Andrew Meher: If you're just joining us, we have been spending the summer going through the book of Genesis. And we're not reading every single chapter and verse in the book of Genesis. but what we've been doing is we've been tracing this theme that comes up over and over and over again, and it's the theme of blessing. Now, if you're of the the the the millennial generation as I am, you'll know that like hashtag blessed thing on social media is a big thing. Or like, man, I'm just so blessed. And we usually talk about being blessed in terms of some kind of financial or material sense of comfort. Or success or anything like that, right? But we're learning that the Bible talks about blessing in very different ways. Sometimes very simply it talks about how blessing is God being with us. If we look at Jesus' description of blessing, he says, blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are the persecuted. Jesus is a very upside-down, backwards definition of what blessing is, right? And those developments of the idea of blessing come much later in Scripture, but here in the first pages of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we're thinking about this blessing as this idea of God bringing something and making something happening that we couldn't do on our own. God is blessing people when we have the ability to. Work together in community to be fruitful. Really simple. We have the ability to work together in community to be fruitful, to care for others, to bless others, and that's what we see. And we've been reading for several weeks about the story of Abraham. This is the person who God said: Abraham, I am going to bless you so that you can bless all of the other people of the world. And we've learned that blessing is not for us. Blessing is so we can serve other people. Y'all with me? But what we're going to talk about today, and we've been alluding to a lot, is that blessing, as we kind of come to the climax and the big moment of the whole story of Abraham in Genesis, we're going to see. That there is something that has to happen if we're really going to experience and receive blessing. And it's a challenge for us. And we're going to see how that works out in the life of Abraham as we read his story. So let's read this. I'm going read Genesis chapter 22, the first 14 verses. It'll also be up on the screen for you if you want to follow there. But it says this. Sometime later, God tested Abraham, and 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. Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. And when he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey while I go and the with the boy and go over there, and we will worship, and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, Father. Yes, my son, Abraham replied. The fire and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, he said. Abraham built an altar altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, here I am, he replied. Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Abraham looked up, and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place the Lord will provide. And to this day it is said, On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. Let's pray. Lord, as we sit under your word this morning, we pray that your spirit would speak to us, that you would open our eyes to see how you are leading us forward this morning. And Lord, that we would continue to understand what it means to receive and walk in your blessing today. In Jesus' name we pray. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen. In in Sicily, in Italy, there are these special black pigs. And they're called Nebrodi Black Pigs. Has anyone ever heard of these? They're they're kind of semi-wild pigs. They're not like pigs we would think of. they're descended from wild boars, and and they sort of the farmers let them be kind of somewhat free range part of the time. They'll be in this kind of large, roughly fenced-in area, but it's very large. And and they'll frequently just be let out into the woods to just kind of roam, find their own food, things like that, acorns and things like that, and then they'll come they'll they're also let out of the fenced-in areas when the mothers are preparing to give birth. And and they they go into what you see here in this picture, these these special stone huts or structures called a zime. And and inside this zime, it's very dry and cool. It's all stone floor and everything, and a stone enclosure around. And the mothers give birth to their piglets inside of this stone structure out in the wild. And As I was watching a documentary recently that was explaining this, and the farmer was showing someone inside, and you were looking from the camera view from inside the hut, and you could see you'd have to crawl, we would have to crawl inside, but it's the perfect size for the pig. And they would go in, and the farmer pointed out how there's there's just a little step on the inside of the entrance into this structure. You have to step in inside, and in order to get out, the farmer explained, the pigs have to kind of step up a little bit in order to get out and find food and things like that. So the mother could come and go as she wanted after she gave birth, but the piglets would actually be stuck in there. They're trapped. Now, I don't know that seems odd to you or makes sense. Some of you, maybe if you've spent a lot of time around animals, you might understand why that's a good idea. Others might find it cruel that the piglets can't get out. But they're built this way intentionally because the piglets come into the world without any idea of what awaits them out in the forest. And and they don't understand, for example, that their size when they're first born makes them the perfect target for hawks and other predators to just swoop up. And so the farmers have created a very intentional test to ensure that the piglets only go outside when they are large enough to no longer be a target. At that point, they'll have grown enough to handle this lovely free-range life, this gift of the forest, to be able to explore it and forage for food and enjoy this very unique life for a pig. Now, I want you to notice the intentionality of this test that they have for these piglets to ensure that they don't get hurt. For their own benefit, they experience something that keeps them from this good life that they have ahead of them. And this happens in the same way that God actually does things to you and I to ensure that we have grown enough to receive the blessings that He has given to us. Do you follow me? There are like steps in our lives that God ensures are there intentionally to make sure we don't step into something too quickly. It's an intentional obstacle that the farmer puts there for the good of the pig, to ensure they're able to actually inherit the gift of the forest. And God, too, intentionally puts steps in our lives, tests, if you will, to ensure that we do not walk into a blessing that we are not ready to handle. When we are not ready. We continue to fail at the test. When we haven't grown enough, like those little piglets, try as we might, we cannot seem to overcome that hurdle. Now, I want to be clear that these tests that we might fail repeatedly are not a statement about our salvation. We're fully and completely saved and belong to God. These are not a statement about whether God loves us or our worth to God. We are fully and completely loved by God. The tests that we have are. Are an invitation from God to grow and to mature so we can be ready to receive what he has for us, just like those little piglets. God always tests his children because he loves and cares for his children. God does not want you and I to get destroyed when we try and handle a blessing that we're not ready for. Are you following me this morning? In our text this morning, we see God's intent to test Abraham immediately in verse one. It says, sometimes later, sometime later, God tested Abraham. This is something God normally does all throughout the Old Testament to his people. When Israel is freed from slavery in Egypt, over and over again we see in the next book of the Bible, Exodus, God tests them many times through their wilderness wanderings. And God later says that He does this in order to humble them and to be able to know what is in their hearts. Later on, after Israel conquers their promised land they inherit, certain other tribes and people groups are intentionally left there by God, and God tells them not to try and push them out. That's odd. But God again explains that he's doing this to test his people, to see if they will remain faithful to his instructions, or if they will choose to follow the other gods of these other people. God even tests one of the kings of Judah later on, Hezekiah, by having his presence removed from King Hezekiah. Because he sees that Hezekiah has become arrogant about all of the riches and abundance that God has given him, all of this material blessing. And so God steps away to see what will Hezekiah do? It's a test. Why does God keep doing this to people? That frustrates me. Are you annoyed hearing about how God it's like he's setting us up to fail? I love the amen on that. It's like he's setting us up to fail. Amen. It does seem like that, isn't it odd? But here's why God does it. God is testing you and I because he wants to see what is inside of you. The psalmist puts it this way in the book of Psalms. He says that God tests us like silver. Silver is something of value, right? Silver is something that you you want to know how valuable is this silver that I have. How pure is it is the the determination. And the more pure the silver is, right? The greater the value. And so what does a silversmith do to test the value of silver? You burn it, you put it in a scalding hot furnace and melt it down to nothing. It's called testing. And all of the impurities in the silver will burn up in the fire, but the silver will just turn into a liquid metal, and then it's pulled out, reformed, and cooled and hardened. And then to ensure that you have the highest purity silver, you burn it and melt it down again and test it again. And get even more impurities out. And then you might do it a third time. And you test and get all the impurities out. The extreme tests that the silver goes through is to ensure that it is the highest purity possible for silver. In the same way, God tests his children because God wants you and I to be purified like the finest silver. Testing is not to frustrate you, it is to purify you. Testing is is not to frustrate you, it is to bring all of the richness and value that is your life out to be seen. By God and by everyone else in the world. In fact, even Jesus himself, did you know, was tested. After he was baptized, God, who is in flesh in Jesus, before he starts his ministry, it says that the Holy Spirit, and in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke in particular, it says, the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness for the purpose of being tempted. Think about that. God the Holy Spirit led God the Son in Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. The Greek word there that gets translated in English as tempted is also tested. Jesus is led out into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. Testing is something we are all meant to endure. Even Jesus. Jesus is tested to prove and show what is in him. That there is no wicked way in him. That he was completely devoted and trusting in the Father. And testing is something for everyone that chooses to follow Jesus. This is a normal thing for our lives. Somebody say amen. You just turn to someone next to you and say, I got good news. You're gonna be tested. I got good news. So tell them again, I got good news. You're gonna be tried like silver. Someone say amen to that. I know you needed to be encouraged, so I just wanted to encourage you. God's gonna throw you in a spiritual furnace. That's not what you came to hear this morning, is it? No, it's not. It's not what I wanted to hear either. But that's the text in front of me, guys. I have to preach what it says. I didn't want to hear it either, but this is the, say it, hear it. It is the normal way that God transforms us into his people. It is not an exceptional special way for special Christians. This is the normal way that all of us grow in our life in Christ. And so God tests Abraham. God had been preparing Abraham for this blessing. Think about all of the different things that Abraham has done. Think about how many times Abraham has failed going up that step. Step, if you will. He hasn't trusted God, and him and Sarah are like, well, maybe God wants you to have my maidservant and force her to have your offspring and your heir because I can't have a baby. Like all of these things they keep doing and keep making mistakes and keep failing. God tests Abraham, and God has been preparing Abraham to receive a blessing. But the thing is, after everything Abraham had done up to this point, the way that he'd been trying to bring about blessing on his own terms, the question remains for us as we read this text was this Would Abraham pass the test? Would he actually do what God asked him to do, as crazy as it was, what God asked him? What would God find in Abraham's heart? What would God find in your heart? We should be clear here and say that God, very obviously, we can say this. God already knew what was in Abraham's heart, just as God knows what's in our hearts, right? God didn't really need to do this for him to know. The testing, in many senses, reveals what's in our hearts so that we know. You ever go through a really difficult set season, a really difficult test, and you go. Ooh, I don't like how I reacted to that. This is God's way of saying yes and now you see what's in there. We often think of our intentions far better than they actually are. All of us, myself included. The prophet Jeremiah once said this. He said, the heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it? It's another way of saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Like we we we have the sense of like, I meant well, I think. But immediately responding to that question, who can understand it? The Lord says back to Jeremiah: I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve. We see here it is only God who knows what is actually in us. Here's what we need to understand. God is not being cruel when we are subjected to a test. God isn't trying to set you up for failure or catch you doing wrong. God already knows that. all these things about you and how you're going to react and what's in your heart and your mind. God tests us so that we can see, like those little piglets, whether we have grown enough to be able to handle what God has next. There are things that that little piglet doesn't understand about its life. And it needs to be prepared for those things, doesn't it? Testing, similarly for us, it safeguards us from being in a position where we could be destroyed because we were not ready. Tests help us see ourselves honestly and clearly the way God sees us. But God is using these moments not only to help us see what he sees, but also to empower us and invite us to change. So God tests Abraham, right? Abraham, God says. God's getting ready to test him. He wants to show Abraham what is really in his heart right now. Here I am, replies Abraham. Now, I want you to see how significant this wording is. This is the same wording that would get used later by people like the prophet Isaiah when God is wondering who will go for them and who will bring a word from God to his people. Isaiah responds: Here I am, send me. Here I am is a phrase of openness and willingness to God. Here I am, Lord. Here I am. I will do whatever you ask. Here I am. Now notice Abraham says this while having absolutely no clue about what is about to happen. We as the reader are kind of let in on what's coming. We know it's a test, but Abraham has no clue that what God is about to invite him into is a test. We are often clueless at the start of a test. We say yes to God. Here I am, God, send me. We're excited. Maybe there's it's like a new adventure. We see God's calling to be a part of something new, a new job. Maybe it's a possibility to be a part of a new ministry. Maybe it's raising a child. Maybe it's meeting a new friend. Maybe it's being given an opportunity to love your neighbor in a new way. Wow, God's called me. I see this is a calling from God. It's so exciting. In large and small ways, we're open to God and what God is doing. Doing in the world. But whether it is a test or not is not often apparent to us at first. Like Abraham. And we're just open and willing. Now, here's what's important: God can only test us if we respond to him daily with, Here I am. You will not actually get the opportunity to be tested unless you say, Here I am. Here I am, Lord. Use me as you will. And we can't control whether what God will lead us into this day is a test or not. All we can do is surrender, as we were singing earlier, and say, Here am. Do you make yourself open and willing daily when God calls you? Do you make yourself open, saying, Here I am, to Jesus, allowing him to lead you, even if what lies ahead might be a test? If we do not daily learn to say this, here I am, then we won't be able to be invited into the test. And if we're not invited into the test, we cannot grow into the things that God has waiting for us. Now I want you to hear me. This is God's work, but God is first asking us to be open. So Abraham says, Here I am. And God gives Abraham what is perhaps the most perplexing and off-putting command we find in the scriptures. I want you to sacrifice your promised son Isaac. This is the blessing in tangible form. You've received it. You've been waiting for this. This is the thing Abraham and Sarah had struggled to believe. They've failed so many times, but they finally had the promise. And now God was saying, I want you to kill the promise. Lay it down. It's kind of cruel, isn't it? Perhaps there are things that you have now in your life that God promised you long ago. Perhaps there are blessings that you are receiving from God right now. And you know they're from God and they're good gifts. Do not be surprised, and also don't be afraid if God asks for those things to be given back to him. Why? Because God wants to ensure that the gifts, the promises, and the blessings that we receive do not become idols. God wants to ensure that we are holding these things loosely and are only clinging truly and fully to Him. Too often, once we receive gifts from God, we treat these gifts as if we came about them of our own doing. And we say, Thank you very much, God. I've got it from here. Thank you for the promise. I'll even tell people you gave me the promise, but now I'm gonna take it from here. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna steward this, and I'm gonna decide what's the best to do with it from here. Yet God is daily calling us to say, Here I am, which opens us to the possibility that each day God will say, Can you give that back to me, please? I'm just reading what's in the text, guys. I'm sorry. God knows that if we were to cling to these things, that it would ultimately destroy us. And so God needs to test our loyalty and love for Him, to ensure that we have not become infatuated with the gifts God has given us. So we hold on to these things loosely, like Abraham. God says, take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac. Go to the region of Moriah, sacrifice him there. As a burnt offering on a mountain, I will show you. Now, the English translation sort of obscures something in what I just read from the text. Because the tone of God here in this command is really important. I want you to see that when God asks you to give these things back to him. God knows that this is very, very difficult. God understands. Because the grammar in the Hebrew doesn't really come out in English, but what God is literally saying here when he says to please take your son is God says this. He's saying, Please, I beg you. Take your son and sacrifice him. That's interesting. Why would God beg Abraham? The God who created all things, blessed Abraham in the first place, can just take everything right back. He says, Abraham, please. Please, I beg you. Take your son Isaac. Yeah, I know, your only son Isaac. The the one you love, yes, that one. And I want you to go to this place and I want you to sacrifice him. The tone is really important here from God. Why would God frame this test in a way where he's kind of begging Abraham to comply? Man, I think this is where we get so much insight about who God is and how much he loves us and how much he cares for us, even in the midst of the test. This is how high the stakes are in this moment for Abraham and for us when we're about to go through a test. As I've already mentioned, you and I have no clue about what's really in our hearts, right? God does. We also have no clue, as we've learned over the last several weeks from Abraham, we have no understanding about just how serious God is about blessing us and being a blessing to the world through us, right? But none of that will be able to be carried out if our hearts are still marred and twisted by sin. Remember, sin is essentially saying, I can figure out. How to do this blessing thing on my own terms. Thank you very much. But God knows we have no clue how to handle his blessing without him. God knows that we must always be willing to lay down every gift he gives us, otherwise, the gift itself will become useless in our hands. Do you understand that that there is not a grace or a gift that God can give us that we are able to use well on our own? Do you understand that? It might seem some days like we can, but it's impossible. Our hearts are constantly devising schemes to use the blessings and giftings of God's creation for our own purposes. And so God begs us, as He begs Abraham, to submit to the test for our own good. He says to us, please, I beg you, submit to this test. God tenderly, never forcibly, never coercively asks, Will you come with me? I know, I know what I'm asking sounds like a lot, but come with me. W will you allow me, Abraham, will will you allow me to test you in this way? Take the thing you love the most, Abraham, and lay it down and give it to me. What's the thing that you love the most? What is the thing that God has asked you to lay down or submit to Him time and time again? And perhaps you've ignored God or been too afraid at the fact that you could lose everything. I want you to know and hear that God recognizes how hard it is to go through the test. And so he says, please, I beg you. This is for your good and benefit. What happens though when we submit these precious gifts to him? Well, with Abraham, we just see here throughout this story, moment after moment after moment after moment of obedience. Even just some of the language, we're gonna go worship and we will come back to you. Where's the sacrifice? The Lord himself will provide. Now we don't know if he's just trying to hide the real intentions from them. But there's a sense in which, at least the author of Hebrews, says, that Abraham did not withhold his son Isaac because the writer of Hebrews says he reasoned that God could even raise him back from the dead. Abraham was so confident, the scriptures say, that whatever this was, God was going to provide. And God was going to make a way. And Abraham's job was to trust and obey. Abraham had tried before this, as we've read about, right? So many times. And he failed the test so many times. He was never able to get up over that step like those little pigs. But here, God begs him to submit to the test because God wants to show Abraham what is now in him. He wants to show Abraham that Abraham is now ready. That God is prepared to receive all and give all of this to Abraham that He's promised. God explains after Abraham passes this, he says, No, stop. Don't sacrifice your son, right? And he tells him to stop. And then God says to him, I know. That you would not withhold anything from me. I know you fear God. He says, I will surely bless you. I'll make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. Abraham has shown now that he can handle what comes next. God has continued to test Abraham over and over and over and has now been shown to be faithful. You know, if you have a bike tire that that has a leak in it somewhere, you take the tube and you you submerge it in water. When you submerge it in water, you'll see where the bubbles are coming out of the tube, right? So you see, okay, there's a spot there, and you take it out and you patch it up, and then do you go put it on your bike and start riding it again? No. You actually submerge it again in the water. wait, there's another little s patch there. Take it out again, patch it. You test it again in the water and again in the water until it shows and proves itself to be completely sealed and ready to be used. Friends, sometimes tests are revealing where the leaks are in our lives, and sometimes tests are to show: wow, there's no leak. Do you hear me? Sometimes a test is like everything that's come before in Abraham's life, where you're going like, God, what's going on? And you get through the test and you find out you're really anxious or you're fearful or you're grumpy or you're greedy or all these different things come out. Wow, I need to. What do I do with this? I gotta repent. I've got to deal with this. I've got to try and walk through it. But sometimes tests we go through and it's hard, and we're like, I think I'm handling this right. Why won't this test end? I think I'm being faithful. I'm confused. What's going on? Sometimes the test is just to show that you're faithful. And it's to tell you that you're faithful. Isn't God crazy like that? God's going, wow, look what's in you. I I knew what was in you, but I want you to see what was in you. Look at the change. Look at the transformation. You're different now. I know it feels like you keep being submerged underwater in your life. Like again, we gotta again, God's something else, and you can't come up to breathe, it feels like. But I want you to know that God in his graciousness wants you to either see what needs to be changed still in your life, or he wants to now show you that you are ready for what's next. Neither. Says that you're doing a bad job following Jesus. They are both demonstrations of God's love and care and of how much He values you. Abraham has been able to see what was in him and he was able to trust fully that God would provide. And God wants to do the same in your life too. Are you willing to go through testing to receive blessing? That's good question to sit with for just a moment. Are you willing to go through testing to receive blessing? I know it's hard. Tests are very uncomfortable and even painful. We'd prefer not to have tension and resistance in our lives. But it is in those places where God begins to change us from dependency upon ourselves to dependency upon God and his unending provision. And that's how we know we're ready to step out into all that God has given us. May we be people to go through testing so that we receive his blessing. May we be like Abraham and say, Here I am when the Lord calls us. Would you stand with me? We're going to prepare to take communion together.