A Worthy Sacrifice

If you got a bulletin whenever you came in, then you would have seen that the flow of today is going to look a little different. So instead of one long-ish sermon, I don’t know if it’s long for you or not, instead of one long-ish sermon, I decided to break it up into two parts. We’re going to separate by celebrating the Lord’s Supper and singing a little bit beforehand. Really, because I just, I don’t know, I’m not terribly averse to experimenting myself. And also just, you know, New Year, coming up with tomorrow and all that. I figured, hey, if there’s a day that we could try some new things, experiment a little bit, why not today?

So this morning, we are going to be looking at the life of Abraham. And as I start off, I want to ask a question. Do we want what God wants? Yeah. Do we want what God wants? You know, as we are coming into 2024, ourselves, the people around us, our friends, our coworkers are all asking the question, what do I do different next year? Do I start a new hobby? Do I join that gym? Do I cancel my membership from last year’s joining the gym because I never went? Do I stop eating and drinking this thing? Do I start eating and drinking that thing? Do I cut off this relationship? Do I start that one? Everybody’s asking these questions. And ultimately, the operative question, the most important thing that we need to consider here at Sauldam Baptist Church, do I want what God wants? Because that question will drive all those changes that we think we want to make. That question will be the filter for us. That question will be the fuel for us. Do I want what God wants?

This morning, you go ahead and open up your Bibles to Hebrews 11 and 12, and that’s where we are going to study the life of Abraham. Some of us know Hebrews 11 is referred to as the Hall of Faith. It’s this kind of champion’s list of folks from the Bible that are mentioned for their faith. And in fact, the phrase, by faith, patterns Hebrews 11 as multiple characters, if you will, from the story of the Bible are exemplified and remembered for how they walked with God in faith. In fact, faith is used 24 times in this chapter alone. And faith is certainly not hapless hope or empty wishes, but verse 1 of Hebrews 11 defines it for us. It says, at least in my translation, faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved. Now clearly, faith then is as good as reality and proof. You bring it into the court of law, and that’s the foundation for your case. Faith is sure.

Now faith also is spiritually centered. As we’re just starting to unpack our passage this morning, faith is spiritually centered, but I believe faith is always physically demonstrated. Here’s what I mean. A couple months ago, for our homecoming service back in October, Al Smith had the privilege of baptizing the entire N-Finger family. Now that morning, their spiritual faith became a physical demonstration, right? Water hot or cold that day? Medium. Tepid faith. No, you get baptized. That’s a physical experience. I think about Becca in college. She was at her home church, and the preacher, the pastor, was making a pretty big moment about if you are wanting to recommit or rededicate your life to anything. And Becca at that point knew, I am going overseas. You stood up, right? You walked down the aisle. She had a physical demonstration to her spiritual faith. I think about some of our members. We give physically in the offering plates. Whether it’s cash or we write a check, that is a physical demonstration of a spiritual reality. I think about myself a few minutes ago singing Jesus Loves Me so warmed by hearing the young voice behind me. And I raised my hands to physically demonstrate my allegiance to this truth. Jesus loves me. This I know for what the Bible tells me so. In very real sense, we put our feet where our faith is. So when was the last time you physically displayed your spiritual faith? I ask again, do we want what God wants? This morning there will be opportunities to physically demonstrate your spiritual faith. So we will come to those here in a moment. But as we return to Hebrews chapter 11 and our walk with Abraham, we look first and we see down in verse 8 and following that Abraham’s faith starts with a calling from God. Read or follow with me. It will be on the screen. Hebrews 11, 8 through 10. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise. For he, Abraham, was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Abraham was called and he walked with God by faith. Now that calling refers back to a moment in the book of Genesis chapter 11 and 12 also. If you want to write that down, you can read it later. You see, Abraham, originally his name was Abram, and he and his wife Sarai, later Sarah, and others, they left their homelands with Abraham’s dad. His name was Terah. Now he goes from his homeland, and because he’s the patriarch, he takes his entire household with him. So Abraham leaves his home with Terah, and Terah eventually settles. But God speaks to Abraham, and He says, I want you to go further. So Abraham takes the entire household further on to a land that God said, I will show you.

God did not give Abraham a map and say, go to this dot. He did not say, go 50 miles east and then skirt by the big oak tree. He said, keep going. I’ll show you, but keep going. Put your feet where your faith is. Do you want what I want for you, Abraham? God’s plan for Abraham was enormous. To become a great nation that is blessed in their own land as a source of blessing to the surrounding peoples. God wanted Abraham, this old man, to become an incredible nation. A nation that was not just favored or good, but that was blessed by God. And to be a channel of blessing to people around them. But the thing about Abraham, he was childless. Abraham and his wife Sarah had spent an entire marriage of not being able to have any children whatsoever. So for Abraham to receive this calling from God meant that he had to trust God despite all the evidence contrary. And once again, what is faith? It is proof and it is reality. Faith is the substance, not our circumstances.

So God calls Abraham and He says, I am going to take you to a place. And eventually God leads them to the land of Canaan, which is the promised land. And we see that God’s calling, God’s calling would take Abraham to an unknown future with a better reality. Now, we should not always put ourselves into the Bible. But God is calling Sauldam Baptist Church to the same thing. He is calling us to an unknown future, I think, with a better reality. You see, we have a few things to learn from Abraham’s example of faith and following God’s plan. We have a proud past here at Sauldam Baptist Church, but we are a church yearning for a new life. What will that look like? What will it look like for us to walk with God in 2024 as a body of people committed by faith to following and trusting Him?

You see, our church voted to revitalize, which is just a fancy way of saying that we see both a need and an opportunity for new life here. Now, see, there’s a need because whether it’s Sauldam Baptist Church or Charleston FBC downtown or Grace on the Ashley, every church is only one generation away from closing its doors. And that’s us. We’re one generation away. There’s a need for us to have new life. But guys, there’s an incredible opportunity here, too. People are moving here in droves. We have tons of folks that are asking spiritual questions, and we have the answer for them. We have new life, and we have hope, and we have joy, and we have peace. The things we celebrated during Advent, we can always say, offer all those things to people. We have an incredible opportunity for life here at our church.

What will that look like for us? What will it look like? I just want to communicate this morning that I am committed to being here for the long haul to see what that looks like. A few minutes ago, we sang the first song. Will, what was the first song that we sang? I’ve already forgot. How Great Thou Art. I was testing Will. We sang How Great Thou Art. The original copyright on that song was 1941. Our church founded 1841. You Know, when we met the search committee, we, Becca and I, were dreaming about a 200-year anniversary here. I just want to let you know I am fully committed to celebrating that 200-year anniversary with y’all. What will our church look like? Yeah, right? So what is that going to look like for us? Amazing, incredible, awesome, unknown. But if we’re reading our Bibles correctly, we would say that the reality of what God is going to do in the future is more real than what we see right here, right now. Do we want what God wants?

Now see, to follow God’s calling, Abraham did not know where he was going. He didn’t need to know the directions for the journey. He didn’t need to know the end point. He just had to trust the one taking him there. Any parent in the room can affirm this. The child is asking incessantly and constantly, where are we going? Where are we going? What are we doing? Why are we taking this turn? Or maybe that’s just my kids. I don’t know. And I just say, does daddy love you? Do you trust daddy? You’ll see when we get there.

Now Abraham didn’t know where he was going. He’s had to trust the one taking him there. And that’s the same for us. We do not know where we’re going exactly, but we have to trust the one that is taking us there. Abraham just had to keep looking forward. He could not be stuck in the pain or the blessing of the past. He could not be blinded by the situation of the present. He had to look to the divinely authored future before him. Sauldam Baptist Church, we are in the same place. We must be looking forward.

Now see, faith is the strength to be able to move forward into the unknown because we know the one that’s taking us there. Will we walk by faith? I ask it again for the 10th time. Do we want what God wants? Yes. I’ve hoodwinked you. I want you to open up your bulletin. There is a sermon response card in your bulletin. You can just look at it for a moment. There’s a couple questions in that card. If you need one, we got some extras in the back. And in a second, the first half of my sermon will be wrapped up and you’ll be able to grab one. But there’s a couple questions. I really, I want us to use them.

We’ve got some offering plates in the four corners of our sanctuary this morning. You don’t have to put your name on it. You don’t have to do anything like that. But at some point during our service, I want you to look down at those questions and I want you to respond. Because like I said, this is Christ’s church and we’ve got to be about what Christ wants for our church, right? So it’s going to cost us something though, I think, to go where He wants us because it cost Abraham something.

Abraham’s faith included an offering to God of incredible magnitude. You see, Abraham and his wife Sarah were barren, which means they could not have kids for the entirety of their marriage. And God interrupts that barrenness and He interrupts that painful story. And one day He says, I am going to make you an immeasurable, innumerable nation. Go out and look at the stars of the sky. Try to count them. You’ll have more children than that. Go to the beach, try to count all the grains of sand. You’ll have more children than that. That’s God’s promise to this couple that had never had kids before. And God does give them a child. He gives them this son named Isaac.

All of the weight of the promise being fulfilled, can you imagine? All of the weight of God’s goodness being displayed in this baby. And they get to raise this young man. He calls them daddy and mommy. He’s got his favorite food. He knows his mom’s best recipes. And one day, you know what God has the audacity to say to him? Sacrifice Him.

Abraham’s followed God through hard circumstances before. And he says, okay, I’ll do this again. He looks at Isaac. He says, son, we’re going to go on top of the mountain. We’re going to worship the Lord. How about you carry that firewood? Isaac’s just a good son. Carries the firewood. They make small talk going up the mountain. Abraham, I imagine, he’s got tears in his eyes and his son’s bewildered. And he’s also wondering, dad, hey, real quick, where’s the sacrifice? Hey, where are we going? What are we doing?

And he said, “Just trust me, son.” And he makes the fire and he kindles it and it’s blazing. And he says, “Okay, son, your place is on the fire.” Abraham takes the knife and he raises it above him. Tears have to be streaming down his eyes. He says, “God, trust you.” And God says, “Stop, stop. It’s okay. Now I see your heart. I see that you love me. I see that you trust me.”

You see, the Bible says that Abraham trusted God. Look with me at verse 17 of Hebrews 11 and marvel at these words: “By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said, ‘Your offspring will be traced through Isaac.’ Abraham considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead. Therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.”

Abraham knew if God gives it to me once, He can give it back to me again. Abraham knew if God fulfilled this promise once, He can fulfill it again. Abraham knew God is trustworthy.

Why in the world would God ask Abraham to sacrifice a son to Him? You ever wondered that question? I’m a young dad and I wonder that. How could I do that? How could God do that? Here’s the fact. I believe that God wanted God wanted to refine Abraham to help Abraham to see himself in a truer light. See, God is worthy of everything we can give Him and He’s better than anything He could give us. Do we believe that? That God is worthy of everything we could give Him and He is better than anything He could give us always.

So to test him, to test this desire, to test this faith, to test this resolve, God said, “Give me your son.” God had promised many nations to come through this son. God had fulfilled this promise. God now was asking for it back. He was asking Abraham to forfeit the fulfillment. See, Abraham trusted God’s wisdom, His goodness, His power, His plan. Abraham did not know where he was going. He did not know why he was going there, but he trusted the one that was calling him. And Abraham, though broken and stumbling as he was, when he considered, “Do I want what God wants?” Abraham in his broken way was able to say yes.

Faith in the gift giver allows us to hold the gifts with open hands. What I marvel at most in this passage, though, is that God does not require something from us that He does not do for us. Anybody else know in one and only son that was sacrificed on an altar? Amen. See, God did this for us.

In the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac, God says, “Stop, stop. I see you love and you trust me. Look, there’s a ram caught in the bushes.” The ram’s not the animal you see. Ram’s not what would have been called for for the sin sacrifice. No, that sin sacrifice would show up a couple thousand years later and John the Baptist would say what, church? He would say, “Look, behold the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.” Look, he’s there. You see him. He is there. You see God, true God Himself, offered up the one and only son, the the gateway of these promises being fulfilled. God did that for us.

Jesus was the lamb truly to be sacrificed in our place. That was Jesus. For Jesus, though, to follow God’s plan, for Jesus to walk by faith, if you will, meant that Jesus had to die truly. You see, Jesus, there was no there was no stop stopping the knife for Jesus. There was no weight for Jesus. None of that. Jesus Himself died for us, but He did this for us in love, which we saw last week. We sang about, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” He even loved us to the cross, to His own death. And and if you do not know that love for yourself this morning, I would beg with you, stop listening to me and start talking with Jesus, because He loves you and He wants to show you just how much He loves you, so much that He would come and live in your place and die in your place and be resurrected so that you can live in new life for all eternity with Him.

There he was, Abraham, ready to sacrifice the son for for what? Follow God new thing is Hebrews chapter 11 has 20 something of these stories specifically where people followed God, they walked by faith. Then it gets to this point where the author in verse 33 of chapter 11 just starts naming things that these people did. They conquered kingdoms, they quenched the raging of fire, women received their dead, others experienced mockings and scourgings, they were stoned, they were sawed into, they died by the sword, the world was not worthy of them, they wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All of these were approved through their faith.

Therefore, therefore it says in Hebrews 12:1 and 2, “Therefore, since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source, the perfecter of our faith, for the joy that lay before Him. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So here we are, Sauldam Baptist Church in 2023. Thousands of years after Abraham received back his son, figuratively speaking, thousands of years after the early church experienced these things we read about, here we are with a cloud of witnesses cheering us on here, like a stadium of fans screaming for their team. This cloud of witnesses is cheering us on, doing what they can to help us get across the finish line. Our brothers and sisters, even here at Sauldam Baptist Church, who are with the Lord now, are rooting for us. I have to imagine C. L. Benton, he went ahead of us, and he’s looking at us, and he’s saying, “Run, run.” I have to imagine Claude Newton looking at us, saying, “Run, run.” This myriad of people cheering us on to run our race.

So as we run, we lay aside every hindrance. We lay aside every sin. We deliberately break from the things that we hold dear because they don’t help us run. Not surprising to you, I was not a track star in high school, but I was a track competitor in high school. I was not fast or had much endurance whatsoever, but I knew there were some rules you had to compete by in track. You can’t skirt any part of the course. You got to go around the lanes. You can’t cut across the football field because you get better time. That would be a sin. That would be a sin against the rules of track. And sure as heck, I was not going to wear some ankle weights to slow me down anymore. I was not going to wear my winter coat to keep me hot on like a summer track meet. I was going to do everything I could to abide by the rules and to make me run as fast as I could, which I guarantee you, I’ll say it again, was not very fast.

And our spiritual lives are the same thing. We have a race set before us as individuals and as a church, and we are being cheered on to run. So why would we not cast off hindrances and sins that make us go slow? Things that break the Father’s heart. You see, hindrances are discarded because they are helpless. They’re unhelpful. They’re amoral. These are our limitations and our seasons. This is when a good thing becomes a bad thing. This is a hobby that you’re doing that takes you away from the stuff you need to be doing. This is entertainment that you are pursuing that makes you disengage from the people you’re supposed to love. These are things that just don’t help you love Jesus. God says, throw those things away.

And we also throw away sin. We throw this away because of God’s holiness. Now, sins are moral. They are detrimental, and God determines these. Sin is when a wrong thing feels right. This is when it feels good to talk about somebody else negatively. This is when it feels good to prop yourself up over against others. This is when it feels good to make your life about you. This is when you read the Bible and it says X and you go do Y.

Now, God tells us to treat hindrances and sins the exact same way. You throw them away. Or else you just can’t run. Just can’t run. And I’m convinced that God will not bless us until we take hard looks at ourselves and we’re ready to toss stuff away. And at the end of the day, I’ve got to ask myself the question, do I want to hold on to stuff?

That slows me down? Or do I want to run full throttle being engaged in God’s mission? Do we want to hold on to stuff that slows us down? Or do we want to run full throttle being engaged in God’s mission? I’ve got to say, I’m in process too. This is something I’ve got to do. I’ve got to every day assess, man, is this good thing become a hindrance for me? Every day I’ve got to assess, man, am I hiding some closet sin? There’s something I’ve got to get out here. And I’m convinced that when we hold on to hindrances and sins, we are filled with preferences for my church. Filled with preferences for church. And we all have preferences, but I think that God wants us to have stories.

The pastor at the church that we were just at, he had this line, and it hurt when I heard it because I knew it was true of me. He said, religious people have preferences. Missional people have stories. You see, that hurts me because I’ve got preferences too. But the thing that’s going to keep Sauldam Baptist Church going for that 200-year anniversary, stories. Stories of families being transformed by the gospel because they are hopeless. Stories of individuals giving their lives to Jesus for the very first time because they’re trusting in Him. Stories of whole communities in our area that are changed because one person chooses to walk with God in faith.

Every facet of our lives, and I would say our church, must be surrendered to Christ’s lordship. I ask the question again, do we want… what God wants? Yes. And here’s the thing, we run best when we look to Jesus. So I’m not sitting here saying your homework is to go home and try to get rid of all the stuff that you can’t hold on to. That’s not what I’m doing. What I’m saying is let’s look to Jesus together. Because the author, He doesn’t say throw away all these things and then work as hard as you can. He says throw away these things. Verse two, keeping our eyes on Jesus. Because you see, Jesus is the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. And He is also the fuel, the filter, and the final destination.

He is the fuel because you will not run unless you are taking something in. You will not run unless you are energized for the race. And looking at Jesus is your fuel. And Jesus is the filter because when you look at Him and when you see Him in His kindness and in His goodness and His holiness, the things you’re holding on to that you need to let go of become real obvious. Amen. And He is the final destination because you will always run to where you’re looking. When again, when I ran track, not very quickly, I knew if I’m looking up in the stands, I’m trotting over here. If I look over in the field, I’m trotting this way. I had to keep my eyes on the finish line or else I’m ending up somewhere else.

And the author of Hebrews says, keep your eyes on Christ. He keeps you going and He is calling you to Himself because the one that ultimately we live for is saying, run, run. I love you. Come to my arms. Come to me. This message today is taking lots of twists and turns. I get that. But I guess I’m just wanting to close on this because I’m not just, I’m not just preaching today. I really want to communicate. Jesus’s race took Him to the cross where He would die as the sacrifice that Abraham didn’t have to give up. Jesus’s race was tested by an incredibly painful offering. Jesus’s race had a calling to it. Jesus cast off every weight and every sin and He did it with joy because He knew that God’s plan was best, which forces a question for us. Do I want what God wants?

In other words, we’ve got to decide if the sacrifices we make for Him are worth it or not. You’ve sacrificed something to be here today. You’ve sacrificed an hour and a half of your time. Many of us sacrifice to serve our church in some way. You sacrifice financially to continue to propel the mission of our church. Are the sacrifices worth it for you? To follow Jesus in 2024, is it worth it to you? I want to give us another opportunity to physically demonstrate our spiritual faith. Michaela’s going to play for a few moments for us. I want you, if you’re able, to come to the front and join me and we’re just going to pray.

There’s going to be two prompts on the screen. If this is you, I want to consider you praying with me. Do you want to walk with God more deeply this year? And do you want Sauldam to experience God’s presence more powerfully this year? If that’s true, I just invite you to come pray with me. Maybe you take a moment and you drop your sermon response card in one of the offering plates or you take some time to do that. Our faith is spiritual and physical. And I think that physical demonstrations of that spiritual faith are really good for us.

I’m going to read a passage of scripture over us as we are closing out our service. If you will, bow your heads with me. Lord, I love You. God, I’m grateful for You. I just want to run my race unto You. God, I give Sauldam Baptist Church to You. And now to You who is able to do above and beyond all that we could ask or think according to the power that works in us here. To You be glory in this church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.