When God Says Give
Notes
Transcript
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.
5 And 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.”
I. How Do We Respond?
I. How Do We Respond?
This is perhaps the most difficult passages outside of the Gospel to understand. It is a true test of trust and obedience. Abraham had obeyed the Lord and left his home, his family, his inheritance, his wealth. Now the promise that God has told him would be his blessing, Isaac, the Lord is now requiring. It would be so easy for us to give up and renounce our faith in this such extreme request. Abraham could have fled and taken Isaac and Sarah and ran back to Ur. It is this temptation that all to often we as modern day christians give in to. When God asks big things from us we often see the giving not worth the reward. After all it is with a sorrowful heart that the rich man in walked away! Luke 18:23
23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
So how should we respond or better yet how can we? It is more of a discipline than a action. Look at Abraham’s response, the scripture just says “he rose early in the morning”. No defiance and no delay. He didn’t tell God “let me pray on it”. Now to have a rapid response outside of a matured relationship can and will end in disaster. God never tempts but He does test see James 1:13
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
But rather Abraham’s faith was tested James 2:21-24
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?
22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.
24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
God does this not to prove our hearts to Him but to ourselves and others Deuteronomy 8:2
Deuteronomy 8:2 (NKJV)
2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
Abraham was tested and arose early for the test.
II. How Do We Prepare?
II. How Do We Prepare?
When we look today at our lives we see busyness! There are schedules to keep and meetings to make. We run from one place to another with such intensity that little is left by the end of the day. Our bodies are depleted, our minds are scrambled and our hearts are really just longing for rest. Eat supper, grab a shower, watch a few tic tocs and then off to bed. Then we hear a sermon or song and become convicted. When do I give time to the Lord? Well the answer is more in how then when! It is a discipline of preparation and not scheduling off a block. How dare us give God the leftovers! We need to begin with preparation. Look at Abraham, the man that had just been asked to give his son, he gets up early and he begins with preparation for worship. He saddles the donkey, loads the wood, grabs the gift, and gets a couple guys to help. He didn’t just begrudgingly get up grab Isaac and take off. If he was going to give from faith he wanted it to be done right. No short cuts and he brought in some help. The first thing he did was to saddle his donkey. He knew it would take some doing to cart everything to, well where ever God was sending him. He enlisted the help of a couple young guys. We need to look at the importance of beginning our day with God and preparing for worship. Do you just get up and run out the door and then expect God to follow you around making everything go right? We all too often view God as not the object of our worship but the worshipper of us. We fall victim to the big “I” syndrome. When everything is about me instead of seeking God’s will in our lives. Our lives would become complete instead of complacent. The way to achieve this is through preparation in our daily lives. To make a habit of worship in our day to day. We often have things that are a ritual to us already. Morning coffee, facebook surfing, tv program and so on. When things begin to change is when we change how we prepare ourselves for the day.
The Psalmist says
Psalm 5:3 (NKJV)
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.
Psalm 59:16 (NKJV)
16 But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble.
Psalm 88:13 (NKJV)
13 But to You I have cried out, O Lord, And in the morning my prayer comes before You.
Psalm 143:8 (NKJV)
8 Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You.
We should start with the preparations for daily living.
III. Where Do We Give?
III. Where Do We Give?
There is just something about giving! It’s no wonder the Lord says that it is “better to give than to receive” Acts 20:35
35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
I often say that Christmas time is one of my personal favorite times of year because the change in peoples attitude. Giving rises by double in December over any other month.
it is just in us to want to give! Statistically wealthier people give more than poorer people. In 2021 9/10 people who made over $125,000 gave to charity. However they averaged 4% of their annual income. The 37% who make under $25,000 that give on average gave 12% of their annual income. It kind of brings to mind the widow’s mite.
1 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,
2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.
3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;
4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”
America leads the world in charitable gifts too. Coming in at 1.44% of GDP in private philanthropy. So the question is not “if” we give but “where do we give?”. Well the answer to that is seen both in the previous scripture and in the life of Abraham.
Genesis 22:12 (NKJV)
12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
So why give to God? That would be the greatest of questions. Does He need from us? The answer is no. Psalm 24:1
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
But He wants us to give. Why? Because He tells us to. Luke 6:38
38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
So the question still remains “where do we give?”. The answer is answered by the Lord. Where you heart is!
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
IV. How Do We Give?
IV. How Do We Give?
5 And 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.”
We give in worship! Abraham had been asked to do the impossible and instead of doing it with great contempt in his heart, he was set to do it in worship. He knew the love and promise God had for him and he wasn’t about to get distracted from what led him to receive God’s favor. We give sacrificially! Abraham had been willing to live a life of sacrifice to be obedient to God. There were times of uncertainty but Abraham was all to certain that the Lord was with him and that he could trust Him. That is the same for every believer that gives, whether it is in time, treasure or talents we should give in sacrificial worship. King David when giving an offering in II Samuel 24:24
24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
refused to offering something to the Lord that costed him nothing. We should live a life that is ready to give in worship, whatever it is that the Lord asks. Because we can trust Him that His request is not in order to break us but instead to grow us. The Apostle Paul puts it perfectly into perspective in 2 Timothy 1:12
12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.