Message 3 – Encountering God’s Promise
SUGGESTED PASSAGE: Genesis 22:1-18
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “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 on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.
MESSAGE GOAL:
The goal of this message on Encountering God’s Promise is to help you experience an authentic encounter with God and His promises through the tests of life He puts you through.
INTRODUCTION:
If the truth be told, there are times in our Christian experience when we don’t feel like God keeps His promises. There are times when it looks like God said one thing and the opposite is taking place. It is during those times when all of us, to varying degrees, question how real this thing is. When it comes to God’s promises, we know He can’t lie, but sometimes you lied to you because what He says and what you are seeing do not match. Sometimes it looks like God is bailing out on us. It’s like the pilot of a small plane that began having engine problems. There was only one parachute on the plane. So, the pilot put it on, and before he jumped out of the plans he said to his passengers, “Don’t panic. I’m just going to get some help!” Sometimes it seems like the one in charge has bailed out on you and on His promises. I want to take you today to a passage of Scripture that is going to stretch you if you’re not familiar with it. And even if you are, it’s going to perhaps take you to a place of deeper understanding God and His seemingly confusing promises to you.
SERMON POINTS:
1. WHEN GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU AN ENCOUNTER WITH HIMSELF, IT WILL TYPICALLY INVOLVE A TEST.
• God wants to know if what you “Amened” on Sunday is real in your life on Monday, because He wants to see and hear more than your raised hands and words.
• Tests come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often related to a promise, to find out if you will put your faith in God’s promises into action.
2. YOUR TEST WILL OFTEN INVOLVE A SCENARIO THAT IS CONTRADICTORY—THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
• God may be asking you to do something that seems to go against everything that seems right and normal to you, and everything in you is fighting against obeying Him.
• When God calls you to do something you don’t want to do, go ahead and do it because the longer you delay your obedience, the more often you have to take the same test.
• We often give God partial obedience and then wonder why He hasn’t done anything for us.
• To experience a truly life-changing encounter with God, you have to finish what He told you to do in your test because God believes in re-testing when necessary!
• When God’s test doesn’t make sense, you need a bigger view of God and what He wants to do in your life.
• One way to get this bigger view is to remember what God did for you yesterday as you deal with the new test He is sending you today.
3. THE REASON GOD PUTS YOU IN A TRIAL THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE IS THAT HE WANTS TO FEEL YOUR LOVE, NOT JUST HEAR YOU TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HIM.
• God feels your love for Him when, in obedience, you choose Him over something or somebody you already love, as Abraham did.
• You will see the resolution of your test and see God’s promise come to fruition when your obedience occurs.
• The Lord is called Jehovah Jireh in Genesis 22:14, meaning “The Lord who provides.” But before God provides, He wants to see our obedience.
• If you don’t give God something to see, you may not see what He can provide.
4. GOD’S PROMISES ARE CONFIRMED BY HIS OATH.
• It’s important to understand that there is often a lapse of time between the giving of God’s promise and its fulfillment.
• This time gap occurs because God is getting His promise ready for you, and getting you ready for His promise.
• You have a part to play in how long this preparation period lasts, based on your obedience.
• God is a promise-keeper, not a promise-breaker, and when He makes an oath, He has the power to pull off the promise all by Himself.
• It is not for you to try and understand how God is going to keep His promise. All you’ve got to do is finish your obedience until He is ready to take it over Himself.
5. ABRAHAM’S STORY IS IN SCRIPTURE BECAUSE GOD WANTS TO USE SOMETHING TODAY BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE HE HAS TAUGHT US FROM YESTERDAY.
• God uses tests to bring about His promises through His oath.
• You need to make sure you are passing God’s test so you can see God’s promises fulfilled in your life.
SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS:
QUIZZES AND BIG TESTS
When we were in school, the teacher did not take our word for it that we understood what was being taught. Instead, the teacher gave you tests to see if you really got the material. Those tests usually came in two forms. One would be a quiz, or maybe a pop quiz. Those were small tests along the way. But then there were the big tests—the mid-term and the final. Those big tests usually counted the most toward your final grade. Genesis 22 was one of the big tests for Abraham.
PUT A FORK IN IT
Good cooks know that a turkey or a roast in the oven can look brown on the outside. But you can’t take that as gospel because the meat may still be partially uncooked on the inside. So the cook sticks a fork in the dish because the cook knows it can look good externally and still be raw inside. God knows His people can look good externally on Sunday morning, but He has to stick the fork of a test in there to see if we’re well-done and ready to go.
BACKGROUND BIBLICAL HISTORY AND CULTURE:
The place where Abraham offered Isaac is called Mount Moriah, which is the temple mount in Jerusalem where the two temples of Israel were built and where the Muslim Dome of the Rock stands today. The temple mount is the most sacred site in Judaism, and Muslims consider it holy too because the Qur’an teaches that Abraham offered Ishmael there, not Isaac.
QUOTES BY DR. TONY EVANS:
“Everybody feels like going to church when you’re blessed. Everybody feels like worshiping God when God is meeting all your needs, and He’s going to take care of everything. The money is flowing, the health is good and life is working. Then you want to worship. But how do you worship when your world is falling apart?”
“When God puts you in a contradiction, you can’t explain how it’s going to work out. When God wants you to give you an encounter with Himself, all you can say is, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ God has to provide something. God has to come through with something.”
“Many of us could be delaying seeing the provision of the ram, the solution to our test, because we are delaying fulfilling our obedience.”