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Well, good morning.
If you've got your Bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in Genesis.
Chapter 22 is where we're going to be this morning.
A couple of things.
So dough holy night for our cooking night with our kids ministry and their families.
If you're a parent and you're like, you know, we're trying to do better.
We're trying to eliminate sweets, so we're not going to come.
I want to take that excuse away from you, all right?
And I want to invite you to come anyways and make cookies.
And as you leave, go down this hallway, and the last door on your right is my office.
And in that office, you will find a cookie disposal.
It's me.
All right.
I'll take those off your hands at any point in time.
So love for you all to be a part of that.
Also, our Sunday missions on November the 19th.
We've got these cards out for you guys to kind of help with some of our registration.
Would love for you to be there.
It is going to be a wonderful Sunday next Sunday, filled with seeing all that God is doing across the world in missions in different aspects.
I just think it's going to be really cool that we're going to see how God has allowed us as our unique body of believers, to partner literally with churches right down the road and churches to the ends of the earth and everywhere in between.
And so you want to be there that evening for dinner time together.
We're going to have breakouts that we have and then just a wonderful night of fellowship that we can have together.
I keep saying this.
I believe off the top of my head.
We'll have five different missionary partners with us, like I said, ranging from locally all the way to the Philippines and to India.
So you will want to be here that evening as we get into Genesis, Chapter 22.
A little something.
If you don't know this about me, okay, I'm a crieR, all right?
I cry.
I wasn't always a crier, but the older I've gotten, the more that I cry over things.
It hit me when I was a crier.
I'll never forget this.
I've shared this story before, so act like you haven't heard it.
Aaron was pregnant with Emma and Grayson, and she was on bed rest.
And so that meant that I was on bed rest by choice.
And so we're laying there one night, we're both going through some pregnancy pains, and she's hydrating with water.
I'm eating peanut.
M Ms.
It's what we did.
And she said, let's watch a movie.
Like, all right.
So it's like, we got TNT.
So like, shawshank redemption is probably on, right?
We'll turn it on.
And Father of the bride was on.
And we're watching it.
And I know that my beautiful wife, who's pregnant with my son, but especially my baby girl, is laying there.
Toward the end of the movie, Aaron's like, are you getting like you're crying?
Aren't.
No.
My eyeballs are sweating.
I don't really know what's going on.
Probably have an allergic reaction.
I think I'm allergic to peanuts now.
I cry.
I cry during movies.
I cry during the commercials.
Make me cry.
Years ago, when that Sarah McLaughlin commercial would come on with those dogs, man, I was done.
I was done.
It was tough.
It's tough.
I'm a crier.
Well, you've seen this.
Sometimes I'll preach and there's like passages of scripture to kind of draw it out of me.
So I'm given.
This is a precursor.
So this is one of those passages.
Okay.
I just find that God in my.
Life has done so much and hit.
So hard with the truth that he.
Wants to deliver in this, in Genesis, Chapter 22.
And so for a bulk of our message, honestly, it's just going to kind of be some good story time, all right, of just reading this and not.
Trying to jump to a point and just letting we've had some weighty, weighty Scripture as we've walked through this with.
Genesis, all Scripture is God's word.
But some just seem in those moments as you read through the depth of.
What'S taken place, right when we read through with the Ark, with Noah, when we saw the appeal of Abram before God over the situation in Sodom, and God's response just hits.
I just wanted to have a time.
As prayed through what to do with this, just to kind of walk through.
This, this morning and just let us understand the impact of this story that we believe is historically true and accurate.
So what we mean when we say this is historically true and accurate is this happened.
THis Isn't A story for us to learn a LesSon from that someone created this day took place, this Three day JOurney happened.
And there, Historically, we believe, was a man who stood above his Son, ready to sacrifice him.
We believed that.
So we'll read some and talk a little bit and work our way all the way through.
GenESIS 22.
God's word says, after these things, God tested Abraham and 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 let's pause here for a second.
Early oN, what we see is God decides that he's going to test Abraham.
This isn't a quiz that he's going to give him.
He's not going to sit down and ask him to think back of the things that have happened and to recall those that he's going to test.
And this word Test means prove by trial.
So God's going to take AbrahAm through an extremely difficult ordeal, and what's going to happen in this is proof is going to rise to the surface.
And this proof is this.
Is your faith real?
Does God need an answer to that question?
God, the sovereign God, who knows all, does he not know the answer to this question?
He knows.
So why does he do this?
Abraham needs to know.
And so God chooses to test Abraham through Isaac, the Son whom God has.
Promised him, the important Son whom God says from his line, from his lineage, the world will be blessed.
And he says, I'm going to test you through this, through your son, not through a season of rebellion, not through a season of distAnce, not through a season of illness.
But here's what you're going to go do.
You're going to offer him as a burnt offering.
You're going to sacrifice him and set him on fire.
This is what you're going to do.
Look at verse three.
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 of which God had told him.
There we go.
How do you face what God has for you today?
I mean, today's would be well done.
Today.
Today would have been a great turn off that alarm, roll over in that blanket.
Right?
And when I find that when God has the exciting things for me, the blessing that comes with being a child of God, man, I can't wait to face the day.
But when there's a test, when there's a season, when there's difficulty to go through, I don't know that the same few words in verse three would ring true in my life.
Hey, Abraham, here's what I need you to do.
Your son, whom you love, go offer him as a burnt sacrifice.
As a burnt offering.
And I don't know that I would be.
If I'm being transparent with you this morning, which I try every week to do, that I'm a rise early in the morning.
Let's go do this.
But that's what Abraham does.
God gives us.
The means.
To help.
Us in these moments.
The question is, are we going to.
Delay or are we going to obey?
When the heat gets turned up, when the pressure cooker of our life is going, do we delay or do we obey?
Abraham Obeyed.
I think the question we ask this morning is, why as a dad?
Why?
Let's look at this request.
Let's say this is what you got during your quiet time tomorrow.
Doesn't God's request seem irrational?
Doesn't it seem cruel?
Doesn't it seem heartless?
Like let's.
Let's lose for just a moment the answer we're supposed to give.
Let's put ourselves in that moment and let's ask ourselves, what would we have felt like in that moment?
But Abraham obeyed.
And Abraham Obeyed to a depth that.
It is my prayer that I will learn to walk in that.
AnD OVER THE REST OF THIS NARRATIVE, WE'RE GOING TO SeE WHY AbRAHAM OBEYED.
Something that seems irrational, something that seems cruel, something that seems heartless.
Abraham obeyed because he trusted more in the character of God than he did of his own understanding of what God.
Was asking of him.
It cannot have made sense to Abraham to do what God was asking him to do.
I'm a dad.
I could not fathom that to begin to wrap my mind around this.
But Abraham and I believe we're going to see this.
As we read through Genesis 22, he made this decision to say, these circumstances do not make sense.
And so I have to make the choice to obey out of my circumstance of what my human mind can understand, or I'm going to obey out of.
My understanding of the character and nature of God.
And that's the decision he made.
And so he got up early, he got his donkey ready.
HE got Two people to go with him.
He cut the wood, he prepared what he needed, and he went.
VErSE four.
On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
Then.
Abraham said to his young men, and notice these words.
LoOK at what he says.
Stay here with the DOnKEy.
I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.
That word There that Come Again.
What's Implied in There Is Not Singular, but plural.
Abraham says, we will come again to you.
He's walking in ObediEnCe.
He's going to do all that God's told him to do.
He's going to do it fully.
He's got EveRythiNg prepared.
HE's got EveRythiNg Ready.
We're going to come again to you.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.
And he Took the Knife.
And he took in his hand the fire and the knife.
GEt this.
DOn't Miss this.
We're going to see this at the very end as we wrap up.
Isaac carries the burden of the sacrifice, carries the wood himself.
Abraham carries the instrument in the means, boy, get the wood.
I'll get the fire and the knife.
But Isaac realizes something's missing.
So THEY weNt, BOth of them TOgeTheR.
VERSE seVen.
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 a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
So they went, both of them together.
Abraham is walking with his son in full willingness to be obedient to what God has asked him to do.
He's not trying to trick his son or to mislead those with him, but in his obedience to offer his Son as a sacrifice, he says, the boy and I, we will come again.
And he says, God will provide.
Folks, walking in this layer of obedience to the Lord does not mean radical understanding.
Oftentimes, God is calling you and I.
To take steps of radical, illogical obedience.
And what we're waiting on is understanding God, tell me why, and I will do what you've said for me to do.
God, tell me how this is going to work out, and I will do what you've called me to do.
That's not what Abraham does here.
Abraham believes in who God is, and so he will do what God has called him to do.
Walking in obedience to the Lord means radical faith in what God has called you to do, but also radical faith in who God is.
And this is what Abraham has been building on in this journey of his life.
When we go all the way back, what seems like an eternity ago, when we were in Genesis twelve, and this is what we see in his life, he heard God's call and he left his country, he left his family, he left his home.
He has believed in God's promises and waited.
But he's also doubted and taken matters into his own hands and lived in the consequences of that.
He's had his moments of victory when he turned down the pagan kings.
And he's had his moments of defeat in his time.
In Egypt.
He's pleaded with God over Sodom and in the same instance, saw God's wrath and God's faithfulness.
He saw God's grace to Hagar and Ishmael and difficultly obeyed through difficulty, obeyed.
When God told him to tell them that they had to leave for years, for years he heard God say, I will give to you and Sarah a son.
And in spite of Abraham's doubts and moments of unfaithfulness, God was faithful and gave him Isaac, the Son of the promise.
So how does he take those steps?
Because what Abraham has lived in, what Abraham has seen, what Abraham has experienced is time after time, moment after moment, and the sweetness of obedience to the Lord.
Not of what he can understand, not of what he can logically conclude, but in this, of what it looks like to obey him, and obey him, and obey him.
And time and time again what God has done in his moments of victory, of obedience and in his moments of moral defeat, God has still remained faithful to him.
So he starts the journey of trust.
Verse nine.
And when they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar and 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.
And then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the angel of the Lord called To him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.
And he said, here I am.
And 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 to this day on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.
And we see AbrahAm walking in faithfulness.
In the moment of difficulty.
Do you notice what he's doing?
He's listening.
He's Listening.
In moments of difficulty, in moments of testing, in moments of the pressure cooker, do you know what I find?
That I listen to myself.
Why does God have me here?
Why would he ask me to do this?
Why would he put me here?
Abraham wasn't listening to himself.
He wasn't in his own head, he wasn't saying, why is God doing this to me?
InsteAd, he was listening to the Lord.
And his name was Said.
And he Said, here I am.
And I can only imagine that in that moment.
What he believed resounded more so than ever as the truth in his life of who God is.
VERSE 15.
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 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 in Beersheba.
Now, after these things was told to Abraham.
Behold Milkau also born children to your brother Nahor Uz, his firstborn, Luz.
His brother Camul, the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlath, Bethuel.
Bethuel also fathered Rebekah.
These eight milk Albor to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
Moreover, his Concubine, whose names was Rima.
Bortaba, Geha, Tahash, and Maka.
And from Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.
God blessed.
Now, we're not going to.
All right, so, Worship team, don't confront everybody.
Don't start thinking where you're going for lunch.
Y'all know I got more time.
But what if we stopped here?
What if we said, man, look at that.
That story is powerful.
Story of Abraham is faithFulness.
And we look at this and we.
See all that Abraham do.
That would be good, but it wouldn't be the fullness of what Scripture is bringing us to.
We always said, like, we're not the.
Point of the story.
Noah wasn't the point of the story.
Abraham's not the point of the story.
Isaac's not the point of the story.
We can keep going, and we keep going.
We can keep going.
They're not the point of the story.
God's the point of the story.
And what we find in here is there's some SiMilarities of a father who sends his son to be sacrificed.
This story happens in a place called Moriah.
Did a little research this week and.
Found out that where this story takes place is about 300 yards from Golgotha.
Where Christ would be crucified.
To give you some perspective, it would.
Be like standing at the far corner.
Of our parking lot and looking at the far corner of our soccer field.
That close but not the same.
And that's what we see as we look at this story of one Father who takes his son to be sacrificed, but God provides, and another Father who sent his son to be the provision of the sacrifice.
When we look at this and we see the sacrifice of Jesus, let's remember that Isaac is the Son of the promise, but Jesus is the sacrifice of the Son of the promise.
All of this pointing to Jesus.
God did not react to his Son crucified on the cross with, what do.
We do now from the prophecy of.
The Old Testament, pointing us to is.
The plan of God the Father to send God the Son to this earth.
As the perfect Son of the promise.
To be the perfect sacrifice.
And we see this.
We see that in this sacrifice that.
This sacrifice requires radical obedience.
Jesus didn't come and do what he wished or what he pleased in his journey to the cross.
And he says it time and time again, from the healings that he does, from the miracles that he performs to what he does on the cross on our behalf, that he came to do the will of the Father.
And he did it perfectly, and he did it completely.
This, in Genesis 22 was about a three day process.
This sacrifice called for a journey.
And the sacrifice of Jesus called for a journey as well.
Jesus had a long, not a three.
Day walk, but a 30 plus year journey.
I've had people ask me, why didn't God just send Jesus?
And then he didn't have to go through all that he went through.
He didn't have to face what he faced.
He could have died right then to be our sacrifice.
But you see, he couldn't have.
You couldn't have.
And not to be all who Jesus is, Jesus knows.
As our high priest, Jesus knows what we face.
Jesus knows what we go through.
Jesus have felt the pains of this life.
He knew betrayal.
He knew love, he knew hunger.
He knew what this world had to offer.
And he walked through this journey of life, not how you and I do.
But he walked through this journey of.
Life in complete perfection, morally, Ethically, to the will of the Father.
And just as Isaac carried the burden of the wood, the promised Son would carry the burden as well.
Not just the cross on his shoulders, but a greater burden than that, your sin and mine, and the sins of this world.
A burden that if we try to think of our mind cannot begin to fathom what that would be.
Isaac carried enough wood up a mountain to consume his body.
A heavier weight than we would want to think we could carry.
Jesus carried a weight up to Golgotha that we're incapable of carrying.
And as Isaac walked down, the promised Son will also walk again.
Isaac got up from that altar.
I don't know.
He probably walked a little faster, right?
I got to get out of here.
Jesus walked again, too.
His body was not stolen.
He didn't disappear.
He didn't just come in spirit.
His body that was pierced and beaten and crucified got up off of that table and walked out to.
And then that body, who he is, ascended into heaven.
And then what we long for and what we wait for and what we celebrate and what we have hope for is that one day.
One day, he will come back here, too, so that we will be united with him.
And then.
I love this.
I love that.
End of 22, we hear about the blessing.
God says, because you were willing to do this blessing to, you will come.
But from the promised Son, the blessing comes.
And because of Jesus'sacrifice, full and complete, never needing to be done again to cover saints of past, present, and future, blessing comes, and blessing is here, and we experience the relationship.
We experience hope, we experience peace, and we experience eternity, not just then, but now.
Because the Father sent his son to die.
Let that weight sit for a moment.
God the father, always with God.
The son sent him not for a moment of time, but sent him to his death, not because he deserved it, but because we did and because his love for us.
I don't know what you think love is.
I love my wife.
She is so good, and I do not deserve her.
She serves me, cares for me, and loves me.
I love my kids.
I love Grayson.
I love Emma.
I am blessed.
And they are who they are by the grace of God.
And I'm so grateful to the Lord for them.
And I think that's love.
But I want to tell you that's love.
That's love.
That a father would send his son to die for guilty sinners like you and like me.
And then what we get out of his obedience is the blessing of the family.
Would you pray with me, Lord?
I thank you for this passage.
Who.
God may.
May we seek and desire, Lord, such a closeness of relationship and walk with you, Lord.
We don't want to miss the lesson.
The lesson is real.
The lesson is powerful.
The lesson is calling us to obey you, not out of our understanding, but to obey you.
Out of our depth of knowledge, of knowing you, of knowing you intimately, of knowing your character and who you are.
And so, Lord, I pray that all of this information that we have about you, Lord, that it would move past simply being information about something to be depth of relationship with someone.
And, Lord, that as you're calling us to make difficult decisions, as you're calling us to take difficult steps, Lord, may we be like Abraham and get up early in the morning and in spite of all that's going to await us that day, seek to walk in faithfulness of you because of who you are and knowing that we can trust you.
And no matter what happens from that moment on, Lord, we can know and we can trust that you're working in it and you're doing something in it, and you're making us better, and you're making us more obedient to you.
Even when it hurts, even when it's painful, even when we don't understand, even when we're ridiculed.
But we know that the creator of the heavens and earth is working a particular blessing for us in our obedience.
But, God, can we.
Can we see bigger than that?
I couldn't imagine.
Or waking up Grayson saying today, budy, you're going to die.
And you're going to die for some guilty people.
And I know you've done nothing wrong, but they have.
And you're going to pay for their guilt.
You're going to pay for their failure.
But, God, you sent your son.
To die so that we, the guilty, could have life.
And, God, I praise you.
Thank you.
That you save us.
That you save us fully, that you save us completely.
That every bit of my mess, every bit of my garbage, every bit of my sin and my failure was nailed to the cross with Christ, and he paid for it fully.
And I am not defined by any of that.
I am now a son of God.
And, God, I thank you that that's not just for me, but it's for everyone.
Your word tells us who calls on the name of the Lord.
And so, God, I pray.
God, I pray right now, what we.
All in this room have in common is we're all sinners.
And, Lord, we all.
We all need to be saved, and we're chasing a bunch of things to save us.
And, Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here and statistics tells us this room is filled with them who doesn't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior Lord today I pray that they would take that step, that first step of true faith.
They cannot pay for their own sins and receive life.
That today they would trust that Jesus did put their faith, their hope and their trust in him and surrendering their life.
Jesus is Lord and Savior and in the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, to fill them so they may walk in obedience as sons and daughters of the living God.
Thank you for Genesis, chapter 22.
Thank you.
May we walk in faith.
It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
You.
Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willowridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.