Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
November 6, 2005 - W0545

“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Heb. 11:8)  

Sometimes God will tell us just as He did with Abraham to go to a place we’ve never been before. For many, we don’t want to go unless there is a guaranteed outcome. In fact, how many of us would pack up, journey to a place of uncertainty, all without hesitation? Abraham based his decision on faith. God later tells Abraham that he would have a son and be the father of many nations, but their age there must have been some question of how that would actually take place. And as it happens, Abraham takes the promise of God into his own hands having a son Ishmael with Hagar, his wife’s servant. Though Ishmael would become the father of the Arab nations, he wasn’t who God promised.

Don’t we all do that sometimes? God gives us a promise and we try to help the process along by cutting corners and taking matters into our own hands that are ill-timed. Yet we find that even through the pain and anguish Abraham felt, his response was to obey and that…

1.     IMMEDIATE OBEDIENCE IS WHAT GOD CALLS FAITH.

Abraham made a mistake by misinterpreting God’s promise. However, from the beginning, everything that God asks Abraham to do he does. Abraham had tough decisions to make, but the book of Genesis has a recurring phrase showing us Abraham’s response: “and early in the morning, he saddled his donkey and went”. God spoke to him at night and the very next morning, he acted on God's command. It must have broken his heart to have to send Ishmael and Hagar away, but he obeyed. “So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar…and sent her away.” (Gen. 21:14)

So God first tells Abraham to let Ishmael and Hagar go. Think about the anguish he must have felt having to send his son way. Nevertheless, he obeys God. Then as promised, Sarah gives birth to a son, Isaac. Abraham and Sarah loved him so much not realizing they were gradually misplacing their love for the Lord by lavishing their affections on their son more that on God.

And because of that transfer of love to Isaac instead of the Lord, Abraham would have to make a difficult decision because God would ask him to sacrifice Isaac. “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took…Isaac his son…split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place which God had told him.” (Gen. 22:3)

When God speaks to us about something that we know is from God we need to deal with whatever that may be. Whether that is our attitude, our life, or a relationship, the most important thing is immediate obedience. That’s because the longer wait, deliberate, or debate about it, the weaker we get. Then we become susceptible to the devil’s temptation and rationalizations. The enemy knows if we postpone our obedience and ignore sin, he will be able to take a foothold. That’s why…

·        OUR GOAL: MAKE GODLY DECISIONS WITHOUT LONG DELIBERATION.

There’s a story of a photographer who used to take photos of eagles and their nests. One time his quest to take a photo of a rare eagle and the eggs laid in the nest required him to secure a rope over an extended part of the cliff above the nest and pendulum swing himself in order to get enough momentum for him to grab onto the rocks and pull himself into the cave. Then to keep the rope from swinging out, he tied one of his cameras to the end of it as a weight and proceeded taking his photos. In the meantime, the camera that weighted the rope began slipping and swung out just has he turned to leave. He had to make a split-second decision. For when that rope came to the end of its arc and was on its backswing, he knew the first pass would be the closest chance he had to grab onto it because with each subsequent pass the rope would be further and further from him until it eventually stopped swinging. He needed to jump on the first backswing.  

The same is true for us. God’s voice is strongest when He first speaks to us. If we ignore Him, his voice gets quieter and quieter until it hangs still. Then we will come to a point in life when we wonder why we cannot hear God. That’s why our goal needs to be immediate obedience without long deliberations.

We are prone to temptation the longer we think about something God asks us to take care of right away. And if we keep contemplating, we lose our strength to resist. In fact, the Bible says that the Israelites who came out of Egypt had that kind of tendency: “…if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.” (Heb. 11:15) The opportunity to go back becomes real when we think about it too much.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” (Matt. 5:13) We are the salt of the earth and when God puts us in situations, we must flavor our surroundings. We cannot deliberate on whether or not to blend in because if we do, we then lose our ability to influence others the way God intended.

And that’s why God asked Abraham to give up his son. He knew that his love for his son took precedence over his love for the Lord. Eventually it would interfere with God’s intentions for Isaac's life. By shielding Isaac from being hurt Abraham thought he would be protecting him. In reality, it would impede God’s will for Isaac’s life.

Nevertheless, as we continue to see, Abraham obeys God and takes his son up to be sacrificed. We soon discover that God didn’t really want Isaac’s life. And that’s the same for us…

2.     GOD WANTS MY HEART.

“And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham…Do not stretch your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me.’” (Gen. 22:10-12) God didn’t want Isaac, He wanted Abraham’s heart and God needed to break something in Abraham so his focus and heart was back on God.

The devil would love for us to transfer our hearts to anything or anyone other than God. Once that happens, our life is easily corrupted and we are open to the devil’s deception messing up. And even if it’s only one thing, it shatters our heart. However, when our heart is on Him, when there are corrections that need to be made, we are able to obey because we are weighted on Him and there is a balance.

That’s why God had to get Abraham’s heart back on the Lord otherwise everything highlights the wrong things.

·        ABRAHAM NEEDED TO HONOR GOD MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE.

“Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded…and honor your sons more than Me…?” (1 Sam. 2:29 NKJV)  Eli loved his sons so much that even when they messed up and sinned, he thought he was protecting them by not disciplining them. The fact was that he was actually destroying them.

God spoke to Eli about the same kind of sin that happened with Abraham. Yet the difference is Abraham listened and Eli didn’t. The result was God eventually removed Eli’s whole family because he didn’t obey God when he first spoke.

There are times I myself see my family or my staff do things I know is not right, but I love them so much and want to protect them. Yet God says I must not honor my staff or family above Him. I may think I’m protecting them, but whatever God is speaking is what He wants to bring out in order to heal or correct.

When my heart switches from honoring God above all else, I hinder Him from speaking into their lives. Why was it so important that God correct Abraham’s loyalties right away? It’s because…

3.     ABRAHAM’S GREATEST MINISTRY WOULD BE IN THE NEXT GENERATION.

For many of you here, your greatest contribution to this church will be in the next generation. The fact is you honor God by the way you support, encourage, and mentor our young people. Keep in mind that loving them more than God will hinder them instead of protect them. We will be in the way of God speaking directly into their lives and we actually will risk losing this next generation.

The Bible says: “All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God.” (Heb. 11:13 NLT) And for many of us, we will see the promises of God at a distance too. The Bible says that David prepared everything for Solomon to build the temple and Moses never entered the Promised Land. Yet their contribution influenced generations that followed.

And it’s not just instruction for raising our children. His instruction pertains to everything and anything that takes our affections away from God. You see if our heart is weighted correctly and God says “no” to something we’ll be able to obey Him. Otherwise the devil takes hold of it and we are doomed.

Abraham teaches us some powerful and valuable lessons about faith and so does Isaac. He was probably 17 years old when Abraham took him up the mountain intending to sacrifice him in obedience to God. Why do you think Isaac never resisted? My guess is that Isaac watched Abraham obey God all his life. He watched God reward his father’s obedience then at some point that faith was transferred from his father to him. Thus, Abraham’s greatest ministry began to already take place in the next generation.

So that is our goal too -- that our faith will lead us to immediate obedience, our goal being to make Godly decisions quickly because God wants our heart to be weighted on Him. Remember the longer it takes for us to obey, the quieter His voice becomes until we won’t be able to hear Him even if He’s speaking. We must also be mindful that all honor, praise, and glory belongs to God. And then we will understand that our greatest influence, our greatest contribution; our greatest ministry will be in the next generation.

Discussion Questions:

1.      Has God ever asked you to go somewhere you’ve never been? What was your response?

2.      Are you listening to God’s promptings? How long does it take for you to consider His instructions before making a decision? Are you having difficulty hearing His voice?

3.      Does God have your heart or is it weighted on other people or other things? If it is not fully on God, prayerfully consider what you must do to make that shift back to God.

4.      Has God revealed anyone in your life that He needs to deal with directly? Are you hindering Him from doing that by protecting them from getting hurt?

5.      What most impacted you about today’s lesson? How will you obey His instruction?