Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

May God's grace, mercy and peace be yours, in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

So you heard - which I trust was not a first time hearing - of such a powerful, profound story, storyline: that of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis 22. Every time that I get the privilege to share it, to read it, to hear it again, just it's just a moving, moving account in scripture.

But then, considering it here recently, wouldn't it make more sense of the Abraham, Isaac storyline, if it went like this: "Sometime later, God tested Abraham.

He said to him, "Abraham."

"Here I am," he replied.

Then, God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah, sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

So early, the next morning, Abraham got up and said, "Why me?"

Yeah.

Don't you think that this would make more sense than the way that it actually is recorded for us in scripture?

I mean, think of it: what kind of God, what kind of God would ask a father to sacrifice his beloved son?

Now, to appreciate what, you know, how I'm challenged by this, is you got to know other aspects of the Abraham, Isaac story.

And how it was that God, early on, came to Abraham and and Sarah and said, "You're going to have a child someday," and well, okay.

And they waited, and they waited, and they waited, and they got way beyond their years of being able to conceive a child.

And then, finally, when they were quite elderly, God gives them this child.

Their only child.

And if you might be a parent or a grandparent or great-grandparent with only one child, you can appreciate, I think, more than I can, what Abraham was faced with.

But what kind of God would do such a thing, after being good on his promise?

And then to come to those parents - in this case, the father - and say, "Okay, I want you to take your son's life."

No wonder there are people who question what Christianity is all about, and then conclude, "I don't have anything to do with that.

What kind of God is that, that would would ask such a thing?"

Well, to me, this makes more sense, but it turns out that this is an account, a storyline that's less about sense, and it's much more about faith.

Faith over sense.

Common Sense.

Faith is going to determine how the storyline plays itself out with - then as it goes on, Abraham gets up early in the morning, takes his donkey, saddles it, then takes his only son.

And then they had - dad and son - to this region, which God had indicated them to go toward, known as Moriah.

Mount Moriah.

I don't know what you know about Mount Mariah, but Mount Moriah today is where Jerusalem is.

Now, think about that.

Mount Moriah.

The region of Moriah became where Jerusalem was established.

And I think you know something about Jerusalem, when it comes to Lent and Holy Week and Easter.

Don't lose that thought - where God's only Son would be the sacrifice for all of us who have fallen into the "Why Me's."

Why Me?

So, here stands Abraham and Isaac.

And together, on this future site of Jerusalem, which by the way, is built on a mount.

I've been to Jerusalem before, and it's up on a hill.

It's incredible.

And their son, Isaac asks his dad: "So, Dad, we've got everything else that we need to worship properly and to make for the sacrifice.

But where's the lamb for the sacrifice?"

And Abraham, against whatever thoughts were spinning in his head about how was he going to spare his son, I mean, in light of what God was asking him to do.

I don't know how he could not have still had those common sense, if you will, thoughts creeping in, challenging those other thoughts.

Thoughts that would have been provided by the Promise Keeper referring to, of course, God.

By the way, men, have you ever heard of Promise Keepers before, years ago?

It was a movement among Christian men.

I participated in Promise Keepers, and then, at one point through that whole experience, it kind of you know, it kind of dawned on me, Promise Keepers, well wait a minute.

What kind of promise keeper am I? I'd like to be a better promise keeper than I have been.

I've got my wife to vouch, you know, for the kind of promise keeper, I am.

There really is only one Promise Keeper.

The Promise Keeper that came to Abraham, and said - before this all took place before Isaac ever entered Abraham's life and Sarah's - when God said, "Abraham, I've got three promises I'm going to make to you.

One is: you are going to have descendants as many as the stars you see in the sky.

Secondly, I'm going to give you a land that you're going to be able to call your own, and thirdly, from from you, there will be a blessing.

There will be a blessing for all the nations, for all the people."

So, Abraham, how could he not be struggling and wrestling with, "Okay.

God is asking me to do this, to sacrifice my son.

Is this something I really want to follow through?"

Well, and then as we know, as the storyline continues, we know that faith wins out, because it's then that Abraham answers his son, Isaac, by saying, "Son, God will Himself provide the lamb for the sacrifice."

By the way, I don't know if you caught it in Genesis 22, there's Abraham's servants, and he tells them, "You stay here.

My son and I are going to go forward."

And did you catch it where Abraham, there says, "And me and my son will come back later."

Think about that.

What's that tell you about where Abraham was in terms of faith?

Again, common sense would say, I'm going to be the only one coming back, because I know what God's asking me to do.

But then, faith bursts forth the way that we tend to think.

So, the two of them, then, continue on.

And this, you know, there are been so many artists that have so powerfully depicted this, but he bound his son.

Why did he have to do that?

The father binding his only son.

This is his beloved.

This is the only flesh and blood that he has.

And lays upon the altar, on top of the wood.

The son, alter, wood, stone.

And then, Abraham with a knife in hand.

My goodness, how can you not be drawn to - if you could at all put yourself in Abraham's shoes, at that point, and this war within.

You know, the war in your mind - that is between your thoughts and what God is saying.

How your heart is with regards to what you're feeling.

The war between feelings and faith, at which point, the story line goes: God steps in and says "Abraham!

Abraham!

Hold on, here.

You will not.

But I will."

You will not.

You will spare your son.

But I will not.

And God follows through, because then Abraham looks help - you know how the story goes - there's a ram caught in the thicket that becomes the sacrifice.

And to this day, it is said "On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided."

Okay.

What's that mountain again?

Mariah, which is today what?

Jerusalem.

Jerusalem.

On what was once known as the place where a father could have asked of the Lord, "Why me?" has become the place where another Father has let the world know, "I, Myself will provide the sacrifice."

And then, Jerusalem, around Jerusalem, outside Jerusalem, Golgotha - the place of the skull - He then proceeds to do what?

Slay His Son.

This one and only begotten Son of God.

Placed on an altar, place made of wood.

The shape of a cross.

I love this.

Can you see the lamb, there?

But can you see the shadow?