Faith & Fulfillment: Abram & Isaac: Genesis 22-25 (Mike Baker)

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Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sunday afternoons.

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if you were part of Alpha, you're
used to hearing lame dad jokes.

Well, no, I'm not gonna
tell any lame dad jokes.

If you want to hear those.

I know all of you do.

We are gonna have alpha again this
September, so just a little plug.

We're gonna have it so you guys
can come and hear more jokes.

So.

Today is Pentecost, and I've been
pondering the way I prepare sermons.

I roll 'em around in my head
and I ponder, and I ponder and I

ponder, and ideas come and I just
go and all those kind of things.

And so I've been doing that for a couple
of weeks knowing this day was coming and,

but I want you to know today's Pentecost
and if the Holy Spirit chooses to come

and fill this room and have a little
dancing fire over our heads and the

sermon doesn't happen, I'm okay with that.

Whatever the Holy Spirit was.

Is what I want.

There are a lot of stories in scripture.

There are a lot of stories in
scripture, and this morning I

wanna talk about four of them.

Well, one's not in scr.

Well, two are not in scripture.

Two are two are not.

But I wanna talk about these four
stories, these four encounters with God.

Now, one of the things I've noticed being
part of salt and light is you've noticed.

I'm a little older than the average age in
here, and sometimes my illustrations and

references don't make sense to you guys.

I was an alpha and I said something
about, I bet you a nickel to a donut.

Uh, and Kyle Simmons picked up
his phone and immediately, what

the heck does that mean me?

So you have to bear with me sometimes.

My, my illustrations are, and, and
Ben talks about movies and books.

I've never heard of.

So it, it goes both ways.

So anyway, so I'll do my best.

If I do a, some kind of a reference,
an old, an old person's, uh, reference

you don't understand, I'll try to
explain it to you after church.

So there the two greatest
stories in all of scripture.

The two greatest stories, the
greatest story in scripture

is the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead.

If it was not for that story.

There'd be no reason
for us to even be here.

That's the greatest story.

But as Jesus said about the commandments,
the second one is like unto it's the

sacrificing or the God commanding
Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

And the similarities are
so just, just radical.

You know, he takes his son,
he lays the wood on his back,

like a cross on his back.

He takes his only son.

And his only son, and he takes some
place for them to be sacrificed.

But in Abraham's case, God steps
in and says, no, no, no, stop.

Now if, if you've been here for the
last, I don't know, a couple of months,

we've been look going through Genesis
and, and the Abraham story pops up.

God is constantly trying to, to recreate a
new community that'll be faithful to him.

He's done it over and over
and over and they always mess

up and mess up and mess up.

Those people in the
Bible are just like us.

Hm.

And so he chooses Abraham and he
tells Abraham, I'm gonna bless

you and you're gonna have a
descendants as numerous as the stars.

And they have.

Now, I don't know if you've been in
a really, really dark place before.

I'm talking about geographically,
not emotionally, but some place

which there's no pollution.

You know, light pollution, you almost,
you know, couldn't can't, it's so bright.

'cause the stars are just everywhere.

Big Ben is supposed to be
one of the darkest places.

Uh, on the planet because of its location.

There's just nothing around
it, just gorgeous lights.

So he tells Abraham you're
gonna have children as numerous

as the stars in heaven.

So all of Abraham's hopes and dreams
for the future are in this sun.

Isaac.

I mean, that is the focus of his life
and he has been promised this child,

and I don't know how much it took,
what two decades to two and a half

decades for this child to appear.

He's born to Abraham and Sarah.

When they're old, it should, you know,
biologically should never happen.

This child is miraculous from
conception on and all of his

hopes and dreams are in this kid.

And now this kid, it says sometime
later, this kid is probably

a young adult at this point.

And his son willingly allows his
father to bind him to be sacrificed.

Now, there are a lot of things in
scripture that don't make sense if, if

we look at chapter 22 and chapter 20.

This is chapter 22.

Chapter 23, Sarah dies.

Abraham buys some land and
she's buried in Chapter 23.

There's another weird illustration.

Abraham calls his servant to him and says.

Promise me, give me an oath that
you're gonna go back to my homeland

and find a young woman to, to be
the wife for, for my, for my son.

And he says, in order to do this oath,
I want you to put your hand under my

thigh and promise me you'll do that.

Now, that's a weird illustration.

Can you imagine going to a loan
office and you're gonna buy a house?

He says, here, put your hand outta my
thigh and promise you're gonna pay.

You know you're gonna buy a car.

That'd be kind of creepy.

You go to the loan guy in
that little office and.

So, so there's, there are things
in, there are things in scripture,

there's illustrations in scripture
that just don't compute well.

Sacrificing your child doesn't compute at
all, but it did in the days of Abraham.

You see, there were people around Abraham
who worshiped Baal and Molik, which

are both fertility gods, and in those
practices they did sacrifice children.

In fact, Abraham comes out of a family
at least there's the mid rush, which

is kind of a ancient Jewish writing.

It's kind of a, a folklore.

They tell about things
that happened in the past.

They talk about Abraham's father
actually being an idol maker,

that he made idols for a living.

So Abraham comes out of a, a polytheistic,
you know, kind of culture where people

actually did sacrifice their kids.

And so when God asked Abraham to do
it, this is not out of the cultural

norm that that he's used to, but
all of his hope is in this one kid,

this one young man, all of his hope.

And what God wants to know is, are you
gonna put your hope and that one kid,

or are you gonna put your hope in me?

And what God did in that testing.

It helped Abraham realize that his hope
in this world was not bound up in his

son, but it should only be focused on God.

So that's the Abraham story, the
story of Jesus being sacrificed.

Jesus follows the will of his Father, and
even Jesus himself feels tested that he's

gonna have to go and suffer this death.

And in that case, his son is sacrificed.

So that there would be generations
of people who would call on his name

from, from from then on, and that's
the reason we're here because of that.

Now let me, let me give you a little
bit of a personal illustration as some

of you know, some of you may not know.

In 1981, I was ordained in the
Episcopal church, and I served in the

Episcopal church for about 25 years.

In the early two thousands, it
became apparent to me because of a

variety of reasons, a variety of.

Uh, discussions that the Episcopal Church
for me, and I'm not saying for everybody,

but for me, was drifting away from
scripture that they seemed more, more

inclined to follow the customs of the
culture rather than following scripture.

And there's some, many, many things in
scripture that are really challenging,

but they would say over and they'd
say things like, well, that's the Old

Testament and this is the New Testament.

Like, no, no, no, no, we can't go there.

And they say, well, these are words
of Paul, not the words of Jesus.

I said, no, no, no.

You can't go there either.

Every word is right.

Every word is true, or
none of the words are true.

And so it became a real
struggle for me personally.

What am I going to give my allegiance to?

Am I gonna give my allegiance
to this denomination, or am

I gonna stay true to God?

From, from my perspective.

I prayed and prayed and prayed.

I read and read and read.

I studied and studied and studied.

I talked to other people.

Uh, I pulled my hair out because
at 25 years, I was five years

from retirement, full retirement.

It meant losing friends.

It meant losing, being part of
the epistle church, which I loved.

I loved the history.

I loved the tradition.

I love the richness of all of that.

I didn't wanna let go of that, but
Jesus was more important to me.

Than the tradition.

And so I stepped away
from the Episcopal church.

I resigned my physician as a
pastor, and we created a new church.

It was non-denominational for a while.

Then we joined the group called
Evangelical Covenant, which

is where Nicole grew up in an
evangelical church, which is where

all of you senior kids to camp.

Again, a plug for camp,
get your kids to camp.

It's a great camp.

Uh, the director of it's a little
crazy, but who else would run

a camp for 27, 20, 30 years?

So, anyway.

He's a good friend.

He's a crazy guy.

I like, I like crazy people.

They're my favorite being
one of them I really enjoy.

So

I stepped away because I had come
to realize that my focus wasn't

God, but it was the security
and safety of a denomination.

And you know, Ben talked last week,
you know, kept saying, you know,

well, but God, you know, but God.

But God was like, you know,
I was going through this.

I say, but God, if, if, if I
resigned then, but God, if I it.

It's like,

so it was crazy.

But it came to realize for me,
that was the denomination and I

didn't really know this until I
had to make this decision to leave.

Is was that.

My, my, my hope and my security and my
focus was being part of this denomination

and I had to let that go.

And I have learned more about God and
experienced more of God, more the riches

of God since then than I did before
then, because it's like I realized

I'm doing church without, uh, without
a net underneath the, the high wire.

You know, it's, uh, I have
nothing to depend on, but God.

And it wasn't, but God in a bad sense.

But God is the only way
we're gonna make it.

It's the only way we're gonna survive.

And God met us in our needs and carried
us and comfort us and took us forward.

But I didn't know that
until I had to let that go.

Abraham had to let go of his focus
on his son Isaac, and focus on God.

Jesus did not want to die.

But he let that go because his focus
on his father's will for his life.

I had to let the Episcopal church
go because that had become an

idol, I guess, for me, and I didn't
know at the time, but it became

an idol and I had to let that go.

The next story I wanna
talk about is your story.

What are you putting your hope in?

What are you putting your security in?

Because we all do it.

Some of us put our security
in our being, uh, intelligent.

Some of us put our security
in being physically fit.

Some of us put our security in our
4 0 1 Ks, but not so much lately.

But, you know, our retirement funds,
we, we all have something that,

that is our hope, that's our desire.

That's, that's, this
is gonna keep me safe.

You know, I'm gonna be okay
because this is gonna keep me safe.

Sometimes we put it in a political party.

I'm here to tell you all
of that will let you down.

100%.

It will let you down.

Our hope can be of nothing except Jesus.

Not in an institution, not in a
person, not in a, not in a job, not

not in your health, not in anything.

Everything in this world will
let you down, I guarantee it.

You can be the richest man in the world.

You can build rockets.

You can even own a car company.

But if you don't have some kind of
spirituality connected to the one

true God, none of that's gonna matter.

None of it's gonna matter.

I don't know if anybody
comes to mind with that, but.

Uh, so lemme give you a, an
old person's, uh, illustration.

Hopefully it'll make sense.

Back in the olden days, we
didn't have wireless speakers.

Everything we had, had to
have wires, everything.

And I had a stereo system.

It was the best I could afford, uh,
a high five, you know, true fidelity.

I mean, it was, it was, it was good stuff.

And so I had a turntable.

You guys know what that is?

That's something that goes
round and round, round.

You put vinyl records on it.

I think they're making a comeback.

It had 33 78 and 45.

You had to pull little thing
in a minute for the 40 fives.

But anyway, it had turntable and that
wire would then go to something we

called a receiver back in the olden
days and that receiver, believe

it or not, it had AM and FM radio.

Now I know you guys don't know what
radio is anymore, but so hit AM

and FM radio and it would receive
the signal from the turntable.

And then it would go out to the
speakers and we were always trying

to build speakers, you know, the
biggest speakers, walls of speakers,

all this crazy kind of stuff.

So you could have the best
turntable in the world.

You could have the best receiver,
you could have the best speakers.

But you go out in the garage and you
find some old speaker wire that's been

round, wound up and kind of tied up
hanging in the garage, I don't know,

three or four years of hot and cold.

Hot and cold.

And you take that, you know, old beat
up wire, connect it to the speakers,

you're not gonna get a good sound.

Because that no matter how expensive
the turntable is, the receiver or

the speakers, you put in some broken,
brittle cheap wire to the speakers.

You're gonna get lousy sound.

Can I get an amen for a second?

Yeah, absolutely.

You're gonna, he, he's the sound guy.

He knows sound better than I do,
so he just makes me sound better.

But anyway, so, and it's interesting.

You can have all those components
being great, but have cheap

wire and it doesn't sound good.

Now, that's an old person's illustration.

I.

You can be physically fit,
you can be financially stable.

You can have all these great
things in your life, but if you

don't have Jesus connecting all
of that, it's gonna fall apart.

I guarantee you it will fall apart.

Now, I'm not saying
Jesus makes our way easy.

Absolutely not.

Sometimes I have been in the
shadow of death on several

occasions, but he comforted me in
the midst of the shadow of death.

So what is your story?

Abraham had a test.

His son, Jesus had a test.

He didn't wanna die, but he was
willing to sacrifice for his father.

For me, it was a denomination that
was getting in my way of God was,

is getting in your way with God

because we've all got one.

We all may think we're smart,
we may think we're wealthy,

we may think we're educated.

We think we're in great health.

We've all got something that's getting
in the way between us and the father.

Now, I can't write your
story, but you can.

So I challenge you this afternoon.

You go home to take a nap after
church, which is the most holy

thing you can do after church.

God comes to us in dreams and we can't
have a dream unless we're asleep.

So anyway, I highly, I highly
recommend doing that spiritual

exercise of taking a nap.

But you might think for just a, a split
second, what am I putting my hope in?

And will it really stand up against
everything I have face in this swirl?

Will it really stand up?

So, I, I, I.

I challenge you to ponder
that for just a little while.

What are you putting your hope in

now?

Jesus gave us many things.

He gave us communion, which we're
gonna take in just a moment,

but he also, one time, Mr.

Disciples got together and he said,
he said, Jesus, teach us how to pray.

He said, rabbi, rabbi Jesus,
you're our, you're our teacher.

Teach us how to pray.

Other rabbis teach their
disciples how to pray.

Will you teach us how to pray?

And he says, yes, I'll
teach you how to pray.

He says, pray like this.

Now, he didn't say pray exactly
this, but he said Pray like this.

So this is kind of an outline and I
know some of you, it's called the Lord's

Prayers, what we call the Lord's Prayer.

And I know some of you come from
traditions where you owe money.

So it's debt and debtors.

Uh, I know some of you are
trespassing on other people's land,

so it's trespassing trespasses.

I went the contemporary route where
it's just straightforward sin and sense.

Okay?

So if you pray this with me,
I think we've got a slide.

Here it is.

Are you guys ready?

Here we go.

Our father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will
be done on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread
and forgive us our sins as we

forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and the
glory are yours now and forever.

Amen.