Finding The Heart Of Worship

If you have your Bibles, this evening, would you turn with me to Genesis chapter 23. We’ve got so little time and so much to cover. Genesis 23.

My first year in college, I was involved in Bethany Bible College’s Extreme Discipleship program… it’s the same program Andy Broad did his first year @ Bethany. In that program, we did a lot of hands-on ministry, including two missions trips: one to New York City and one to Washington DC.

On our way down to DC, we took two 15 passenger vans, with our leader Mike McNeil in the lead van and another leader and us in the van following. Let me tell you something really important about Mike: it is very important to Mike that we make good time. These are long trips and he wants to spend the least amount of time possible on the road. It’s a great ideal, but, well… it’s not the greatest at times. Let me translate: Mike McNeil…does not stop… for bathroom breaks… You see where this is headed?

So, we’re about an hour or so from the last stop we just made and Mike announces: we’re not stopping for another two hours or so. Well, about that time, guess what happens… yea… I suddenly have to go. And I mean HAVE. It wasn’t a little ooo, I could really use a bathroom break. It was a “the flood-gates have been thrown open and we’ve got to make a pit stop!!”

Well, remember when I said Mike doesn’t stop for bathroom breaks? I wasn’t joking…TWO HOURS, people, two stinkin’ hours. And to make matters worse, everybody thought it’d be soooo funny to make water noises while we drove. “Hey Jordon, you know what helps me when I have to go, thinking of water falls!” “Hey Jordon, do you want some soda?” Yea…that’s including our leaders.

The worst of it was, I really trusted them too. I mean, I knew we couldn’t stop every 20 minutes for a bathroom break, but come on. Well, luckily, I made it to the bathroom…barely. And needless to say, I lost a wee bit of trust for those guys. Just a bit…

Sometimes our trust is misplaced. But there is One that in whom we can always place our trust. We can follow after Him through whatever may come, we know that He knows what is best for us.

Tonight, if you have your Bibles with you, would you turn to the book of Genesis, yes, Genesis, chapter 22, starting in verse 1:

1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

2 Then He said, “Take now 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.”

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad[a] and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

So he said, “Here I am.”

12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide;[b] as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”