Expect "Different"
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· 3 viewsGod's tests anchor your faith and teach you to expect the unexpected
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Transcript
Introduction
In one scene from “The Chosen,” Simon says to Jesus, “This is different;” Jesus responds, “Get used to different!”
I love that line! When Jesus began to preach, teach, and heal throughout Israel, everything He did was “different” — of course, even before His virgin birth, things were different — Joseph and Mary were visited by angels and foretold the birth of Jesus — different? You better believe it
When shepherds saw the star and heard the angelic choir announcing His birth — when foreign “wise men” from the east showed up looking for the babe — DIFFERENT!
Everything Jesus said and did was unexpected in many ways — usually so unexpected that the people didn’t really know what to say or do.
Even His disciples struggled to keep up with what was going on with Jesus…but they followed Him without question, even though everything was “different” with Him.
“Different” didn’t begin with the birth of Jesus
From the beginning, God has always worked in ways “different” from what we understand or expect. Knowing and serving our triune God will pull you into the pathway of “different.” Expect it!
One of the ailments plaguing the church now and at various times throughout history is complacency — we get into a rut of going through the motions — originally well-intended and from the heart. When this happens, our relationship with God becomes distant and perfunctory. We no longer expect “different” from God because we have placed Him in our neat little box.
The living God cannot be placed in a box, so our box is full of something resembling God, but without the power and presence of God we were meant to know.
We need to break down the box and toss it in the garbage — because God isn’t there.
We need God, who loves us, sent His Son to die for us, fills us with His Spirit, enabling us to commune with live for Him.
Our God holds the universe together, yet seeks to walk and talk with us
Our God, because of His great love for us, also allows tests in our lives - Just as He tested Abraham in Genesis 22
When you face tests and trials, the real you shows up
Scripture Reading
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.”
Prayer
Narrative
22:1 begins, “After these things God tested Abraham”
After what “things?”
In chapter 21, several things happened — the most significant being the birth of Isaac (21:1ff).
The birth of Isaac wasn’t just any old birth — Isaac was the child of promise
Let’s go back to an earlier point in Abraham’s life
Genesis 11 records the time when Terah, Abram’s father, picked up His family and moved out of Ur (Southeastern Iraq) to Haran (Southeastern Turkey). Then, after his father died, God called Abram to a new journey.
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. 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.”
Wait - what? “Go…to the land I will show you?”
That’s “different” — as a rule, people do not just pack up and move, without knowing where they were going
Abram trusted God…even without a Torah or Bible or priest, or pastor — without a plan — no home based support team to send him money and support along the way.
So Abram and his people set out, when he was 75 years old
On that strange journey, God regularly reminded Abram of His promises
It’s important to remember - Abram was human — more than once he lied to protect himself from perceived dangers
Yet the Lord did not toss him to the side and choose someone else…he stuck with Abram
God prospered Abram — his family, flocks, herds, and servants continued to grow in number
At one point, Abram told his nephew Lot to take his family and everything — choose another part of the land to settle because their numbers had grown
Later on, several local warrior kings attacked Lot’s people and took them into captivity — Abram gathered 318 men “trained in his household” and rescued Lot and his people.
So much happened in Abram’s life…different,
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
By this time Abram thought he was too old to have a son…worried about how God would fulfill His promise to make him a great nation
He said “God you will have to fulfill the promise through my head servant’s sons”
God said, “You will have a son…trust me!”
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Later, Abram and Sarai got impatient again — they were old — devised a plan for Abram to have a son through her servant Hagar — thus Ismael was born
That is a story for another day --- read about it…you will see all kinds of “different”
By the way…by the time Ismael was born, Abram was 86 and Sarai not that far behind — it was “different” yes?
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
God informs Abraham that the sign of this everlasting covenant with his people would be circumcision —
The sign of God’s covenant with Noah was a rainbow - Abraham, circumcision
And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
This story was beyond “different”
They were “too old to have a child — even trying was just a pleasant memory!” — the word of the Lord stays and stays and stays
Many more unusual, miraculous, and ominous things happened in Abraham’s life…but let’s get back to Abraham and Sarah’s miracle baby, Isaac…when he was somewhere between 6 and 37 — he was probably a young adult — certainly old enough to overpower his elderly father if he wanted to.
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.”
Abraham, his servants, and his son Isaac (his only son in the sense that Hagar and Ismael had been sent away from the family long before) made the 3 day journey to Moriah
Abraham to servants, “Wait here — while my son and I go up to the mountain and worship God — we will return to you when we are finished”
Strapped the wood on Isaac — Abraham carried the fire
Isaac “Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”
Abraham “God will provide!”
Isaac allows his father to bind him on the wood altar…he could obviously see something very “different” was about to happen
Abraham raised his knife to kill the boy
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.
Through an angel the Lord said, “Because you have done this...
I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
A few quick observations...
God’s Actions Overturn the Status Quo
God’s Actions Overturn the Status Quo
Jesus’s life is the perfect example
He rejected business as usual
Money changers in the Temple courts
His comments about wealth and how it can be such a death trap spiritually
Jesus turned the Law on its head
He wasn’t a lawbreaker but he forced the religious leaders to face the hypocrisy of their use of the law
Jesus shunned politics
Jesus made outrageous claims
“I am He” — living water, bread of life, son of man
Tear down this Temple and in 3 days i will build it again
He still tears down the status quo
If Jesus called out religious elitism in those days, how much more today?
God’s Actions Might Upend Your Plans
God’s Actions Might Upend Your Plans
You can be sure Abraham’s bucket list did not include sacrifice the son of promise on an altar of fire
Moses had not plans to leave his quiet life as a shepherd
Paul had no plan to stop persecuting Christians
People who die for their faith don’t set out with that goal in mind
People who God uses in unexpected ways often try every way possible to do something else...
God’s Actions Do Not Depend Upon Your Qualifications
God’s Actions Do Not Depend Upon Your Qualifications
Everyone God uses is totally unqualified — He does not call the qualified — He qualifies the called
God’s Actions Challenge You to Simply Believe and Follow
God’s Actions Challenge You to Simply Believe and Follow
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Simple — but one of the most difficult disciplines to learn in life
Once you try it, you learn what peace it brings — knowing God is ultimately in charge of the results
Challenge — Embrace God’s “different”
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
God's tests anchor your faith and teach you to expect the unexpected
God's tests anchor your faith and teach you to expect the unexpected
God calls us to be “different” and to do “different”
Following His plan by faith…into unknown places and situations
He sees, He knows, He keeps and protects, He brings miracles and transforms lives
The tests in our lives should not be wasted
See them as opportunities to draw closer to God
See them as opportunities to be right in the middle of what God is up to
Remember this: God’s promised blessings materialize in unusual and unexpected ways as you listen, believe, obey, and worship