“The Good & Beautiful God:
God Is Trustworthy”
Genesis 22:8
January 30th, 2011
"Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together."
Gen 22:7-8 (NIV)
Introduction:
> We have been looking at false narratives about God.
Last week we discussed the “Angry God” narrative that says that God is angry at all of us because of sin and if we step out of line, He’s going to severely punish us.
> But, Jesus’ narrative states that God is good and in the end, we will all see just how righteous and good God is. We can’t see the full picture yet!
> Not only do we not see the full picture, but what we do see is bent because we look through jaded (false) lenses—we see mostly the bad, and we fail to see all of the good that God has done! Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above!
> Ultimately, we must choose by faith to believe that God is good—the lie will always be present, until Jesus comes again. It is by faith that we proclaim, “God is Good!”
> This week I want to confront another false narrative about God.
It is the narrative that states that God cannot be trusted.
- He is holding out on us.
- He doesn’t have our best interests at heart.
> This false narrative has been around since the very beginning! In Genesis 3, Satan catches Eve’s attention and asks…
"Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’"
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Gen 3:1-5 (NIV)
> From the very beginning Satan has been spreading this false narrative, “God is holding out on you.” Satan’s lie is that God doesn’t have your best interest at heart. He tells you that you can’t trust God, God’s going to fail you, He will ask everything of you and then leave you when you need him the most.
> I have seen this time and time again in the ministry. People come to God when they are desperate and feel that God can help them in their time of need.
> However, after the dust clears and things get better, they realize that God doesn’t want to be our God only during the difficult times. God said to Moses on Mount Sinai…
"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God."
Ex 20:3-5 (NIV)
God desires us to realize who He is and worship Him because of who He is, not because of what He does for us during the hard times in our life.
> Most people, after they get through the hard time, the desperate time, the “Oh God, I do anything for you if you just get me through this” moment—after they get past all that, they turn to God and say, “OK God, I’ll take it from here. I don’t need You anymore. So, thanks for nothing.”
> In other words, “I don’t trust you with my life. I only trust you with my junk, with my problems when they are beyond my control.”
> Many people don’t even trust God with their problems.
How many times have we heard it said, “They’ll have to hit rock bottom before God can help them.” Illustrate: Charley Sheen, in and out of drug & alcohol rehab. Doctor said, on the news, “He’ll have to hit rock bottom before he can get help.”
> The fact is, some will never trust God to take care of their life. They only trust themselves.
> What about you today?
Have you put your life in God’s hands COMPLETELY?
Or, are you the type that only turns to God when you really, really, really need Him?
Or, are you the type that never trusts God? You’re afraid He will send you (or your kids) to Africa. You know He will take all your money and leave you with nothing.
> Satan has control of you because you have bought his slanderous lie about God, that God doesn’t have your best interest at heart and so He can’t be trusted.
> As long as you live with a heart that distrusts God, you will never be at peace with God or with yourself. There will always be a battle within you for control.
> Jesus’ narrative about God is totally different. He tells us of a God who can be trusted at all times in our life.
> Let’s examine Jesus’ response to Satan’s lie about God.
God As Father
> James Bryan Smith begins this chapter of his book by telling a story about taking his six year old son to an amusement park. While at the park, he and his son got on a ride. A teenage boy buckled them into their seats and then started the ride. The entire time during the ride, James Bryan Smith felt a panic in his heart for fear that his son would fly out of the ride. He states…
“With white knuckles and gritted teeth I prayed the entire ninety seconds for the ride to end. I looked over at Jacob, who was laughing and having a great time (The Good and Beautiful God, pg 55).”
> After the ride was over, he and his son sat down on a nearby park bench, and James Bryan Smith asked his son, “Weren’t you scared? That ride was pretty wild. Why did you get on a ride like that?” His son answered with childlike honest, “Because you did, Dad.”
> This is the kind of trust we should have in our Heavenly Father. We often sing a song that says, “Where He leads me, I will follow. Where He leads me, I will follow. Where He leads me, I will follow. I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way!”
> Jesus’ narrative about God is that God is our Heavenly Father. Jesus refers to God as “Father,” “Heavenly Father,” or “Father in Heaven” nearly 300 times in the gospels.
> There is no way we can look at every instance where Jesus addresses God as Father, however, we should examine at-least three specific times when Jesus spoke to God as Father.
First, when Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13) He taught them to pray, “Our Father, who art in Heaven…” We discussed the significance of this phrase in great detail on August 8th, 2010 (available on the internet). However, James Bryan Smith gives a wonderful break-down of the prayer on pages 60-61. This is helpful for us to know the “Character” of our Heavenly Father…
God is in Heaven—God’s presence all around us. To the Jews, Heaven was not far away, it referred to the surrounding atmosphere, the very air we breathe.
God is Holy—Nothing Bad in God. God is pure, righteous, unspoiled, uncorrupted.
God is King—He is powerful, nothing is beyond His powerful reach, nothing is outside of His sovereign rule.
God is Provider—“Give us this day our daily bread.” God is the one who will take care of our needs.
God is Pardoner— “Forgive us our trespasses…” As Richard Foster writes, “At the heart of God is the desire to forgive and to give (Foster, Celebration of Discipline, pg. 125).”
God is Protector—“lead us not into trials, but deliver us from the evil one…” God is able to protect us in every way.
This is the way Jesus sees His Father in Heaven.
- Present - Holy - Sovereign Ruler
- Provider - Pardoner - Protector
Who wouldn’t want a Father with those traits. As James Bryan Smith wrote…
The “How to Be a Good Dad” booklet I keep on my bedside table has some nice tips (’Play with your kids’ and ’Listen to them’), but I would do a lot better drawing near to my heavenly Father and allowing him to shame my heart into His image. (pg. 62)
What a powerful image of a God whom you can trust. He is present, holy, sovereign, provider, forgiver, and protector. This is Jesus’ narrative about His Father in Heaven.
2. Second, in Jesus’ High-priestly prayer recorded in John seventeen. Once again, Jesus is talking to His Father in heaven. Here, Jesus reveals an intimacy with His Father. We see that Jesus trusts God…
- To glorify Him - To give eternal life
- To care for His disciples - To honor His word
- To sanctify - To be truth/truthful
Jesus trusts God because God is True, there is no deception in Him. Satan is the author of all lies! Satan is the source of all confusion. I see people running around, all confused about what to believe. One minute they are Christian, next Buddhist, next Scientology, next they believe something else. In Jesus, we see supreme confidence in His Father, therefore, He feels confident in turning all of His earthly efforts and ministry over to Him! We are afraid to give God our finances, our time, our family, our employment, etc. because we think God isn’t trustworthy. Jesus gave everything to God in this beautiful prayer.
Finally, in Mark 14:36, we see one more expression of “Father” spoken by Jesus. Now, distraught over what He must face, Jesus cries out to God and says, “Abba, Father.” Scholars explain that this is an affectionate term, much like we would say, “Daddy”. Now we see Jesus, not in a teaching mode. Now we see Jesus in a very personal interaction with His Daddy. He cries out, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Mark 14:36 (NIV) The Jesus narrative is simply this, even though I do not understand all that must happen, even if I do not desire it, even though it may be painful, I will trust you God.
> Jesus’ Narrative about God is that God is our Father. We can be the little child and trust Him, even when we must face painful and difficult circumstances.
> I love what William Barclay writes in his commentary about Mark 14:34…
Even in this terrible hour, when he was making this terrible demand, God was father. When Richard Cameron, the covenanter, was killed, his head and hands were cut off by [Lord] Murray and taken to Edinburgh. "His father being in prison for the same cause, the enemy carried them to him, to add grief unto his former sorrow, and inquired if he knew them. Taking his son’s head and hands, which were very fair (being a man of a fair complexion like himself) he kissed them and said, ’I know them--I know them. They are my son’s--my own dear son’s. It is the Lord. Good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me nor mine, but hath made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days.’" If we can call God father everything becomes bearable. Time and again we will not understand, but always we will be certain that "The Father’s hand will never cause his child a needless tear." That is what Jesus knew. That is why he could go on--and it can be so with us.
—Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
> When we know the Father, when we come to the intimacy Christ had with God, then we will be able to trust Him. James Bryan Smith quotes Thomas Smail’s book, The Forgotten Father (pg. 37). Smail writes…
The Father that Jesus addresses in the garden is the one that he has known all his life and found to be bountiful in his provision, reliable in his promises and utterly faithful in his love. He can obey the will that sends him to the cross, with hope and expectation because it is the will of Abba whose love has been so proved that it can now be trusted so fully by being obeyed so completely. This is not legal obedience driven by commandment, but trusting response to known love. (Smith, Good and…, pg. 65).
> Jesus had come to be so intimate with His Father in Heaven, that it was possible for Him to have a trusting response to known love.
> Our scripture today is from an Old Testament story that is foundational to Jesus’ Narrative! You see, Abraham is the father of all children of faith. He is not our Heavenly Father, but he is the first one to live in such a trusting manner. He learned to trust God throughout his life.
> God promised Abraham an heir. But the years went by and Sarah remained barren. Abraham decided to take matters into his own hands because he began to believe the lie of Satan that God was not trustworthy. As a result, He messed things up with Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar, and she had Ishmael. But this was not God’s plan. So, God rejected Ishmael and told Abraham that Sarah, his God-given wife, would give him an heir.
> Finally, after Sarah was past child-bearing years and Abraham was 100 yrs. old, Sarah gave birth to Isaac.
> Some years go by and God comes to visit Abraham. He instructs Abraham to take Isaac to the mountains of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering.
> Abraham doesn’t argue with God, he obediently packs all of his supplies, and He and Isaac set out for Moriah.
> As they are walking along, Genesis lets us eavesdrop into a conversation between Isaac and Abraham…
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and 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. Gen 22:7-8 (NIV)
> Can you imagine how thick the silence must have been as they continued their journey. I can’t imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind. The writer of Hebrews wrote…
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Heb. 11:17-19 (NIV)
> God’s word tells us how we are to understand Abraham’s faith. He trusted God! He had a trusting response to known love! The God Abraham knew could raise the dead so Abraham knew that God would provide the lamb, God would take care of Isaac, God would not fail!
> Do you know your Father God?
Do you know your Father God—the one that you can get on this crazy ride called life with and throw your hands in the air and let go and trust God?
Conclusion:
> Recently I watched the movie King David. In the movie, there is a powerful scene where King David dances before the Lord as they bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. It is a scene based on 2 Samuel 6:13-15. David had faced tremendous trials and tribulation before becoming King. He had been chased by King Saul for 10 years, living in caves and in the land of the Philistines at Ziklag. His family and the families of his men had been kidnapped by the Amalekites and David and his men had to pursue the Amalekites and overtake them to recover their families.
> Imagine what David had gone through. It was a terrible, harrowing ordeal. Yet through it all, David drew closer and closer unto the Lord God of Israel.
> After a great tragedy, the death of Uzzah—Abinadab’s son, the Ark finally made it to the gates of Jerusalem. As the ark entered the city, David spontaneously stripped to a linen ephod and danced with reckless abandon before the LORD.
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> What a beautiful picture of one who had come to trust the LORD God.
> This is where I want to be! I want to fall in love so much with the Lord God, I want to be able to trust Him so much that I can let go on the ride and simply dance through life in reckless abandon.
> How about you today. The world says, “Don’t trust God, He doesn’t have your best interest at heart.” But Jesus’ Narrative says, “He’s our Father, you can trust Him! Get on the ride and have fun. He will get you to the other side!”
> How about it? Do you want to join the ride?
Communion:
> Emphasize today’s scripture. “God will provide a lamb.”
"Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and 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."
Gen 22:7-8 (NIV)
> Jesus is the sacrificial lamb God provided for our sins.
> As you receive communion, take the bread, break it and as you dip it in the juice, proclaim, “The Lamb of God, sacrificed for my sin.”
Closing Song:
Closing Prayer:
