Trusting God-Mt Moriah

Trusting God even when it doesn’t make sense

Intro: Night 1 we talked about God gives a fresh start. Last night we talked about the valley of Elah and how God meets us in the valley and that victory doesn’t come from our strength but from the One who gives us strength.

Hook: There’s something about mountains.

They’re beautiful from a distance, terrifying up close, and unforgettable once you’ve stood on top of one.

In 2001, a man named Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to summit Mount Everest — the highest point on earth. Erik couldn’t see the jagged ice beneath him. He couldn’t see the 10,000-foot drops or the shifting crevasses. But he could hear. He could feel. And most importantly, he could trust the voice of his guide — a man named Eric Alexander, a committed Christian and climber.

Step by step, Erik followed his guide up the tallest mountain in the world. When his legs burned, when the weather turned, when his fear screamed louder than his courage — he kept going. Not because he could see the path, but because he trusted the one who could.

It’s one thing to walk a hard road when you can see what’s ahead. It’s another to take the next step when you don’t know how it will turn out — when the path seems unreasonable, even unbearable — and still obey.

That’s the kind of climb we see in Genesis 22.

God asks Abraham to walk up a mountain — not to climb for a view, but to offer his son. His only son. The son he had waited decades for. The son of the promise.

And just like Erik had to trust his guide, Abraham had to trust his God — step by step, even when it didn’t make sense, even when it broke his heart.

“We did not conquer Everest to bring glory to ourselves, but to bring glory to God. He gave us the strength. He opened the doors. And He carried us when we could no longer carry ourselves.”– Eric Alexander

Today, we’re going to look at what it means to trust God when you can’t see the outcome — to walk up the mountain of faith with nothing but obedience in your hands and a promise in your heart.

I. God Desires Obedience

Genesis 22:1–3 ESV

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

God gives a test to Abraham.

There is a difference between a test and a temptation. God will test us and test our faith, but He will never tempt us with sin. He is giving the ultimate test to His follower Abraham. Will he choose God’s blessings or God Himself?

Abraham responds to God’s command, by doing three things: he doesn’t delay, he brings the necessary supplies, and he goes.

When we go to try to follow God in something, we sometimes get hung up on that third one. You might get everything you need, you set a plan, you play it out in your head, and then we hesitate to go and complete that obedience.

That is what we would call delayed or partial obedience. Both of which, are just a dressed up version of disobedience.

Illustration: When we get a big snow, it’s my job to shovel the driveway. I have a preferred way of doing this, especially if it is snowing through out the day. I see the driveway get covered, and I got out and shovel it really quick. I go warm up and a couple of hours later, I knock out the snow that has fallen, and I repeat this until the snow is done. Sometimes, I decide I don’t want to get on my layers of clothes, I don’t want to grab the shovel, and then I’m left with a much harder job. One of the last snows, I shoveled half of the driveway and decided not to get to the rest of it—I was too lazy! By the time I got out to knock it out, the plows had come through multiple times. An almost two foot pile was built up at the base of my driveway, and it had frozen back over. My shovel could barely cut through! This job took even longer, and was exhausting! Had I not approached this with delay or partiality, I wouldn’t have been in any where near as big of a mess! The same goes with our walk with God, when we obey fully we often spare ourselves future problems, but often our conversations with God go like this:

“God, I want your blessings, I want you to do this for me, I need you to come through here.” When the script is flipped, we often answer with, “I can do this much, at my time, and in my way.”

But when we become followers of Jesus, we give up our way, we surrender our life for the life that He offers, which in every way is better and more fulfilling and truly blessed.

II. Faith Fuels Obedience

Genesis 22:4–8 ESV

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 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.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Abraham continues up the mountain with this plan. Isaac starts to get a little nervous. He starts to recognize that something seems to be missing! It almost looks like Abraham is trying to comfort Isaac by telling him something to calm him down. What in the world could have been going on in Abraham’s mind?!

We see he is being faithful and that he is still continuing forward in obedience.

Hebrews 11:19 ESV

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

The writer of Hebrews gives us an insight into the mind of Abraham. That in the midst of all of this, he knew that God’s promise outweighed his own doubts and that his faith did not allow for what some may view as contradictions.

He didn’t know how God would work it out. He knew that God told him to sacrifice his son. He was wiling to climb the mountain, bring the wood, and bring the knife and that God would take care of the rest. Abraham already had, in his own way, raised Isaac from the dead, from the very fact that he was given to them when they were far past child-bearing years. So, he had a faith that knew that there was no stopping what God could do.

Abraham was in the midst of a problem that he could not fix and chose, in faith, to wait on God.

Can i encourage you to approach your next problem like that? A problem you can’t fix, but instead of panic and stress, you concede to wait and let God work. Double down on your faithfulness and obedience and let Him move.

III. Obedience Fulfills Faith

Genesis 22:9–14 ESV

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

This whole journey up to the top of the mountain, Abraham was following in obedience without an understanding of how God would come through. His faith was limited to each next step. (Cut lights). “God, I’m not sure how you’re going to come through, but I’m going to make this next step.” “I don’t know what’s next, but I’m doing what you said.” “I’m here at the top of this mountain and my problem hasn’t gone away.” “I am here, as you asked, I’m going to do this, it makes no sense to me, but you’re God and you know everything.” Then as he takes the knife in his hand an angel of the Lord calls out and stops him, and his faith, that could only get him to his next step of obedience, as his obedience becomes complete, his faith illuminates (white flash). Now, he can see all that God was doing. He could clearly see what God was doing. When God asks us to obey, it doesn’t mean we will see the whole picture. But as we follow in obedience, God reveals to us all of the ways he is working. Whatever situation you are wading through, whatever doubts you are wrestling with, obedience and faithfulness go hand in hand. Sometimes it’s just enough light to make the next step, but as our obedience is made complete, he grows our faith as well.

Illustration: When my wife was pregnant with our oldest son, Elias, the doctor had some concerns about the size of his stomach. It was measuring small and they weren’t sure why. It was easy to be nervous, and there was a lot of unknown. We didn’t know if there was going to be surgeries or what would happen when he was born. They decided a date to induce labor, because they wanted to be able to control more of that situation. As the days approached we continually prayed about it. I’m sure my wife has pages of notes in a prayer journal about this. We had to be faithful and obedient that everything was going to work out as it should. When he was born we were told, hey no problems, he’s just a long skinny baby, no issues and never any issues. But what we had faith in could not be revealed until the time of obedience had come to.

What was going on while Abraham climbed the mountain is that God had already set in motion provision for this problem.

Abraham’s problem was solved by God on the mountain but not revealed until his obedience was fulfilled. As Abraham went up the mountain, the solution to his problem was climbing the other side but he could not see the ram, the provision, until he had fulfilled His obedience. Yet, God planned to provide the sacrifice for Abraham’s son.

I want us to look at this last verse. Abraham renames the mountain “the Lord will provide—on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” Take a look at this map really quick. Mt Moriah is on there, the mountain our story has going on today. hundreds and hundreds of years later, the temple would be built here. You see Mt. of Olives right next to it, that’s where the garden of gethsemane and the ascension takes place. Mt Zion is just south of there. And north-west-ish of mt. Moriah is Calvary or Golgotha. All in this cluster of mountains, we see the narrative of the bible play out. Do you think Abraham had any idea, that where he was standing, in praising God for his provision of the way out of His problem, that he was standing at the future place of the Temple, and that just north of there, God would send his own son up a mountain to die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

God, from the beginning, knew our problem. He was orchestrating an incredible story on this mountain that He would provide the solution, even when we couldn’t see it. And now we look back to that and we have the opportunity to find a way out of our sin problem, that separates us from God.

Closings:

I don’t know where you are tonight. I don’t know how you’re walk is going, I don’t know how you’re struggling with obedience. I don’t know where your faith is. You may be waiting for an answer to your problem. I want to tell you tonight, that the mountain you’re climbing, you’re not climbing alone and that your God, your Creator, sees your struggle, knows it, sympathizes, and 2000 years ago sent his son Jesus to Earth. He lived a perfect, sinless life. He was arrested, beaten, and then He carried a wooden cross up a mountain, they nailed him to that cross, and he bled and died as a sacrifice for all of our sins. So that the sin problem we carry with us, our lies, addictions, hate, our burdens is no longer ours to carry and we can live in freedom and have eternal life in heaven. All he asks is that we turn from our sin, and believe that he was who he said he was and did what he said he would do, and in return we will be saved. We may only have enough faith to trust him, but in doing so, we open up a life of meaning where he guides us and leads us and we open up an eternity in heaven. We don’t want you leaving this week without knowing who Jesus is and having a personal relationship with Him. If you have questions about any of this, we want to be able to answer your questions, at any point this week, feel free to grab a leader and we will serve you any way we can.

We are about to hand out some cards, on these you will put your name, grade, and phone number at the top. There are five options (read and explain each one). This is an opportunity to take a step of obedience, be honest with where your relationship with God is and fill this card out as honestly as you can. We want to help you this week. In the midst of all of the craziness of Fuel, you have an opportunity to let God change your life this week.

(band comes up as cards are being passed out)

Explain cards as they fill them out. Collect cards. Pray.