If we really think about that song, and I know we were thinking about it as we were singing about it. Wow, glory, I'm saved. Glory, I'm saved. I'm not going to hell. I've been written to the Lamb's book of life eternally. I've got a home in heaven. Nothing shall ever separate me from God. I've got the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. We need to begin to think about it. I think we can start getting pretty excited about this. So praise God. That is a good song. Glory, I'm saved. Genesis chapter 22 in your Bibles. If you do have a church Bible, it's page 22. And so Genesis 22, or page 22. And we're looking at a narrative this morning. That's a story in the Word of God. The main character in our story is Abraham. Last week, the main character was Enoch. Enoch walked with God and had that close personal relationship with God. Abraham, much the same, had that very close relationship with God. In fact, 2 Chronicles 20, verse 7, says, Art thou not our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? in the seat of Abraham, thy friend. What a statement. I mean, for a man to be called the friend of God. James 2.23, the scripture was fulfilled, which said, Abraham believed God and was puted unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. So we're talking about Abraham, we're talking about a man that had a very close personal relationship with God. And interestingly, Jesus said, I call you friends. And it's amazing that we can be a friend of God's and have that relationship with God. And so, if I were to ask you, just think about this in your mind here, the two most important people in human history, other than Jesus Christ, think about who would you come up with, all right? And I suggest there are two, and I know you can probably guess them. Without Adam we don't have life, so when God created and designed, I mean that's pretty important, God chose Adam. Abraham's most important in the Bible and I think that word got pretty clear about that the book of beginnings Genesis the story of Abraham takes up most of that book so it begins at chapter 12 his story it continues on to the end of that book going through Isaac and Jacob and Joseph the descendants of Abraham and then Moses and the children of Israel then you got the Exodus and In all of that, you've got the law of God that is given on Mount Sinai, and this is God speaking to his creation, saying, here is my moral law, and entrusting that to us. He did that through the children of Israel. That is pretty significant. Nearly all the books of the Bible written by God's spirit were written by descendants of Abraham, Jewish people. Only two books written by the same man, Luke. Okay, Luke wrote two books. He wrote Luke and the book of Acts. He wasn't a Jew, but everybody else And so again, the Bible that we have is a Jewish book. Our Messiah is a Jewish Messiah that came through the seed of Abraham, the promised land that the Messiah's gonna reign in, the importance of Jerusalem, Israel, and all that significance. And the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven to that place, all that, and again, it just kind of goes back to Abraham and the promises. So every promise that is to God and God's people has its origin. in the promise of God to this man, Abraham. So Abraham spiritually is the father of all who are saved or who are justified by faith. The Bible speaks about that in Galatians chapter three and verse six. It says, even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, so that's if we've come to faith, except that Jesus Christ our Savior, that's you and I, the same are the children of Abraham, And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify or declare righteous the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in these shall all nations of the earth be blessed. So as Gentiles, we're not Jews, but we're believers because we've trusted in Christ. We've entered into the promise given to Abraham, a Jew, but we entered in by faith in the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. So then they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham. So the blessing that we have, it's a blessing of faith, true faith, and that goes back again to the father, you can say of our faith, and that's Abraham. And so physically, Adam, spiritually, Abraham would arguably be one of the most important people or the most important person spiritually in his history here. And so Abraham's faith is what's significant. Abraham was rewarded by God for his faith. And I thought about calling it biblical faith, but I'm gonna call it this morning, obedient faith. Because Abraham had a faith that obeyed God and God rewarded that. Sometimes people think of faith as if it's mystical, kind of like a strong wish. You know, I wish, I wish, I wish, and if I wish hard enough, it's gonna happen, or something like that. Faith is actually just someone who listens to God and believingly does what God says to do. All right, so you listen to God, God says, okay, this is what you do. If you believe God, you do it. If you don't believe God, you don't do it. So faith really is the action of obedience to God, saying, I trust God, I believe God, so I'm going to obey God. That's what Abraham did. Abraham obeyed the voice of God. In Genesis 22, beginning at verse 15, the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and he said, by myself have I sworn saith the Lord For because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven. And as the sand which is upon the seashore, in thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. by voice, all right? His obedience, and we know from other scripture that that was an act of faith. His obedience was blessed of God, because he had obedient faith. And if you don't know the story, you might read that part of the story, skipping the middle part. So we read the beginning already, and now we just read the end. And you may not know, did he actually sacrifice his son or not, if you don't know the story, but we'll get into that here in just a second. And so if you want the blessing You need to obey the voice of God by faith, all right? That's where it's at for us, is in obeying what God has said. obedient faith. In other words, faith that God says to do it because God said it and I believe God, thou obey God and do that which God has said to do. Do I believe God enough to do what he says to do? And so let's go to the Lord, ask him for his help as we come to his word and ask him to challenge us in this area of faith. It's a vital part of our walk with God. So let's pray. Father, may the spirit of God just speak to our hearts today. Thank you that we get to look at a precious story and all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And Father, I thank you that we can learn a lot from a biblical narrative inspired by the Spirit of God so that the things that are written have significance. Greater significance than just, oh, that's just part of the story. Significant because the Spirit of God wants us to look at that and understand why that's there in the Word of God. So when we study something like this, obedient faith, that we can examine the faith of Abraham and say, what's that look like? So that we can apply that to our own life and say, you know what, that's what I need. I need obedient faith. And Father, I pray each one of us are on a faith journey. And Father, each one of us are continually facing decisions. Am I going to obey God or not? It started in salvation. Am I going to obey God and humbly receive Jesus Christ as my Savior? Then am I going to obey God and believe God and be baptized? Am I going to obey God, believe God, become a member of a local church and start serving God and start using gifts and abilities? And about so many other decisions that come into our life, am I gonna obey God and believe God? And so I pray, Spirit of God, speak to our hearts. I pray a blessing upon the children's class that's taking place right now, that the Spirit of God will touch the hearts of little ones as they listen to stories and truth about Jesus. I pray, Lord, in this time, that you'd open our hearts. I pray that you'd give us ears to hear. I pray that the Word of God would have free course I pray that I would preach biblically, practically, lovingly, and powerfully. The truth of the word of God is enabled by your spirit. I can't do anything without your enablement, so I do ask the spirit of God would help me as I speak. It's in Christ, and we pray, amen. All right, so obedient faith is our topic this morning. And several points that we're gonna look at as we examine the life of Abraham. So you want, there's scriptures handy. We're gonna go right down there through Genesis chapter 22 and look at different aspects of his obedient faith. The first thing I wanna point out about obedient faith is that obedient faith can be tested. It can be tested. It has been said, and it's been well said, a faith that cannot be tested Cannot be trusted. All right. In other words a genuine faith has the ability to take a test to it and it proves itself to be Genuine and so verse 1 it says it came to pass after these things That God did tempt Abraham and said to him Abraham. They said behold Here I am. Okay, the word translated here tempt means to test or to prove. It's not that I that every man is tempted of his own loss, he's drawn away and enticed. And so this word doesn't mean tempt, like we think of temptation, it does mean to try, that he tested. We're doing deconstruction here in the sanctuary. And so part of that was the mirrors that were here, if you saw this before, and that were behind me, those mirrors had to be broken down and removed. They were glued up, they were big mirrors. There was no way to get them down without destroying them. And so, What I found out is that that was probably safety glass of some sort, which is good. You know, you desire that. But it's hard to break. I mean, you have to really hit it a good whack to get it. And I've got a video of it. If you'd like to see some of the deconstruction that took place, I've got a video of that, very loud, having that glass fall. But somebody in our group thought, well, let's take a hammer and let's throw it at this. It's a deconstruction hammer. the mirror would break, but the hammer actually came back faster than it left, and thankfully didn't do any destruction in that direction, but it didn't break the mirror. It stood the test of that. You know, what God is doing with Abraham is he's going to throw something at his fate. And again, it's going to show that it's unshakable, that it's firm, that it's real, because he's really going to try it. And so it says in verse two, he said, take now thy son, thy only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah. And offer him therefore offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And anybody that maybe is reading the story and jumping in, doesn't really know the full story, understands that's a pretty significant test. But it doesn't really begin to understand the significance of the test because of who that son was. That was the son of their old age. That was the son that they had waited for some 25 years since God had said, hey, that child's going to be born. And finally, that son came. And that child is growing up now. late in his teen years, and so this was a dream that they had had, and they had had to pray and wait on God, God give us children, God give us children. But not just a son that was a great test of their faith, but a son that was a son of promise. Every blessing that we've talked about today is impossible without that son. It was through that son that all the promises would come true that God spoke about. Abraham knew that. That was the one that the father of great nations and all the multitude of your offspring, everything was bound up in that child. But then on top of that, again, those 19 years or 18 years of parenting that Abraham had had and that love relationship that was there between him and his precious, precious son, the son of his old age. And so take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon that. Slay your son, burn his flesh upon an altar." Now, an unbeliever would take that passage and say, what kind of a God is this, right? I mean, I'm sure there are some that, in their evangelism, they probably went across that. I can't remember if specifically anybody's ever asked me about it. But the thing about it is, is that, and this is a spoiler alert, if you don't know the story, Isaac was not killed by his father. All right, God did very clearly give him the command to kill him. Okay, but he's not gonna be killed. But the other thing about it is God is running the test. So it's not just that anybody said, Abraham, go offer your son. It's that God very specifically, very clearly is running this test that's in the life of Abraham. And so what happens when your faith is tested? If God throws something at your faith, does your faith stand or does your faith crumble? There's a man, William Carey, that was a great pioneer missionary that took the gospel to India and got burdened about it. He was a cobbler. He was down in England working on shoes, got burdened about the need to take the gospel to the world and start praying about that, put a map up on his wall, you know, about different places, got statistics about how many heathen people were there, how many people knew about Jesus. We was there telling them about Jesus. And there was a dearth of People carry the gospel missionaries as we call them and he got burdened about missions and so he Surrendered to go he goes he becomes a translator works very diligently to understand language and and develops all these things But then God tested his faith The story is after William Carey was well established in his pioneer missionary work in India his supporters in England sent a printer to assist him and Soon the two men were turning out portions of the Bible for distribution. Cary had spent many years learning the language so that he could produce the scriptures in the local dialect. He had also prepared dictionaries and grammars for the use of his successors. One day, while Cary was away, a fire broke out and completely destroyed the building, the presses, many Bibles, the precious manuscripts, dictionaries, and grammars. When he returned and was told of the tragic loss, he showed no sign of despair or impatience. Instead, he knelt and thanked God that he still had the strength to do the work over again. He started immediately, not wasting time in self-pity. Before his death, he had duplicated and even improved on his earlier achievements. So we look at that and think, that's tragic, that's horrible. But we look at that too and we can say, what a test of his faith. He's there obeying God, he's doing what God said. God took what was most precious to him, not by choice, not like Abraham where he's gonna offer that, but God, in a sense, destroyed him. And yet the man just looked at it and said, all right, thank God, and he moved forward. Again, this morning, when your faith is tested, how do you respond? And a faith that is an obedient faith looks at that test and goes forward, and it can be tested. And so obedient faith can be tested. And then secondly, obedient faith does not postpone obedience, okay? So if I have obedient faith, it doesn't postpone obedience. And 7 verse 3, and Abraham rose up early in the morning. He saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him." So he got up early, and he gets everything together, and he starts out, and he's headed to what God said, and he's ready to face that test. How do you do something that you don't wanna do? Normal human response, how do we respond? put it off. It might be something like paying our taxes. It might be something like doing more of the garden for some people, or cleaning that room out, or in our case, cutting the hair on the dog, getting the dog washed, or something like that. We look at that task and it's just like, I don't really feel like doing that. I'm just going to Put that off. It takes a firm decision and character to look at that and say right I'm gonna do that. It needs to be done I'm gonna go ahead and get that done It's really evident in the life of children, right? If they don't want to do something those that are parents know what that's like We had a daughter so I have a daughter but as a young young child, she didn't like to go to the doctor I mean she hated to go to the doctor. I guess that sounds strong, but that's true. And so she despised it I mean it was kicking and screaming and We call it dragging your feet, right? Got the brakes on. It's not in gear. You know, and you got the arm of that child. Our kids' arms have come out. You have to be careful. You know, and you're trying to get them into that place where they're supposed to go. You know, Abraham, as we look at Abraham, the last thing he desired was to sacrifice his son. But you don't look at Abraham and say he's dragging his feet. You don't look at Abraham and say he's putting it off and you know that he's got the brakes on. Look at Abraham. He's got it in gear. He's engaged. He's going to get to that place of sacrifice for God. So how did Abraham move so quickly? You know, I believe he was motivated. Wasn't motivated to kill a son, but he was motivated to obey God, obedient faith. He was motivated to say, this is what God wants me to do, so I'm gonna go ahead and get on the way to doing what God desires me to do. I suspect that many Christian disciplines are contrary to what we desire to do. If we were to examine them, that in light of our human flesh, there are things that, you know what, I don't really desire to that. For somebody to speak up for God and be a verbal witness, I would think, you know, we're at the Gala Day yesterday and handing out literature and representing our church as well as representing Christ to the community. You know what? It takes a little courage to do that. And I suspect that, you know, again, with door to door or other evangelistic opportunities that we might have, that there would be a sense that, you know, I don't really feel like doing that. That's not something that I necessarily desire to do for somebody to be baptized. You know, we're going to have a baptismal service coming up in two weeks. It takes courage to identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism. It takes courage to stand up in front of people and say, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. And maybe have some unsaved family members or friends that would come out and witness that opportunity again. I suspect that there's a little bit of caution there in our hearts about them. A little caution in our hearts when it comes to committing to God to daily spend time in the Bible. Daily spend time in prayer to discipline ourself and to make that decision that that's going to be a priority to make the house of God and the worship of God a priority. To deal with sin, to separate from sin, to live a sanctified life and to begin to really maybe get some things out of our life that God's been speaking to our hearts about getting out of our life. Again, I think some of those things if we're to examine those are things that We might look at say, you know what? It's not really maybe something we desire to do but obedient faith does not preach procrastinate Obedient faith doesn't put it off. We didn't faith doesn't drag our feet But obedient faith says right I'm gonna get in there for God and I'm gonna obey God cuz God has led this God desires me I should do this, you know this morning. Are you dragging your feet? I Is the break on? Are you pulling back a little bit with things that God desires us to do in our life? Or is there that sense like what David said? David said it this way. He said, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. God, you speak. I got my running shoes on and it might be tough, but I'm going to get there. That's Abraham. You don't look at Abraham and think he wants to go. But he wants to go in obedience to God. And that's the difference. And I think when you look at obedient faith, it's like, I'm gonna go even though, you know what? I wanna put the brake on, but I'm not gonna put the brake on because God desires it. So I'm gonna do this quickly and obey God. And so obedient faith does not postpone obedience. And then obedient faith continues on to the mountain of sacrifice, continues on. It says in verse four, It says, then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place afar off. You know, have you ever said you'll do something and then you had another thought about it? Like, okay, I said I'd do that, but I don't know. You know, when I was probably, I don't know, about max, a little over the max, I went to Christian camp in California. So I'm just kind of a little guy that's there at camp and it's an oasis out in the Mojave Desert, Camp Ironwood. and a beautiful place. And they've got men, you know, guys swim time, girls swim time. So guys swim time comes. They've got this huge water slide. I mean, it is straight down. It's not like this kind of water slide. It's like this kind of water slide. to that oasis, and you're on something called a boogie board is what we called it. They're kind of like small surfboards that you'd use, and that thing was so that when you hit the bottom of the slide, you'd peel it up just a little bit in the front. If you didn't, you'd kind of go down, so you had to have it up, and you'd skip like a stone across the water, and they said it'd go up to 60 miles an hour, and I'd go down it, all right? And so I said, I'll do it, and so I get to the top of that, and I had a friend behind me, his name was Joe, Joe Steely. And, you know, here we go, we're going to go down this thing, you know. I get to the top, I'm like, I'm having second thoughts. I don't want to go down. Thankfully, Joe was behind me, he just goes, you're going. He gave me a shove and down I went. But it's one thing for us to say, I'll do that. It's another thing for us to get to the point of action and actually say, I'm going to follow through. I'm actually going to do that. Okay, and so you look at Abraham, I think Abraham, day number one, he might be going, it's okay, two days away from the mountain of sacrifice. Day number two, it's okay, one day away from the mountain of sacrifice. And it's like, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that, but when Abraham got to the place where he could see it afar off, he doesn't look at it and go, I changed my mind. He looks at it and says, I'm gonna obey God. And he just keeps on going, even though he's getting so close to that place. You know, I haven't made a decision in church, but not put it into practice. It's interesting, right? The spirit of God speaks to our heart. It speaks to our heart about music, entertainment, activities, actions, disciplines, things that, you know what, and the decision is made, I'm gonna do this. And yet, we walk towards it, and the closer we get, and saying, does he really wanna do that? Do you think he should really do that, or something like that? And there's that battle that takes place. But again, an obedient bank looks at that and says, right, I see that, but I'm still gonna keep walking towards that. All right, so I know, door-to-door is on Saturdays, and we gotta get it started up again. I'll tell you this, door-to-door has been under attack. this year with all the work and everything that we've got to do, all the workdays and things like that. There's just been numerous things that have prepped up, but we got to get it going again on Saturday mornings. We really need people that will participate in that. The number one way that God has built our church in the past two years has been knocking on doors, just inviting people to come up to church. I can speak to somebody's heart about that, but again, it's one thing to say in a church service, I surrender that, or I believe you're speaking to my heart about that. Next time the church asks, Dora, Dora, I'm gonna go. It's one thing to say that in our heart. It's another thing to look at it on the day of and say, I'm gonna go. And I'll tell you this, a lot of times Satan makes the mountain a lot bigger than it actually is. We look at it and go, oh, there's, you know, whatever. He just makes it bigger. But the thing is, if we'll just obey God, what we'll find out is what Abraham found out. He's going to have totally the grace of God as he gets there. And so praise God he didn't turn back. He just obeyed God. And so this morning, is there a decision in the spirit of God that makes your mind something that you set up? That's gonna be in our life, that's gonna be in our family, that's gonna be a part of what we do, but you put that aside and you actually saw the mountain there, and today it would be good to look at it again and say, right, I stopped walking towards that mountain, I'm gonna walk towards that mountain again. And so being in faith continues on to the mountain of sacrifice. Luke 9, 62, Jesus said it this way. He said, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. God desires us to keep our faith for him, not to turn back, but just to keep trusting him. And then obedient faith understands that sacrifice is part of worship, okay? It understands that sacrifice is part of worship. Verse five, it says, and Abraham said unto his young men, abide ye here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship. Abraham, what are you doing? You know, what's this whole journey about to you? You know what it's about? It's about worshiping God. He thinks about an altar of sacrifice. That means I'm going there for one purpose. I'm gonna give to God something that God deserves and that God's honored by, that God's glorified by. And so he's there to worship God. He knew that worshiping God demanded sacrifice. That without sacrifice, you can't effectively worship God. You know, we live in a day where A lot of Christians want to worship God without sacrifice. I don't know what to call it, easy Christianity. You know, are things convenient in our day? Yes, they are. You know, a lot of young people don't know where the meat that they eat from the grocery store comes from. A lot of young people just are maybe unaware of that or where the milk comes from, you know, and all the work that goes into it. You know, the people that lived 200 years ago, whatever in our day we want a meal it's so convenient I mean we don't have to provide for it ourselves just go get it and he's hot it's ready it's quick I mean you you say what you want you say what you don't want on it and they get it for you it's just a very convenient you know there's this attitude that we can have about Christianity that that's the kind of Christianity I want I want a Christianity that's convenient that's self-serving I can take what I want, take what I don't want, and just have it kind of easy. But we've kind of lost that idea of like, I really want to give to God something that actually costs me. That there's sacrifice that is involved in that. You know, David said at the threshing floor of Aaron, if you know the story, he numbered the people, God sent an angel to kill the people, and all these people are dying there in Jerusalem, and he gets there, actually to Mount Moriah, the same place that we're talking about in our story, where Abraham's gonna offer Isaac, he gets to that same mountain, and the death angel stops, and he's gonna offer God a sacrifice, he's gonna worship God. And Aaron says, the owner of the threshing floor, he says, here, my oxen, here's the wood for your sacrifice. Take it and sacrifice to God. And you think, well, right. OK, here, take it. Worship God. And that's David doesn't respond that way. David, the king said to Aaron, Nate, but I will surely buy it of you at a price. And in this statement, neither will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord, my God, of that which does cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. You know, if I really wanna worship God, I don't understand what David said, and that is, I can't worship God unless I'm willing to sacrifice. There's a cost involved. That's what worship is. Worship says, you're worthy and so I give this to you. You know, an adulterous person, can you imagine them? How would they feel without the idea of sacrifice? You go to very poor countries. They've got idol temples that are covered in gold. Why? Because they even recognize, if I'm worshiping, then I wanna appease, I wanna please. And very sadly, I mean, again, they worship a false god. Okay, they do it that way. Islam, they travel to Mecca. They fast for a month, where they don't eat between sunrise and sunset, and that's pretty long in Scotland, right? They pray five times a day. They get up in the middle of the night to the other knees and pray. And so, I mean, you look at that and go, right, they're not even worshiping the God that we worship, because they're not coming to Him through Jesus Christ. They reject the Messiah. They reject the Son of God. But when you look at their religion, you understand that, you know, they understand that worship costs something, that if you're gonna worship that, I wonder this morning, what are we sacrificing? You know, do we understand this morning that, hey, I want to worship God. And so therefore, if it costs me my time, if it costs me my talents, if it costs me my future, if it costs me whatever, I'm going to worship God. I'm going to honor God, whatever it is that he desires of me. I am there to give that in obedience. And so what are you bringing to the mountain of sacrifice and obedience to God? Is there anything that you look at and say, you know, that's a sacrifice, but I give it willingly because I'm giving that to God. And so obedient faith understands that sacrifice is part of worship. And then obedient faith trusts in God. Even when doing so demands a miracle. Okay, trust in God, even when doing so demands a miracle. Verse five, Abraham said to his young men, if I do here with the donkey, I am glad we'll go yonder and worship. And notice the statement at the end, and come again unto you. Abraham, why are you going up that mountain? To kill my son. Why? Because God said. But as he testifies to the men before his departure, he said, hey, we're gonna go up, we're gonna worship God, and we're gonna come back. And again, no scripture is there. It's not an accident that God records that. It's not an accident that Abraham said that. Abraham said it very specifically. He said it in faith, believing in the power of God to do a miracle that was necessary because he was gonna obey God, and he believed God would do that miracle. The Spirit of God gives further insight into that in Hebrews 11, verse 17. It says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested or tried, he offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. He's got obedient faith to the point of, all right, I'm gonna obey God, but if I obey God, there has to be a miracle, because there's no other way, because I know that he's the son of promise. I know that God's blessing is coming through him, but I'm gonna obey God, and because I'm gonna obey God, then there has to be a miracle that takes place. George Miller had that kind of obedient faith. He trusted God, even if there had to be a miracle. There was a morning that he woke up at the orphanages, and they didn't have any money, and they didn't have any food. I forget at that time how many children were in the orphan house, but George Mueller, a man of faith, started that ministry by faith, not telling men about his problems, but telling God alone about his problems, believing that God would meet his needs. And so here they have, they don't have any food. One morning, all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder and no money to buy food. The children were standing, waiting for their morning meal when Mueller said, children, you know, we must be in time for school. Then lifting up his hands, he prayed, Dear Father, we thank you for what thou are going to give us to eat. There was a knock at the door. The baker stood there. He said, Mr. Buehler, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast. The Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread and brought it. Mr. Buehler thanked the banker. And no sooner had he left, there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage. and he'd like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it. All right, so George Miller, obedient faith. What kind of faith did he have? He believed that if God wants this done, then God's gonna do a miracle to get it done because he was gonna trust God and go to the place of obedience to God. You know, in my study, I've got a quote on my wall, and it's a quote of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, with God, all things are possible. And so the sport can stop at that point, but that's impossible. God's asking me to do the impossible. If I actually move forward, then God's gonna have to do a miracle. And the answer is, probably many times, yes. But that's not a reason not to move forward, because obedient faith moves forward and says God is the God of miracles. And so are you obeying God, even if doing so means, okay, God's gonna have to do something miraculous about this, but I'm gonna obey God. But then obedient faith remains confident when answering difficult questions. Obedient faith remains confident when answering difficult questions. Look at verse six. It says, And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and he laid it upon Isaac his son. He took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and he said, My father, and he said, Here am I, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for burnt offering? That's a tough question. It's a tough question coming from a son asking, all right, Dad, where's the offering? And I think that's one of the toughest parts of Abraham's task right there as he's going up that hill and he kind of comes to a focal point and Isaac says, Dad, where's the burnt offering? Isaac, again, was not a young boy. He's probably 18, 19 years of age at this point. He's not naive. I mean, he recognizes why are we going to Mount Moriah? We're going there to sacrifice, worship God. All right. We've got the wood, we've got everything else. Dad, aren't we forgetting something? Where's the sacrifice that we're going to offer to God? I grew up in a Baptist pastor's house, and my dad was in the ministry for some 50 years. Back in 86, 87, my dad was pastoring out in California. And we had a difficult situation that was there in the church. And because of that, dad decided to resign. The ministry had only been there a year and a half, moved our family three days journey from Wisconsin out to California. And then it was back to the Midwest, to Des Moines, to my grandparents as we waited on God and just prayed about God's will. There was churches that my dad candidated at. Candidated at Colorado Springs. And I remember that one because that church was struggling. And after the candidate question time, the church got kind of fired up at one another. And actually, that church actually had problems themselves. And you're looking at stuff as a kid like that. And I talked to my mom recently about some of that stuff. And she said, there were things that we went through as a family I wish you guys never had to go through. It was a tough time. But my dad was faithful to God. But it was a time of about a year, if I remember right, maybe a year and a half that dad was out of full-time ministry and just waiting on God for God to lead and God to rect. I remember as a child, again, probably 11, 12 years old, going to my dad and saying, probably with tears, like, Dad, where are we going to live? When are we going to have a house, you know? And I look back at that now, being a dad, I think, you know what, I probably added to the burden that my dad was facing. I know I did. Because not only is He, in the world, God, going through a testing time, but He's got a Son that's coming to Him and saying, Dad, what about, what about? Sometimes as we face a test, there might be those questions that somebody that's close to us might ask. They may not understand, you know, especially somebody who's newly saved. They got unsaved family or friends or things like that. And they're taking a stand for God and they're going to obey God. And God's asked them to go and do this. And yet in their heart, as somebody comes and they question that, that makes it very difficult. But again, a person that is in obedient faith remains confident. when answering the difficult questions. And so you see that with Abraham. Abraham just turns and says, my son, God's gonna provide. God's gonna meet the need. He doesn't get derailed by the question that comes from Isaac. Are you obeying God? Even if somebody that you love or cares about, make it a little bit tougher just by questioning like, okay, that decision that you've made. And so obedient faith remains confident when answering difficult questions. Then obedient faith believes God's best for the family. is in the center of the will of God. Believes God's best for the family is in the center of the will of God. It says in verse eight, it said, Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them, together. Abraham's not been on this journey alone. From the very beginning, he's had his son, Isaac, with him, and he said to his men, I and the lamb will go yonder. It says here in our text, so they went, both of them, together. Scripture doesn't tell us whether Sarah was privy to what's happening, and you know, I can imagine as a mom that there would be great concern about this decision that her husband's made. The Bible doesn't really tell us about that and what conversations took place there or not, but very soon, Isaac is gonna become aware. Very soon, Isaac is gonna understand, hey, we're walking up this. Hey, Dad, where's the sacrifice God's gonna provide? And then Isaac begins to realize that, right, Dad is gonna sacrifice me on this mountain. And we don't bet at our church. bind Logan or Benson what do you think? I'm their dad but that's gonna you got got somebody in the story 18 19 years of age you might want to watch and try after church to see what's going to happen right if I try to actually physically bind them what's the only way that Abraham could bind his son is if his son put his hands behind his back and allowed his dad to bind him Abraham's an old man. Remember, he didn't have Isaac. He's 120 years old. Isaac is a strapping lion, 20 years old. There is no way that Abraham's gonna be able to bind his son unless his son allows himself to be bound. So what do we know about that? Abraham was a godly parent whose family understood that you're gonna follow God no matter what, and who were willing to follow Abraham as he followed his God. And that's what the Bible says about Abraham. Genesis 18, verse 19. God said, For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. All right? And so God knew that Abraham's gonna follow him, no matter what. And obviously his family was willing to follow him and willing to trust and say, my dad's following God, I'm gonna follow God too. And so Isaac was willing to follow his father. You know, what do we know about Abraham? Abraham believed God's best for my family is in the center of the world, God. What do you believe God's best for your family is? See, even if it means the mountain of sacrifice, you might look at that and say, well, that's gonna be tough on my family. That's a tough decision. It might affect our entertainment. It might affect our friends. It might affect our associations. It might affect our responsibilities. It could even impact my job, because it may be that God has plans for my life that are job-related, or it could affect where we live, or it could affect whatever, right? And so do I really believe God's best for my family is in the center of the will of God, so we're gonna obey God no matter what, and by the grace of God, I'm gonna teach my family this, so that when it comes to a tough decision like this, I'm walking up the hill of sacrifice, they're not gonna be kicking and screaming, they're gonna be obediently following me and saying, I know that dad believes, or mom believes that God's best is in the center of the will of God. And so obedient faith believes God's best for my family is in the center of the will of God. And then obedient faith, lovingly puts whatever God desires completely at his disposal. It's our final point here this morning. Lovingly puts whatever God desires completely at his disposal. Verse nine, it says, they came to the place which God had told them of, and Abraham built an altar there. And he laid the wood in order, he bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and he took the knife to slay his son. Abraham is prepared to pay the ultimate price of obedience to God. I mean, the knife is in his hand, it's raised up, it's about to be plunged down into the breast of his child. Was Abraham right to trust God with that which was most precious to him? All right, just think about that question. Is he right to do this? I mean, he's got his son there, he's gonna sacrifice his son. Is he right to trust God so implicitly that he would take that knife and slay Well, I mean, the question again would be, could God be trusted by putting Isaac's life completely in his hands? My wife has never really enjoyed having babysitters, you know, when we've got our kids, you know, and when they're younger and things. There were maybe times we could have gone on a date. I don't think we really did too much as far as dates until Kaylee got old enough to watch the kids or something like that. She just didn't like it. You know, having other people watch the kids kind of made her nervous or whatever. And then Logan had major surgery at the age of six months. And we've got four little kids. Our oldest at that time was Kaylee. She was probably still four, or she would have been three. We had three kids at that point, two or three. So we got these little kids, you know? And now she's gotta trust, not just with a babysitter, she's gotta trust a neurosurgeon and a plastic surgeon. to with her infant, you know? But what was really neat, other than the fact that Logan had to go through major surgery and the difficulties of that, what was neat is to sense the presence of God and the grace of God. And I'll tell you this, on that day of the surgery, we had perfect peace. Far better than what my wife would have experienced if we had a babysitter. And it was the fact that Logan was in God's care. Logan was in God's hand. You know, can God be trusted? Can I really trust God with my future? Can I really trust God with my marriage? Can I really trust God with my kids? Can I really trust God with my plans? Can I really trust God? If I really actually took what God desires from me to offer to him, and I put it in God's hand, can God really be trusted with that? And I know we know intellectually that the answer is yes. But if we really believe that, won't we take it and put it in his hands? Does that make sense? Obedient faith is willing to say, right, the knife is up. It's like God, if he lives or dies, it doesn't matter because whatever your will is, it's best because you're God and you've got this. You know, that's implicit faith. That is faith that says, right, I can trust God, and I'm going to trust God. Romans 12, one and two says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies in living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service. And so the thing is, and that's verse one, the thing is to set my life in God's hands and to say, God, you've got this. I pray God help me to do that with this. Help me to do that with us, you know, just to say, God is yours. Help me do that with my family. My dreams, my plans, my ambitions, things I'm hopeful about. God, help me to implicitly put it in your hands and say, God, you do with it whatever you want to do with it, because God, you're worthy of worship and you're worthy to have full control of everything in my life because you are God and I trust you. I trust you. Obedient faith. lovingly puts whatever God desires completely at his disposal. So this morning, is there anything you're holding back from God? Is there anything you say, no, no, no, I'm gonna keep that. Well, I just challenge us, like, let's just obey God like Abraham. Let's just take that which is precious to us and let's say, you know, I trust God, I'm willing to put that in God's hands. And then Abraham practiced obedient faith in God, and you know what he found out? God's worthy of trust. He trusted, I mean, he went up the mountain, he was gonna sacrifice his son. Now, I'll say this, there are times in our life when we sacrifice our son and there's times when we don't. Does that make sense? God may ask us to do something and then maybe plunge the knife, that's dead, that's done, that's over. God's got something else, God's got something better. There may be times where we raise the knife to plunge it down and God says, stay in your hand, I've got this. And we're gonna see that in the story. But whatever the case, God can be fully trusted. And regardless of whether it's to the death or to the life, whatever the case, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be gracious because God is God. And so what did God do? God provided in this story a substitute for Isaac. Verse 11, the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven. He said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I. He said, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. Abraham looked up his eyes, he looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went, he took the ram, he offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." Okay? Praise God, God had a substitute for Isaac. If you're Isaac, would you say amen? Right? I mean, praise God, right? I don't have to die, why? Because God has another sacrifice that's there. Listen, can we relate to Isaac? Right? Can we this morning? And don't you see in this story that this is a picture of God, the father and God, the son, God, the father took his son, his only son, Jesus, whom he loved. And he walked up to the very same mountain. That's the cool thing about the story of Mount Moriah. Yeah, Calvary, same place. Same area, right there, where Jesus Christ would be sacrificed by his dad. In the garden, do you think the question hurt the heart of the father? Father, if you could be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as thou will, but as thou will. You know, so many things in this story are just reminiscent of that story. Abraham, do you know your son's gonna die? Yeah, he's gonna die, but if he dies, guess what? He's gonna rise again. God the Father, he's gonna die. But what's he knowin'? He's gonna rise again. Why did he do that? He did that as a substitute. God did that for us. You wanna, I mean, you look at this story and think, wow, hey, praise God, there was somebody else to die in the place of Isaac. Well, praise God this morning there was somebody else to die in our place, our substitute, Jesus Christ, our sacrifice, by the way, that God accepted. God would have accepted Abraham, but God accepted the sacrifice of the ram in his place. Praise God. God could take our life. He could plunge his wrath into our life for all eternity. He could do that, but hey, praise God. He took and he accepted the fact that his son, his perfect son, his holy son could go there to the cross and to die for us. Do you recognize this morning what God's love for you cost him? God provided a substitute for Isaac, and he did for us. And then God demonstrated his power in that place to Abraham and to Isaac. Verse 14, and Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Abraham, are you glad that you went to the mountain of sacrifice? Yes. It's Jehovah-Jireh. I saw the glory of God, I saw the provision of God, I saw the grace of God. Let me ask you, have you walked to Calvary? Have you gone to that place? Have you stood there and looked at the Lord Jesus Christ and his death for you? Have you seen what he did there? You know, praise God, we can do that today. We're gonna sing in just a second that hymn, come to the cross upon Calvary, gaze on the scene anew, turn from your sin to the Savior. There Jesus waits for you. It's a precious thing to get ourselves to Mount Moriah, right? get on our knees and say, God, thank you for your sacrifice. And then God blessed Abraham richly for his faith. Verse 15 down to verse 18. The angel of the Lord called Abraham out of heaven the second time. He said, By myself have I sworn, said the Lord, for notice these statements, because thou hast done this thing, obeyed, and hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, that blessing have blessed thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations on the earth be blessed. Here comes again, because thou hast obeyed. My voice. Abraham believed God, he obeyed God, God bless. Now again, let's go back to whatever God desires us to sacrifice this morning. If we'll obey God, guess what we'll find? That's where the blessing is. The Bible says, he that shall save his life, shall lose it. He that shall lose his life, for my sake and the gospel's the same, shall save it. The life that has lived best is the life that has surrendered to God. The things that somebody would hold on to and say, no, no, no, no. Notice that. They're trusting themselves and they're not trusting God. It would be far better to say, I'm not going to trust myself. I'm going to trust God. I'm going to get that on the altar. Why? Because that's where it's at. That's where the blessing is. So somebody this morning could get saved, be given God's gift of everlasting life. Somebody could step into to victory and obey God through baptism or through church membership and getting involved in soul winning evangelism, tithing or ministering in the church or something like that as the spirit of God speaks. And the only thing keeping us from the blessing is the fact that am I gonna obey God or not? Abraham was given a tough assignment. Go sacrifice your son. Not just a son, a very special son. Abraham obeyed God. It's challenging to explain. As God speaks our heart about sacrifice, are we gonna have obedient faith? And it really, to me, helps me understand what faith is. Faith is saying, God is right, so I'm gonna obey him. Because I believe him. And so if he says it, I'm just gonna do what God says, because that's what God says. So are you walking in obedience to God? You can tell by your obedience. Father, I just pray this morning, the Spirit of God would speak to our hearts. Every single one of us is on a faith journey. I could ask this morning that God speak to your heart about specific things, but I think the truth would be that God spoke to our hearts about many things. But I pray the quietness of our heart right now, that we listen to the Holy Spirit, and that we would obey. Father, there might be some you spoke to about salvation. They've got a decision to make, am I gonna obey God and go to the mountain of sacrifice and trust in Christ? Others may be baptism, church membership, ministry, tithes and offerings, evangelism, door-to-door, serving God, faithfulness to the house of God, devotions, the word of God, dealing with sin. I find there can be numerous things, and we tend to hold on to things. But I pray this morning that really no heartbeat, the big decision that we need to make is just God hands off my life, forgive me. I've been making my decisions. I've been making my plans, but I'm gonna go to the mountain of sacrifice and surrender myself and just put myself there. And so I pray for that. And father, this kind of faith is revolutionary. This is where the blessing is. It's where the blessing is for families. It's where the blessing is for marriages. It's where the blessing is for church. It's where the blessing is for us as a church to be able to impact our community with the truth of the Word of God. So I just pray, Lord, that we make definite decisions to obey God. Help us as we look at Calvary again as we sing. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's stand, please. We'll sing that hymn that I mentioned. Come to the cross upon Calvary. Gaze on the scene anew.