01.10.10
A Faith that Honors God
Gen. 22:1-14
The closer we get to God the more intense our longing for Him will and should be. Why? We were created to live in time, but destined for eternity. In creation we had a beginning, but the love in which God created us, was in God without a beginning. And we’re able to make the most of the day when we keep eternity in mind. David wrote, “One thing I have asked of the Lord this is what I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the das of my life.” God created us to serve Him and glorify Him forever. However, He does not conceal the fact that in His religion there is a demand as well as an offer. If He offers his life totally, then He demands submission. In this day an age we cannot allow ourselves to be nominal Christians. Nominal Christianity permits individuals to be involved enough to be respectable, but not enough to be uncomfortable. To have a faith that honors and loves God, one must be able to count the cost. It does not mean a physical departure from job and family, but it does include the inner surrender of both and a refusal to allow either family affection or worldly ambition to occupy first place in our hearts. This is what we learn about Abraham, how to honor God with our faith, and love Him totally.
Abraham like many of us did not become a member of the Hall of Faith over night. The Apostle Paul states that Abraham ceased wavering in his faith and learned to trust God by taking Him at His Word. In fact Rom. 4:19-20 records these words about the father of the faithful. “And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated is own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able to perform.” Through a series of faith challenges Abraham not grew in the faith but He grew in His understanding of God. But it took Him sometime to get there.
• You will remember that Abraham left Ur of Chaldea and entered Canaan, the Promise Land, and as soon as He arrived, there was a famine in the land. The Commodities Market Skyrocketed. In the Promise Land. Grain was so costly that he moved to Egypt, the hood in order to provide for his family.
o Unable to trust God due to experience, He lied to Pharaoh saying Sarah (Mrs. Middle-East at the time) was not his wife because she looked so good but his sister.
o God will steer your faith through wilderness not to destroy it, but to purify it. Abraham like many believers never learn to trust in God during times of famine. They resort to deception and deceit-but God still blessed. God is more interested in means than He is with ends. Jesus taught that he was more concerned with our faithfulness than our success.
• You will remember that Abraham and Lot parted ways because they both grew in strength. There they served King Chedolahomer of Elam for 12 years, but the king decided to make war.
o Some times even allies will turn on you. But never reduce God to the level and image of man.
o The wilderness is not a place where you want to be isolated, you’ll die. The wilderness forces us by faith to trust in our relationship with God. Trust is an endangered species.
o Abraham was in covenant with God, but that covenant had to be tested through suffering.
• Abraham has learned that God is called Elohim, our Creator. He’s Adonai, the Lord our God. He’s even Jehovah Shalom, the God our Peace. But soon He will discover that He’s Jehovah Jireh the God that Provides.
o He provided protection for Daniel in the lions den.
o He provided a small piece of gravel for a shepherd boy to defeat a giant.
o He provided manna in the wilderness for the children of Israel.
o He delivered Gideon from the Midianites.
And He can do the same for you if you learn how to trust Him by faith and let go of what you think you must have in order to make it and be successful.
Faith isn’t faith until its all you have.
And so in Ch. 22, we have the climax or the apex of Abraham’s experience with God. Abraham finally got to the place where he no longer staggered or wavered at the promises of God. He was tired of letting God down in his faith. Faith that honors God is like a muscle that must be exercised through the daily activities of life. But the more Abraham walked with God, the more he learned to trust God.
After these things, verse one says that God tested Abraham. God, unlike Satan never tempts anyone to sin, but HE will test us to determine the depth of our obedience by faith. God will test us in order to allow us to experience victory. To test in Hebrew simply means to “try through a demonstration of stress,” not to destroy but to determine reliability. God want to promote you but can you handle your current stress level?
I. Faith that Honors God Depends on Revelation
a. God spoke, and Abraham discerned His voice, or His Word. He responded by saying “Here I am.” He didn’t hide, or run from God like some of us.
i. Abraham developed the Spirit of Faith because He listened to the Spirit of Faith. The God we listen to is the God we will become like.
ii. When God calls we should be in a position to answer.
b. How long is the test? Ps. 105:9 states: Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. Therefore, from the time we take our stand on God’s Word to when the answer manifests, constitutes the test.
c. God said (v. 2) take now your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering…”
II. Faith that Honors God Gives to God, What God Has Given by Grace
a. Basically, God said I don’t want Eliezer, your servant, a symbol of your wealth. I don’t want Lot, your nephew a picture of compromise. I don’t even want Ishmael, the creation of your own flesh.
i. Give me, what I gave you by grace-Isaac. Isaac was born of Me therefore its perfect for Me.
ii. God wants to determine whether we love Him more than His promises or what He has given to us.
iii. We’ve got to learn to say like Job, the Lord gives and the Lord takes it away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
iv. Whatever God gives by grace must be kept by grace.
v. Whatever God gives by grace must remain on the altar.
b. Abraham received the promise of a son by grace because he was to old to have one on his own.
i. What has the Lord given to you that you’re afraid to give back?
ii. If we can’t depart with that which the Lord has given us we make idols of it.
c. Understand brothers and sisters that not everything that enters our lives are destined to remain in our lives.
II. Faith that Honors God Acts on the Word of God
a. In verse three we are told that Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him and split wood for the burnt offering and went to the place of which God had told him.
b. If we’re going to honor God we must move with the Word. We must like Abraham, rise early and seek first God’s Kingdom and righteousness.
i. We cannot argue with God.
ii. We cannot justify disobedience.
iii. We cannot delay in obeying God. The longer we disobey the harder it will be to obey.
iv. If we’re going to obey there must be wood. Wood symbolizes the cross where the flesh is crucified.
c. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place from a distance.
i. We can’t look back. we must seek the Lord early.
Sometimes we have to leave some people behind as we climb higher in the Lord.
Finally, if Christ says lay it on the altar remember that He has the power to raise it back up.
