Resolutions and Sacrifice
Genesis 22:1-19
It was once said that if Christmas and Thanksgiving are the holidays of excess, then New Year’s Day must be the holiday of regret. I think that I am in agreement with that statement. New Year’s is a time when we think back on the year that was and try to come up with a way to make this coming year better than the one before. We think about all we ate and the extra pounds we put on and vow to lose weight. We think about the decisions we made and how they affected us, and we put forth the effort to use more wisdom this year. We think about areas in which we fell short and promise to improve on them.
Now, for me, it is a tradition for me to make a New Year’s resolution, but it does not appear to be the standard anymore. Just 10 years ago, studies had shown that over 70% of Americans had made a New Year’s resolution. Of the 70% that made resolutions, 67% had made at least three resolutions. The most encouraging statistic however was the fact that 63% of those who made resolutions were still keeping them after 2 months.
In recent years, the importance of the New Year’s resolution has definitely gone in a downward spiral. Those who make resolutions have gone from 70% to 49%. That means that less than half of us are making resolutions now. Of those 49% that make resolutions, 79% do not plan to keep them for longer than a month, and only 9% plan to implement the changes permanently.
Why are people so quick to dismiss the New Year’s resolution? I believe that it is because there is too much cost. Think about it for a moment. The top resolution every year is to lose weight. In order to do it, you must give up eating some food you love, cut back on others, and put in the effort to exercise. That is a lot of work, and to most people, it is not worth putting in the effort to lose a few pounds. The second most popular resolution is to quit smoking. In order to do it, you must put up with the constant cravings and nicotine fits. To most, it is not worth the agony. You see, in order to achieve our goals, there has to be some amount of sacrifice, and sacrifice is always painful.
We have been talking about the characteristics of God’s church and we are half way through. Let’s see if we can remember them. We started off by talking about the cornerstone of prayer. Then, we showed that church should be exciting because it is to be a place of revival. Then, last month we took a look at the aspect of worship in the church. Now, we are moving on to the fourth characteristic of God’s church. It is to be a house of sacrifice.
Sacrifice was a big part of the Old Testament believers. After all, they could not be forgiven for their sins if they did not offer a sacrifice. They had to shed the blood of the best of their flock in order to make a payment for their sins. Now, we have Jesus’ blood as a covering over our sins, so we do not have to worry about actual animal sacrifice anymore. That is great news, but I still think we need to look back to the practice of offering an animal sacrifice to see what we can learn. After all, we are still called to make sacrifices for Christ. Let’s take a look at probably the most well known story about sacrifice in the Old Testament by turning to Genesis 22:1-19.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes my son,” Abraham replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then, he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by the horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
From our passage this morning, I believe we can learn four things about a proper sacrifice that we can apply to our lives as Christians today. Let us pray to ask the Lord to bless our time.
A Proper Sacrifice Will Be Rooted in Obedience and Joy
Did you ever watch the old shows like Leave It To Beaver or the Brady Bunch? I do not have much experience watching them due to my age, but I do remember one thing about them. Whenever the Beaver or one of the Brady’s were asked to do something by his parents, they usually complied with a smile on his or her face and a yes sir or ma’am. They would get right to taking out the trash or doing their chores out of obedience to their parents except in the episodes where they were disobedient. Then, they would be punished and that punishment would always return them to being perfect little angels.
Now, those of you with children know that things are not that simple anymore. When you tell your kids to do something, there are a number of responses you can get. Every once and a while, they will go and do what you told them to do, but they will not have a smile on their face. Other times, they will try to convince you that what you told them to do does not need to be done. There are the days where they try to ignore you and pretend not to hear what you said. Then, there are the times when they flat out defy you and do not do what you asked them to. These are the days when you wish that God would call you to sacrifice one or two of them. Why can’t they just show obedience and joy when you ask them to do something?
Now, if you are relating to this situation about children, I want you to think about your relationship with God. He is the Father and we are the children. He has commanded us to do so many things in his Word, and we have several reactions we can take. We can read His word and do what it says with joy. This seems like the roughest road at first because it will require us to make some sacrifices in our lives. We will have to give up the easy road and travel God’s way. To most people, this seems like too much effort, so we begin to complain and question God. “Do I really have to do this?” Before long, we begin to ignore what God is saying through His Word, and then we defy His authority by not living according to His Word.
Now, God is calling us to be obedient to Him in many areas, but He has not called any of us to kill our own son. Can you imagine this? Could you do it? I love Abraham’s reaction to this. He had waited almost a hundred years to get this son. Now God is telling him to sacrifice it. Does Abraham complain or grumble? Does he defy God or pretend like he is not listening? No, Abraham takes the command and is obedient. In fact, Abraham does not even wrestle with the decision. Our passage says that he left to go do this early the next morning. Abraham was obedient and joyful even in a tough time.
As one of God’s children, I want to challenge you to make a resolution to be more obedient and joyful this next year. When you come across something in God’s Word that challenges you, just do it and don’t complain. Get in the Bible everyday and transform your life into one that is like Christ through being obedient to what it tells you.
A Proper Sacrifice Will Be Painful
As a child, I used to like to trade baseball cards. We would take them to school and look them over to see if we wanted one that someone else had. Sometimes, it was easy to make a trade. If you had two of one card, it was easy to trade one away to get another card because you still had one left. It became difficult however when it came time to trade a card you really liked for one of equal value that someone else had. However, if you wanted that card, you had to give one up that held value to you. It was never easy. You had to sacrifice one card for another.
When God calls you to sacrifice something for Him, it is going to be hard and maybe even painful. After all, if it does not cost you something, it is not really a sacrifice. Think about it this way. If you ask a man with a thousand dollars to borrow a dollar, it would not be much of a sacrifice for him to give it to you. However, if you ask a man for two dollars to loan you one of them, that would involve much more of a sacrifice because you are asking that he give up a great deal of what he has.
Now, Abraham was a pretty wealthy man in his day. He had many animals that he could have used for a sacrifice, so giving up one animal for God would not have been much of a sacrifice. He had many more that could take the place of the animal that was killed for sacrifice. Now, Abraham had many animals, but he only had one son and he had waited for 99 years to get him. His son had great value to him, so there was quite a price to be paid. Can you imagine what must have been going through Abraham’s mind the night before he took Isaac to sacrifice? However, he knew that pain was a part of sacrifice, so he went and did as the Lord told him. I pray that we make the resolution to follow the Lord no matter how painful it will be.
A Proper Sacrifice Will Show God’s Provision
I once heard the story of Joel Morgan who was going to Romania to visit some missionaries there. He asked some friends what he should pack with him, and they told him to bring some food snack for himself because there was not much to eat in the rural villages where he would be going to. Joel decided to enlist the help of God in this venture because he wanted to get things that were not necessarily his favorite but would make it through customs. He picked up some Reese’s cups, tapioca pudding, hard candy and gum, a can of fruit cocktail, and a can of mandarin oranges.
When Joel arrived in Romania, he stayed with a missionary family who were living in very harsh conditions often without heat or electricity. They enjoyed a very good evening of conversation and prayer together. As Joel started to leave, he remembered the snacks that he had brought for himself. He was reminded that he was supposed to show compassion, so he has an idea. Even though it was only October, he took out his backpack and began to play Santa Claus in the living room. He asked the missionary’s two teenage daughters, “If you could have one thing from the U.S. what would it be?” In unison, they screamed, “Candy!” The mother chimed in. “The girls love Reese’s peanut butter cups but they do not make them here.” With a lump in his throat, Joel pulled out two King sized packages of peanut butter cups, and the girls began jumping up and down as they held their gifts. Wiping away a tear, Joel then turned to the mother, “What item from home would brighten your day?” This was a big risk. What if she asked for a side of beef? She said sheepishly, “I miss fruit – especially citrus.” Reaching into his bag, Joel pulled out the can of fruit cocktail and the can of oranges. Now, everybody was laughing, and everyone was wiping away tears. After a time of celebration, Joel turned to the father. He thought about pulling out the few remaining items in the bag and letting the dad make the decision. After all, two out of three miracles isn’t bad. Why press your luck? But, something deep down inside of Joel shouted, “Go for it!” Before he could argue with God, he heard himself ask, “Gary, what is your favorite treat? The dad smiled and said, “It’s something very few other people like. I love tapioca pudding.” Joel nearly injured himself pulling out the snack packs of tapioca pudding that God had prompted him to buy seven days earlier and 4000 miles away. What an amazing time of worship they had that evening!
This is a great story, but it was only possible because of two sacrifices made by Joel Morgan. First of all, he sacrificed his own personal preferences in snack food and was obedient to God’s will. Secondly, he was willing to sacrifice his conveniences for the sake of others, and he was truly blessed by God’s provision. Can you imagine the conversation between Mr. Morgan and God the next time he went to prayer?
The truth is that every time we make a sacrifice for God, he will provide for us. He provided the necessary items for this missionary family, and he provided the necessary ram for Abraham’s sacrifice. I believe that Abraham knew this even while he was preparing Isaac. After all, when Isaac asked him about the lamb, Abraham declared that the Lord would provide. When he and the boy left for this sacrifice, he told his servants that they both would be back. Abraham may not have known how God was going to do it, but he knew God would provide for him if he was willing to sacrifice everything. The same is true of us still today. I think we need to make the resolution to trust God enough to give much in sacrifice because we know that He will provide.
A Proper Sacrifice Will Be Rewarded
Since Abraham was faithful with his sacrifice, he was rewarded with a number of things. He was given the provision of the ram to take the place of his son, but the angel gave him even more blessings. He was promised so many descendents that they could not be counted. He was promised the cities of his enemies. And, he was promised that even his offspring would live blessed lives. That is not a bad deal.
When we make the commitment to give God our best sacrifice, all He has called us to, he will bless us. The pain will soon give way to blessings, and the effort will be rewarded with a closer relationship with the Lord. It is never easy to take the first step of sacrifice, but it is always the easy road in the end.
Do you want a life that is full of rewards from the Lord? It starts by giving up the things that you hold dear that God may be calling you to give up. We need to make the resolution that we will endure the initial pain of sacrifice because we know the Lord will be faithful and reward us. We need to make the resolution that we will not expect the reward from God until we have paid the price by sacrificing for His glory.
I want you to make one more resolution this morning. Will you resolve to read God’s Word and seek Him in prayer to find out the sacrifices you need to make to grow closer to Him. Then, make three resolutions to keep that will make you closer to God at this time next year. I can think of no better resolution than to be closer to God, but it will take some sacrifice. Are you willing to put forth the effort? Let’s pray.
