Sermon Tone Analysis

He Wants it Back… Will You Trust Him?

Good evening!

We’re going to read from the book of .

For those of unsure where that is, it’s the first book of the Bible, after chapter 21 and before chapter 23.

I’m geeked to be up here sharing what God’s placed on my heart, once again.

I’m thankful for the continued leadership and opportunity presented by & from the shepherd of this house, Pastor Hughes.

And there’s no way, outside of God, I’d be able to do all that I do without the support, love, and patience of my queen, my Butterfly, my partner in Christ, my sister from the most high Mister, Sarah!

Min sumo bo!

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get down to business!

We’re going to read out of .

Genesis 22:1-14

We’ll stop here.

Let’s pray.

Prayer

If this were a miniseries, the “to be continued...” caption would printed across the screen right now.

Tomorrow, find out what happened....

If you haven’t figured by now, I really enjoy these old testament stories.

Also, how fitting is it that we’re covering the story of Abraham today, pro football Hall of Fame induction day?

After all, to simply do what Abraham did is more than just some all-american faith.

That’s deeper than first-round pick faith.

Man, that’s triller than all-pro faith!

To be asked to sacrifice your ONLY son, and simply get up to do it the next morning without negotiation or complaint, takes some Hall-of-Fame faith!

A lot of us walk around thinking we have faith because we trust God to “bless this food we’re about to receive...” That’s youth league faith.

Don’t get me wrong, you gotta start somewhere.

But we know how strong Abraham’s was because just like you can go to Canton, Ohio to see the busts of all the NFL hall-of-famers, all you need to do to see the faith hall-of-fame is turn to .

“So Abraham rose early in the morning

Hebrews 11:17

WOW!!! That’s serious!

These faith hall-of-famers are out of this world!

Well, not quite.

Here’s what you need to know.

These great people of faith are just that — people.

They are flawed folks just like we are, and the only greatness in them is that of God.

Well, here’s what you need to know.

These great people of faith are just that — people.

They are flawed folks just like we are, and the only greatness in them is that of God.

Here’s the difference, they don’t get amnesia.

So when that moment of truth arrives, and invariably it will, they’re prepared to draw on previous experiences to exercise a strengthened faith.

So, let’s examine Abraham’s (formerly Abram) life to see how a man of hall-of-fame faith acts, and gets to a place where he trusts God enough to raise his hands to slaughter his son, his only son who he loves.

Along the way there will be three overarching themes:

Our faith will be tested

God will provide

God is sovereign (He’ll provide at the right time)

Picking back up at the beginning of chapter 22,

“So Abraham rose early in the morning...”

As I stated in our first point, “our faith will be tested.”

I don’t know of a greater test than this one.

What was Abraham’s response?

“Say what?!!!” or “Whatchu talking about...”? No.

Was he out there trying to negotiate something?

“God, you know I have that other son, right?

His mom be tripping anyway...” No.

The very next verse tells us his response:

How do you just get up EARLY the next morning and not even ask a question?

Was he always like that.

Well, when our faith is tested, how we respond in part depends on what we can draw from.

Now this may be confusing to some.

You’re saying, “I though faith is supposed to be blind.”

Pastor Tony Evans, when explaining faith, states that it’s “...acting like something is so even when it is not so in order that it might be so simply because God said so.”

Yes, you can believe that what you haven’t seen can/will in fact occur, but it’s likely because your trust is in the nature of that which you’re putting the faith in to begin with.

Like, if hustleman promised that he’ll turn your $20 into $100 after 5 days.

Are you giving him your money?

NO!

Not because it can’t happen, but because you don’t trust in his character.

Abraham got to understand the character of God throughout his life.

These served as building blocks to what would give him the faith to get up early the next morning.

Back in chapter 12, God tells Abram:

Genesis 12:1-

and “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Here Abram is, 75 years old, father’s dead, 10 generations since God last spoke to anyone after the flood, and he’s now making a promise to Abram to leave all that he’s ever known for a place he hasn’t seen from a God no one’s heard from in 10 generations.

But he goes… and so it begins...

So even though Abram exhibited some faith here, he wasn’t all aboard the faith train throughout his journey.

You don’t even reach chapter 13 before Abram is acting in fear, and tries passing his wife off as his sister to avoid getting killed.

So, in chapter 12 alone, God’s already made two promises to Abram, and he responds by acting in fear and deceit.

Two side lessons:

God stays true to His covenant, even if we don’t.

there are nearly a dozen promises from God to Abram that he’d be the father of nations

Genesis 12:

Genesis

Genesis 15:

Genesis 15:

Genesis 17:

Genesis 17:2

Genesis

all these promises, even though Abram was messing up.

Even within the favor of God, there’s still consequences for sin.

,

consequence:

Genesis

when Abram was still unsure as to God’s promises, God gave him instructions to seal a covenant:

consequence:

consequence:

Genesis 15:

After no children had come to pass, they decide to take matter into their own hands:

consequence:

Abraham, even after his name has been changed, he still had an issue with fear and lying:

consequence:

Genesis 20

After all this, at the young age of 100, occurs.

and then to commemorate this:

This is all that transpired