Tune In
Pt. 2 - Broadcast
I. Introduction
?The last time I was with you was the last Sunday of 2017. I started this series because, like for many of you, 2017 was a quite year. Scripture makes it clear that God is speaking. We are told that we are to live on every word that is proceeding out of His mouth. The idea there is that He is constantly communicating. So, I am trying to take some time and help us learn to tune in so that we learn to hear Him clearly.
I want you to join me in a very familiar passage of scripture and see if it won’t help us learn some crucial truths about hearing God clearly.
TEXT: Genesis 22:1-13
(NIV) After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!” “Yes?” answered Abraham. “I’m listening.” He said, “Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.” Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham told his two young servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together. Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father?” “Yes, my son.” “We have flint and wood, but where’s the sheep for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “Son, God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they kept on walking together. They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son. Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes, I’m listening.” “Don’t lay a hand on that boy! Don’t touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn’t hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me.” Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Before we get deep into the story notice the first couple of words. Abraham was listening! He was tuned in. This is for free but if nothing else this account teaches us that if we are not tuned in then we can actually kill our destiny and promise!
1. God tends to broadcast.
God has established a pattern very early with Abraham. He calls him to uproot his family and move but doesn’t tell him exactly where. He simply says go to a land I will show you. Now in this account He tells Abraham to take his beloved son Isaac and start a week long journey (20-26 miles a day) to a place He will show him. Then to make it even more obscure He doesn’t inform Abraham that He will intervene at the last second to spare Isaac’s life.
God broadcasts. One of the things that this account shows us and that I have learned is that God tends to give direction but not detail! Here is the rub. I am a detail person. I like to know all the information. I want every intricate piece of info. I am not spontaneous! I want every second, minute and hour of vacations lined out. I want turn by turn maps before I head out! I wished God would narrow things down! Instead God broadcasts! God tends to just give us enough to get us where we are supposed to be. It is important to know this when we are trying to tune in because if we are not careful we will fill in any moment of silence! We will make up instructions. We will make up steps.
We must learn that God will not give us so many facts that we will not need faith! If He gave us all the facts, then we wouldn’t need any faith!
So, we have got to become comfortable in the knowledge that when we need to know we will. When it counts He will let us know the next step. He may tend to be silent on the journey but at the right moment He will speak and fill in the gaps.
Silence doesn’t give us the right to stop walking. When He broadcasts we have to start walking and keep walking until He gives us the next piece. This account teaches us and I have learned that God even allows and orchestrates crisis to develop our ability for conversation with Him. He is training us to hear! We tune in and hear better when approaching crisis.
2. Tuning in requires defying and denying.
When you look at this account everything God spoke to Abraham required Abraham to defy logic and deny preference. What God said defied logic. This was Abraham’s promised son. The heir to the blessing. Abraham was old. Isaac was his last hope. Doing what God said to do defies logic. It also denied his preference. Listen to how Isaac was described. Take your only son, your only son of promise, whom you love. It is like God is trying to purposely remind Abraham how important Isaac was. It is like God has stuck in the knife and now He is turning it. God is requiring Abraham to confront his own preference! Sacrificing this boy was not what he preferred to do.
How many of us claim that we don’t hear anything from God but the truth is that we just didn’t like what He had to say so we ignore or dismiss His voice? We don’t like the logic and it didn’t match up with our preference.
I need to just remind you this morning that when we are tuned in there will be things that we are instructed to do that make no sense. Give? How? I can barely make it now. Love? How? They get on my nerves. Forgive? How? They did me so wrong. They hurt me so bad. Trust? How? I have been let down so many times? Serve? Why? No one notices? That defies logic. There will be times when we will have to embrace instructions we don’t prefer! Attend! I don’t want to! I prefer a different place! Talk to that one! I am too busy or too shy! Worship! I don’t like that song. I don’t like the leader! Be quiet! I have rights and opinions and I need to express them!
Listen, we all long for ram in the thicket, God interventions, miracle moments but those are typically tied to tuning in to and obeying logic defying and preference denying instructions!
3. Tuning in can only be accomplished when we learn to tune out!
There is a truth in this account that may be one of the biggest barriers to hearing God clearly. This one thing may be the one thing that keeps most of us from hearing clearly. We fast, we pray, we cry out and then when we come to this step we fail.
Abraham, three days out from getting clear communication, stops and says to his servants you need to stay here.
Then he continues on the journey and gets clear instructions.
Some of us struggle to tune in, not because God isn’t talking but, because we refuse to leave anyone behind.
There are some folks in our lives that are noisy, distractions and a blockade to hearing God. Until we say to them, “I have enjoyed your company up to this point but you can’t go any further” then we will be unable to hear any further instructions from God.
To hear God there are some people you will have to leave behind because as long as they are around you, you won’t hear Him. Their voice drowns out His voice. Their opinion overpowers His opinion! Some of you are trapped in silence because you refuse to practice separation!
Jesus, Himself, modeled separation. He needed to hear from His Father so on multiple occasions He would separate and pray. He even separated from His closest allies. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He even practiced levels of separation. He took all the disciples and then took Peter, James and John further away.
Jesus is facing His toughest test. He can look up from this vantage point and see the blood of all the lambs being sacrificed on the Day of Atonement, some say as many as 200,000, flowing down the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount. He knows that He is next. He is the perfect lamb. He knows He is about to enter the Sheep Gate and lay down His life for us and facing those instructions He separates knowing that there are people who will keep you from continuing journey of sacrifice.
To tune in you must learn to practice tuning out. Not everybody can go on the journey. You will never hear God or see provision if you don’t leave some noisy folks behind. Their noise will cause you to miss your destiny. Their noise will cause you to miss instructions. They will cause you to miss communication. They have to be left behind if you are going to tune in! If God could just get some of us by ourselves we would hear Him! Some of you can’t hear God because you are never alone!
If 2018 is going to be a year of hearing, then we come to the place where we will start walking and keep walking even when we don’t have details. We will keep walking when it runs contrary to logic or preference. We will separate so that we can communicate. Is anyone ready to walk?
