Genesis 22 Abraham Tested (Responding With Obedience)

so [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i worship you i worship you you are here [Music] working in this place i worship you [Music] light in the darkness my god that is who [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] is [Music] jesus is is [Music] [Music] it is so great to be with you today i hope you're well and daylight saving has arrived praise the lord we can enjoy some more daylight hours and some warmer weather look i hope you are well today and we want to thank god first of all that we have a road map out of this mess and we're thankful that god is in control that his hand is with us and has been upon us the whole way and uh he is gracious toward us so we need to be continuing to pray for our leaders at this time uh and thankful too that uh that by god's grace we are able to start moving forward again well we are finishing our series today from uh the book of genesis and uh jason is going to be sharing with us a wonderful passage a powerful a challenging passage about obedience from genesis chapter 22 and then next week we're going to be starting a new series from the book of acts and we're going to be talking about being citizens of vision so i'm excited about what is awaiting us in many ways and i hope you're excited too and praise god we can continue to worship our wonderful god so let's do that right now let's praise and worship our wonderful lord [Music] is [Music] [Applause] rise [Music] [Music] try my best [Music] you remind me [Music] oh [Music] triumphs of the judgment [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] leads us to [Music] the repentance of god your heart oh god [Music] [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] is [Music] oh to jesus [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] to is [Music] is the triumphs over just [Music] lord your [Music] [Applause] [Music] to the heart of god your heart oh god [Music] he became [Music] his righteousness [Music] he humbled himself and carried the cross [Music] so amazing love so amazing [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] immanuel [Music] the ransom from heaven jesus messiah [Music] broken and poured [Music] love so amen love so amazing [Music] redeemers [Music] the rest of us [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] oh [Music] the world [Music] [Music] [Music] see [Music] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] you're the lord [Music] home [Music] now is our opportunity to give to god's wonderful work and all the wonderful things we're able to do both online and soon back in person so i encourage you to give generously to god's work if your financial situation uh leaves you in a place where you cannot give look of course today's service and every service is a gift to you uh but let me encourage you as we think about returning to think about how can i serve jesus at parkside how can i serve him with my whole heart it might not be with your finances it might be finances and but but how can i serve him we've handed in our forms for serving the house and even if you haven't done that perhaps there are ways you can serve so i want to encourage you to think about that today as we start thinking about our road map to some sort of normality again i also want to continue to pray for those i'm fully aware of some people who are connected with our church who have um struggled with with covert themselves um whether it's actually with the disease itself or with mental illness or other struggles and we really want to be praying uh for for you all particularly those at this time um and uh lord for the and for those perhaps is still feeling a little bit isolated as well and longing to have some further freedoms well we're almost there but why don't we pray for those things right now lord we pray particularly this time for those who have actually had covered themselves and we pray lord for your complete healing and protection over them we thank you for the many answers to prayers we've seen with those who have struggled with the illness and you have so graciously answered our prayers lord we also want to pray uh for those who are feeling isolated or struggling with mental health issues anyway at this time we pray again lord the god of um all things the ruler of all things and the rule of our minds and our bodies that lord you would grant your peace that passes understanding and hope that is found in you and lord that we can surround each other we can call each other we can care for each other well as your hands and feet in this regard we also want to pray as we give to you now we will give with thankful and generous hearts lord you're a god of miracles you're a god of salvation you're a god who will get us out of this whole thing and we ask by your grace that you'll continue to do that lord we thank you and we pray we again we will give generously to your wonderful work and lord show us how we can be serving you in the mighty names of jesus amen i remember in year eight doing a test on pythagoras theorem in mathematics now once they replaced numbers for letters in mathematics that was pretty much the end of my mathematical ability but i remember a few days after completing the test we all got our results back and i remember making fun of a friend of mine who only got 13 out of 50 in his pythagoras theorem test that was until a few moments later when my test paper was handed back and i got six six out of fifty in my pythagoras's theorem test now in fact what was ironic about the whole thing is one of the questions i happened to get right had nothing to do with mathematics and it was actually to do with the location of where pythagoras was born but be that as it may now getting a low result in my pythagoras theorem test didn't have much bearing on the rest of my life i mean unless i went into the construction or architecture industry or something like engineering where knowledge of pythagoras theorem is actually critical it doesn't really have too much significance that i did terribly on that one test but that doesn't mean that tests in general don't matter in fact tests are critical when what is being tested is dependent on the future that we want to actually do for our career so for instance i think it actually matters a lot that doctors and surgeons and nurses pass medical examinations before they go into practice i think it matters that the people developing technology and software in our iphones and in our computers and in our smart devices i think it matters that they have been tested at an academic level to make sure that they are skilled to develop what is being used by the general public and if you've got an accountant i think it matters that they're being tested and proven that they're pretty good at mathematical equations otherwise they can't be accountants but if earthly tests matter and educational tests matter how much more important are the spiritual tests that sometimes we have to pass in order to demonstrate the depth and the vitality of our faith and today as we continue our series the response of faith we look at our very final episode which looks at the very important test that god gives to abraham to demonstrate the depth of abraham's faith we pick up the story in genesis chapter 22 sometime later god tested abraham he said to him abraham here i am he replied then god said take your son your only son whom you love isaac and go to the region of moriah sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on the mountain i will show you today we are talking about obedience and how faith requires obedience to the commands of god now obedience matters in our society i think it matters a lot that children are obedient to their parents and that we are obedient to the authority figures in our life if students aren't obedient to their teachers at school you can't have an effective school system if we as general citizens are not obedient to the government and we don't obey things like the street signs we don't obey things like the speed signs then we have anarchy in our society now obedience never means doing something unethical obedience never means following the instructions of somebody who's telling us to do something immoral or something against what god has to say but that doesn't mean that obedience doesn't matter it matters that workers are obedient to the instructions of their employers otherwise you can't have an effective workplace so today we look at the way that god tested abraham and how abraham responded with obedience now one thing we shouldn't do when we approach a difficult passage like genesis chapter 22 and there are difficult passages in scripture sometimes that we have to deal with it's very important that we don't actually beat around the bush and deny the central question the central difficulty that a lot of people have with the passage like this how could god command abraham to do something so immoral like slay his son and sacrifice his son that's the question that we struggle with when we approach a chapter like genesis chapter 22. now i will later on in this chapter in this sermon i will dedicate some time to discussing this very important question but i want to begin by just talking about some practical points about obedience for how in circumstances when god calls us how we can respond with obedience and the first lesson i want to take out of this particular story is that we must make preparations for obedience we must make we must make preparations for obedience let's look at what abraham does when god gives him this command it says early the next morning do you notice how abraham doesn't wait he doesn't wait weeks and months to be obedient to god he does it immediately and that's a very important lesson for many of us that sometimes god will call us to do something in life god will call us to give up a bad habit he'll call us to get rid of a bad relationship and we delay it and we delay it and we delay it but listen abraham doesn't do that immediately as soon as the commandment is given here to him the very next day he makes preparations to be obedient to what god has commanded him early the next morning abraham got up and loaded his donkey he took with him two of his servants and his son isaac when he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering he set out for the place god had told him about abraham doesn't wait early the vex the very next morning he goes through and he begins making preparations to follow through with what god has commanded him many of us are disobedient because we wait too long we allow our own thoughts to override what god has told us to do abraham doesn't do that he doesn't wait the whole day allowing his thoughts to get the better of him in this difficult situation no he follows through faithfully with the instructions god has given him and he makes preparations there was a famous preacher i believe in his child was charles stanley who said very bluntly to the men in his congregation he said the back seat of your car is not the time to decide whom you love more god or your partner or your girlfriend you see we must make preparations to be obedient so often in life when our faith is tested when we're challenged the reason why we failed the test the reason why we don't succeed and why our faith crumbles and why we turn against god is because we've spent too much time being disorganized with our faith make preparations for when the time comes for you to be obedient there are many ways for us to make preparations in our life to be obedient when we're on the brink of sin that is not the time to make preparations for obedience because that is the time when we tend to fail when we're on the brink of falling into sin or temptation that is not the time to set your values the time to set your values is before you get to the situation where you're likely to be disobedient think about the circumstances in life where you can make preparations to be obedient to god so that when the time of challenge comes you don't fall into disobedience if you are so often tempted to commit some sort of sexual sin like pornography well one way that you can make preparations not to fall into sin and into disobedience is by putting computer software onto your laptop onto your devices or by putting your computer in your household into a common area where you're less likely to fall into temptation to begin with if you're a type of person who's always negative or you're the type of person who surrounds yourself in with people who always gossip make preparations by sticking away from those sorts of people change the type of company that you keep so that you don't fall into disobedience if you're addicted to alcohol or you're a glutteriness well what is one way that you can prepare yourself so you don't become disobedient well keep things like alcohol keep things like unhealthy food out of your kitchen cupboard that way you can't fall into temptation if you're addicted to gambling keep software keep keep gambling apps off your phone so that you're less likely to fall into sin there are many ways that we can be obedient to god if you have children who are constantly being disobedient in the amount of time that they spend on their screens well one way that you can make preparations for obedience is don't give them the ability to be disobedient don't give your teenagers devices like mobile phones and laptops and ipads if they cannot be entrusted to use those devices wisely you know take away the gaming consoles if need be take away the controllers so they can't play the games disconnect the internet if need be do whatever it takes to ensure that you maintain obedience to what god has for us don't put yourself in a position last minute where you have to make a decision whether or not to be obedient be obedient beforehand so that you don't fall into sin jesus said it like this and he's using hyperbole but he says it like this if your right eye causes you to stumble gouge it out if your right hand causes you to stumble cut it off and throw it away in other words get rid of the things that are likely to cause you to be disobedient if your time on social media if your time on your mobile device is causing you to be disobedient and unfaithful to god if you're on social media looking at all of the negative comments if you're looking at how other people are posting their life on social media and this causes you to be negative this causes you to be jealous get rid of it and you know as human beings our temptation is trying to contain our sin so we have the things in our life that that cause us to sin and we just think okay well well maybe we can just reduce it by by trying to be faithful you know i i i just won't i just will try not to go on social media you know often or are just fast no no you and i know which parts of our life we can be faithful and which part we can't which parts we can't be faithful get rid of the temptation altogether delete your social media accounts entirely if you're always a person who goes on there and argues with other people don't allow yourself to fall into temptation abraham does not wait until the very end he doesn't wait until he gets to the mountaintop to start making preparations he does it beforehand the bible puts it like this therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace of god that will be brought to you at the revelation of jesus christ as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct did you pick that up prepare your minds beforehand when you are sober-minded don't wait until the last minute the second thing that abraham does really well in this passage is he discerns the voice of god three times in genesis chapter 22 god from heaven calls out to abraham and all three times in verses 1 7 and 11 abraham hears the voice of god and responds by saying here i am in other words here i am waiting to hear what you have to instruct me and that's so important for us in life that we cannot be obedient disciples of jesus unless we are discerning correctly god's will and his command in our lives now the difficult question that we have when it comes to this passage is how could god command abraham to do something so immoral now we wonder could god ask us today to do something immoral and the answer to that is a big fat no god will never command you and i to do something immoral and wicked this particular situation with abraham i'll expand on in a few moments but there's this particular reason for this which will make sense by the end of this message but don't be one of those people who walks around thinking that oh it's okay when i do immoral things it's okay when i do the wrong thing because god is a god who just accepts all of my bad habits that is not the case when we put our trust in jesus yes there is forgiveness yes the punishment for our sins is taken care of and jesus promises to always forgive us no matter how far we fall but that doesn't mean that we can continue in our disobedient lifestyle it doesn't mean that we can keep spending times doing the unhelpful immoral practices that we were doing before discern the way that god is calling you to a life of holiness and righteousness god will never command us to do things which are disobedient many of us go down the wrong path and we think it's okay and we say oh that's okay you know god will accept this bad behavior and my part god will accept the wickedness in my life god never commands us to do the wrong thing nor should we ever fall into temptation we should never think that oh it's okay to lie just because i'm doing it for god oh it's okay god will bless me in this adulteress in this in this idolatrous relationship that i've gone into god will bless me in my adultery god will bless me while i go and i worship other gods no no god never allows us to get away with our immorality one of the critical ways that we discern the voice of god in our life is by having a strong time in god's word every day that's why at our church we started the initiative of parkside thursdays is to make sure that we are equipping ourselves so that we can discern what god has to say for our life through his word and through the scriptures through the imitation of the life of jesus don't allow external voices to be the thing that tells you how to live your life let it be the voice of god that tells you how to live your life abraham gets himself into trouble so often in his life because he listens to what other people has to have to say instead of what god has to say when he gets himself into trouble when he sleeps with his servant girl it's not because he comes up with the idea for himself no it's because he listens to the unhelpful advice that his wife sarah gives him and that's true for so many of us so many of us discern what other people have to say to us rather than what god has to say to us and that leads us down into disobedience when trainers in the middle east in arabia are trying to train horses now remember horses in the middle east when they have to do their tasks they have to be trained to go long distances in harsh climates often without water for long periods of time so when a trainer is trying to train their horse in the desert what the trainer will do is often deprive the horse of water for days and just when the horse is near dehydration what the horse what the trainer will do is the the trainer will let the horse loose near a body of water and as the horse gallops towards the water to get that that vital nourishment the trainer will blow his whistle and at the sound of his whistle the trainer will know whether or not the horse is ready to be fully obedient if the horse turns from the water and runs back at the sound of the whistle to the trainer and god does that for us at times now we might think of it as animal cruelty but the one thing that these trainers are trying to get out of their horses is a recognition of trust to get the horses to realize that their master knows in all circumstances what is in their best interest and the master knows what they need and the master will supply all of their needs if they will be obedient and that's the same thing with us often in seasons of our life god will deprive us of the things that we want he will deprive us of the many things that we want that great job financial blessing that great relationship that great family even things as important as children sometimes he will do that because he wants us to trust that we know that god will take care of all of our needs and that's the challenge given to abraham whether or not abraham in this dramatic moment will know that isaac is the one whom he loves dearly and whether or not he will trust god to discern what is best for him book of romans says it like this consequently faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word about christ jesus said my sheep listen for my voice i know them and they follow me like that faithful horse going through your training recognize the voice of god and trust that he will supply all of your needs only then can we be obedient in all circumstances the next point i want to raise is this is re-evaluate your priorities obedience can only come when we re-evaluate our priorities in life and recognize that god must be our number one priority you know god abraham could have been forgiven you know we would have said you know it makes sense if abraham had responded to god and said you know what god no my son whom i love the most is my number one priority my wife that is my number one priority my extended community they are my number one priority but abraham doesn't do that he reorientates his priority to god and says god you and your commands are my number one priority in life there are things which are very important to us family our jobs saving for that holiday saving for our retirement all of those things might be good priorities to have there is nothing wrong with having those priorities there is nothing wrong with wanting in principle to get ahead in your career but never substitute those things for your number one priority which is god so many of us become disobedient not because we intend or start off wanting to be disobedient we compete to god it's because we allow god its place as our number one in life to shift and we push god further and further down the list and we focus on other priorities in life let god be your number one priority you know at the start of 2000 the zimbabwean economy got itself into all sorts of trouble the government started printing money desperately to get out of debt now this around the gfc time led to a situation where zimbabwe experienced hyperinflation they were experiencing a huge level of inflation millions in fact billions of times compared to every other country on the planet because they kept on printing money and thought that this was the way out of their problem they in fact they even printed a hundred trillion dollar bills a hundred trillion dollar bills in order to try getting themselves out of debt the problem was that you had zimbabwean people overnight who became trillionaires who became millionaires even kids on the street had these bills the problem was they were worthless they could barely fire you a loaf of bread with these bills in fact the hundred trillion dollar bill was worth less than one australian dollar but the worst thing about this was that there were people who had worked hard all of their life because of the mismanagement of the government whose all their life savings were suddenly defeated were suddenly debilitated they had nothing left because of this poor management and what does it teach us it teaches us that the things that we value most the things that we put our priorities in can overnight be taken away and devalued and god teaches this lesson to abraham to recognize that yes abraham maybe isaac is your number one priority but recognize who is the one who gave isaac to you in the first place only then can you get your priorities 100 in order and the one thing i like about what abraham recognizes is that this opportunity to be obedient to god he didn't see it as a bad thing many of us see opportunities to be obedient to god as a bad thing we think of it as burdensome abraham doesn't do that abraham sees this opportunity to be faithful to god as an opportunity for worship what does abraham say to his servants he says on it says on the third day abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance he said to his servants stay here with the donkey while i go while i and the boy go over there we plural will worship and then what we plural will come back to you abraham to get to moriah would have taken it would have taken about three days now we don't know exactly how where where mariah is some historians think and there's good reasons to believe that it's in modern day jerusalem and that's actually quite ironic when we think about it because there was another child who was sacrificed in that city several centuries afterwards but abraham doesn't see this as some sort of disruption to his life no he sees this as an opportunity to worship and he recognizes that in being obedient to god he is worshiping god you see obedience worship of god is not just when we come to church and we sing worship songs no worship of god is a lifestyle we worship god in the way that we are obedient to him in all aspects of our life and yes singing praise songs is part of worship but worship is reading god's word worship is practicing righteousness and holiness worship is the way that we love our brothers and sisters worship is the way that we pray worship is the way that we spend time in god's word all aspects of our lives are acts of worship when we share the gospel with somebody we are worshiping god and abraham sees this as an opportunity for worship and yes abraham has to change his priorities and there are people in life who who their number one priority being god cost them everything it can cost them their family it can cost them their friends it can cost them everything but jesus says that the person who does this who makes god their number one priority that person has a great blessing in the eternal life to come jesus said it like this everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake we'll receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life when we make god our number one priority even if it costs us the other things that are important to us jesus will reward us in the world to come and this story is so beautiful in what it pictures when abraham says we will return to you the new testament pounces on this and recognizes that this is the picture of the resurrection of jesus listen to what the book of hebrews says by faith abraham when god tested him offered isaac as a sacrifice he who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son so in other words when it didn't make sense to abraham to do this god had promised him that from him there would be blessings where he would have descendants as numerous as the skies as the star in the skies it didn't make sense to abraham but this is what it says is that even though god had said to him it is through isaac your offspring will be reckoned abraham reasoned that god could even raise the dead and so in a manner of speaking he did receive isaac back from death so what is it saying it's saying that even though it didn't make sense to abraham that isaac was supposed to be his heir to which he would have descendants so it didn't make sense for him to sacrifice him to god abraham knew that even though it didn't make sense god knew what he was doing and god had the ability to raise isaac from the dead and that is so beautiful and poetic for our lives it doesn't make sense for jesus to be crucified for god himself to pay the punishment for our sins but god knew all along what he was doing because he had the power to raise jesus from the dead and that's so true for our lives that sometimes there might be things in our life which don't make sense to us god might say to us i want you to get out of that bad relationship i want you to give up that job and it might not make sense to us it might seem god you're denying us this pleasure in our life it doesn't make sense but that is the time when we have to reason that even if what god is asking us to do doesn't make sense to us now god has the power to put it all into perspective and make it right in the life to come okay so i promised that i would address the real difficult question that so many people have with the passage like this is why would our seemingly loving and holy god command abraham to do something so wicked and so immoral just to test abraham and this is a question that we shouldn't shy away from and we need to spend time dealing with so we can fully understand the purpose of this passage only when we fully understand the character of god can we fully be obedient to god because we need to understand god's character and his loving nature so that we understand the good things that he commands us to do our all for our benefit and though it might seem strange it might seem bizarre that how could sacrificing a isaac potentially be forgot for abraham's benefit well let me put it to you like this the character of god is actually revealed in this story in fact the gospel message is revealed in this story you see in abraham's day the cultures around abraham in fact abraham and his very community would have been exposed to this before they entered into a relationship before they entered into a covenant relationship with the true god who had created the whole universe they used to practice the pagan cultures the canaanite culture the phoenician culture which surrounded these coastal communities used to practice child sacrifice they believed in gods who could provide fertility for the wombs of mothers they believed in all sorts of gods who could provide fertile land but in order for you to have a relationship with these gods you had to give back to them so when you when you had abundant crops you had to give back a portion to these gods when you had children you had to sacrifice children back to these gods to ensure that these gods would remain in relationship with you and to ensure that these gods would continue to bless the wombs of your women and continue to bless the crops of your field so child sacrifice was actually sadly very very common in abraham's day and as archaeologists have discovered it was common in many parts of the world in fact huge deposits of child remains and child sacrifices have been discovered even in places like peru so when abraham was commanded by god to sacrifice isaac he wouldn't have been as repulsed at this idea as you and i might believe because this would have been common to his culture abraham has probably come from a background where this was actually expected so listen now to the gospel message in this particular story and i promise it'll make sense to you soon abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son and he himself carried the fire and the knife now how can we not read a line like that and picture abraham is not isaac who's not a baby at this point he's probably at least in late primary age he himself is carrying the instruments of his sacrifice this is a picture of the gospel message when jesus himself carried the cross the very instrument of his suffering and pain as the two of them went on together isaac spoke up and said to his father to abraham his father father yes my son abraham replied the fire and wood are here isaac said but where is the lamb for the burnt offering a burnt offering was just an offering that you sacrificed the animal as a way of paying the price for your sins people would bring animals to god and sacrifice them as a way of paying the penalty for their sin and it was called a burnt offering because you actually burnt most of the carcass of the animal afterwards and the smoke went up to heaven as a symbol of god accepting the sacrifice and isaac asked the question where is the lamb for the burnt offering where is the lamb for the burnt offering isn't that the most important question that the world is asking where is the lamb for the burnt offering well the lamb is jesus whom the gospels declare here comes the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world in other words isaac is looking around and saying something doesn't make sense here there is supposed to be a lamb to pay the penalty for sin where is this lamb jesus comes on the scene centuries later and says i am the lamb and this is why abraham passes the test because he answers his son he says god himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son god himself will provide the lamb and this is where we get the title jehovah jireh the lord will provide in other words isaac we don't have to provide the lamb for the sacrifice you don't have to be killed because god himself will provide and it is then that abraham just as he's about to carry through the task god calls from heaven abraham abraham and says to him you know i know you would give up your son for me i know you would do this and that's the point of this story the point is not about abraham's faithfulness the point is about god's faithfulness because you see when all other nations believe that their gods demanded child sacrifice god's character says to abraham i want you to show the world the kind of character of the god you're dealing with you're not dealing with a god who demands you sacrifice your children you're dealing with a god who wants to be so deeply in relationship with you that he himself will provide the sacrifice centuries later when jesus comes and takes the punishment for our sins but when jesus carried the instrument of his suffering when the knife came down and the nails came down this time the voice from heaven did not stop the punishment this time the voice from heaven allowed the punishment to be upon jesus and that's the message if you're sitting back and you're wondering why would god command abraham to do something so dramatic dramatic it's because god wanted to show the world his true character to show the world that where you think that this is what god's demand you think that this is how to be in relationship with god no the way you be in relationship with god is by god himself providing the sacrifice and i know we get uncomfortable fight i know we worry about it and we are traumatized thinking that this is possibly immoral what god is commanding abraham to do but it is because god is sending a dramatic lesson to the world around them that i'm going to teach the world from this day on to know and to recognize how man and women can truly be in relationship with god it is by the lamb of god who was sacrificed no longer need we to think that god demands all sorts of things from us no god demands us to put our trust in the sacrifice that was slain at the cross for we want to talk about obedience but the one who truly was obedient was jesus as the scriptures declare the scriptures in philippians which says and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross the purpose of this testing of abraham is not because god ever intended abraham to lay a hand on isaac no it was a dramatic example to show the rest of the world that abraham doesn't need to sacrifice his son to prove he's a holy person and to prove that he is faithful to god because that's what people in abraham's day thought needed to happen now is to show the world that the grace of god is faithful to humanity and the character of god is so loving of his creation that he will never demand that we pay the punishment for our sins no instead he himself would take our punishments and our transgressions at the cross this is the gospel message and this is the only way to understand genesis chapter 22 it is through the obedience of jesus who humbled himself the lamb of god who humbled himself to take the punishment for our sins [Music] amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me i once was lost but now and found was blind but now i see twas grace that taught my heart to fear embrace my fears [Music] the hour i first believed my chains are gone i've been set free my god my savior [Music] his mercy rings unending love [Music] amazing grace [Music] the lord has promised to me his work my [Music] as long [Music] my god [Music] his mercy rings [Music] my chains are gone his mercy reigns unending love [Music] amazing grace the earth shall soon dissolve like snow the sun for bear to shine by god who called me here below will be forever [Music] you are foreign it's a great opportunity for us to come together to take part in this communion table you know very often we do that because jesus christ told us to do this in remembrance of him and as we think about the great sacrifice that jesus made for each one of us you know it is opportunity that we need to remember that sacrifice otherwise we tend to forget what christ has done for us and so today we have this bread on the table and we have this cup the bread reminds us of the body of jesus christ that was given to us the cup reminds us of the blood that jesus shared for each one of us so this morning let's take a few moments to to give thanks to god for what he has done for us and then we will take part in this heavenly father we just want to thank you so much for what you have done for each one of us sending your son jesus christ into this world to die on the cross for our sins so that we can experience the forgiveness of sin so we can enter into your kingdom we thank you jesus for everything that you have done for us thank you for your death and the pain and the suffering that you went through in order to forgive our sin but death could not hold you in that grave you came out victoriously to prove that you are an almighty powerful god so we come to worship the living god and father this morning we pray that as we eat this bread and as we drink this cup help us to remember the great sacrifice that you made for each one of us in jesus wonderful name we pray amen we read in the bible that jesus met with his disciples the night before he died and he took the bread and he broke it and he said this is my body given to you as often as you eat this do this in remembrance of me let us eat the bread jesus also took the cup and he said this cup is a new covenant in my blood as often as you drink this do this and remember and swap me let us bring together this cup let us pray lord jesus we want to give you thanks for everything that you have done for us on the cross to redeem us to reconcile us to bring us to your kingdom we thank you for the privilege that we have today all because of what you have done for us on the cross we give you thanks we give you praise father we also want to remember at this time for those who are going through tough times those who are struggling in their spiritual life those who are going through physical pain those who are struggling with mental illness father we know that you are a god who is always with us your presence brings joy and comfort and strength in our lives and this morning we pray that you reach out to all those people lord and give them your strength and your encouragement today lord we also thank you that this bread and the cup this communion table is also reminded to us that that one day that you will be here to take us to be with you and to live with you forever and ever so this struggles and suffering that we go through on this earth is just a temporary thing because you are preparing a great place for us where we live forever and ever with you we thank you and praise you for that great promise and lord today we pray for all those who are going through difficult time that you reach out to them and comfort them and strengthen them lord we pray that they may know that you are a god who promise that you never leave us and never forsake us we give you thanks we give you praise in jesus wonderful name we pray amen well thank you so much for joining us today i hope you're really encouraged from our final message from the book of genesis and look we're excited that you can join us next week to talk about god's amazing work the work of the spirit from the book of acts but before you go we'd love it if you wanted to hang around because we are going to enjoy some really fun things that we're going to learn with the kids about jesus and his life stick around and we hope you can enjoy that right now [Music] hi everyone my name is jordan and today oh i'll show him how rude i meant man i can't believe it digby oh hi jordan hi digby everyone this is my friend digby oh everyone digby what's going on well i'll show you take this i'll tell you later okay anyway today we're going to be hearing a true story from the bible about a time when jesus met some kids but first let's meet a person called rudiger this is rudiger and rudiger was just an ordinary kid he loved to play games with his friends and he loved to do arts and crafts with his friends and he also loved to play quieter games with his friends hey let's play quieter games now oh yeah nah let's make some noise [Laughter] rudiger also loved his mum and dad i love you dad i love you mum yeah we love you too rudiger but when rudiger's parents had friends over rodica was always told to play quietly it's time to play quietly now oh dad come on i want to play with my heart no butts or you'll go to your room and when riding his parents were talking to their friends rydega was always told to not interrupt oh my mom i want to show you something not now i'm talking but mum mum i want to show you this quiet rudiger was to be seen and not heard radiga was just an ordinary kid the end i'm sure most of you feel like rudiger at least some of the time and there are some really great things about being a kid but often you might feel like you're overlooked well today we're going to hear about a time that jesus meets some ordinary run-of-the-mill kids all right here i'm gonna take take this and you can put that with the rest of my stuff but digby this is fairy bread well yeah i know but you love fairy bread well i did love fairy bread but not anymore what happened why not well i'll tell you why not because the creator of fairy bread rejected me oh no what happened well this morning i was down at the shops and then i saw him him oh yeah the creator of fairy bread and so i went up to him and i was like hello mr creator of fairy bread sure i was really really nervous but then he just cut me off and he said clear off kid i'm really busy i don't have time for your silly games i rejected me digby i'm sorry and so because he rejected me for not being important enough i'm gonna reject him i'm getting rid of all my fear we break yeah digby dig me oh dear it's not nice being rejected and some people might think that that's how someone as important as jesus might treat kids but we're going to watch a story now based on a true account that you can read in a book called mark in chapter 10 of what happened when jesus met some kids let's watch dad do you think he will do you think he'll never see him oh i hope so dad we'll just have to wait and say timmy we'll just have to wait and see timmy had been looking forward to today for such a long time and now here he was on his dad's shoulders making his way towards the place where jesus was staying dad i hope not too many people there do you think there'll be too many people there dad we'll just have to wait and say timmy we'll just have to wait and see but when they finally arrived timmy saw people everywhere timmy's heart sank now he was afraid he may never see jesus he was just one little boy but just then look dad there's miriam and ben can i go and play please okay just make sure you don't go too far and if you hear or see anything coming from that i'll come back straight away i don't want to miss out on jesus and with that timmy slid down his dad's back but before he ran to see his friend do you think he'll let me talk to him dad i mean i'm just one we'll just have to wait and see timmy we'll just have to wait and see so timmy ran off to play with his friends 27 28 29 30 ready or not he like timmy stopped counting while ruth called out look the door's open and like a flash timmy and his friends ran back to the house dad i can't see dad i can't see timmy's dad put timmy on his shoulders as they strain to see then look someone's coming someone's coming is that him that is that him is this the one in the middle jesus three men came out of the house and they did not look happy the one in the middle with an angry gruff voice yelled what do you people want timmy held onto his dad a little bit tighter he was scared of this angry man one of the mums standing near the door called out um we've just come to see jesus and see if he'll um bless our kids timmy saw the three men at the door look at each other and shake their heads the one in the middle in his angry gruff voice yelled don't you people realize jesus is an important guy he can't just drop everything for your little kids now go clear off timmy whispered in a frightened voice to his dad yeah i can go home now jesus doesn't want to see me he's too important just then a voice called out look someone else is coming out and as timmy looked through his squinted eyes he saw a man who didn't look angry i think it's jesus timmy saw jesus look at the three angry disciples and command them let the children come to me and before the disciples could argue jesus again called out let the children come to me and do not hinder them as jesus said this he got down on his knees and held out his arms to a little girl who was standing crying next to her mum as timmy looked he saw that that little girl was his friend miriam wasn't sure what to do the three scary men were still standing there but as timmy watched she slowly made her way towards jesus as she got to him jesus put his arms on her very gently and whispered something to her that made her smile again jesus called out let the children come to me timmy had seen enough he jumped down from his dad's shoulders grabbed ruth's hand and ran through the crowds towards jesus other kids were heading towards jesus as well they could all see that jesus did care for kids but he did want them to come and be with him soon timmy was one of a big crowd of children all around jesus jesus was putting his hands on each one saying special words to them all jesus made each child feel special there he was standing with jesus talking to him jesus wasn't too busy for timmy while jesus was blessing each child he called out in a loud voice the kingdom of god belongs to people like these kids when timmy heard this he was thrilled people like him could be part of god's kingdom kids like him who trusted jesus could be part of god's family on the way home timmy whispered to his dad dad i'm glad we came she just wants me to be part of his kingdom i know timmy i know the end hey that was cool it was yeah but well you know it made me even more upset what why because jesus didn't think he was too important he still cared for those stinky smelly kids oh hang on dick you can't go calling kids stinky and smelly but some of them are well okay but but the maker of fairy bread well he wasn't like that at all he still rejected me oh yes the maker of fairy bread dig if you look i was wondering how exactly did you know that it was the maker and creator of fairy bread oh well that was easy he was pushing a shopping trolley full of bread he was pushing a shopping trolley full of well yeah he was pushing it from the storeroom to the bakery which is where they make the fairy bread digby i don't think you were rejected by the maker and creator of fairy bread well of course i was he was pushing the 20 i just yeah yeah but digby i think he may have just been someone who worked at the store who was pushing the bread to the shelves to stack them so they can be sold what wait really really what wait so i didn't get addicted by jamaica or fairy bread i don't think so no wait that means i could eat fairy bread again what quick give me my fairy point okay okay hang on let me just take this fairy bread for you guys okay there we go oh and i'm going to have to go get the other fairy bread that i put in the bin and in the toilet what no no oh digby well today we've seen from the bible that jesus wants kids like you to come to him and when kids do come to jesus and trust him well he says that they can be part of god's kingdom too and to help you think more about that we have some discussion questions and activity ideas and game and craft ideas that you can check out at www.quizworks.com forward slash home delivery and you can also talk to people you know whether they're kids or not who already trust jesus and you can ask them what difference trusting jesus makes for them now i better stop digby from eating all that fairy bread see you next time [Music] light in the darkness my god that is [Music] i worship you

Channel: Parkside Church

Views: 397

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Genesis 22, Obedience, Abraham sacrifice Isaac

Id: qbSqj7sIPj8

Length: 84min 45sec (5085 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021