Genesis 12:1 – The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 – “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 – I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Hebrews 11:8 – By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 – By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
11 -By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful Who had made the promise.
12 – And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore….
17 – 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,
18 – even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspringwill be reckoned.”
On most of our family vacations, Sue brings along a jigsaw puzzle—a 1000-piecer…something challenging. Then during that blessed week where there are no schedules and no meetings and best of all—no rush—during those wonderful seven days when there is nothing to do but rest and enjoy family…we each take turns putting that puzzle together. There are no rules saying when the puzzle has to be worked on. We just take our time and when we want to—we add a few pieces. Somehow, by the end of the week it’s always done and we’ve made a memory! One thing we have learned in all these decades of puzzle assembly is that the box top with the picture on it is a crucial part of the process. Throughout the week of vacation we are constantly consulting that picture to help us know where each piece should go. I mean, have you ever tried to put a jigsaw puzzle together WITHOUT the box top? I guess it’s possible but it would be very difficult—and not relaxing at all. Plus, you’d never be able to finish during a one-week vacation.
I mean, trying to make sense of individual pieces without the big picture on the lid to consult would be next to impossible in that time limit. No—to enjoy assembling a puzzle—to make sense of the individual pieces—you really need that BIG PICTURE.
I mention this particular principle of puzzle assembly because that’s what we’re doing in our 31-week study of The Story. You see, The Story is not a replacement for the Bible—of course not! It’s just a resource to help us understand the Bible. It’s like the top of a puzzle box in that it helps give us the BIG PICTURE.
You know, every week throughout the typical year when we gather together to study the Bible here in worship through a sermon…or in a Sunday School class through group study…whenever we study the Bible we hold up a different piece of the story. We look that piece over and strive to make sense out of it—and that can be challenging because there are a lot of “pieces.” Think of it. There are sixty-six books in the Bible. There are 1089 chapters. There are 775,000 words in the Bible—and many times when people study one of these “pieces” they wonder, “How does all this fit together?” “What’s the ‘BIG PICTURE?’” “What’s God is trying to tell us on the pages of this Book of books?” Well, as we go through THE STORY for the next six months or so…we will get a good look at THE BIG PICTURE. The Story will help us better understand THE story that God has commissioned us to tell.
Here’s a reminder of how it will work. Every week from now through next April…we’re going to ask you to read in advance the chapter from THE STORY book that I’ll be preaching on that following Sunday…the same chapter we’ll be studying in SS that Sunday or on Wednesday nights. So—you should have read chapter 2 this past week and next week you should read chapter 3. If you’re in a CRAG group—you should also e-mail or text the other members of your team to share an insight or question and you should do this once a week. If you’re a first-time visitor I’ll get you up to speed by saying that last Sunday in our first “session” of The Story we studied eight chapters in the BOOK of beginnings—Genesis. We learned that after Adam and Eve broke God’s one rule, He set into motion a PLAN to save the world from their sins. In this week’s reading we learned that God’s next step in HIS plan was to build a NATION from which the Messiah would be born. So, God didn’t give up on the human race when Adam and Eve messed up. No—He continued His grand vision of community with mankind by establishing this NATION—a special group of related, like-minded people intent on knowing God as much as He wanted to know them…a NATION full of people who would be committed to sharing God’s redemptive plan with the rest of the world.
All this talk about nation building reminds me of the story of a man who told a friend he was worried. The friend asked why and he said, “Well, the first time my wife was pregnant, I was reading The Tale of Two Cities, and she had twins. The next time she was pregnant, I was reading The Three Musketeers and she had triplets. This week I found out she is expecting again and you’ll never guess what I’m reading— The Birth of a Nation!”
All kidding aside—nation building can be a very daunting task—and we know that because of OUR nation’s struggles to do that in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, in coming weeks, we’ll study the struggles that came with the building of God’s chosen nation. But before we go any further in today’s part of our study, let’s continue our review. Last Sunday we talked about the fact that God created the universe—and that humanity was the crown of His creative work. Mankind was created in the image of God for fellowship with Him. However, instead of accepting this special privilege, mankind chose to disobey God and turn from Him. Humanity became thoroughly corrupt—except for one man, Noah. So God sent a flood to destroy everything and everyone other than Noah, his family, and the animals in the ark. After the flood waters receded the behavior of Noah and his sons showed that DNA strand of sin was still present and it didn’t stop with Noah’s family. Down through the generations, man continued to show himself to be infected with sin. For example, in Genesis 11, people pridefully attempted to build a tower to reach Heaven. God confused their languages because of this and the result was people scattered around the earth divided into different camps, speaking different languages, estranged from God and each other—a far cry from God’s original intention.
As we begin Genesis 12—a thousand years have passed since the flood. The genealogies that fill chapters 10 and 11 set the scene for the arrival of a very important person named Abram…a descendant of Noah’s son, Shem. Abram would be the FATHER of this chosen nation of God. Now, understand, God did not choose to build the nation of Israel so He could bless only it.
No—as I said a moment ago, God chose Israel because He had a task for this nation to do. It was blessed to be a blessing. This nation that Abram was to found was to be an instrument to return the fallen world to God. Anne Graham Lotz says, “God’s plan for Abram’s life would be the beginning of the solution…the solution to all the problems that had swarmed out of the Pandora’s box of sin, affecting the human race since the Garden of Eden. The world would never be the same.” In short, Abram or as he would later be known, Abraham, would be the beginning of the end for satan and his curse of death upon the human race.
But—who was this guy? Who was Abraham? Well, Abraham was from Ur—the region of the world where the Tower of Babel had been built, which means he grew up and lived in a pagan society that thrived four thousand years ago. Abraham was probably a well-educated man and cultured. I say this because archeologists have excavated UR and found it to have been a place where society was very advanced much more advanced than historians originally thought. For example, they found a great library there with clay tablets bearing the records of thriving commerce, literature, and religion. They found the foundations of huge structures….homes, palaces, and public buildings that rival those we make today. It was a great civilization indeed.
Ur was a port city—situated in the fertile area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what later became known as Babylonia. As I said the people were religious—but pagan. Their priesthood offered human sacrifices…and Abraham would have been very familiar with this because his father Terah was deeply involved in the false religion of the area. Joshua tells us Terah was a craftsman who manufactured idols for a living.
Well—for some reason, God chose this well-educated but pagan man—ABRAM—to found His chosen people—the NATION of Israel. As we read a moment ago, “The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen 12)
Now think of this for a moment. The last recorded time that God spoke audibly to mankind was at the Tower of Babel when He warned the people that their rebellious pride would lead to confusion and judgment. This was many centuries before Abram was born. As I said, we know Abram was from an idol worshipping culture…and we know that idols can’t talk…so when Abram heard God speaking to Him…he knew something special—unprecedented—was happening. And he decided to obey this voice. He left his culture with all its benefits and headed out to who knows where. This pagan man would never again sleep under a roof—he would be a tent-dweller. But—there are other problems with God’s choice of the father of His chosen nation. I mean, it wasn’t just the fact that he was a pagan that makes us question God’s choice. You see, when God called them to this task Abraham and his wife were old. He was 75 and she was ten years his junior. Sure—75 is the new 40—but Sarah was also infertile—barren—childless. So God picked a pagan, childless couple who were reviewing retirement home fliers to found this chosen nation. Why would God pick these two? I mean, from our perspective, there couldn’t have been a more unlikely couple.
By the way, this is the beginning of what we are going to see as a trend as we study THE STORY together. God will do this kind of thing over and over and over again. We’ll see that our Heavenly Father prefers to use the least likely people to accomplish His purpose and to tell His story. Let’s review some of the shakers and the movers in God’s story and you’ll see what I mean. As I said, Abraham was old. Isaac was insecure. Jacob was a con-man. Leah was unattractive. Joseph was a slave. Moses stuttered. Gideon had anxiety attacks. Samson was proud. Rahab was immoral. David had an affair. Elijah was suicidal. Jeremiah was depressed. Jonah was disobedient. Naomi was a widow. Mary was a poor teenager. John the Baptist was eccentric—to say the least. Peter was impulsive. Martha was a worry wart. The Samaritan woman had several failed marriages. Thomas had his doubts. Paul executed Christians for a living. Timothy was timid…and the list goes on and on—a list of the unlikely people that God used in powerful ways to tell His story. It’s not what you would expect. It’s not who we would choose. But nevertheless that’s what we’ll see. The question is, “Why?” Why does God prefer to use imperfect misfits to accomplish His purposes? Why would He pick an elderly infertile couple to populate an entire nation? Well, God made this choice—He makes these kind of choices—to display His power and glory. He does it so there will be no doubt that He is the source of the miracles that come…that He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He does it this way because His strength is made most visible in our weakness. So—if you feel unqualified to be a part of the story God is writing…if you feel, “It’s too late for me. I’m too old. I’ve made too many mistakes. I’ve had my chances and I blew them. I don’t have their resources or the gifts. I don’t have the right talents.” If you feel this way, you can look at Abraham and Sarah and all the others and know that God uses weak, imperfect people like that—He uses people like you and me. It may not make the most sense on paper but it gives God an opportunity to be glorified which is what the story is ultimately about. It’s about the glory of God.
But there was SOMETHING very special about Abraham—and I’m referring to his FAITH. You see, Abraham’s entire life is a story of faith…and perhaps for this reason some say that with the exception of Jesus Christ, Abraham is the most important person in the Bible. If nothing else, the amount of space set aside for his part in the story shows his importance. I mean, an FOURTEEN chapters are devoted to the telling of his life story…plus there are tons of other references to Abraham throughout the Bible—and, as I said, when you put it all together it’s a story of FAITH.
Let me put it this way. Moses was a great LAWGIVER. Joshua was a great MILITARY LEADER. David was Israel’s most BRILLIANT KING. Elijah was its most influential PROPHET. Each of these men was great—but each of these men would have confessed in an instant that Abraham was his father in FAITH. In fact, Abraham’s faith led to his being referred to as “the friend of God” three times. No one else in the story is given that title. No doubt thinking of Abraham’s faith story is what led Paul to go so far as to refer to him as “the father of all who BELIEVE.” And—this should make you see that God can use YOUR LIFE in the same powerful way. I mean, we may not be great lawgivers or kings or generals or prophets…but anyone can become what Abraham became. We can be individuals who hear God and BELIEVE God. We can become people of FAITH who join God in the telling of His story.
Abraham’s story is a very important one for us to read because his life can teach us a great deal about faith. And—we must learn all we can from Abe’s example because faith is the most important building block in the Christian life. Faith is the means by which we receive anything from God—plus, we can’t do anything for God without it. It’s not just hard—it’s impossible. As Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” So, what can Abraham’s example teach us about faith? That’s what I want to focus on this morning. And I want to say at the outset that I am indebted to material from both John Ortberg and Kyle Idleman (of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY) for much of my content.
(1) First, Abe’s part of the story shows us that faith is…only as good as its OBJECT.
As I said, in the Bible Abraham is repeatedly presented as the MODEL for faith. And I don’t want to sound contradictory but a close look at his story shows that in the beginning his faith was not very impressive. As we just read, in Genesis 12, God came to Abram and told him to leave his home and to go to a place where he would have a son. God eventually changed his name to Abraham—meaning “father of many people”—and told him he would be the father of a great nation that He would bless the entire human race through Abraham’s offspring. Well, then, in the very next episode in Abraham’s life, Abraham and Sarah travelled to Egypt and when they arrived Abraham said to Sarah: “Honey, you’re a beautiful woman, and I know these Egyptians. As soon as they lay eyes on you someone will want to take you as his wife, and he will kill me in order to do so. So let’s lie. Let’s tell them you are my sister so they won’t kill me. If one of them wants you, they can have you, but I’ll live.” I don’t know about you but at this point it doesn’t seem to me that Abraham is very confident that God will protect him. They go through with this faithless deceptive plan. Pharaoh takes Sarah into his palace to join the royal harem. He gives Abraham sheep, cattle, camels, and all sorts of other goods in return. But God sends a plague to the Egyptians and in this way Pharaoh realizes that Sarah is Abraham’s wife and that Abraham’s God is unhappy about the whole arrangement. Then Pharaoh asks Abraham the same question that God asked Eve after The Fall. He says to Abraham, “Why did you do this thing? What is this thing that you have done?” In other words, the story reveals that Pharaoh, a pagan, was more concerned with doing right than God’s chosen man Abraham. Not only that, Abraham does the same thing a second time in Genesis 20. And then, after 11 years of waiting for a child, Sarah says to Abraham: “We’ve tried it God’s way but it’s been long time. Why don’t you have a child with my servant girl, Hagar?” Did Abraham say no? Did he say, “I will not do that Sarah, we have to trust God?” No! Abraham agreed that it was a good idea—and like all times when do things because we think we know better than God—it was a disaster. Abraham slept with Hagar and through her he had a son named Ishmael. Then 13 years later, God tells Abraham that Sarah will bear him a child. Does Abraham say, “I believe You, God?” No. Abraham fell on his face, laughed at God under his breath, and said, “Will a son be born to a man 100 years old?” And Sarah laughed, too. Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Does Abraham man up and admit that he laughed? No. He said nothing.
So—to review—Abraham’s faith is so weak that he pretends Sarah is not his wife, twice. His faith is so weak that he impregnates a servant girl. His faith is so weak that he laughs at God.
Well, God shows His power by keeping His promise and Sarah has a child named Isaac. Then when Isaac is weaned at about one year of age, they threw a party to celebrate and Genesis 21 tells us that Isaac’s elder brother, Ishmael, the product of Abraham and Hagar…Genesis 21 tells us that Ishmael mocked his baby half-brother. Well, this was the last straw for Sarah and she asked Abraham to kick Hagar and Ishmael out—which he did. By the way—the rivalry and terrorism that we see on the news all the time—the rivalry between the Arab nations and Israel began at this weaning party about 4,000 years ago. It began because Abraham—and Sarah—didn’t have enough faith to believe God could do what He said He would do.
Yet centuries later Paul says that Abraham’s faith was such that he believed beyond all hope and Paul of course knew Abraham’s story backwards and forwards. So what’s going on? What is Paul thinking? Why would he say that about this guy? Well, to answer these questions we have to go back and try to enter Abraham’s world. When Abraham first said yes to God, he began literally from scratch. There was no Old Testament. How many of the Ten Commandments did Abraham know? None. There were no Ten Commandments. The story of Moses, Mount Sinai, the giving of the Law, the consecration of priests, the story of David, the Psalms, and sacrifices…none of this had occurred yet. He didn’t know any stories about the Lord God, Yahweh. He had zero information. He was the product of a brutal, superstitious, ancient culture.
Abraham was raised like everybody else in Ur—raised as a pagan in a pagan world. So, Genesis 12:1 is Abraham’s first interaction with the living, good, all-powerful, personal God…the one true God. God says to Abraham, “Go from your country, your people, your father’s household, to the land I will show you.” And it is at this point that we SEE Abraham’s faith. Here’s the key to understanding all this: “Abram WENT, as the Lord had told him.”
Abraham is deliberately not presented in the Old Testament as a brilliant spiritual genius. No…he is an average, ignorant, confused, superstitious, passive, and cowardly man. So why do we say his faith was so strong? It was because at age 75 he had enough faith to obey God and leave Ur. Abraham decided to put his faith—weak and immature though it be—in God. And it was a faith that GREW over the years—grew such that when he was 100 he chose to wait for God to provide him a son. Abraham had the faith to see that ONLY GOD could do that. Paul says Abraham knew that at this point in his life his body was as good as dead. He was an old man with an old wife. No pharmaceutical company could help him start a nation. But, Abrahams did not allow his life to be determined by what was possible with human power. He was completely dependent on God, God alone.
So, this part of THE STORY doesn’t depend on Abraham’s certainty. I mean, the hero of this story isn’t Abraham; it’s God. Abraham’s dad, Terah, might have had stronger faith, but he put his faith in the wrong gods. Abraham put his faith in the right God. Yes it was an immature faith—a LITTLE faith at first—but it was better for him to put little faith in a big God than big faith in a little god. This is good news for us! This is why Jesus says you only need faith the size of a mustard seed. Why? Because it is not about the size of your faith; it’s about the size of your God.
Pastor Tim Keller talks about when the Israelites escaped from Egypt. Remember? Pharaoh pursued them, and God parted the Red Sea. The Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left. Keller says some of them probably loved it. Some of them probably said: “In your face, Pharaoh. Eat your heart out. We are cruising now!” Others were probably more timid. Some of them probably said: “We’re going to die. I’m going to die!” Not all of them expressed the same caliber of faith, but they were all equally saved—because it is not the QUALITY of your faith that saves you; it’s the OBJECT of your faith that saves you. That’s the good news of the Gospel. That’s why Paul said, “[Abraham] is our father in the sight of God, in Whom he believed.” (Romans 4:17) What God is that? “The God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that are not.” (Romans 4:17) I love this quote from James Dunn: “The character of Abraham’s faith is determined by the character of the God in Whom he believed.” His hope was not in how strong his faith was; his hope was in God. What God? The God who calls into being things that are not…the God who created all things from nothing…the God who can call the dead to life. Abraham’s old good-as-dead body and Sarah’s old good-as-dead womb pointed forward to Jesus, the object of OUR faith…Who would defeat the power of death itself!
So…Abraham’s example shows us that our faith is only as good as its OBJECT. If you put your faith in God—even if it’s a faith that is only the size of a mustard seed—great things will happen! And then as I’ve already alluded there’s a second thing we can learn about faith from Abraham.
(2) We can learn that Faith is…OBEYING God when you don’t know where your part in the story will lead.
Remember Abraham’s faith first showed up when God told him to leave the comforts of Ur and to go to an unknown place He would show him…and verse 4 of Genesis 12 says that Abraham left. He obeyed. And I don’t want to diminish this decision by talking about how weak Abram’s faith was at this point because leaving Ur must have been hard. As I said it was a port city with a flourishing trade. The land itself was luxuriant…with rich soil watered by two rivers…soil that produced corn and date palms…apples…grapes…pomegranates and tamarisks. I mean, it was no small thing to leave a country like that and set off across the Arabian Desert to an unknown land and presumably less desirable land. Yet this is what God told him to do. He also told Abraham to leave his people. Many of you are military or work for Uncle Sam in some other venue and you know how hard moves are…how hard it is to uproot and leave behind the security of friends and family and familiarity and go to a new place. But that’s what God asked Abe to do…and he had enough faith to do that..
At this point I have to say that leaving UR was necessary if Abraham’s faith was to grow. You see, since Ur was a pagan culture it would not be conducive to spiritual growth. This may bring to mind a familiar principle because many times God calls US away from things that will hinder our growth toward Christlikeness. I think this is part of what Jesus was getting at when He said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-25) In any case, Abraham had enough faith to OBEY—to leave his culture—leave to go to some unknown…UNSEEN place. And that is a very important principle of faith for as Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Abraham showed his faith because he obeyed…he took action. The questions were not all answered. He didn’t know how everything was going to work out…but he knew what God had asked of him and he obeyed.
I’ve told you in the past that Daniel and I are building a tree fort in his back yard for my granddaughter, Lydia, to enjoy. It all started when Daniel got an e-book on how to build tree forts. He read the book and then he let me read it. This book is great. It’s got designs of all kinds of tree forts or houses. It shows pictures of different kinds of ladders…pictures of the kinds of supports you need to build. It shows different kinds of railings to use. It shows different ways to make steps and doors and windows. And—it shows pictures of all kinds of completed tree houses with very detailed instructions to boot. Now—if Daniel and I read this e-book and looked at its pictures but did nothing, it would be a waste of our time. I mean, we could read the book and learn a lot but until we actually got up and did the things it says to do, the book would be pointless. This e-book is written for more than enjoyment. It’s written for application. The whole point of this e-book being “e-published” in the first place is to help dads and granddads build tree houses. So if all you do is read it without building—it’s a waste of time and “e-paper.” By the way we are making progress. Here’s a couple pictures to prove it! Well, if we’re not careful this waste of time is something that can happen to you and me as we study God’s Story together. We can learn and we can find out some new details about it. We can discover some different things. But if all we do is learn about God’s story and nothing changes in OUR story…if we don’t OBEY the teachings we read about…then we’re wasting our time and we’re missing the point. As James says, “Faith is something that is seen in what we DO.” (James 2:18) Abraham acted on his faith. He heard from God and He responded. He obeyed. He got off his couch in UR and did something! Listen…each week as we read THE STORY it’s not going to be just about learning. It’s going to be about LIVING. It’s not going to just be about the information. It’s going to be about the application.
I think that one of the first science fiction novels I read as a teenager was H. G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man.” If you read it or have seen movie adaptations of it, then you know that the only way you could tell if the invisible man was in the room, was if things were moving. There would be a teacup and a saucer going across thin air about this high. Or a hat would be hanging in thin air with nothing underneath it—or a door would slam. So, the only way you could tell the invisible man was there was by his ACTIONS—the effect that he had on the things around him.
And one way we see genuine faith in people who claim to be Christians is by their actions. The truth is people know what we BELIEVE by the way that we BEHAVE. So let’s ask ourselves this morning: What would people who know us and work with us—people who see us live our lives—what would they say we believe? Can they SEE our faith? These are important questions for us to consider because genuine faith is OBEYING….even when we don’t know where that obedience will lead. And then one more faith lesson Abraham’s example teaches us is this:
(3) Faith is…TRUSTING God when your part in the story doesn’t make sense.
Abraham’s famous faith began when he obeyed God and left his family in Ur even though he did not know where God was leading him. It continued to grow when he believed God’s promise that he would be the father of a great nation even though he had no children of his own—-and he and his wife were senior citizens well past child bearing years. It grew even more when their son Isaac was finally born and both Sarah and Abraham learned that God always has the last laugh.
In these and other experiences Abraham discovered that nothing was impossible for God. He saw time and again that God COULD make a way when there was no way. And perhaps more importantly Abraham realized that it’s God’s loving nature to do this kind of thing.
But Abraham’s part in The Story wasn’t over. When Isaac was about 15 years old—just about the time he got his “camel driving license,” God came to His frien…and asked Abraham to do an impossible thing. God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Now—Abraham knew what was being asked of him because, as I said, he was a native of Ur—a place where human sacrifice was practiced. And you don’t have to be a parent to be able to imagine the impossibility of God’s request in Abe’s mind…talk about not being able to see beyond our “lower story!” But we must never forget how limited and limiting OUR viewpoint is. In fact, from a logical, rational predictable perspective, nothing that God said to Abraham made any sense. In the limited vision of our Lower Story, God’s ideas seldom do. “Don’t eat from this one tree.” “Build a big boat when there’s no water for miles.” “Pack up and leave your homeland.” “Sell all you have and give to the poor.” “Love your enemies.” What may seem confusing and even contradictory to us…is all part of God’s seamless Upper Story a story that is aimed at bringing us back to Him.
Well, we know how this part of the story ends. Abraham obeys. Isaac does too—remember he was 15 at the time and could have easily overpowered his 115 year old dad. But they both obeyed God—trusted Him—and TRUE to His character, God stopped Abraham in mid-thrust and provided a lamb for the sacrifice instead. As we will see later, with this command that made no sense, God was foreshadowing the big climax of the Upper Story…the sacrifice of HIS only Son. As a matter of fact, that hill of Moriah was the same hill where Jesus would be crucified two thousand years later.
As I said earlier, it’s frustrating if you’ve tried to put together a puzzle and you don’t have the picture on the top of the box to guide you. But what is even more frustrating is if you get to the end of a puzzle and realize you are missing one piece. You look all over the floor. You dig beneath the couch cushions. Well, let me ask, is it possible that YOUR STORY is missing a piece to the picture? Is it possible that you are sitting there this morning with the realization that “the story” of your life is not complete? Listen, life only feels complete, when we know God and do our part in the telling of His story because that’s what we were made for. We were made to be in relationship with our Creator…made to join Him in His great work. This morning if you don’t know God—if you don’t follow Jesus won’t you make that all important decision—right now? Admit to God that you are fallen…that you are a sinner. Tell Him you believe Jesus is His only Son and that He died for you. Ask Him to forgive you and come into your life—and you’ll experience the joy of feeling complete for the first time. If you are a Christ-follower and God is leading you to join this church have enough Abrahamic faith to OBEY. As we stand and Sind come forward and talk to me or Kevin about any decision you wish to make public.