Faith Full | Sunday, November 7, 2021

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham." And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you." (Genesis 22:1–2)

When God brings us to the ultimate test of faith, the tools we need are found in the life of Abraham, the father of the faithful.

We Are All Full of Something

If you look at the circumstances of the world, we are not being delivered—not by politicians, not by world events that don't get better, not by anything on the news or social media. As believers we know God is watching over us, but sometimes it's hard to have faith. So let me say it plainly: we're all full of something. We're either full of faith, or full of fear, doubt, distraction, bad opinions, and false pretenses.

What God is calling us to be is full of Him—full of faith and dependence on Him. Some of us are failing because we're looking in the wrong places, and it's producing confusion, fear, sadness, and disappointment. So why is God allowing this? When we are refined, tried, and tested, it is to build our faith—not faith in our circumstances, not hope in an easy life, but trust in God Almighty. The just shall live by faith, and we've certainly been living that.

I'm reminded of Mark 9:24, where a desperate father brings his suffering son to Jesus. Jesus tells him this can be removed if he will only believe, and the father cries out, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." This morning I pray this teaching will help your unbelief.

My Own Italian Tune-Up

Years ago I worked in a Porsche shop. A Porsche is a high-performance, sometimes temperamental machine meant to be driven hard, but people would treat them like grocery getters and then complain of maladies. After such a customer left, Frank, the owner, would say, "Mark, take that car out for an Italian tune-up—drive it the way it's supposed to be driven. Brake it hard, corner it hard, rev it high, get it hot. Don't abuse it, don't wreck it, but put it through the paces."

When I agreed to teach on faith, I didn't realize I'd be living it at a much deeper level. My brother is going through esophageal cancer, terminal for all intents and purposes. My 84-year-old mother had a brush with COVID. My wife had been struggling with a throat issue for months without answers, and I began having strange, unexplained health problems—all while remodeling our home. Then my oldest daughter, serving the Lord at a youth camp, contracted COVID and became desperately sick. To watch a child be that sick for nearly two weeks shakes you to the core.

We pastors preach about these things, but we also go through them. When I talk about faith, it's firsthand. And even this morning my wife woke with a scratchy throat and tested positive on a home test, so we went to get tested before I came to preach. I feel like I'm going through the Italian tune-up—and probably some of you are too. But I know it's for a reason. The answers are in Genesis 22.

Abraham: A Failure Brought to the Ultimate Test

Abraham is called the father of the faith, yet he had failed in faith before. Now he's brought to one of the ultimate tests of faith ever recorded. Faith is a journey, not a destination—you don't arrive at it. There are steps and tiers, and on that journey we need to pack some tools. Like bikepacking, where you carry everything you need with intention, we bring tools with us into life. Let's look at what those tools are.

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey... and went to the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:3)

Point One: We Increase Our Faith by Spending Time in God's Presence

Throughout Genesis you see that God spoke to Abraham and directed him a great deal—more than I've ever seen in my own life. He received much instruction, and I believe that's because he spent so much time in God's presence, speaking with Him and waiting to hear from Him.

When I'm camping I'm a lazy camper—I like to kick back and read my Bible. I think of our ancestors, who had full and demanding lives but were less busy and less distracted. They weren't discouraged by the news or buried in Facebook and Instagram. They were more intentional about stopping to pour out their hearts to God and to hear from Him.

One of the greatest ways to know God is through reading His Word. How will you know His thoughts, His mercy, His names, and what He's capable of if you never become intimate with His Word? I like to do this in the morning—a certain chair, a cup of coffee, prayer, and time in the Word. It reminds me of His greatness and His control over my life, and it directs my path. If we don't know God's promises, we can't take comfort in them.

Praying each day strengthens our faith. You're talking to God, but you're also unraveling your hopes and concerns and being reminded of how we move forward in faith. And there's hearing—which usually requires quiet and openness. For Abraham it was sometimes an audible voice; for me it's often a strong inclination God confirms through circumstances and Scripture. What we hear isn't always pleasant—sometimes it's confrontational and uncomfortable—but it's a full time, and I love knowing I've heard from the Lord.

Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you." (Genesis 22:5)

Point Two: When We Walk in Obedience, We Worship in Faith

Notice that statement of faith—"we will come back to you." Despite what God has said, Abraham already declares they'll return. We can make the mistake of thinking worship is only a room full of people with hands raised, or a song, or providing a sacrifice. But worship is also the sacrifice of obedience: to hear from the Lord and do exactly what He asks, no matter how unpleasant, unsure, counter-cultural, or embarrassing.

Abraham doesn't fool around—he's quick to act. What he's asked to do is scary, unfathomable, the kind of thing the pagans do, not the people of God. Yet he obeys, remembering the promise that through Isaac God would raise up great nations. This is a hairy situation, and still he answers in obedience.

The Sunday School felt boards show Isaac with a few little sticks. But research suggests it takes about a pickup-truck's worth of wood to burn a body. That's a lot of work, a lot of faith, a lot of taking God at His word and putting in the sweat of obedience. That gathering of wood was not a happy time.

When Faith Doesn't Go the Way We Want

I can think of no greater place to be challenged than with our children. Watching my daughter lifeless and sick for two weeks—even with encouragement from doctor and nurse friends—was agonizing, and I would never put her in such a position intentionally. As a grandfather now to Colby, Rose, and three-week-old Robin, I have a longer view. It's humbling to see the fruit of the effort my wife and I, and my children's in-laws, poured into raising our kids godly. We protect our kids and grandkids fiercely, so I understand how precious Isaac was to Abraham.

Faith doesn't always go the way we want. I've pleaded with God for the life of a loved one, and in my economy it wasn't okay—but in God's economy it evidently was, with a broader meaning than just my comfort. You can be a person of faith, knowing God is merciful and loving, and things can still go badly in our economy. Faith is not trusting in the results; it's trusting in the Creator of those results—the One who loves us and sacrificed for us. I've met people who lost their faith because God didn't do exactly what they thought He should. I don't fault them, but I pray for them.

Consider Paul and Silas in Acts 16. After casting an unclean spirit out of a slave girl, they were dragged before the town, beaten with rods, and thrown into the bottom of a dungeon—historically often like the bottom of a septic tank. Nothing good awaited them. Yet at night they chose to worship, lifting their hands to sing and pray. The other prisoners might have thrown things, but as they worshiped in faithful obedience, the prison shook and split, and they were set free. The jailer, about to take his own life, was stopped and saved, and a move of God began. Their hope was in the right place even when everything outside said they had none.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there... and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar... But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven... "Do not lay your hand on the lad... for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." (Genesis 22:9–12)

Point Three: Faith Requires Us to Trust in God's Authority

Abraham passed the test. Whether he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead or stay his hand at the last second, he acted according to God's command, recognizing God's authority and believing completely in it. You cannot have faith without knowing that God has authority—they go hand in hand. Hebrews 11 is one of the greatest commentaries on this.

And Abraham passed this greatest test after some big failures. Twice he gave a half-truth about Sarah being his sister, allowing her to be taken into another man's household, because he feared he'd be killed on her account. Later, impatient for the promised son, he brought in Hagar and fathered Ishmael—allowed at the time, but not God's first choice. Three huge fails before he passed this great test.

Abraham also struggled with wanderlust. God led him from Ur to Bethel, a good place where God clearly wanted him, but he decided to go to Egypt, then the plains of Sodom, then Shechem. It's no coincidence that as he wandered out of Bethel he met his three biggest failures.

Hardly a week goes by that I don't meet someone moving to a "place of promise"—somewhere with fewer people, supposedly better laws, a better spiritual climate. People feel led to Tennessee, Idaho, Montana, but nobody says God is leading them to Detroit or East LA, places that could really use it. Often what I've seen is that the person who wasn't serving God in faith here just does the same thing in a different place, spiritually twiddling their thumbs waiting for the world to end. I'm not saying every move is wrong, but you'd better be hearing from God and following Him in complete faith—not running from perceived problems. Abraham's change of location didn't fix his faith, and it won't fix yours either.

Authority and Faith Across the Gospels

In Mark 6, Jesus returns to His hometown and marvels at the people's unbelief; He could do little there because of it. By contrast, in Matthew 8 a centurion—a pagan considered unclean—comes for his sick servant and says, "Lord, you only need to say the word. I'm a man of authority; I say go, and they go. I recognize your authority." Jesus marvels and says this man will one day sit at the table with Abraham, because of his faith.

In Matthew 9, a woman on the other end of the spectrum—an outcast with a twelve-year issue of blood, unclean and excluded—reaches out and grabs the hem of Jesus' garment. He turns: "Who touched me? I felt healing power go out of me." He tells her that her faith has made her well, because in her heart she knew that if she only touched His garment she would be healed. God is looking for us to acknowledge His authority and to put our faith in it.

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns... And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide... "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." (Genesis 22:13–18)

Point Four: Why? Because They Are Watching

Why should we exercise this faith? Because they are watching. And who is "they"? First, we are watching ourselves. Nobody is more emboldened than we are when we move forward in faith, because we've witnessed firsthand the stress, doubt, and hurt we had to overcome. When people are anxious, I'll ask them to recount every instance God moved in their past—a personal history of encouragement.

I think the only two people on that mountain who didn't know what Abraham and Isaac would do were Abraham and Isaac. God knew Abraham would pass, but it was important that they knew. Trials of faith can be lonely. When it comes down to it, there's you, God, and the devil. You can listen to God and His promises and the people He sends, or to the devil and your doubts. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after forty days of fasting, it was just Jesus and the devil and the Lord—no one else to help. We often face the same lonely, hard place, yet it's where we're called to have victory.

Our children and spiritual children are watching. In the Sunday School version Isaac is a small boy, but in reality he appears to be near grown—in the next chapter he's ready to marry, around forty. He's a willing participant. His aging father couldn't have wrestled him onto that altar; Isaac could have resisted or run, but he didn't. I believe he had learned faith and obedience by watching his father—even after his father's mistakes—follow God and do the right thing. So we must model that for our children, and for our spiritual children: the people we disciple, who are learning from us how to behave in a crisis of faith.

And finally, the world is watching. Abraham is famous for a reason; his testimony of faith is honored even by Jews and Muslims. We too carry a testimony of faith. In a messed-up world looking in all the wrong places for a deliverer, we need to represent the true deliverance—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you, and please pray for me, my family, and this church as we walk through this together with the same Lord.

Closing Prayer

Dear Father, I pray for all those who would watch this. I pray they would be encouraged. I pray they would reach out if they're hurting, Lord, and reach to heaven. Lord, we love you, we thank you, and we trust you. We trust in your promises, and we trust that you are in control even when it seems like there is no control possible. We place our faith and our trust in you, and it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you, and I pray you have a great, faith-filled week.