Messages from the Body

Here is a sampling of some of the messages that have made a special impact at CCiPH, and that have been transcribed or written in manuscript.

Most weeks in our equipping assembly, at least one man has been asked to prepare a message that will build up believers. Often, the message is taken from the liturgical Gospel reading of the day, or it is a life message that God has been working into the fabric of that man. It is included here to build you up.

Abraham and Isaac: The Call to Sacrifice

Message from Ken Read in October, 2004

Heb. 11:17  It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God's promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 though God had promised him, "Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted." 19 Abraham assumed that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

You know, really the measure of faith is obedience. It is not an intellectual assent or even a deeply-held belief, but it is determined by your actions. We see this most clearly in the greatest test of the faith of Abraham in these chapters that we have been reading this morning.

What a rocky road Abraham has already traveled in his pilgrimage. But a few years later comes the hardest test of all. It seems strange, but it makes perfect sense to God. God has watched Abraham and his son. He watched the way Abraham first looked at his son at his birth, and how after a century of waiting, Abraham laughed. They laughed through infancy, the old man laughing at every new smile and every new word. “Did you hear that? I think he said ‘Abba!’” He laughed when Laughter Boy took his first step, and all the way through toddlerhood. I imagine Abraham took Isaac with him everywhere by then. After all, he was 103 years old, and he wanted to squeeze the most out of each day with this long-awaited and much-promised son.

I’m sure he was over-protective, doting over the boy at every childhood injury or cold. I imagine that well-meaning friends said, “Isaac, now that you are turning five years old, aren’t you looking forward to riding the bus to school this fall!” Do you think Abraham parted with his son? He brought Isaac to Kindergarten that first day, and the father just couldn’t let go of his little boy’s hand. He said, “I think we will homeschool. Thanks.” And he laughed all the way back home.

God was watching all of this laughter, and the Lord was monitoring Abraham’s heart. This was, after all, his only begotten son, and there certainly would be no more. Not at the age of 110. The oldest man in the county, and he’s out there laughing while he plays basketball in the backyard with his son. “Here, son, let me show you how to care for a sick lamb. You will need this skill when you take over the herd.”

God watched while Sarah called them to dinner, Abraham and Laughter Boy. Isaac is growing up, you know. She notices that now it is Isaac who is holding Abraham when they walk over the unsteady ground over the hilltop. The Lord has watched all of this with pleasure, but the Lord knows what has happened in the heart of Abraham. This is Abraham, who without question was willing to leave his father’s household to follow God wherever he would go. Abram showed that he loved God more than his own family then. I wonder what choice he would make now? Has he left his father’s idols and been granted a promise, only to have that very promise become an idol itself?

[Gen. 22] And the Lord tells Abraham to worship again, only this time it’s not a sheep or an ox. God calls for Abraham to give his son—and notice how God words it: his only son, named Isaac, whom he loves. God is very specific in pinpointing the difficulty of this sacrifice. The promises have been nice, though seemingly impossible. But this request goes a step further. Maybe one step too far. At least, it seems that way to me. But perhaps by this point, Abraham has learned to take God’s words to him by faith, and Abraham knows that Isaac is the one thing in the world that he would not, could not, cannot give up. It seems to destroy the promise, more surely than Ishmael would have fulfilled it.

Abraham is the father of our faith because, without question or argument, he follows the Lord’s call. He has learned to obey God’s call and to trust the outcome over the last four decades. He had left his father’s house. He had trusted God for a son, from whom would come a nation, and had held on to that promise for a quarter of a century before it was fulfilled. And now, in his advanced age, he was willing to lose the son of his laughter and the nation that he represented, all because God said it.

He leaves early in the morning (before he can change his mind), and he doesn’t bring an animal (there’s no backup plan on Abraham’s part, not this time). He only brings his beloved son, Laughter Boy, whom he loves. There is no other plan in his mind. But he is wrestling with God the whole way. Laughter Boy, his old father, and a servant walk in silence. But inside Abraham’s head, there is plenty of conversation taking place. Are you sure you want this, Lord? This is just a test, right? You don’t really want this? Maybe you mean something else, and I wasn’t hearing you right? You spoke to me clearly yesterday, but I don’t hear you today. Is there anything you’d like to say now, Lord? Because if there is anything . . . anything at all you’d like to say, this would sure be a good time for you to speak.

God shows him the mountain. If Abraham had the ears to hear it, the Lord would have told him more about it. Mt. Moriah ? What is that city just on the other side? That is Salim. Isn’t that a pagan town? It is right now, but someday you will have a descendant named David, who will rename it Jerusalem . It will be called the city of God , and he will build me a temple there. Why go here, just north of Salim? It won’t be the last time a sacrifice is made in this place.

He goes on up with just Isaac and the torch and the wood. Laughter Boy asks his only question: “Where is the sacrifice?” And Abraham, against all hope, speaks by faith: “God will provide the sacrifice, my son.”

The two build an altar and arrange the wood in silence, but the inner argument continues between Abraham and his God. God, I’m not sure this is fair. After all, you are God. You don’t know what it’s like to, to lose your only begotten son, to knowingly bind him up and place him on an altar and to have to kill your own self. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. You don’t know what you are asking! So, is the plan to bring him back from the dead? Is that what you will do, Lord? . . . Why don’t you speak? Give me a clue here! You are so silent! My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He takes out the knife, and holds it aloft, ready to kill his son as swiftly and painlessly as possible. He avoids looking into his son’s confused and trusting eyes. Tears are streaming down his face, which is contorted in pain. Nothing has ever been so difficult for Abraham as this. Okay, let’s finish this.

Then (and not a moment sooner or later) an angel cries out from heaven. “Abraham! Abraham!” In the greatest understatement of the Bible, Abraham says, “I’m listening!” And God does, in fact, spare Isaac, does bring him back from the dead, in a sense, does provide a ram in Isaac’s place.

And now God—and Abraham—know that Abraham truly fears the Lord and would give him everything.

What would be the hardest thing for me to give up—not just lose, but give away? Perhaps sending my firstborn son into the military. Perhaps losing my voice, or my hands, or my ability to make music. Perhaps my wife. Perhaps it was hardest for Moses to throw down his rod at the burning bush. Perhaps it was hardest for Paul to have a thorn in the flesh. Whatever it is, it tends to be what the Holy Spirit asks for from me. Like the Beast telling Belle that she could go anywhere but the west wing, I tell God what He can’t have, and He goes right to it and asks for it. If I have been trained by what He has told me before, I know that His promises and joy have sustained me when I have obeyed in the past, so I can trust Him with this one, too.

So, what has God whispered to you? Are you willing to live with that dream running in the background of your life, without compromise, for years, dying to the possibility of its fulfillment, and waiting for God to carry it out in you and through you?

Look at where this passage in Hebrews 11 is headed: “Therefore, let us throw off everything that encumbers, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us.” In those days, everyone wore robes most of the time, but Olympic athletes ran naked. Imagine trying to run in a tunic, or trying to gather up all the folds of material. Shoes back then were leather soles with leather straps wrapped around your foot. No a lot of traction. All of that encumbered an athlete. So the writer says, “Throw it off! Set it aside! Give it up! Get rid of it!” It slows you down.

Has anything been slowing you down in your journey of faith? Do you have an idol there in your hands, and you’ve been trying to run a heavenly race while carrying an earthly idol? Is it encumbering your run?

Let me be so bold as to invite you to identify that idol in your life this morning, and by the time you leave today, for you to set it aside completely. An idol is anything that you love more than you love God. Maybe that idol is a boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe it is you, your pride, your image, your reputation, your plans, your self-serving life. Maybe it is your stinky attitude with your parents or family. Is God asking you to die to something? What will you do? Will you be like Abraham, the father of our faith, and obey him instantly, willingly, and completely? Or will you keep the forbidden thing that you love, and continue to allow it to trip you up, slow you down, and knock you on your back?