Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Welcome to Celebration.

If you are joining us via the podcast, our prayer is you are encouraged and if you are in the Orlando area, you will come join us.

Today we are closing out our series, From Here to There; an abbreviated examination of Abraham.

His life is flows through the entirety of the Bible, with a narrative that goes from .

A few things we have established so far:

What is faith?

(NKJV) — 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith has substance, it is something you can feel even if you can’t see it.

I am trusting even when I can’t see it, but you can see it when I am trusting.

Guarantees vs promises: Guarantees weaken faith, promises build faith

(ESV) — 1 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. 2 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.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran

Guarantees vs promises: Guarantees weaken faith, promises build faith

Guarantees vs promises: Guarantees weaken faith, promises build faith

Guarantees weaken faith, promises build faith

Guarantees weaken faith, promises build faith

By faith, you have everything you need to take your next step

By faith, you have everything you need to take your next step

Faith gets us from here to there; Trust gets us from here to there: Trust His Timing, Trust His Ways, Trust His Grace

Worship in faith knowing your worship is the vehicle that drives the enemy away.

Trust gets us from here to there

Trust His Timing, Trust His Ways, Trust His Grace

Trust His Ways

Trust His Grace

The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing

Scripture

Background: After much faith and trust, Abraham and Sarah finally have their promised son.

It has been almost 25 years since the promise was spoken, there has been many lessons learned, but here we are, promise fulfilled.

Abraham has Isaac, his legacy, his seed of promise.

Isaac is the answered prayer but God wasn’t done yet.

(ESV) — 1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” 2 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.” 3 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.

4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 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.” 6 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.

7 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?”

8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

So they went both of them together.

9 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.

10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” 12 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.” 13 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.

14 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.”

Message Title: This is a complicated text filled with questions and unresolved questions give birth to frustration.

Let’s explore some ideas that I believe will help us.

Today I want to talk about sacrifice, because sacrifice gets us from here to there.

I have titled todays message, Bring it to the Alter.

Intro-stration

If there has been a character trait that has largely undergirded Abraham’s life, if there was an expression of his faith that seems to be consistent, I would say Abraham lived a sacrificial life.

So what do we mean by sacrifice?

Simply put, a sacrifice is to give up something of value for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy.

Practically, it is understanding that saying yes to one thing means saying no to another.

My Marvel Avengers people have seen this play out with the Soul Stone…a soul for a soul, in order to gain something, you have to lose something of value.

Conceptually speaking, sacrifice is not beyond the realm of understanding.

We all do it in some form, everyday.

If you are an athlete, you make decisions on how you are going to govern your life.

What you will eat, when you will rest, workout, train, practice.

Sacrifice is understanding that saying yes also means saying no.

To our students, you have said yes to an education so that means you have to sacrifice where you spend your time, energy and focus because when we say yes to something, we are also saying no to a competing and conflicting entity.

Parents and families, in order to accomplish your vision and goals, you often have to give up something.

You can’t be married but act single.

You can’t be an effective parent and be self centered or selfish.

You can’t expect healthy friendships but not be friendly.

You can’t save and recklessly spend and still meet your financial goals.

When we were saving for our first home, we had to make some serious sacrifices.

In retrospect, it wasn’t that big of a deal, but in real time is was a struggle.

We cut off our cable completely.

We used our neighbors wi-fi.

We cut off Netflix.

We stopped eating at restaurants and had a lot of Ramen.

We were a 1 car family, struggling to figure out how I could be everywhere at once.

Transition

What do you do when God requests for you to

I was an uber driver before it was a thing.

Why would we endure such struggle?

We had the means to change all of this but we had a vision that was bigger than the moment.

We understand that, because conceptually speaking, sacrifice fits perfectly in our realm of understanding.

Sacrifice

jhj

Observations

Transition

What do you do when God requests for you to

Sacrifice Requires Resolve

After these things

Sacrifice Requires Surrender

Stay here

Sacrifice Requires Faith and Trust

God will Provide...

God provides for the obedient

God provides where He guides

God provides when it is time

However, how do you respond when you need to sacrifice the thing you sacrificed to get?

When you sacrificed to build your dream home just to leave it for someone else?