You Have to Die

Invocation

The Lord is in His Holy Temple.

Let all the Earth keep silent before him.

I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the House of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand within Thy gates Oh Jerusalem.

Song- Have Thine Own Way Lord

Have Thine own way Lord Have Thine own way Thou art the potter I am the clay Mold me and make me after Thy will While I am waiting yielded and still

Have Thine own way Lord Have Thine own way Search me and try me Master today Whiter than snow Lord wash me just now As in Thy presence humbly I bow

Have Thine own way Lord Have Thine own way Hold over my being absolute sway Filled with Thy spirit till all can see Christ only always living in me

Opening

For they who worship the Lord must worship him in spirit and in truth. I thank God for the true spirit of worship in this House that has settled like fresh dew in the morning. Amen. It is a privilege to stand behind the sacred desk in the House of God and to declare the Word of God. Listen, I want to get to the Word but to each and every one. God Bless You.

I Honor God.

I Honor the Officers.

I Honor the entire Church.

And I Honor my beautiful and gifted Wife.

Give Scriptures: Genesis 22:6-13 & Mark 8:34-36

Read: Genesis 22:6-13

Genesis 22:6–13 KJV 1900

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Can we go back and read the 8th verse.

Genesis 22:8 KJV 1900

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Prayer

Give Subject: You Have to Die

Introduction

I was watching an episode of Forensic Files one day at home and as the episode played God began to talk to me. In the episode a young woman, wife, and mother of three had gone missing without a trace and caused immediate panic within her family.

The episode was very interesting because we got to see, first hand, the betrayal of a father and the role a child was able to play through her personal conviction.

The youngest daughter was a witness to the cruel actions of her father and she suppressed it for some time but eventually the truth came up and changed the course of the investigation into the mother’s death.

However, it is not the murder itself which gave me the most interest, but it was the role of the oldest daughter at the crescendo of the episode.

At some point, a fire broke out in the house while the father was away from the home. It was determined to be an accidental fire that could not properly attributed to anyone.

But, in the midst of the fire the youngest daughter (the witness to what she had saw) got trapped in the fire.

The oldest sister went back into the flames and covered her younger sister’s body to protect it from the flame.

In the end, she died from her wounds but her sister survived.

The oldest sister, the more mature sister, gave her life to protect the life of the younger sister she felt compelled and assigned to protect.

She gave selflessly of herself to such a degree that her life preserved that of another.

She gave her life so that the witness of who she covered could be preserved and protected.

She gave her life so that the life of who she covered could be preserved and protected.

She protected the life of someone else, without regard for the cost it might have to her personally.

Make no mistake...

The fire burned her skin, it suffocated her, and ultimately killed her.

Yet she held onto her sister because she saw something in her sister that was worth protecting...

And she did so without regard for what might be lost within herself.

This made me to wonder

Would my brother and sister in the faith do the same for me?

Do I have the strength to do the same thing for them?

Let me make it perfectly clear, we have gotten the Salvation confused with a selfish and outlandish right owed you by God.

But I have to correct that mistake in theology because the Salvation we have was only given as a gift.

To be perfectly clear, you are not even entitled to the right to preach the Gospel but are only allowed to do so because God has GIVEN you that gift.

Put another way...

God could have chosen anybody to birth Israel.

God could have chosen anybody to lead Israel out of Egypt.

God could have used anybody to establish a line of Kings.

God could have chosen only a select few to save.

God could have chosen anybody to preach and teach the Gospel.

However, he saw fit to give you the privileges that you walk in each day and yet we have people around the world who walk around saved as though God owes them something.

And as a result of manifest destiny and egocentrism, largely a byproduct of a westernized nation, we in this part of the world have allowed ourselves to become enamored with the promises of God and seem to have precious little concern for the responsibilities of man.

We know what God’s word says God being faithful to deliver.

We know what it says about prospering and being in health.

We know what it says about Abraham’s inheritance.

We know about Jesus being our savior...

But along the way we have missed critical pieces of information that would help us to be the Christians we call ourselves to be.

We missed that not only is he savior but he is also LORD.

We missed that Abraham honored his relationship with God through a tithe of the same inheritance we claim.

We missed that we are supposed to prosper and be in health but it is EVEN AS OUR SOUL PROSPERS.

We heard faithful to deliver but we missed MANY ARE THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

This has created what I like to call the propagation of Church culture in our society.

Think about it… we live in a time where their are more churches than ever before.

A church hardly gets its doors open before another one has opened up down the block.

We have more Bishops, Apostle, Elders, Deacons, Pastors, and Prophets now than anytime previous.

If we had all the power that these preachers claim to have by virtue of the office they call themselves into, I believe the whole world could be saved.

If the success of the Kingdom was based simply on the number of services happening… I feel that the Kingdom would be growing faster than ever.

If Church success was based simply on volume of tithes then Christ may have returned already by now.

And yet...

Pew Research Foundation tells us that for the first time in American history, the majority of Americans do not identify as Christian.

Further studies tells us that churches are hemorrhaging members so fast that they are shrinking faster than they can recover.

In a world where young children reject religion, young people oppose organize religion, and older saints are dying too fast to replace… we just keep doing the same thing.

A young man stood up and said i’m tired of this Church and we bought smoke machines.

Black men are disproportionately attacked by police and we installed LED Walls.

Food desserts, in this county… Guilford County… and we building huge facilities only to have 2 services a week.

Homelessness run amuck in the community and at the height of economic breakdown we closed our Churches.

The Church today looks nothing like the Church the scripture tells us Jesus is coming back for.

If I am being honest my brothers and sisters, the church has become so occupied by self that we have missed the entire point of the cross.

This takes me to my text

Genesis 22:6-13

In the book of Genesis 22, we see that Abraham has been given a task by the Lord. God came to Abraham and asked that he would sacrifice his own child Isaac at God’s request. But to truly understand the situation and the request, we have to look at the background of Abraham’s story.

so, we have to understand that at this point Abraham is older now and is to a point where I imagine his strength was not what it once was.

His back hurt him.

Maybe he had some arthritis.

Put simply both he and his body had aged.

In fact, he had aged so much that when the Word of the Lord came to him saying Sarah would bear him a son, that he was in shock and she was in such disbelief that she laughed.

The scripture goes to great lengths to illustrate Abraham’s age by referring to him as old.

But, Sarah’s disbelief led them both to err such that Abraham slept with Hagar and she gave birth to a son, Ishmael (much to Abraham and Sarah’s unbelief).

And yet, because it was not done in accordance with the will of God, that the child’s mother should be Sarah, the fruit of that action was not honored.

As a result, the Lord instructed them again and they conceived a son, and as the Word says… “in his old age” Abraham had a son with Sarah.

Now, Abraham would go on to have additional children… but Isaac was not only the first child with his wife but he was the first child of God’s promise.

Abraham was old.

Sarah was old.

They both messed up the promises of God.

And yet, God honored Abraham with a son in his old age, such that I am sure he had little belief in his continued ability to have children.

You know when something impossible/ or improbable happens once.

You do not wait on it to happen again.

It is kind of like playing the lottery and expecting to win two games by playing the same 6 numbers twice in a row.

Is it technically possible (yes) is it likely or even probable (no)

And so, Abraham and Sarah continued living and continued with their part in the fulfilment of God’s Word and assignment.

But Then...

God came to Abraham with an assignment…

He asked Abraham to take his son, his only son, to a place that God would show him and offer him (Isaac) as a sacrifice to God.

Now the Word makes it clear that Abraham did not pause.

He did not question God.

He did reflect on God’s gifts.

He did not ask God to change his mind.

He did not run away from God to another land.

But he rose up EARLY the next morning and made preparation for his sacrifice.

He called for his servants.

He chopped up wood for the sacrifice.

and he went in the direction that God had given him.

I imagine that Abraham had questions in his mind.

I imagine Abraham had questions in his heart.

I imagine he was vexed even in his spirit.

I imagine he prayed throughout this period.

And yet, he marched on to a place he knew not of to perform an act of which he had not yet spoken.

He did not stop and explain to all manner of people the assignment God had given, but he went about it to honor God’s Word and perform his work.

And so, on that third day morning, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place where he felt God drawing him to.

I could preach that third day because he saw his assignment on the third day as the Sun got up.

On the third day, the ram would appear in the bush as a sacrifice.

So he parks the car, the unloads his supplies and he looks to his servants and lets them know that he and Isaac were going to worship and they both would return after some time.

He spoke in faith to his situation, which he knew was difficult because he believed God would bring both he and his son back to the camp.

Three Views of the Scripture

Abraham

So the scripture picks up with Abraham climbing the top of the mountain.

Now many have preached this text from the perspective of Abraham.

Who is Abraham?

Abraham was the man who had become Father to the faithful.

Abraham who had been called out of the land of his fathers.

Abraham who had been forced to part ways with his only family outside his wife.

Abraham who had followed God from the moment he called him.

Abraham was the man who was called Abram and had his name changed to Abraham.

Abram meaning exalted father

and Abraham meaning father of many nations.

Abraham had been called by God the father of many nations even when he had not yet been an exalted father.

Has anybody been there?

Called something by God but you had not lived up to the first thing he called you.

He called you prophet but you have not gotten preacher.

Called you bishop but you were working on Pastor.

And yet, despite not living up to his first name, God gave him a new one.

But not only did God give him a new name but he then helped him live up to his first name.

Abraham took one step forward into his destiny.

A man with no children surely cannot be a father to many nations but with one seed, just maybe I can live up to God’s promises.

But then… God comes with a call and says throw away the one thing that is leading you to your promise.

How can you do that to me God?

You called me to plant a church but told me to turn down a free building.

You called me to Pastor but then took away my sheep.

You asked me to increase my offering but then let me get fired.

And I could spend a long time dealing with Abraham and the role he plays in this text as the leader of worship.

I could talk about how it relates to the sacrifice the father makes by sending his Son Jesus to the chopping block to die.

I could tell you that God is going to ask you to sacrifice some things in your life… some things that you love and even some things that you gave birth to.

I could even talk about the burden he must have felt playing the role of executor for his own child, all in the name of God and the relief he must have felt when the Angel of the Lord said stay your hand.

I could then tell you how God will always provide you with a worthy substitute to ease your trouble or suffering.

I could spend more time talking about Abraham’s faith in God to deliver, in spite of what it may have looked like for a few verses.

But, I do not want to talk about that today.

Isaac

Now you have Isaac.

At the time Isaac is but a child and in fact, is to this point the only child of Abraham for the purposes of Godly inheritance.

Keep in mind that Isaac is the second born child but receives the blessings and calling of the first born because God’s desire to honor the first child of Sarah and Abraham.

That said, because Isaac is a child he is younger than his father and is even stronger than his father, such that Abraham straps the wood to his back and makes him carry the instruments of sacrifice.

Have you ever carried somebody or something to a place of completion or finishing… only for them to stab you in the back when the time came?

I got you this job and now you gonna get me fired.

I raised you and you would betray me by disrespecting me.

I worked to put you through school and you cheat on me with some woman.

I stood beside you when your business was costing us money and you gonna leave me for some man.

I carried you across the finish line and got you to where you were supposed to be only to have you betray me and leave me stranded.

And its worse because Isaac is not with any ole body but he is with his OWN FATHER.

His father is setting him up for death, all at the will of God.

Isaac has no clue but he is a guinea pig for Abraham’s faith.

Abraham has turned Isaac into a sacrifice without his knowledge or input…

Even we are supposed to present our own bodies as a willing sacrifice but here Abraham has presented the body of his child, without regard for how his child may feel.

But worst of all have to be the moments that Isaac spent bound laying on the wood.

Make no mistake binding Isaac and laying him on the wood was no instantaneous feat and he had to spend that time coming (slowly) to the crushing realization that he was the sacrifice.

That is a whole different trauma because it is one thing to experience something but another thing to be forced to live through it slowly.

I tell God from time to time God if I die, let it be in my sleep because I do not want to experience the pain and suffering from a slow and drawn out death.

I do not want the suspense of watching as someone or something slowly ends my life because it would be more terrifying.

Its the same reason we like being put to sleep for surgery because we do not have the mental tolerance to observe ourselves being operated on in such a manner and we would ultimately be so jarred by the situation we would reject the treatment.

So we ask to be put to sleep because even when we recognize something as good for us… many of us want the positive results without the negative effects.

And so, I could spend time talking about Isaac and how sometimes we look at our problems, our difficulties and all we can do is blame ourselves for carrying it up with us.

I could tell you how Isaac is a typology of the believer as God sends a worthy sacrifice to stand in the stead of Isaac.

I could tell you that God will send you someone or something to help you face the trying times you have as you go throughout life.

I maybe could tell you that Isaac was a testament to belief in his father because he went throughout the ordeal based simply on the words of his father.

But, I do not want to stay here because for far too long the Church has taught as though we are Abraham and Isaac (and in certain ways we are).

We have had services and only talked about the promises and inheritances of Abraham.

We have had songs and only talked about how God will send us a worthy sacrifice (and he will).

We have preached sermons and all we have gotten out of this text is that God sent the ram just like he did on Calvary and he will (preachy) do it for us...

But like many things we have lost the major point trying to find something to jump about.

Conclusion

But my dear brothers and sisters I come with a Word for you today as I draw to my close.

My word on this morning is…

YOU HAVE TO DIE!

I know that is not what you want to hear.

I know that it is not what you wish I was preaching.

But it is true.

If you will flip over to…

Read: Mark 8:34-37

Mark 8:34–37 KJV 1900

34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. 36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

For far too long we have exercised Christianity under the guise that God owes us something.

We have lived as though Jesus’ only words to us were those of promise and riches.

However, this scripture challenges that notion and forces us to reconcile with the fact that we are not Abraham nor Isaac.

You have this mixed up if you think your only role in this story is to have God test your faith.

You have this mixed up if you walk around thinking that God will always send a substitute to preserve you like Isaac.

But no… for the Bible says here in plain English that if any man would follow me he must pick up his what....

Wallet. no.

Check. no.

House. no.

Inheritance. no.

Increase. no.

BUT JESUS SAYS TO HIS DISCIPLES PICK UP YOUR CROSS.

I need you to see this.

We as a body have to understand

Their are some things that God is not bring you out of.

Their are some things that God is not pulling you through.

Their are some doors that God is never going to open.

Some ways will never be made.

In fact, on our journey to become more Christ like, it is not only more likened to Christ for us to be the Ram in the Bush, but the reality is that our calling is to lay ourselves down for someone else.

For greater love no man hath than this, than to lay down his life for a friend.

Jesus did not die so you could have cars, clothes, and land.

Jesus died because he knew it was necessary for YOU to be what you needed to be.

He knew it was necessary for YOU to be where you needed to be,

And we consistently cheapen God because we want to make him all about stuff and desires…

But you need to know today that YOU HAVE TO DIE.

I want you to know and understand that Jesus was your ram… so you could be someone else’s.