Sermon Tone Analysis
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What Are You Willing To Give Up?
Intro
Be sure to recap the story up to this point
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pray
What Are You Willing To Give Up?
[talk about it....]
[pic of working out and/or diet]
[talk about it]
[pic of Abe and Isaac]
That is what this story is all about really…[talk about how we typically look at this story of God providing, but really it should be looked at as a story of sacrifice]
And that sacrifice is, in fact, implied in our very faith itself!
Just look at these famous words of our Savior.
Whoever!
That means everyone who at some point thinks that they are going to in some way claim the mantle of Christian, or Christ follower .
Every single person.
I think that sometimes we exempt ourselves from these moments in scripture.
We see words like this and think something like, “yeah…you heard him!
He means you!”
We are already saved, so we are ok.
Jesus was talking about those folks who are saved after me.
But that’s a lie.
He means us.
Me.
You.
Every person who has ever existed.
If those people want to be a disciple, there is work to do.
Disciple - a follower or student of a teacher
But what is a disciple?
[elaborate]
…a disciple is simply “a follower or student of a teacher.”
But that just touches the surface.
You see, there is some great implications when it comes to that word!
It is bigger than just a student in a classroom.
That word implies that the person labelled by it is actually doing something!
So what is it that they are doing?
Well you don’t have to look far to figure that out.
They share the same root, because at the heart of the matter, they are synonymous with one another!
That word can only
Discipline - training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character
Discipline!
The disciple has to do something in order to be a follower, and the thing they do is a discipline!
It takes discipline!
And that, church, is “training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.”
There is training.
There is correction.
What we are before we start this process isn’t what we are intended to stay!
We are to be molded into something greater than what we are!
But church, hear this clearly, the only way we can be changed, and molded, is to sacrifice something!
[“You may know Jesus, but you need to do more than wait for Him, hoping He saves you when you die or when you realize that you might need Him.” ~ Haven Farris]
I was actually talking with one of our Youth this week when they said, essentially, the same thing…[elaborate on that idea]
[“You may know Jesus, but you need to do more than wait for Him, hoping He saves you when you die or realize that you might need Him.” ~ Haven Farris]
When Jesus says that we have to deny ourselves, He is telling us that we need to make some sacrifice of our time, our energy, in order to be considered His followers.
And we may know Him, church, but if know Him in name only, and never let our lives be altered by Him we aren’t following at all!
We have to deny ourselves; we have to make some sort of sacrifice if we expect to actually follow where He is leading us!
[pic of abe and issac]
Take your son…wait…I didn’t do the text justice there.
Take your ONLY son.
This promised child.
The one you waited on for 25 years!
The one from whom would come descendants that are more numerous than all the grains of sand!
Take that one to Moirah; which is Jerusalem.
Build an altar there, and place wood on it.
Take the boy and sacrifice him on that altar and then light it on fire!
What are you willing to give up?
That is what I hear God asking there.
What are you willing to give up for me?
You know, a lot of times in life we will look at something that we want, or something that is happening to us, and we intrinsically understand that there has to be a cost for it.
We even have phrases for that stuff right?
Nothing good in life is free.
You can’t get something for nothing.
If it is too good to be true, it probably is...
I am sure you can think of countless more.
My point here, though, is that we understand that there is a cost for everything we do, but sometimes, in faith, we forget that and act as if we aren’t called to change and to offer our own sacrifices in life.
Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life.
I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.
…we understand, from the bottom of our souls, that there is a cost to every action!
We get that there is a price for everything that we want or do!
But still, I pose the question to us all - when it comes to our faith lives, our lives with Christ, what are we willing to give up?
What are willing to struggle with in order to be great in faith?
What are we willing to sacrifice to God so that our obedience can be made clear?
What are we going to lay on that altar to show God that we are all in for His plans and for His life!
What can we give up in our lives to put our lives on His path?
Understand, I am not talking about someone’s life here.
I am speaking from the point of view of this story as a allegory for our lives!
God calls us, everyone of us, every single day, to take the thing that we love more than Him.
The thing that He might have set aside for us!
The thing that we had waitied on for years!
That thing that we have elevated higher than God!
That is what we are called to take to the altar!
THAT MIGHT BE OUR PLANS OR OUR DREAMS, BUT IT MIGHT EVEN BE SOMETHING FAR MORE COMMONPLACE AND PRACTICAL!
MAYBE OUR JOBS.
OUR MARRIAGE, OUR KIDS, OR OUR FRIENDSHIPS THAT PULL US AWAY FROM GOD.
MAYBE WE HAVE PLACED SOME EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES BETWEEN GOD AND US.
WHATEVER IT IS FOR YOU - THE THING THAT YOU HAVE PLACED HIGHER THAN GOD MUST BE LAID DOWN AT THE FEET OF THE CROSS OF THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD IF YOU WISH TO EVER ELEVATE HIM TO THE PLACE HE NEEDS TO BE IN YOUR LIFE!
Listen, we need to take the prophetic voice of this text to heart.
Whatever it is in our lives that we hold on to more than God only prevents the actual sacrifice of God to be made for us!
I mean, imagine, just for a second, what the story looks like if Abraham refuses.
Anyone who has ever spent any time studying the old testament can answer that easily.
If Abraham would have refused, God would have taken Isaac, and likely all that Abraham had.
[fuzzy mirror pic]
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