did a lot of things I shouldn't have done.

And I would get in trouble.

And my mom would get onto me, she would ground me, she would um tell me to go to my room, but you know what the worst thing was?

Is when my mom would say, I'll talk to your dad when he gets.

And then my dad would turn in.

And I'm all day long, so I'm in trouble.

And in trouble back then, that also involved a leather belt.

Leather, big leather belt that my dad wore, that he would swing and hunt, you know, and I I would I deserved it, you know, but I would I would get my whoopings.

But I can remember when he would say, Go to your room, I'll be there in a few minutes.

And I would be like, please dad, just right.

Can we just get this over with?

I wanna I did I did not want to wait for the whooping.

I just wanted it right then.

I wanted to get over.

This is why I think the third day is really important.

Three days.

Think about this, 72 hours.

I mean, I don't know, I don't know the sleeping habits of Abraham, but my guess is that he probably hardly slept at all those next three days.

Can you imagine the turmoil?

I mean, this is just almost like a death march for Abraham, except the worst part is it's not him who's gonna die.

He knows that he's gonna have to sacrifice.

Three days didn't take one step without thinking about that.

I wonder when he left the house.

We tell Sarah.

We say, hey, where's what God is going to do?

And so Sarah looked at the house and Abraham is cutting her.

And she tried to convince him to God.

You don't know any of this, but I just want you to imagine that God not only allowed it, but he commanded for Abraham to sacrifice his son.

And he says, it's gonna take three days for you to get the conversation.

Abraham, I we don't know how old he is, but we know he's old enough to carry enough wood that would be used to go under his body.

I wanna I just wanna jump I wanna jump to the gospels and clean it all up, but I don't want to try now.

I just want to always It's not always easy.

It's not always cool things to do these guys.

That's just whole guys.

But hey, I want to know.

Jesus choosing him.

It's it's not easy.

It's not always going to be cool.

And you're going to have struggles, and it will affect the way um the movies that you watch.

It's going to affect the music that you listen to, the conversations that you have, the jokes that you share, the girls that you date, the relationships within with those girls that you date, all of that should be changed because you love God and you serve Him, and that changes the way you live and do everything.

It's for all of us.

But here's where I want to get at right here.

And we're going to land on this verse.

We're going to stay on this verse for several weeks because this is just one of those verses that is so profound.

But let's let's go to this next slide.

We're going to flip through a blank one.

Listen to this.

This is first five.

Genesis 22, verse 5.

Genesis 22:5

Abraham said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go there to worship.

Uh while we go over there, we will worship, and then we will come back to you.

There's three things we're going to be looking at over the next three weeks, but the one I want to focus in on in our last couple of minutes is this.

What does he say he's going to do?

Oh, they're going to worship.

So they have a there's going to be a song leader there?

Or are they going to be like trying to read some scriptures or recite something?

Are they going to be praying?

Is it going to be worship because it's at a certain place?

Is it going to be worship because it's at a certain time?

I mean, which for the word?

I think the only thing crazier than the command that God has given Abraham is the fact that Abraham is doing it and he's calling it worship.

Can you believe that?

The hardest thing that Abraham is ever going to do in his life is to take his son and sacrifice him.

And he says to others, I am going to worship.

Abraham has lost his mind.

That's not worship.

It's not worship.

There's not singing.

There's nothing joyful going on there.

This is awful.

It's terrible.

It's the worst thing ever.

And he says, I'm going to worship.

We will worship.

This is one of the most amazing passages that we have because Abraham understood something that the modern church has forgotten.

You are not here.

We are not here so you can have fun and be entertained and so that you can walk out of this place feeling really good about yourself.

This is not about, did the song leader lead the songs that you want to have sung?

This is not about, I sure wish we had the old pews back.

I hate sitting in these chairs.

This is not about, was the sermon too long?

Were the announcements, were they good for me?

Did I like everything?

Did people greet me when I walk in?

Was the coffee at the coffee bar?

That's not worship.

Somewhere we started buying into the idea, we as a as a culture, as a nation, we started trying to convince people come to church and we will make you feel good and happy, and you can worship here.

And the sermon will be short and uplifting, and the songs will be just spot on, and we'll get some lights and some fog machines and a coffee bar and donuts, and you're going to love it.

Because that's what worship is.

That's not worship.

Worship is giving honor to God.

In a few weeks we'll talk specifically what that word means, but for right now I just want you to land on the thought that you are here.

You're not here for worship.

As though somebody's going to give something.

You are here to worship.

You are here to honor God.

And when you leave here, please, if you have heard nothing else, my prayer is this.

Please don't leave worship today.

Do not leave worship today.

Take it with you.

Take it with you wherever you go.

Allow worship to be your life, not something you do at a set time, at a certain place.

If somebody ever asks you where you go to church or where you worship, what should you say?

If somebody says, hey, where do you worship?

What do you say?

Everywhere I go.

And that's my prayer for us this week.

And maybe, maybe God has called and ordained your worship this week to be joyful.

And maybe you get to laugh.

Maybe you get to hold your grandbabies.

Maybe you get to go on vacation with your bride.

Maybe you get to enjoy a life that involves walking and talking and breathing and seeing the sunlight and having all the freedoms and blessings that we don't deserve.

And man, that's awesome worship.

But maybe for some review worship this week.

Don't stop worshiping.

Don't leave worship.

Let this week be a week in which you in which you worship everywhere you go all day long.

Let your worship be evident in the way that you talk to your spouse.

And you show grace to your co-worker.

And you offer forgiveness to your sister.

In the way that you glorify God this week.

I can't wait to hear some stories about what worship looked like for you this week.

When you pray for your waitress.

We normally offer a prayer of invitation, but I want to do something a little different this morning.

Uh if you would, I'm going to ask if you would go ahead and stand.

We're not going to see you just yet.

I just want to make sure that you're awake.

Uh, and I want to ask you what I want to offer for myself, and I will include you in this, and I'm going to ask if you would, in your prayers over the next few moments, that I'm going to pray that you will join me as we ask God to allow worship from all of us to just trickle out from Brown County this week.

And that we will all find ways to worship and glorify you.

So let's close out in a prayer and then we'll have our sign.

Father God, I just, you are an awesome man.

And God, we do wrestle with the challenge, the command that you gave Abraham, and we wrestle for some of us with where you've placed us in our lives.

And the struggles that we're going through.

Lord, I just pray that we be reminded of that.

That you would never ask us to do anything that you haven't already done.

Or that you would ever leave us in our time of earth.

And so, Lord, there are people outside of these walls that need to see what worship looks like.

And certainly we can invite them in, but this week, I just want to ask that we take the idea of worship out of this building and allow whatever we're going through this week, whatever your place that story.

I just pray that we will honor you through the way that we think about it, the way we react to it, and the way that we show love and mercy to the people who we come from.

God, we just pray that you will be glorified and our worship will be lifted up to you all week long.

Not so that we will come back to worship next week, but that we will continue doing all week.

God, may you be glorified.

And always it's in the name of Jesus, your son and our Savior that we come.

Amen.