Sermon Summary – Sunday 19 May 2019

COSTLY OBEDIENCE (Calven Celliers)

One of the most difficult parts of being in a living relationship with Jesus, are those moments when you can literally feel the sacrifice of obeying God. Moments that remind you that obedience isn’t always going to be easy or simple or pain-free.

Read Genesis 22: 1 – 14

In this well known Scriptural account we read about how Abraham faced the greatest trial of his life, when God asked him to sacrifice the child of promise. Whilst obedience to God is always worth it, let’s learn from this account how God uses obedience to test our faith, grow our faith, and how He also models sacrifice as the Heavenly Father who gave His only Son for us.

Abraham had no Bible, he didn’t know how this story would end, the way we do. All Abraham knew of God was what He experienced. First was the call to leave everything and go “to a land I will show you.” Then there was the promise of a child with his wife Sarah, even though they were both way too old to produce children. Then there was the fulfilment of that promise with the birth of Isaac, and with that a promise that Abraham’s descendants would be a great nation that would be forever blessed by God. Let’s try and experience this scenario as Abraham might have, without all context that we have today. He only had a choice: to obey God, or to disobey God. Even arguing at this point would have equated to disobedience.

Read this slowly – “2 Take your son, your only son — yes, Isaac, whom you love so much — and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”” (Genesis 22:2NLT)

Abraham faced the trial of his life. God told him to sacrifice his one and only son. What kind of a God promises something then asks for it back in such a horrendous way? Remember that Ishmael had been sent away. Only Isaac remains, the child of promise, the answer to God’s promise that Abraham and Sarah will parent a nation, more descendants than the sand on the seashore or the stars in the sky. And now God says to kill him! What is Abraham to think? Will he trust in the promise? Or will Abraham trust in the God who gave the promise? Will he let anything or anyone come between him and his God? Will his relationship with God remain top priority in his life?

Some commentaries note that this account says a lot about Isaac’s obedience too. Most scholars think Isaac was somewhere between 17 and 20 years old, so he could have easily overpowered his elderly dad. Isaac could resist, but he doesn’t. Instead he yields, allowing his father to tie him up. Apparently rabbis call this story, “The Binding” and portray Isaac as a great hero who allows himself to be bound as a sacrifice to God. Isaac chooses to obey his father, trusting that his father has heard correctly from God.

Sometimes we go through such heavy trials in this life. And, if we’re honest, we may wonder, “God, why are you allowing this to happen to me? I’m trying to follow you best I can. Why, Lord?” Yet, perhaps the better question would be, “Lord, what do you want me to learn out of this?”

Read Romans 8:28 – How do you keep that perspective (that God is still at work for your good and His glory) through trials? Consider some lessons from today’s Scripture:

First, there will be times in your life when God allows you to go through trying experiences, to test your faith. Read James 1:2 – 4. God uses tests and trials to grow us. God will test your faith at times. God will call you to costly obedience. And out of that, you will learn something new about God.

Secondly, out of hardship God grows our faith. When you endure times of testing, your faith has an opportunity to be stretched and to grow. Your understanding of God will mature. As Abraham lifts the knife

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into the air, at the last possible moment, the voice of the Lord intervenes and stops him. Immediately, Abraham notices a ram caught by his horns and sacrifices the ram in place of Isaac. Nothing catches God by surprise. God wasn’t looking down from heaven and saying, “Well, look at that! Where did that ram come from?” No, God knows all along how this test will play out. The test is not to teach God something; it’s to teach Abraham something about himself and his God. Abraham now knows a whole new dimension of God as provider because Abraham obediently put himself in a place of learning. He put himself in a place of desperation for God. You only learn more about God as you allow yourself to trust him, to believe him, to count on his provision.

And lastly, God leads by example. Like the best of leaders, He will not call you to do what He wouldn’t do himself.

“2 Take your son, your only son — yes, Isaac, whom you love so much — and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”” (Genesis 22:2NLT) Consider this verse again, it has an interesting word order. The New International Version captures the original Hebrew well. The phrase, “only son,” appears three times in this portion of Scripture. In the original text this phrase is word for word identical to one in a verse I’m sure you’ve all heard before… John 3:16

As God called Abraham to do, so God did Himself. He gave his only Son. In Abraham’s case, God stopped him. God intervened. Abraham had passed the test. Abraham valued obedience of God above all else. And God reaffirmed his great promise to Abraham.

In God’s case, God did not stop. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “If possible, let this cup pass from me,” but the cup did not pass. Jesus drank fully from it. Jesus passed the test. The ram in today’s Scripture represents the first clear example of what theologians call “substitutionary atonement,” the idea that an innocent has to die in place of another. That ram gave his life for Isaac. And Jesus gave His life for us.

Now consider the cost of obedience to God for yourself. The idea of holding nothing back from God; the idea of trusting God to provide all we need; the idea of taking even something that God has given in the first place, and not holding on or holding tightly or finding our hope and security in the gift rather than the Giver. God may not ask any of us to do what He asked Abraham to do, but He still asks for the same obedience from every one of us as His children. God asks for total, complete, absolute obedience.

Our society has taught us that we are in control; that we get to choose our way, that we can even decide what is true and what is not true. It has been drummed into our heads that the point of life is to be our own boss, to make our own decisions, to rule our own life, to look out for number 1, unless we choose to look out for someone else first, but we still get to choose. It is so deeply engrained in us that this idea of total, complete, unreserved obedience to God is, I think, rather foreign to most.

But the reality is this: obedience to God is not an option for anyone who claims to follow Jesus. I’ve been convicted that too many “followers” have this warped idea that they can follow Jesus and do their own thing as long as they’re more or less heading in the same direction, and if there are a few areas of our lives where we aren’t following Jesus well that is ok, no big deal. And that entire line of thinking reveals one critical reality: we are still the lord of our own lives. If that is how we are living, then Jesus is not our Lord.

When we accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord, the “Lord” part means nothing less than 100%, complete, total, absolute obedience. You can’t be a part-Christian any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. What we learn from Abraham is this: God asks for it all. And God expects complete obedience. And I’ve learnt in my own journey that the sacrifice and the obedience may lead you down a really hard path. Sometimes that path of obedience is painful, but when we obey (and that is a crucial part of the story – when we obey) we look up and see the ram caught in the thicket; we look up and we see God will always provide. He is more than enough.

So here’s a critical question: Does God have your full obedience? Are all areas of your life, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ? If your answer is “yes” then praise God. But if your answer is “no”, then use this pivotal moment in your journey to respond favourably to the Holy Spirits tugging on your heart, showing you some area of your life that you are holding back and I’m going to ask you to let go, and surrender to Jesus, let Him truly be Lord over all of your life.

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