Sorry. Well, I do very much appreciate everybody that has said, I've been praying for you this week. That was amazing to me that you folks did that. It's a good start. Let me pray for you. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to open your word, and we pray that you would be working in our hearts. Use your word to break through where it needs breaking through. Help us to come away challenged. And we pray that you do something special in the hearts of many people because we were willing to open your word and let it speak to our hearts. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right. We just got back from Hilton Head Island. How many have been there? Okay, quite a few. I was trying to decide, you know, are the people there like, Most of them from South Carolina, or are they from all over the world and all over the states? I didn't ask anybody. But we had something kind of unique happen. I didn't catch the very beginning of the conversation, but a young boy, he's probably nine or 10 years old, was whining. I mean, I think he was hurt a little bit, but it sounded more like he was whining than he was just crying. And he was doing this, and his mom said, you have sand on your hand. Take your hand away from your eyes. And he's, no, no, no. And she said, you have sand on your hand. Take your hand away from your eyes. And she tried to pull it away. And he kicked her. I couldn't believe it. He did it twice. And finally, she grabs his hand, and the father was lying there on the towel, didn't do anything. She grabs his hand and pulls him away to the water. He got it off there, and lo and behold, he was better. Mom knew best. But he had a hard time obeying in that situation. How about you? Have you ever had difficulty in obeying your parents? We're talking to the smaller people right now. Or did you have trouble obeying your parents, bigger people? or your boss, or God. Ever had trouble? In our event, it's a Bible story, we're gonna have a Bible story, but I like to call them events, because they're true. They're true events that happen. Abraham, I had to obey something that was very, very difficult for him. So, I'm not coming just to talk to you. Can you see me over there? I think it works out okay. I'm gonna start over here, but I need you to count with me, okay? You ready? One, two, three, four, hold on, hold on. Let's go by fives. Can you count by fives? All right, let's try it. 5, 10, 15, 20. Stop. Just about 25 years had passed since God had promised Abraham a son. In fact, He promised him a lot, innumerable descendants. But 25 years had passed and finally that promised special baby boy was born. They loved their son. And I'm sure they enjoyed rearing him. Some years passed, the boy grew, and, I think we need to get rid of that, okay. The boy grew and God spoke again to Abraham. And the Bible says he tested Abraham. Abraham, here I am. I want you to take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac. I want you to go to a mountain I will show you in Muriah, and there I want you to offer him as a burnt sacrifice to me. Wow. That would be difficult. I mean, that's an understatement, right? That would be so difficult. The Bible says that Abraham got up early the next morning and he started on his way. So we know he obeyed right away. But I wonder if he thought about it all night long. The Bible in a later spot tells us he did think God could raise the dead. Maybe that encouraged him. But regardless, he got up early the next morning, and he chopped the firewood for the sacrifice. He saddled his donkey. He called his two servants, his son, made sure he had the knife and the fire, and they started on their way. to the place of which God had told him. Now, I'm gonna need your help. Whenever I do this, what was that, do you remember? He saddled his donkey, called his two servants, say that with me, called his two servants and his son, he made sure he had the, that's sharp, okay, and the fire. Now the fire, We don't know if it was just a flint, but a lot of times back then they would take a metal bucket and they'd keep the, what do they call them? Lot of the coals, that's the word, and they'd have fire wherever they went. They'd keep that alive inside there. So early the next morning, he chopped the wood and then he saddled his donkey, called his, and made sure he had the, And they started on their way to the place of which God had told them. They traveled all that day, and they hadn't arrived. The Bible doesn't say, but I imagine that they made camp and lay down for the night. Next day, Abraham got up early. The wood's already cut. He called and made sure he had the... They kept going. They continued on their way to the place that God had told them. But they walked all that day and they still hadn't arrived. I guess they laid down for the night. Third day. And they continued on their way to the place of which God had told them. As they walked, Abraham looked up, and he saw the place. He said to his, you wait here. The boy and I, the young man and I, will go on. We will worship God on that mountain, and we will return. So he took the wood. I don't know if the wood was on the donkeys. I don't know if the servants were carrying them. But now he took the wood and he put it on Isaac's back. He made sure he had them. And they continued on their way. As they walked, Isaac spoke. Father, here I am. I've got the wood on my back. I see you have the knife and the fire. Where's the lamb for the sacrifice? God himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice. So they went on together. And when they got to that place, Abraham, Abraham, how old is he? Well, we'll talk about that later, I guess. He built an altar, lifted those rocks. He took the firewood and he arranged it on the altar. Then, he tied his son and he laid him on the altar. He took that knife. Abraham, Abraham, here I am. Do not harm the boy in any way, for now I know that you fear God. "'because you've not kept back your son, your only son, "'whom you love.'" Abraham looked up over here. It was hidden. He saw a ram caught in a bush. He brought the ram and sacrificed it in the place of his son. He called that place Yavayira, the Lord will provide. But the angel of the Lord was not done speaking yet. He said, because you have not kept back your son, your only son whom you love, without a doubt I will bless you and make your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach. Your descendant will rule over his enemies. And through him, I will bless all the nations, all the peoples. Through him, I will bless all the families of the world. Abraham and Isaac worshiped God that day on the mountain. Possibly like never before. Then they came back down off the mountain. Where'd we leave the servants? I don't remember. They joined with the servants and they went home together. That is a true story from Genesis chapter 22. And what I'd like to do for a moment is have everybody stand. Thank you. And you're standing, so you can turn around if you need to. You want to talk with four or five people around you. And there's four questions we'd like you to answer, all right? So just answer these four questions. Somebody in your group, just take charge, say, ask questions. But you got about a couple minutes to answer those four questions in your small group. Go ahead, please. Thank you. All right, we're going to ask you to finish up and have a seat. If you would, please. Thank you for doing that. We're not going to bring the answers up front for one and two, but I'm curious, anybody that wants to share either something you heard or maybe you said it in your group, Why would God ask Abraham to do this? Did you come up with any answers there? To test his faith. In the very beginning, if you want to turn to Genesis chapter 22, you can. It says, after these things, God tested Abraham. So, yeah, that's a good answer. He was testing his faith. How do you think Abraham was able to obey such a difficult assignment? Did you have any good answers on that one? He was faithful. Did somebody say trust? He trusted God. I imagine it was very, very difficult. He didn't have any concept, but Hebrews later does say, God can raise the dead. Maybe that encouraged him, but he was trusting God in that whole situation. Just shout out the answer. If you haven't seen these ones, why don't you just read it and somebody shout out the answer. How old was Abraham during this event? Okay, he's probably over 100, right? He was 100 when Isaac was born. Sarah was 90. And so now, some years have passed, and there's speculation, but the boy, Isaac could have been 12 or 14 or something like that. So he's well over 100. He's older than I am. What did Abraham believe God could do if Isaac died that day? Raise him from the dead. This is before anyone ever heard of Jesus. But he thought, hey, God is powerful, God can do that type of thing. God could raise it up. Here's in Hebrews 11, I mentioned it, by faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he would receive the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. It's powerful. He had the faith to believe that God could do that. What did Abraham sacrifice in the place of his son? A ram. Is that a lamb? Did God provide a lamb for the sacrifice as Abraham had suggested to Isaac? He didn't, did he? So, does that mean, was Abraham wrong in his answer to Isaac's question? Where's the lamb for the sacrifice? Was he wrong? Yes, and no. I mean, there was no lamb, but He was simply answering in faith that God would do something unique. I believe that's what he was doing. You know, some could say, oh, he's just keeping the boy in the dark. I'm not sure Isaac was totally in the dark. But anyways, he believed, hey, God could do something. You know what a neighbor nudge is? Just don't stand up, don't go out in the lobby or anything like that, just talk to your neighbor, answer these two questions. How was Abraham's faith confirmed by the end of the event? Talk about that, and then what do you think was the primary lesson Abraham learned and that we should learn from this event? Go ahead, nudge your neighbor. Okay, some of you were done earlier than others, and that's good. Some could probably go on all morning. But I'm not going to have you throw out answers for the first one. How was Abraham's faith confirmed by the end of the event? I think we probably all said something like, God stopped him, God provided the ram, and I mean, everything was good. But he confirmed that yep, he was gonna carry through, plus he gave him that promise again. We'll talk about that in a second. But what do you think was the primary lesson Abraham learned? Anybody wanna tell us what you discussed? You have to lift up your voice loud. Trust and obey, okay. For there's no other way. Yeah, good, good answer. Anybody have something different? Good. God does what he says he will do. Good. Good. And still does. Good. Great. These are good answers. It's interesting, a lot of times people, this trust and obey is a great answer, they all were good, but I don't want you to, trust and obey does them both. Because a lot of times people say, obedience, he learned about obedience, he obeyed and God blessed. And others will say, he learned to have faith in God. His faith was built, he learned how to trust. And really, it was both of them together, right? There's the slide we were looking at, the Lord will provide as it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. We're gonna dig into that a little bit. So, go ahead and open, if you haven't yet, to Genesis chapter 22. We won't spend a lot of time on it because we've heard the story already. But if you haven't, open there to Genesis 22. I want to touch on three things that were repeated in the passage. You realize that if God repeats, well, if anybody repeats something, It's important. You have sand on your hand. Take it away, right? And she had to say it several times. He wasn't getting it. God repeated some things here. First thing was, here I am. Abraham said three times in the passage, here I am, twice to God. God says, Abraham, he says, here I am. That here I am has to do with not just, hey, over here, God, God knew where he was. But it had to do with this concept of, yep, I'm here and I'm listening. I am hearing what you're saying. Here I am. The second time that he says it with God is towards the end of the passage and God this time says, Abraham, Abraham, God, Spoke twice. Wanted to make sure that there was no throat cutting. But he says, I don't know if he was like, whoo, here I am, that time. But he said it again. He was ready to listen. The other time is in the middle. Says it to God in the beginning and at the end. But then in the middle, who's he speaking with? With whom is he speaking? Isaac. Yeah, and Isaac says, dad, here I am. And that was important too. Isaac's got some concerns. I don't see a lamb. But Abraham says, yep, here I am. And he was able to talk with him and share. Another time that something was repeated in this passage three times again, is your son, your only son. God says, I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. That, to me, is powerful. I mean, it's not just, hey, listen, get your son. Your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. It happens, again, three times in the passage. Some of you might say, well, he had another son. We're going to talk about that in a second. But as far as God was concerned, let me just back that up. As far as God was concerned, this was the son. And that's what he wanted to deal with, was that particular son, the son of the promise. So, and the last thing's repeated is, so they went, both of them, together. That happens twice, exact same construction. So they went, both of them, together. And the last time it's, they arose and went together. That's powerful. It's powerful. The first two is when Abraham's talking, or he's with Isaac, says, verse six, Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. He took his hand to fire and the knife. So they went, both of them, together. They were together before, and they left the servants now, and they went together. They were in this together. I think that's important. And it's not too long after that, in verse eight, Abraham said, God will provide for himself a land for the burnt offering, my son. So they went. Both of them together. I believe Isaac's faith is growing here, and it's building. It's a tough thing that's going on. I'm not sure how much he's seeing yet. A little later, Abraham ties his son. Isaac's pretty much aware at that point. But it's growing as they move through it. They're going together. But the cool thing is, verse 19, they came back down. They joined with those servants, and they went home, together. The test is over and they came through it. Abraham came through, you could say with flying colors, but they came back together. He didn't have to leave his son behind. Sometimes people wonder if Abraham talked to Sarah before he left. I don't know that he did. Might have been pretty tough. But regardless, we just have no idea. But there's these three things that are repeated. I think they are important for us to know. Now look down at verse 15. We're gonna read 15 to 18. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven. Now this is the second time in this story, right? He's spoken to Abraham before. But this is the second time in this story Verse 16, it said, by myself I have sworn, nothing greater than that, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. God is not dependent on us to do things. But in some way, God is saying, because you've obeyed, this is happening. Is this the first time though that he's promised us? Because you've done this, I will surely bless you. Didn't he bless Abraham before? Yeah, look here, back in Genesis chapter 12. This is 22, back in chapter 12. The Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. Now, just for a second, when he was doing this Moriah thing, did Abraham know where he was going? Not really, because God again said, to a place I will show you. He didn't know, but it's this whole faith thing, it's amazing the faith that Abraham had. But here, back in chapter 12, he says, go from your country and your father's side to a land that I will show you. We don't have time to get into this, but you know, Abraham, before this, you know what his father was? And possibly Abraham? Moon worshipers. If you want to talk about that sometime, we'll look at that. But Ur of the Chaldees, where they used to live, huge moon worshiping place. But God was doing something special and he pulled a man and a family, which he built into a nation, out of that place. Powerful thing he was doing. But he says there in verse two, and I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. There's the promise, not in 22, it happens there later, but in chapter 12. Then, in chapter 13, he says, I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth. I'll give you the land, you can see that highlighted. He reiterates the promise. He's not leaving Abraham all on his own on this. Chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 15. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. And Abram said, O Lord God, What will you give me for I continue childless? And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. I have no offspring, says the next line. God promised, but these years are ticking by. They were already past childbearing age. Sarah was past childbearing age and Abraham was old. But he says, I don't have any kids. How about my servant? Let's make my servant, it happens all the time, he'll just be my heir, okay? No. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, this man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. Not the way sometimes people do it. Like, just bring this servant right along, here, he's my heir. No, no, not like that. Your very own son. He brought him outside and said, look toward the heaven. Number the stars, count them. One, two, three. You can't count the stars, right? If you are able to number them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be, and he, believed the Lord and he counted it, excuse me, to him as righteousness. This is a key passage where Abraham believed, and that's the first time this has ever happened, they counted him as righteousness. It was placed on his account God's righteousness. Why? Because he was cool, because he was smarter than everybody else, Because, why was it? He believed. This is something interesting. If you believe, so it really has a lot to do with Abraham then, right? I don't think so. I think it has to do with the object of his belief. But because he believed, it was counted to him as righteousness. That passage is repeated in the New Testament. This is an important thing that happens. Well, it was in 12, it was in 13, it's in chapter 15. In chapter 17, now he's 99 years old, he says again, I'm gonna multiply you greatly. I'll make a multitude of nations. You'll be exceedingly fruitful. I'll make you into nations. Chapter 17, saying it again. And God said to Abram, as for Sarah, your wife, Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and I will give you a son by her. Why is that so significant? Well, it's that whole Ishmael thing, right? Sarah said, this isn't happening, I'm really old. Take my servant, have a child through her. We'll just count that, okay? Again, the way it was done all around them, people did that. God says, no, no, no. It will be your son, he said that earlier, your very son, and it will be Sarah's son. At the end of it he says, I will establish my covenant with him. With whom? The son, Isaac, as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. Well, they conceive, they bore a son in chapter 21. It's reiterated again. The child grew and was weaned. And he says it again in chapter 21, for through Isaac, your offspring, shall your offspring be named. This is happening several times, all the way through here, and then he says it again in this passage, because you have believed, it's happening. This is gonna be exciting. Now, Do we know, if we don't know any of the New Testament, we haven't been there yet, we're way back here in Genesis chapter 22, do we know why this is so important way in the future? I'm not sure, but we do know one thing, that God says, I will bless all the nations. That's us. I'm not Jewish. There may not be a lot that are Jewish here, but God says, I'm gonna bless all the nations through you, through your descendant. This is pretty important. Whatever it means, that blessing is coming on all, and we'll see about this believing thing too. So, just quickly, Abraham is an example to us of, we heard it earlier, of obedience and passing a test that God gives. I asked you earlier, are you having trouble ever obeying God? He was a good example. He obeyed. He passed the test. He was an example of faith for us, especially in chapter 15 where we learn about He had faith, he believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness. This is the first time we see somebody believed and God's righteousness is given to that person. He's an example of faith. He's an example of waiting on God to provide. Right? All good stuff. He obeyed, he kept at it, he walked through. I mentioned at the beginning, I wonder if he thought about it all night long. What about the first night on the road? What about the second night on the road? This was a tough test. He knows why he's traveling. He knows what's gonna happen when he gets to Moriah. He waited on God to provide. He did what he said, and he trusted God. John Newton wrote this. Though troubles assail and dangers affright, though friends should all fail and foes all unite, yet one thing secures us, whatever be tied, the scripture assures us, the Lord will provide. The birds without barn or storehouse are fed, from them let us learn to trust for our bread. His saints, what is fitting, shall ne'er be denied, so long as it is written, the Lord will provide. We may like the ships by tempest be tossed on perilous deeps, but cannot be lost. Though Satan enrages the wind and the tide, the promise engages, the Lord will provide. His call we obey like Abram of old, not knowing our way, but faith makes us bold. For though we are strangers, we have a good guide and trust in all dangers, the Lord will provide. Great example for us, and John Newton said it well. But, to finish up, he did those things. He's a great example to us. But we always need to do more than just look at the Bible stories for moral lessons. God's meta-narrative, his big story, does so much more than that. There's more to this story than just Abraham obeyed, Abraham had faith. Let's start by looking at the name that Abraham gave to the location, and thus, we call it one of the names of God. There it is. Everybody read that for us? Yahweh Yehuda. Piece of cake, right? That's where it is, right there. Now, the... you know, the Tetragrammaton, right? That's that word right there. It's the four letters in Hebrew. We translate it in our Bibles, all capitals, LORD. Right? Yahweh. Yahweh. That's the name. Now, the thing is, the Hebrews felt that they couldn't say that. It was too holy of a name and they couldn't say it. So when they came to it in their Bibles, they would sometimes just say the word or the name Adonai, right? Which we translate capital L-O-R-D, not all capitals, Lord. It means master or Lord. So they would translate it or say Adonai instead of Yahweh because they felt they couldn't say it. Well then, it got so that they took the letters, or I should say the vowels, you realize Hebrew doesn't write vowels, and so they're pronounced, and they have different ways of figuring all that out, but they took the vowels from Adonai, and they slipped them into Yahweh, and end up with that. And you say, wait, A doesn't equal E. Well, there's certain rules about after this letter, this letter changes to another, and it's complicated, but that's what you have. Yehovah, which then with our anglicized vocalization and all that kind of thing, you get Jehovah. And you take the yehudah and you put the vocalization, you get Jireh. So we have Jehovah, Jireh. And we say that that means the Lord will provide. Literally, it means the Lord sees. You could say the Lord sees to it, or the Lord will provide. There's a lot of different, you know, everybody, a lot of people think differently about it. That's as far as we'll go for now. But there's only one other time that Yahweh Yireh shows up in the Old Testament. You know where that is? 1 Samuel 16, 7, it says this, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature. Who's he speaking about? Do you remember? Okay, but at this point, he's not, hasn't seen David, Samuel hasn't seen David yet, he's talking about Eliab. He says, no, no, this nice, tall, big, strong guy, don't look at all that. Because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. The man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. The Lord looks. That's the same construction right there. The Lord looks on the heart. So, like I said, it's complicated. We have the Lord sees, or the Lord sees to it, or the Lord will provide. In Genesis chapter 22, that's where we were looking. We've got, see this over here? I'm gonna come right there. See Mount Moriah? That's where it is. And Genesis 22, 14, it looks like that's where that story happened. That's about 2050 BC. 2050. Well, this statement, as it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. You realize, it wasn't Abraham that said that, right? Who's writing Genesis chapter 22? It's Moses. And Moses is saying, just look at the verse again, 22. Verse 14, so Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. That's kind of like Moses' addition, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. So that was, or he could say, on the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, or he shall be seen. And that happened, Moses wrote, around 1440. So in, it happened back in 2050, in 1440, Moses is writing, and there's this saying that's happened, on the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, or he shall be seen, or provided. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided, or he shall be seen. It's difficult to determine exactly which one it's referring to. 2 Kings, we're not going to go there, and 2 Chronicles deal with how the temple ended up where it ended up. The Jewish temple. And you can look at those verses later, some of you are writing frantically to make sure you can look them up later. But Mount Moriah, it's kind of hard to see there, but that's where it is in Jerusalem, basically those two passages helped Solomon in the end focus and to know exactly where to plant the temple. And that's like a thousand BC. We go through all that stuff just to show you that God's metaderative does more than just give us moral lessons. He had a plan all along. He was working this plan. It may be small for you to see. We're not gonna spend a lot of time on it, but Isaac was a miracle baby born to a barren woman, too old to conceive. It doesn't happen. God said it would, it did. Jesus was a miracle baby born to a virgin. He, Isaac, was the only son, and we talked about, and we didn't look at those verses very closely, but you remember Sarah says, send that slave woman away with her son. Abraham didn't want to. He felt badly, and he loved Ishmael, but God said, it's okay, listen to your wife. Send him away. And don't worry about it. I will bless him. He's going to have all kinds of blessings too. Send him away. So that God then could say, I want you to take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go to Muriyah. So that's what's happening here. You sacrifice on a mountain to Muriyah. Jesus was sacrificed near Mount Moriah, accompanied by two servants, by two criminals, carried the wood, carried the wooden cross. Isaac willingly submitted. You don't see Isaac fighting. Abraham was well over 100, and he lived a long time. That didn't mean he was, you know, buff and ripped and lifting weights every day. He was an old man. Isaac could have been around 14 or so, but he submitted, and Jesus willingly sacrificed himself. Isaac was figuratively dead three days, brought back from the dead figuratively, and Jesus died on that cross. There it is, Mount Moriah, an amazing story. God had this plan. that he was going to bless all the nations, and he started with Abraham, and he told how it was gonna happen, and there it's beginning to happen, and then he even has this type of Christ that he's showing through Isaac what's happening. Then down through the years, several years, many years later, Jesus died on a cross. He gave himself, so that we could live. Now, we need to finish. We can't get into this very much, but you realize this was all part of God's plan, this plan to bless, what? All the nations, all the peoples, all the families of the earth would be blessed through his descendant, and there he is. Jesus died on the cross. He paid the penalty for my sin, for your sin, for the sins of all the world so that we could be blessed. This Mount Moriah thing, this man going up on that mountain and thinking he had to sacrifice his son, this was all part of a bigger plan. And God was working it all out. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, or he shall be seen. He was seen, he died, but he rose again. That blessing promised to Abraham can come to each of us. And it can come to you today. How? If you believe, if you trust as Abraham trusted. Let's pray. Our great God and Father, we are amazed at your plan. We're amazed at how you work. Thank you so much for your plan through the ages that you didn't just plan and throw out there, but you brought it to happen. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for Abraham's obedience. Lord, we thank you that we can know you. We can be blessed by simply placing our face in Jesus.