The Sacrifice

Good to see you all.

We've been waiting for 25 years.

We've been waiting for 25 years for Abraham and Sarah to have a baby.

!

The sleepless nights begin here, and from here on out, everything's going to be fine.

It is not the case.

In fact, Genesis chapter 21 was not the climax of Abraham's life.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

It is Genesis chapter 22, which is today.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

And we're going to be looking at that today.

And I'm going to invite the lovely Emily to come up to read the word of the Lord to us.

As is our tradition, we love to stand for the word of the Lord because it's just God breathed.

It is God's word to us.

And so we stand in reverence and also, can I invite you to stand for the word of the Lord

as Emily reads Genesis chapter 22 to us.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Thank you.

Lovely, James.

Genesis 22.

After these things, God tested Abraham, and he said to him, Abraham.

And he said, here I am.

He said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah,

and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him

and his son Isaac.

And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place which God had told him.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

Then his eyes...

Oh, sorry.

Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come against you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

And he took it in his hand, the fire and the knife.

So they went both of them together.

And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, 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?

Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order

and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, here I am.

He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God.

Seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked.

And behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide.

As it is said today, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said,

By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son.

I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba.

And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you, Emily.

Please take a seat.

Thank you so much, Emily.

We're going to go through this.

But before we go through chapter 22, there's one verse that really just kind of jumped out at me.

It was just the verse just before that at the end of chapter 21.

And it says, because he's got the baby now.

And then he says, and Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

What an interesting thing.

Honestly, this has been, going through Genesis and going through the story of Abraham has been good for me.

Because if you've, if I've had a chance to talk to you these last few weeks, this is something that I've been wrestling with.

And actually the story of Abraham has really been blessing me.

Because as someone who really, right now, is a little bit of just sojourning going, well, is home England?

Or is home Hong Kong?

Or actually, where is home?

Or what is home?

And then I'm looking at Abraham's story.

This guy was promised so much.

His family would own land.

Lots of land.

And yet he spends the majority of his life as a sojourner living in a tent.

Oh, that just kind of speaks to me that, man, despite all the stuff that he's been promised,

and yet he's actually happy just to sojourn through foreign land, the land of the Philistines.

In fact, one of the only pieces of land he actually ends up owning is a few chapters later where Sarah finally dies

and he actually has to buy her land to bury her.

That's the only thing.

It makes me think, we weren't built for this world.

The city that we belong to is not on this planet.

It's somewhere else.

We're sojourners just like Abraham.

And I'll tell you about my idol.

My idol as in the Christian term of the idol in terms of what I really hold on to and what I really struggle with.

I was talking to Jay and Emily about this the other night.

Control.

Control and comfort.

I love to know what's happening tomorrow.

I love to know that's why children are just a complete wrecking ball into the lives of parents because you no longer have control.

You don't, you're unable to dictate where things go.

You see here at the beginning again, this is interesting.

Genesis chapter 22 is almost a repeat once again of Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention Genesis 12 · chapter mention

That first call when God says to Abraham, hey, go.

You see the call again where he says, go.

It reminds me, many of you will have heard me tell this story as a 16-year-old when I'd done something that wasn't so good.

And then my dad takes me.

He takes me to the church that we grew up in in Leicester.

We went there just this last summer.

And this crazy thing happens.

He goes and he takes me up to the sanctuary upstairs.

And then he starts bawling his eyes out.

He starts crying.

And then he lies just at the stage, just underneath the cross.

And then, of course, as a teenager, I'm like, OK, I'm in trouble.

But I'm the one who's supposed to be crying, not you.

And what's going on?

And then it was that when he told me, there's a feeling that the Lord is going to take him away early.

And it would be a time that would be unexpected.

And he made me promise him.

He said, James, one thing that you have to promise me, it isn't about education.

It isn't even about looking after your brother and your mother.

Just be true to your calling.

I interpret that as to being, if God tells you to go, you go.

That's it.

And honestly, that's the journey that I've been on since then.

Christina and I, these last few weeks, since we came back from sunny England, maybe a little bit too hot with our air conditioning.

But coming back going, God, where is it that you're calling us to?

What are you calling?

What do you actually want us to do?

We seem like sojourners.

What are we doing here?

And I realized the Christian life is not just about becoming good people who have good behavior.

The Christian life is about responding to the call of God.

Time and time and time again.

The scary thing is, God calls you to go somewhere.

He often doesn't tell you exactly where.

Genesis chapter 12, he says, go.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I want you to leave home and I'll tell you where you'll end up going.

Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Remember those seasons I talked about a couple of weeks ago?

He's gone through a lot of seasons.

He's gone through 25 years, 26 years of just seasons of making mistakes, going up and down, up and down.

And now we reach the climax because God tests him once and for all, one final time and says, go.

Go where?

He said, go.

Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

Again, he says, go.

Head in that direction, but I'll tell you where later.

How often when we want to hear the voice of God, it's saying, hey, go.

And God, can you tell us exactly where you're going to tell us to go and what we're going to be exactly going to be doing?

And yet God doesn't do that.

And so we see here Abraham again responding to God, not knowing where to go.

And I love it.

God just calls him by name, Abraham.

So often we think of this God who's just distanced, saying, little minion, little human, obey me, follow me.

But no, it's Abraham.

Abraham, go.

And go and take your son, your only son, almost just to rub salt in the wounds.

Why?

Because just a couple of chapters ago, there was another son.

There was another son, Ishmael.

And God said, I know there was another son.

But I'll bless him and I see him and I hear him.

I want to be okay.

But now Isaac is the only one you have left.

Take your son and offer a burnt.

Go to the land of Moriah where the mountains are and then offer him as a burnt offering.

A lot of us think this is, wait, he's telling him to kill him?

No, it's offer him as a sacrifice, as a burnt offering.

If God was like, hey, I want you to show me how much you love me.

I want you to kill your son.

You'd have to climb a mountain for three days to do that.

You can just go into the tent and make it happen straight away.

But that's not what God's calling him.

God's saying, hey, I want you to take your son, your only son, whom you love,

and go to the land and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

Just a little bit of context because this is horrifying.

As we read through scripture, sometimes there are things that we don't understand,

especially the modern day reader does not understand what this is really about.

Bearing in mind, Abraham lived in a time where there was so many societies,

so many pagan societies that would offer human sacrifices to the gods to satisfy them.

And often they would be offering the firstborn, the firstfruits.

You see Cain and Abel, they were offering the firstfruits, right?

So actually, this is not a foreign concept to Abraham.

It's like, whoa, especially because it's the firstborn.

Well, this is the onlyborn now, but this was not a foreign concept to him

because it would have been like, okay, I think God's doing something.

Just a bit more of Jewish context around this.

This idea of the firstfruits or giving your best to God

was something that they would have been familiar with.

Why? Because there is a God, there is a holy God.

There is a God that we need to satisfy.

There is a God, there is a debt to be paid.

And by offering up the sacrifice was almost a symbol of that gratitude, of that repentance.

And so this is not that foreign to Abraham.

And to us, it's just like, whoa, why is this happening?

But to God, he's testing.

Actually, does Abraham truly cherish me, follow me, believe me?

That thing that my dad told me to promise him, to go when God tells you to go,

to be true to your calling.

We did that when I was a teacher in England, and then Christina was working in the hospital.

And so we went.

We have friends here who were with us during that time.

And so we decided, okay, let's quit our jobs.

Let's go work in the church.

But what about kids?

How are we going to provide for our kids?

And then what we found is God just provided more and more for us at each step.

Every time we took that leap of faith, God provided more for us.

But this was all in England.

This was all in the relative comforts of our own home.

And then until God said to us and challenged us eight years ago saying,

hey, do you know all those good gifts that I've given you?

When you took that leap of faith and I came good for you, what if I took all those away?

Are you most appreciative of me because of my gifts?

Or are you appreciative of me because I'm the giver?

And that was the hardest one.

When God gives you gifts and you're like, oh, thank you for this.

Thank you so much.

God, can you just please give me that job?

I would love to work for that company.

It would be such a good thing.

What if God gives it to you?

And then what if then God asks you to take it away?

What's he actually trying to show us in doing that?

And so we see that here as well.

He gives him Isaac finally.

Now, bear in mind, it says, verse 1 says, after these things.

So Isaac was born.

But actually, scholars aren't quite sure exactly how many years have passed since then.

If you go to the National Gallery in London, you'll see portraits, paintings of this scene in Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

And often it will actually be Abraham holding a knife, ready to sacrifice his baby boy or little child.

But this isn't the case.

Isaac is actually at least, at the very least, a teenager at this point.

But some believe he's either somewhere between 13 to 30.

Okay?

So it's been a while.

And so then God says, after all these things, take him up.

And then what you see here is just a fascinating turn of events.

And this is where we'll go, verse 3.

So Abraham rose early in the morning.

A lot of people will then use this to say, well, this is radical obedience.

This is just waking up the next morning and just going straight and just, and that's almost the lesson of the sermon.

Hey, when God tells you to do something, do it without questioning.

I'm not sure.

Imagine, who's a parent here?

Who's a father here?

Let's put your hand up with your father.

God tells you the night before, hey, I need you to offer your son, your only son, the one whom you love, as a sacrifice.

And I need you to head to those mountains over there.

Do you think you'll be sleeping that night?

I think he rose up early because he couldn't sleep.

He's lying in bed going, what am I going to tell Sarah?

25 years ago we've been waiting for this.

Finally, our marriage is in a little bit of a better place.

Really?

Is this what, you know what he's battling with?

He's like, God, this doesn't make sense.

When the command of God seems to conflict with the promises of God.

He's like, wait, God, but you said you'll give me the son and actually then I'll be the father of many.

But now you're telling me to, this doesn't make sense.

Your commands don't seem to match up with your promises.

And no doubt he would have just been spiraling in this.

And so finally day breaks.

He's like, you know what?

Through my life, especially these last 25 years of learning and mistakes constantly, there's one thing.

God must be trusted.

God must be obeyed.

And he always provides, I remember that time when I, in Genesis 12, when I went to Egypt and I lied about Sarah.

And yet somehow he still blessed me with more.

And that time I made that mistake with Hagar.

And yet somehow he continues to still bless me with a son.

And then I went again and I lied about Sarah again.

And then somehow he kept blessing with me more.

So he must be wrestling with these things going, you know what?

My conclusion in the last 25 years, the one lesson that I've learned is God must be trusted.

God must be obeyed.

It's daybreak now.

Let's go.

So he takes, he wakes Isaac up.

He takes him and he takes two young men to go with him.

And this is where you know that Isaac's not just like a two-year-old boy.

He cuts the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

And on the third day, this is a walk.

Like you, I challenge you to even take me for a hike for three hours, but for three days.

Just a walk.

Can you imagine?

Okay, so I don't think he sleeps.

And then he finally goes and gets up.

And then they walk for three days.

This is the constant internal turmoil, the wrestling that he's going through.

Wait, what does this mean?

God, your commands.

God, your promises.

It doesn't make sense to me.

And then just when he sees the mountain, and then Abraham said to his young men,

stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

This is really interesting.

He says, okay, this final route, this final part of the route, I'm going to go myself with Isaac.

And this is a really interesting moment here because this is the first,

very first mention of the word worship in scripture.

What does the word mean to Abraham?

It means to fall face down, to surrender, to prostrate oneself.

To a holy God.

Fast forward many, many years now.

What does the word worship mean to us?

For some of it, it means dim lights, synth pads, good songs.

Sometimes not so good songs.

Oh, yeah, the worship of that church wasn't great.

The worship leader sang too long.

I mean, just kept repeating the chorus over and over and over again.

I got bored.

Yeah, the worship wasn't great there.

It was a little bit too lively for me, a little bit too charismatic.

Or a little bit too old-fashioned and boring.

Yeah, I'm not vibing with the worship of that church.

We've come so far from the original meaning and mention of the word worship,

which meant to prostrate oneself, to surrender oneself to a holy God.

In the New Testament, the word worship would mean to ascribe worth.

That's where you worship worth.

It's the saying, God, you are the most valuable thing to me,

even more than the son that I've waited for for 25 years.

I'm going to worship him with you there.

Hey, you guys wait here.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

So he kind of knows that this is a little bit of a test.

And as he's wrestling with this and he's not sleeping

and then he's walking these three days, he's like,

okay, well, the command of God doesn't seem to match with the promise of God,

but God is pretty powerful, so he's going to do something.

Maybe what will happen is I will pretend,

maybe I will offer the sacrifice.

Maybe for a moment, Isaac, our fear will even faint.

And maybe then he'll wake up again and we'll be okay.

Or maybe I do have to actually offer him and maybe he will die.

But God, his promise, his promise,

maybe God will then raise him from the dead is what it says in Hebrews 11.

So actually Abraham, with the full knowledge going,

okay, something's going to happen here that's going to be special.

It isn't just going to be me going up with two people and coming down by myself.

There's going to be more to this is what he's saying.

And so they do it.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

Clever man.

Remember, Abraham's quite old at this point.

He's about 110 years old.

So he's not carrying the wood up the mountain.

So he's saying, teenager, Isaac, this is what I fed you for.

You're going to carry this wood up.

So then he straps the wood onto Isaac and he took his hand, the fire and the knife.

And so they went, both of them together.

And Isaac said to Abraham, and this is where it should break every father's heart.

Verse 7 and 8.

This is kind of the turning point of the passage here.

It says, my father, I know enough to be kind of doing this with you, to trust you.

We have the fire and the wood, but there is no lamb.

I've seen you offer burnt offerings before, and there's usually a lamb.

Where's the lamb?

Abraham says, actually, he says, here I am, my son.

This is the second time he says, here I am, by the way.

He says it to God first, and then he says it to Isaac here.

God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

God will see to it.

He doesn't say, hey, cool story.

You're going to be the lamb.

It's going to be really fun, I promise.

Trust me.

It's going to be just fine.

He says, God will see to it.

I don't know how he's going to do it, but he's going to see to it.

So let's just keep going.

And so they both went together, and when they get there,

the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there

and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son,

and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

This is every parent's nightmare.

We pray and pray for God to give us the things that we want,

and often some of those include children.

The children are the biggest blessing to us.

But how often do we find this happening even in church,

where when we get the gift of children,

and then the first thing that becomes an idol is our children.

Suddenly it's the gift that God gives us that stops us from going to God.

How often has that happened with our work?

God, please, I'd love to work for that company.

And then you get the job.

And it's like, praise God.

Thank you so much for the job.

And then two Sundays later, sorry, I can't go to church anymore because of my work,

because of the work that you gave me,

because of the child that you gave me needs to nap at that time,

so we're not going to go to church anymore.

We will just watch Zoom online instead.

And then when the child gets older, God, thank you so much for this child,

but we can't come to church anymore because they have tennis lessons,

because we have to take them here, we have to take them there.

God, I want him or her to follow you,

but actually there's all these other things.

And suddenly as parents, our whole lives revolve around our children.

And suddenly the very things that God gives us become the idols that pull him away from us.

Has that happened to any of us?

And you see God here testing Abraham, whether he's fearful of God.

That's what Gav has just said.

That actually, when he does actually, so he gets ready and he holds the knife,

and then the angel calls to him, say, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, here I am for the third time.

Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

A couple of weeks ago I quoted one of my favorite devotional books,

My Upmost for His Highest, Charles Ward Chambers, who says,

when you fear God, you won't fear anything else.

But when you don't fear God, you will fear everything else.

All of this is about do we fear God or not.

The word fear isn't terrified, afraid of God.

It is, is there a reverence and awe for who God is.

And actually, I'm just going to trust you with everything.

Even with the things that I hold the most dear to my heart.

And so, because God sees that he fears him and actually trusts him,

he says, hey, stop.

The experiment is over.

The test is done.

You have passed.

There was as much risk here for Abraham as there was for God.

Because if actually Abraham doesn't trust God,

then actually God's salvation plan for the nations does not work.

And for Abraham, if God actually lets him do this, then it's done.

And it isn't just about the sentimental value of,

this is my son who I love.

I won't be able to play football with him anymore.

Now, this is actually back in those days,

the firstborn son, the only son, would have held such significant value

because this was basically your social hope.

This was your way of surviving.

This was your way for your family to continue.

In fact, in those days, the firstborn would get everything.

Why would that firstborn get everything?

They wouldn't separate it with all the siblings

because the moment you separate the inheritance with all the different siblings,

your family becomes weaker.

So it made the most sense to give it all to one person

and have that person be the one who leads the clan after that.

So God's saying, hey, I know I gave you this,

but I want you to entrust not just you and your family with me.

I want you to entrust your whole future with me.

I want you to fear me.

I want you to rely on me.

I want you to trust me and me alone.

Thank the Lord, though.

He stops him, and then he sees a ram.

He sees a sheep that's just, you know, poor ram,

just kind of minding his own business,

and suddenly gets trapped in a thicket by his horns.

And so that ends up being the sacrifice instead.

And then Abraham says, whew, I passed.

I'm going to call this mountain the Lord will provide.

Notice he does not say, I'm going to call this mountain,

this is where I obeyed.

This was not the mountain of obedience.

This isn't where Abraham goes, hey, I actually managed to prove myself.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying this is where God provided.

This is where God provided for me.

And remember, it's not about just obedience, pure obedience.

Some of us who have grown up in the church,

that's what we think Christianity is about.

Can we just be the good Christians that we were supposed to be,

obey the rules that we were supposed to obey,

not do the things that we're not supposed to do,

and that's what Christianity is about.

That is not what it's about.

The whole point of Christianity, the whole point of the gospel,

is that God provides.

Just like Gabe said last week, that God is a God of promise,

and he actually provides.

And it's only afterwards, it's only after the obedience,

does the provision come.

You only start walking on the water, as John Altberg would say,

after you actually step out of the boat.

But some of us are trapped in this place where,

will God provide or not?

Well, you won't find out until you actually take that step out.

And once you take that step out,

you will realize that God is good for his promise,

and that he will provide every step of the way.

Genesis 22 is this radical form of obedience,

even though I believe there would have been a lot of internal wrestling.

But you can't just look at Genesis 22 and go,

okay, that's pretty crazy.

So basically, whatever God says we should do,

you have to take it in the context of all of Abraham's life.

That actually, only a few chapters ago,

he was bargaining and negotiating with God.

Right?

And so you're in this place now where he has become so trusting of God.

Say, okay, God, I have learned my lesson.

I know that you can be trusted.

I'm going to follow you.

I know you're going to figure it out some way.

And I wonder whether we need to do that with our own lives.

Whether it's in a relationship that we have been entrusted with,

whether it's been someone that he's gifted us with,

or whether it's the job that he's given to us,

or whether it's just simply our future.

Whatever it is that God has given us,

do we entrust it back to him?

Or do we hold on to it and say,

well, now you've given it to us.

Now you've given it to me.

I can't let it go because I don't know why.

Because ultimately, if you keep peeling back

and you keep asking why, there's only one answer.

It's because I don't trust you, God.

I know you're good enough to give it to me now,

but actually, I don't truly, truly trust you,

is what we're saying.

If we go all the way back to Genesis,

at the beginning of Genesis, the fall,

we see that's what it is.

Did God really tell you to do that?

It all comes down to a mistrust of God.

This whole test here is just testing to see

whether Abraham truly, truly trusts God

and cherishes him,

not just for the gifts that he gives him,

but for the actual presence of God himself.

So that's God.

And that's Abraham.

He passes the test.

But I want to spare a little thought for Isaac.

Isaac, who at this point,

remember, he's actually not a baby,

not a toddler.

He's probably a little bit older than Reuben.

And dad tells him,

hey, look, we're going up to the mountain to worship,

carry the wood.

What we see here is actually a picture of a willing son,

a trusting son,

who actually knows that his father

knows what's best for him

and is willing to go.

And you see there's actually a relationship here

between the two.

There's only a very short dialogue,

but you see my father,

hey, I can see all this stuff,

but we're missing something.

And then Abraham responds to him in kind.

This tells me one thing,

especially for his adults,

especially for his parents.

If we have kids who question the faith,

who question anything,

let them question,

talk to them,

discuss with them.

Don't just say,

hey,

what I say is it.

We're going up the hill.

let's welcome questions.

Let's welcome dialogue.

Let's welcome relationship.

The goal is for not just God to see how faithful Abraham is,

but it's actually,

you can actually,

Isaac can see Abraham.

One of the reasons we went into ministry

is actually when Christina was pregnant with Reuben,

one of the questions that was posed to us is,

what do you want your son to learn from us?

And there's many things,

you know,

how to be a good person,

how to be kind,

how to study hard,

and all those kind of things.

But the one thing that we kept saying to ourselves is,

we want our children to know

that God can be trusted.

And so when God called us out of our jobs,

I loved the school that I was teaching in.

I thought I was going to stay there forever.

And it was God's gift to me.

But when we had Reuben,

I was like,

you know what?

I don't even want to just teach my son

that God gives us these good gifts

and we should just do our best

in whatever he gives us.

I want to show him

that actually God can be trusted.

Because if we can trust God,

we will reverse the curse of sin.

God can be trusted.

So imagine Isaac

just following Abraham up,

willingly being tied down,

going,

okay,

God,

Dad's got a plan.

Dad's got a plan.

Dad's got a plan.

Can the plan show up anytime now,

please?

But what you do see here

is a son looking up at a father,

going,

okay,

the God that my father

follows and worships

is serious.

I should trust him

with everything.

And so that's why you

then hear about this God

not just being the God of Abraham

but also the God of Isaac.

Abraham teaches Isaac

a very important lesson here.

And remember,

in just the verses before,

in verses,

verse eight,

oh,

and verse six,

they both say,

so they went,

both of them,

together.

This wasn't one person

dragging the other person.

This was a willing,

this was a mutual willingness

to trust in God

as they went up this mountain together.

And so you see that

happening here.

And of course,

we all now know

as we look at this text,

even though we aren't

quite going through

the internal turmoil

of what Abraham was going through

because we look now

and then it doesn't happen.

But now we look,

we see something more

because we don't just see

the Old Testament,

we see the New Testament.

We see that what Isaac is,

what Isaac truly was,

is a foreshadowing

of the willing son,

the Christ Jesus himself.

He was a prefiguration

of the son

who willingly obeyed

the father in the garden

when he said,

okay,

not my will,

but yours be done.

Why?

Because I trust you,

father.

And you see Isaac

basically painting a picture

going further

and you're seeing Jesus

doing the same thing.

And that's what

this whole passage

about here

is really trying

to hammer home

this idea of trusting

in God.

It's funny,

God tells Abraham

to go to the land of Moriah

and go to the mountains there

and that mountain

ends up being

where the temple

gets built.

So this mountain,

this very mountain here

where the Lord will provide

is where the temple

of Solomon gets built.

Many, many years later

just in the mountain

just across the way,

there is another son

who climbs his mountain

with wood on his back too.

And of course,

what we're talking about,

who we're talking about

is Jesus.

And it is the same thing

that I think he was wrestling.

How does the command of God

reconcile with the promise

of God?

How does a holy God

also be a gracious God?

Look,

that sacrifice is needed.

We know that sacrifice

is needed

because we are sinners

and there is a debt

to be paid.

So we know that's the case

because if it wasn't there,

then he's not a holy God.

And if he's not a holy God,

then he's not just.

And then everything in the world

that we see right now,

there's no hope

for anything in the world

if he's in the holy

and just God.

But there's also no hope

in the world

if he is not a gracious God

because who of us here

can say that we have not

sin that we are perfect.

So we are glad

that he is holy and just

when we look at the darkness

in the world

and we're also glad

that he is gracious

and forgiving

when we look at the darkness

inside us.

And you see

the questions

of whether he is a holy God

or whether he is a gracious God.

You see the battling

of whether the commands of God

match up with the promise of God

all in one place

and that is the cross.

And that is the cross

where you see

the justice of God,

the wrath of God,

waging war against evil,

come hand in hand

with the love

and the grace

and the forgiveness of God

on the cross.

And it's funny

in the book of James

James 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2

it says this

that Abraham trusted

and believed God

and then it was counted

to him as righteousness.

It wasn't

Abraham obeyed God

and climbed up a mountain

for three days

and did something crazy.

It was that he just believed.

And because he believed

that's all that was required

and it was counted to him

as righteousness.

You see it's easy

to surrender to God

when we know who God is.

It's easy to surrender

to a God

who we truly believe

will provide

and will give us the way.

And Romans 8

it says this

if you're wrestling with this

he's like how

he gave his only son

for you

how will he not graciously

give you all things?

How many of us struggle

with trusting God

with our jobs

with our future

with our relationships?

We all struggle with this.

I struggle with this.

I find great comfort

in the fact

that Abraham

also struggled

with this.

Final thing

and then I'm actually

going to bring up

my good friend Jay

to have a little conversation.

Just imagine

for a second

if Abraham

and Isaac

were actually

at the

Mount of Calvary

when they see

Jesus

on the cross

when they see

God's only son

the son

whom he loves

on the cross.

Imagine

just for a second

if Abraham

and Isaac

found a time machine

and they ended up there

and what they would have seen

they're like

oh

this all makes sense.

Now I know.

Now I know.

Because he

who does not spare

his only son

whom he loves

now I know

that God loves me.

He would have been

shouting around

to everyone going

I was here

well I was nearby

on a mountain

many years ago

but now I know

what it was all about.

That there is a God

there is a father

in heaven

who loves us so much

who is so holy

and who is so just

and who is so compassionate

that he would find

he would launch

a rescue plan

to save us

and that plan

would involve

his son dying

on a cross for us.

Guys look

that is the land

that was slain.

Can you imagine

Isaac

going

that could have been me

but it wasn't.

Oh man.

I think as those

of us who follow Christ

we need to

encounter that truth

again and again.

To know how deep

the father's love for us

that he would give

his only son

and because of that

we are now called

children of God.

So here's my question

and it's probably

one that you would have

thought as you were

just looking through

this passage

is what's your Isaac?

What's the gift

that God has given you

that you're so grateful for

but now you're

holding on to

and you don't want

to give back to him?

This happens all the time

with Micah

doesn't it Reuben?

We give him a toy

and then he doesn't

let us have it back

and he's no

mine.

How many of us

have that in our lives?

How many of us

have that Isaac

in our lives?

And what if God

was just saying

hey

I gave you

this

and the whole point

of this

the whole point

of this test

is that you would

trust me again

and that you would

respond to my call

again

and just in case

you thought

that responding

to God's call

once is enough

Abraham tells us

it is not enough

it happened in

Genesis 12

it happened in

Genesis 17

18

20

22

to be a follower

of Christ

is not just about

modifying our behavior

once

it's about a

constant decision

to say God

you call

I go

you invite me

I follow

what is our Isaac?

And so something

that I've been wanting

to try

because I know

that if I keep

speaking every week

for a long time

you'll all get sick

of me

is actually

there's lots of people

in our congregation

who actually have

really so much to say

so much to bless

all of us

and what we're going

to hopefully

try and do more of

is actually

to get some people

up to

share their thoughts

so what I will do

is the week before

I'll actually give

them a passage

the passage

that I'm going

to be preaching on

and ask them

to meditate over it

ask them to study over it

and then of course

to listen to the message

as well

and then to

kind of give us

a response

in real time

and maybe just

to represent

all of us here

is actually

what does

the word of God

have for us?

What is God

actually trying to say

to us

and what can we

put into action here?

And so I'd love

to invite Jay

up here

and can we give him

a round of applause?

So I gave Jay

this passage

to kind of

just reflect on

and we've been

talking about

ways for him

to kind of

just serve more

and he actually

feels a conviction

that one of these

is to actually

be able to

share his testimony

and also just

to be willing

to grow in teaching

the word of God

so actually

I gave him this passage

and then he actually

sent me

I actually got

a little bit excited

because I was like

oh this is like

a whole sermon's worth

I can actually

have the week off

and I realized

if I did that

he'll never

come back again

so we're gonna

so Jay

before I jump

into the questions

can you just

briefly tell us

what you do

and just

about yourself

my name is Jay

and I am currently

working at Bloomberg

I'm Korean

I don't know

what else to share

yeah

you're Korean

and working at Bloomberg

that is a very

Korean way

of describing yourself

so

what made you

want to

kind of just

get up and do this

God spoke to me

three years ago

when I was in the military

and

he spoke actually

really clearly to me

and

he said

I've given you a gift

and you must use it

and that's to teach

so

I've had

my own journey

of trying to obey

this command

and trusting God

when he's calling me

to do this

it made me a little bit

scared initially

and

I think now

I'm sitting up here

and

I don't feel the nerves

that I used to

and

it's such a

I mean

Emily knows how nervous

I used to get

and now I'm up here

and

it's just

sorry

I just want to testify

it's just

I'm so

I'm so grateful

that God's changed my heart

that

I just want to glorify him

like this

I'm here to glorify him

I just want to

share how

God has been working

in my life

and

it's tiring to hear you

all the time

you know

it is

I first met Jay

when

actually it was our

very first weekend

here in Hong Kong

seven years ago

and he was still

how old were you then?

19

19

18

19

he was part of the

Young Life University

ministries as well

and that's how

they kind of got connected

and since then

I've just watched him

grow and grow

both in stature

both in kind of

build

and also in hair

and every time

every time I look at him

there's just a little bit

of disdain in me

it's just

it's just

it's just such a waste

it's just kind of

it's just

and the most annoying thing is

he'll go to military

he'll shave it all off

and then just two months later

it's all back again

but anyway

thank you for so much

for doing this

and I hope

we'll be able to do this more

and so

the first question

I have for you

and we only have two

just in case you're tracking

is just

as you read the passage

of Genesis 22

what stood out to you

the most?

Before I do that

can I just quickly pray

if it's okay?

Holy Spirit

this is your stage

and I just want to speak

what you want to speak

through me

I just sense that

there's a lot of open hearts

here today Lord

so I just pray God

that you soften their hearts

even more

in the next 10 minutes God

whatever it is

that you want to speak

through me

I just pray I can obey

I can abide in you God

and I know that you will speak

because you're faithful

and I can trust you

and we can trust you

so Father I just pray

for fertile soul

as you speak now

in the name of prayer

Amen

to answer the question

well firstly

thanks for having me James

I've been thinking about

this passage

for the past two weeks

it's a passage that's

confused me

it's been

a passage that's been

it's challenged me a lot

over the years

and two weeks ago

like you know

when we were doing

chapter 20

I was like

oh okay

I need to speak on chapter 22

as I was reading ahead

the main thing

that stood out to me was

I mean James

you talked a lot about

what it looks like

to trust in God

and how Abraham

trusted in God

and I think the question

that popped up for me

was like

how do we trust God more

because it's something

that's said a lot in church

right

we just trust God

and when you read

Genesis 22

like let's say

you didn't know anything

about Abraham

and you read Genesis 22

this passage makes

Abraham seem like

he's this really obedient

he doesn't challenge God

he's super

like he's really

he really trusts the Lord

but if you

if you see the context

of his life

everything that's led up

to this point

Abraham

was not a very good dude

he really wasn't

like you know

he lied

he was

he's not a very honest dude

he didn't trust God

at many turns

he took matters

into his own hands

many times

but

we read today's passage

and

for the person

who doesn't know

or doesn't have context

to Abraham's life

it's like

oh this guy is like

he's the goat

like I don't think

I can ever

be as trustworthy

as Abraham was

I'm nowhere near

close to that level

of faith

right

but then we have to

I think for me

what's so encouraging

firstly

is just understanding

the context

of Abraham's life

this dude was messed up

he did not trust God

he's called the father

of faith

in the New Testament

but if you read

all the context

all the chapters

prior to today

oh man

he was a mess

right

and James talks about

how our faith

is like cycles

right

like it's not just

this linear growth

it's we go through cycles

and I think that was

the first thing

that really stood out to me

so

as I was thinking about

okay

how did Abraham

actually

what was different

for him this time

right

that was the main question

like why this time

after all the time

prior

he just challenged God

he was quarreling with God

he lied to God

what was different this time

what switched on for him

where he was like

okay

I can actually trust God

this time

and

I think my main takeaway

if I could summarize

my main takeaway

into one sentence

it's this

we can only begin

to truly trust God

when we see that

he's truly trustworthy

it's about God's faithfulness

when we read the passage

I think it's so

focused on Abraham

Abraham's faith

like wow

Abraham you did such a good job

but

actually the only reason

he was able to do

that good job

is because he finally

understood

experienced personally

in his heart

God's faithfulness

in his life

and it's what James

said earlier right

only when we can

actually see that

he's trustworthy

when we understand

that God is trustworthy

then our actions

will follow

and I think that's the thing

that really stood out to me

it's not trying to

muster up the courage

to say okay God

I'm just gonna trust you

in this

it's

that's not what God's

asking of us right

Abraham saw who God was

he understood

that God was faithful

to him

think about it right

like

it sounds like

Abraham's faith

but it's actually

a passage on

God's faith

in Abraham's life

because Abraham

did not hold

his end of the deal

so many times

right

but yet

God still took him

to that mountain

and he reestablishes

that covenant

with him

it's actually a story

about God's faithfulness

to Abraham

and I think

when we start

taking the focus

off of ourselves

and what we can do

to bring to the table

to become a better

Christian

whatever

what not

and we see

actually God

is trustworthy

I think

that's when

our hearts

begin to change

and just one last thing

I think

the thing

that really resonated

with me as well

was how it took

Abraham so much time

to get to this point

I think when we

again

when we read this passage

it just seems like

oh wow

he's the goat

he's like so trustworthy

but it took time

it took mistakes

and I think

as readers

of this passage

I think what we can

take away from it

is understanding

you know what

in this journey of faith

as I grow closer

to Christ

I will make mistakes

and I will fall short

but God is gracious

and when I do

he'll re-invite me

with open arms

and I think

that's the thing

that has to

root us back to him

keep us back to him

it's about God

taking the focus

off of ourselves

and looking to the

faithful God

I think is what

I took away from

the passage today

and you

this incoming curveball

you and I both

have the idol of control

we've talked about this

a lot

and often that leads

to just lots of anxiety

and a lot of stress

and worry

that our wives

can attest to

as well

so when you're saying

okay well

the answer then is

that we just have to

look at the

trustworthiness of God

practically speaking

what does that look like

how do you do that

how do you remind

yourself of that

I guess I could just

share the testimony

I think trusting the Lord

is when we look

when I read the Bible

it just sounds like

you make one decision

once at one point

in your life

okay I trust the Lord

and you're set

but it's never like that

right

it's a daily decision

actually

it takes time

and I think for me

in the context of

idols

and my Isaac

in my life

it's control

and sometimes

that control

manifests itself

in very different

areas of my life

but control in the

context of my career

I think

for me

I'm an Asian kid

right

my parents had

high expectations

for me

and you know

doctor, lawyer

whatever

whatever

yeah you know

that was the

expectation of me

and I did it

and that's

kind of where I am now

and

for a very long time

now

since I was

I don't know

as long as I can remember

I knew that God

was calling me

into a different

career path

he was calling me

I think

to become a counselor

and I resisted that

for a very long time

I'll just explain why

I'm sharing this testimony

in a second

and how it relates

to trust

but

I resisted for a very long time

couple of reasons

number one

again

I didn't want to

I didn't want to

disappoint my parents

that was a big one

and

I think

the career that I'm in now

I'm comfortable

it means

I can control

the variables in my life

it means that

I can eliminate

a lot of

uncertainty

from my life

and that's really

important for me

so when God gave me

the call

hey become a counselor

in my head

I was thinking

oh my goodness

like

that doesn't sound

like a very stable job

that sounds like

really difficult work

I mean

the list goes on

right

there's just so many

different things to fear

and

so I resisted

for a very long time

and then I applied

to Bloomberg

and I got to Bloomberg

and now I'm working

finance

it's been three years

and

the start of the year

I was sharing

with one of my mentors

that I was really

struggling with this

I said to him

I think the Lord's

calling me

but

I don't know

how to obey

and

he just asked me

this question

that just

straight to the heart

he's very direct

he said

Jay

why don't you

trust God

and I was like

what

what do you mean

I do

that's really rude

and he was like

no Jay

you don't trust God

and

as I sat with it

I realized

in my head

I was saying

Lord I trust you

and I come here

to Sunday service

and I say

I worship you

I surrender

whatever

I'm saying

with my lips

but

my heart

didn't show it

my actions

didn't show it

so when he asked me

that question

I didn't have an answer

and he started praying

for me

and then

as he started

praying for me

I got this picture

as a young boy

just a bit of context

when I was a kid

I

I guess

I didn't have

a really good time

in school

I was bullied

and my first

so there's

there's this one

particular memory

that as he was

praying for me

I just replayed

in my head

and I realized

it was like

kind of like

a traumatic memory

for me as a kid

and it affected

the way that I

trusted God

but the story goes

it was my first day

of school

and after the teacher

introduced me

she left

and this Korean girl

stood up

and she was like

that's kimchi boy

he's smelly

he's a loser

no one hang out

with him

and from that point

on

just as a kid

that's like

the worst thing

that can happen

to you right

and I remember

that

that day

like the first recess

I went down

and I was making

my rounds with the kids

like some kids

were playing wall ball

some kids were playing catch

and I was like

hey can I play with you

like you know

my high squeaky voice

and they're like

oh no you're kimchi boy

you're a loser

you suck

like no one wants

to be with you

and I made my rounds

across the entire

playground

right

and every single

kid said no to me

and

the memory of me

was

I went to the corner

of the playground

and I was

I was weeping

I was sobbing

just this little j

you know

and

in that

in that moment

I asked

I asked Jesus

I asked Jesus

where were you

in that moment

why didn't you

protect me

and

I realized

that this was

kind of a core memory

that has been

holding me back

now even as adults

from trusting God

because that really

solidified in my head

and I realized

it was kind of like

enemy had its root

in my heart

God is not

worthy of trusting

he didn't protect you

then

he won't protect you

now

and that lie

was so embedded

in my heart

I didn't realize

it had such a strong

grip on me

and the coolest thing

was when I asked

Jesus

where were you

he walks out

from one of the

classrooms

and he sits next

to me like this

and he puts his

arm around me

and he says

son I'll take care

of you

and I'll take care

of your family too

and the second part

really got me

because I think

making this

making this transition

has been

I'm starting

a new family

with Emily

and as a husband

and hopefully

in the future

as a father

there are certain

things that

we have responsibilities

and I was scared

that I wouldn't be able

to meet those

responsibilities

for my family

so when God

said to me

I'll take care

of your family

I realized that

God knows me

so intimately

he saw straight

into my heart

he knew exactly

what I needed

he knew exactly

what I needed

to hear

and so I went

home that night

and I went

to Emily

and I said

and God has

called me

and I must obey

there is no

other option

and I think

the reason why

that the lights

came on for me

was when I realized

God's going to

take care of me

I have these fears

it's the same thing

as Abraham right

he had all these fears

he had all these doubts

but I finally

understood in my heart

okay he's going

to take care of me

so regardless

of what comes

I can trust him

and I can take

that leap of faith

and I think that's

what kind of switched

on for me

and that's why

when I read this passage

it really hits home

for me because

I've made my mistakes

I have disobeyed God

for over 10 years

and I'm finally

making the move

to do it

it took time

and it took a lot

of mistakes

and I will make

a lot of mistakes

there's still moments

where I have to

re-evaluate

and re-trust God

because there are moments

where I'm like

oh my goodness

what am I doing

this is a stupid decision

like I should not

be doing this

and the call again

is remembering

Jesus who said

I'll take care of you

and I'll take care

of your family too

and just lastly

James

conscious of time

Davina

you asked me

a question yesterday

in Alpha

you asked me

I want to trust God

but sometimes

I don't feel it

oh I resonate

with that so much

sometimes this memory

of I'll take care

of you son

doesn't do it for me

sometimes I still spiral

so the real

the real direction

I start fixing

my gaze towards

is the cross

and I think the cross

is the only place

where we can

kind of

recalibrate

ourselves

what I mean by that

is

if we look at

the truth of the gospel

it's

God

coming to us

and it's about

God's faithfulness

to us

and when I feel

the fear in my heart

and it grips me again

I remember

that Jesus had

all the power

all the authority

it says

in the gospels

that Jesus had

the authority

to bring legions

of angels

to kill everyone

in front of him

in front of the cross

but he didn't

isn't that so

curious

why didn't he

he had

every authority

to do so

but he didn't

why

because of you

because of me

that's the only reason

and

when I look to the cross

I think

it moves me

because