Surrender it all
Notes
Transcript
How is your journey through the season of Lent going? If your answer is “good” or “fine” - let’s be honest, you are not really participating are you? Because if we are using this time for self-examination and reflecting on what in my life is in need of salvation - then we are not going to feel good or fine. During our first discussion group on the devotional book Altar’d that we hold on Thursdays, one of the participants (I won’t say who) made the comment that the book was making her feel terrible. Now if you are following along with the book, I think we can agree that it is a good, thought provoking, and challenging read. The book is encouraging us to work toward transformation - but in doing so, we do need to face our brokenness.
As the author herself, Susan Kent, wrote:
Lent is an intentional time of obedience demonstrated by surrendering that which we hold valuable in our lives. The question is: Are we willing to commit only when it’s conditional, when it’s convenient, or when it’s on our own terms? Jesus walked toward the cross in full obedience without condition. Are we willing to let go of control in order to commit ourselves fully in obedience?
That word: obedience - at least for me, is a tough one to embrace. And I know I am not alone. Living in a culture that celebrates a form of independence that is summed up as “you do you” - be your own boss - set your own rules, the idea of obedience has a bad connotation.
A standard definition of obedience is “compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority.”
But that definition does not capture the full reasoning behind why we are called into a life of obedience. It is not just about compliance to a law or command.
I think of my son’s training when he went through boot camp. He learned quickly to comply with orders. Why? Because he did not have a choice and he was afraid of the consequences of disobeying them.
Biblical obedience is different. If we are doing it right, we obey because we want to become more like Jesus and please God with our lives.
An article I read on Obedience to God by Judy Ponio tells us that:
The Holman’s Bible Dictionary defines obedience as “to hear Gods word and act accordingly”. This is because the original word used for “obey” in the Bible, šāma, also means “to hear”. Even in the New Testament, the original Greek term for the word “obey” can also be translated as “to trust”.
To hear, to trust, and to act. That is obedience. To hear God’s Word, to trust that it is good - even when we do not understand or when it may be painful or feels terrible - and to act on that word. This requires surrender. To surrender control over our lives and demonstrate our commitment to God by our obedience. And no where is this more radically demonstrated than in the passage out of Genesis we heard this morning. God instructing Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. A shocking command that disturbs us greatly and calls to mind all sorts of ethical questions.
As we look closely at this account, there are several things I want us to consider. First, as I mentioned earlier, true commitment cannot be conditional. Jesus walked toward the cross in full obedience without condition. He did not pray to the Father “I will do this only if you make it quick and remove the suffering.” He trusted that what the Father willed would ultimately be good.
I also want us to consider what it takes to be obedient. I’ve broken it down into three responses. Be Ready. Be Committed. and Be Faith-full. (Filled with faith)
Be Ready
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Abraham was ready. Susan Kent informs us that “The Hebrew word for “here I am” means to behold or look. This is the first step of Abraham’s commitment: “Look, I am here, I am ready to respond when you call.”
Why was Abraham ready? I think it may be a good idea to take a moment and review what we know of this man. Abraham - considered the father of the world’s three monotheistic religions (meaning worshippers of one god) - Jews, Muslims and Christians. All consider themselves children of Abraham. Paul calls us this in Galatians 3:7
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
It was Abraham’s faith, lived out in his obedience, that set him apart from all others. We witness this obedience from the first moment he appears in the Bible. Genesis 12:1-2
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
And Abraham (then known as Abram) obeyed God and left everything he knew and and walked forward in faith. He did not always do everything the right way - but he was considered, as James would later call him, God’s friend. James describes Abraham’s faith in…
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
Abraham’s faith was completed by the work he did - meaning that his faith led to action. He believed God, and for that he was considered righteous - and the evidence of his belief was seen in his obedience.
Another interesting thing about Abraham, we know quite a bit about him from the 14 some chapters in Genesis where he is featured - and the fact that he is referenced in nearly every other book in the Bible, but did you know that when God called him to lead his family to a new promised land - he was already 75 years old? His ministry was just starting at time when many people today are well into retirement. Maybe his age, his accumulated wisdom, his maturity - enabled him to be present and know that the highest priority in life is to be in right relationship with your Creator. To know what really mattered. The ability to look back at life and know as Job would one day say in Job 1:21 (ESV)
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
God made promises to Abraham - like when God said he would make a great nation from his offspring - and Abraham believed. He framed his life around what God said.
In the 15th chapter of Genesis, God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a son, and this son would be the heir of the promise, the covenant between God and Abraham. Abraham and Sarah were well advanced in years by then, and Sarah had been unable to conceive a child, but Abraham believed God. Sure enough, Sarah becomes pregnant and Isaac is delivered.
Abraham’s belief in God, demonstrated through his obedience to God, meant that when God called, Abraham was ready.
Be Committed
What does full commitment look like? If you say “I am fully committed to seeing this through” - you are saying I will do whatever is needed, whatever is necessary, in order to accomplish the task or achieve the goal at hand. Any obstacle that gets in my way - I will find a way around it, or over it, or through it - I will keep moving forward.
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Notice what God says. He doesn’t just say “take your son” - he says “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love…” God does not sugarcoat what he is asking. He is creating a crisis of faith - a costly demand. Abraham will have to walk for three days toward the mountain with these words repeating in his head.
This is what full commitment looks like. God says to Abraham, I want you to take what is dearest to you in the whole world and sacrifice it as a burnt offering.
Susan Kent expands in what this meant:
What does it mean to sacrifice as a burnt offering? In the book of Leviticus we learn there were five different offerings that God provided as a way for His children to be reconciled in their relationship with Him. Leviticus 1 provides instructions for a burnt offering, the most common sacrifice, but it was also the one that asked for the most commitment.
Leviticus 1:3 tells us that the animal chosen as the burnt offering was the best, the most valued, and unique to this first type of offering was that every part of the animal was sacrificed, nothing was held back. It was a full commitment. Abraham was being asked to surrender everything to the Lord. When the Israelites provided a burnt offering, it wasn’t about what they were going to get from God, but what they were going to give to God.
A finally, Be Faith-Full
For Abraham to build an altar of sacrifice and bind up his son Isaac and place him on the altar - he had to have full faith in the Lord in which he served. He knew the character of God. He trusted in the promises of God. Abraham was likely the first person to believe in resurrection - because he knew that if Isaac was to die, he would have to live again in order to fulfill God’s promise. Abraham was not lying when he said in Genesis 22:5
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
Some how, some way, God would act and God would save. Abraham loved God and therefore, he obeyed.
Wilbur Glenn Williams, in his commentary on this passage, explains:
Genesis: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition 1. Abraham and Isaac: Test (22:1–19)
For Abraham the question was, “Do I love God because of what He has done for me (miraculously given me this son), or do I love Him because of who He is?” Any love one has for another that is performance based is inadequate at best. Love, to be genuine love, must be rooted deeply in the character of the one loved. Performance-based love stops when performance stops, but love based on who a person is does not die even if the anticipated service is no longer rendered. Many serve God only while things go the way they expect them to, and when God does not do for them what they want or think they need, their love turns cold.
True worship demands a sacrifice, but an appropriate sacrifice. Isaac was never intended to be a physical sacrifice
Abraham passed the test. Isaac’s life was spared. And of course, as a people who know the whole story, who have received the gospel, we know that this story was not just about Abraham’s obedience. It serves as a sign - a precursor - of what God would one day do to save and redeem humanity from our sin. The Father, who proclaimed at Jesus’ baptism,
Matthew 3:17 (NRSV)
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
..would allow Him to be crucified on the very same place that Moses was to sacrifice Isaac. Mount Moriah is mountain on which the city of Jerusalem is built. Just as Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice, Jesus carried the wooden cross to Golgatha. And just as the ram was caught in the thicket of thorns, Jesus the Lamb of God had a crown of thorns pressed down on his skull as he was our substitute. 1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Abraham could have named the place - The Lord Did Provide - for he provided a substitute and Isaac was freed. But he didn’t. He named it The Lord Will Provide. Future tense. God sees our need and He will provide - Abraham is declaring his faith in a God who will always provide a way.
I’m going to close with some questions and words of reflection posed by Susan Kent:
Where have we created space to declare our belief in God’s provision and to be expectant of the encounter?
Where have we committed ourselves without condition, believing in the faithfulness and goodness of God?
When we are ready to respond, He leads us to a place of encounter where we receive His provision. This story would have been different if Abraham had built an altar before he had a son, praying in desperation, offering a sacrifice in exchange for provision. We often share stories of someone being down to their last dollar and God providing miraculously through a check in the mail or groceries on the porch, but Abraham’s bank account was full. Abraham was willing to commit all he had—not out of desperation, but out of obedience. Abraham surrendered what was most valuable to him without condition, and his blessing came through his full commitment.
Amen.