As I have been spending time reading God’s Word in the mornings, I have been trying to pick out verses to think about throughout the day. One particular verse that has jumped out at me this past week is 1 Corinthians 6:12. "‘Everything is permissible for me’--but not everything is beneficial. "‘Everything is permissible for me’--but I will not be mastered by anything.”
In this passage, Paul is writing to the church in Corinth confronting their behavior. The Corinthian people had been using these “slogans” to justify their behavior that was displeasing to God. Paul doesn’t shoot down their ideas themselves but focuses on the effects of their actions. What Paul is saying to them is, “YES, you have free will to do whatever you want to do. BUT, not everything will be helpful to your relationship with God. YES, you have free will to do whatever you want to do. BUT, you can’t let anything master you because then it will become an idol above God and you won’t be practicing self control.”
As I though about this passage I asked myself, “What am I allowing to master me? What am I placing above God?” As I examined my life I found a few things but the thing that topped the list was the Red Sox. I have been staying up really late watching the games which has been exhausting me. I have been very emotionally involved getting upset at certain moves or just not being able to look at the TV. I have then spent almost the full day listening to sports radio to get the latest news, which had been my time to meditate on scripture. Melissa has been feeling like we have barely had a conversation because of baseball. The Red Sox have basically taken over a good portion of my life. I had let them master me!
Watching the Red Sox is not bad! Listening to sports radio is not bad! But they become bad though when they are running your whole life. They become bad when they start replacing God or going against God’s Word.
We all have things in our lives that master us, that take God’s place in our lives. For some it may be relationships, for others it may be food, for some it may be worrying about homework, or maybe video games. The fact is we all have stuff in our lives that take the place of God. Often, it takes a lot of faith to keep God first. Tonight, I want to finish off the story of Abraham because he had a major test of priorities towards the end of his life.
***Read Genesis 22:1-14***
Last week, we talked about God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a son named Isaac. God specifically promised that Isaac, and no other, would fulfill God’s promise to make the family of Abraham a great nation. This confuses me a little bit. If God is going to use Isaac to make Abraham’s family a great nation then why is God telling Abraham to go and kill him? Doesn’t God say human sacrifice is wrong? One of the beauties of scripture is that sometimes we can have more insight than the character had. We read in verse one, “Some time later God tested Abraham (emphasis mine).” God was testing Abraham saying, “Am I #1 in your life still? I gave you the son that you always wanted, am I still most important to you though?”
Abraham is not aware though that he is being tested and embarks on another major test of his faith in God. Again, Abraham could have questioned God. He could have wined saying, “But you said…” Abraham does not argue or complain but simply obeys God’s Word to take his son, go to Moriah, and sacrifice Isaac.
What a tremendous act of faith!! In Hebrews 11:17-19 Abraham is commended for this obedience to God’s Word. “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.” Abraham realized that God would stick to his previous promise and would not have Abraham kill his only son for no reason. In verse 5 of the passage we read that Abraham says to his servant “we (meaning himself and Isaac) will worship and then we will come back to you (emphasis mine).” Later in verse 8, after Isaac has asked where the lamb for the offering is, Abraham tells him that God will provide a lamb. Abraham followed God and put everything he had, including his own son, under God. Abraham was not mastered by anything!
There is another act of faith in this story that I think is often overlooked. Can you guys imagine being in Isaac’s shoes? He would have been about your guy’s age. He carried the wood for the sacrifice himself. Imagine getting up to the top of the mountain and having your Dad tell you, “You know how I said God would provide a lamb, well….you’re it.” WHAT!?! Isaac would have been big enough to resist, he could have ran away from Abraham but he didn’t.
This is reading between the lines a little bit but, I bet you Isaac had heard the stories of faith of how his Dad had left his home and set out wandering until God showed him his new home. I bet you Isaac had heard the story of his birth. Isaac was also included in the worship and sacrifices to God regularly; I mean he knew they were missing a lamb heading up the mountain. Isaac’s faith shows us something that I think is very important, especially to this group.
It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, God wants to build up your faith and your relationship with Him. I have heard some of you guys use your age as an excuse to not go deep in a relationship with God before. “Oh, I am only 12 or 16. Oh, I am not old enough.” God doesn’t care how old you are! He wants you to be in a relationship with Him. God can use you to share the gospel just as much as an adult. He did this weekend at Salt and Light as a couple of you shared the gospel with some of the people at the commons in Boston. God can use your prayers just as much as he uses the prayers of adults. Age does not matter to God. Paul knew this as he was mentoring Timothy. In 1 Timothy 4:12 Paul writes, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
When I was your age, my youth pastor read to us a story that I would like to read to you all today.
The church’s pastor slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit and before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the congregation that evening.
In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service.
With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak ... "A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast," he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to the shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright! The three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized."
The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers, who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story.
The aged minister continued with his story. "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: To which boy would he throw the other end of the life line? He only had seconds to make the decision. "
"The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves."
"As the father yelled out, ’I LOVE YOU, SON!’ he threw out the lifeline to his son’s friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of the night. His body was never recovered."
By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously awaiting the next words to come out of the old man’s mouth. The old man continued "The father knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son’s friend."
"How great is the love of God that he should do the same for us! Our heavenly father sacrificed his only begotten son that we could be saved. I urge you to accept his offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line he is throwing out to you in this service."
With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room.
The pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an invitation to begin a relationship with Christ at the end. However, no one responded to the appeal. Within minutes after the service had ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side. "That was a nice story," politely stated one of the boys, "but I don’t think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."
"Well, you’ve got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn bible. A big smile then broadened his narrow face as he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn’t very realistic, is it? But I’m standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse
of what it must have been like for God to give up his son for me. You see, I was that father and your pastor was my son’s friend."
The story of Abraham foreshadows the story of Christ in the gospels. God took his son, his only son, whom he loved and sent Him to the cross to die a shameful, embarrassing death for YOU! Jesus let nothing master Him or take him away from God. If he had, we would not have the opportunity to be in a relationship with God today. Jesus gave his blood and breath for us!
How much of our lives should we being giving to God? All of it! We will never be perfect at this but we need to always be working at it, asking for help and forgiveness, pushing forward. God has given us free will but we need to choose the things that are beneficial, the things that will push us deeper into a relationship with God. We need to not let things master us or take over our lives. God needs to come first and nothing else!!
