OPEN: Several years back a woman wrote this letter to Ann Landers
“Dear Ann Landers:
The letter from the woman married to the tightwad …reminded me of my wonderful aunt. Aunt "Emma" was married to a tightwad who was also a little strange. He made a good salary, but they lived frugally because he insisted on putting 20 % of his paycheck under the mattress (he didn’t trust banks.)
The money, he said, was going to come in handy in their old age. But when "Uncle Ollie" was 60, he was stricken with cancer. Toward the end, he made Aunt Em promise, in the presence of his brothers that she would put the money he had stashed away in his coffin so he could buy his way into heaven if he had to.
They ALL knew he was a little odd, and this was clearly a crazy request. Aunt Em did promise, however, and assured Uncle Ollie’s brothers that she was a woman of her word and would do as he asked.
The following morning she took the money (about $26,000) to the bank and deposited it. When he died 4 days later… she wrote a check and put it in the casket.”
APPLY: Uncle Ollie had made a decision: to trust his money for the promise of security. He had decided that putting money under his mattress would protect him in his old age. But he was wrong… his “old age never came - He died!
And Uncle Ollie had decided that his money could buy him the security of heaven. But he was wrong… money couldn’t buy him so much as a postage stamp area within the halls of heaven.
I. There are many people who are not quite as brazen about trusting their money as “Ollie” was. But there are a lot are of people who put their faith in their finances.
If they have money… they feel they have the promise of safety and security. Money serves as a buffer against tragedy and failures and difficulties of life.
Now… the Bible DOES say that we should be good stewards of what God’s given us.
“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” (Proverbs 10:4)
“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.” (Proverbs 12:24)
And in the New Testament we’re told the same thing. Paul noticed that some Christians were getting so “heavenly minded” they were becoming freeloaders: “… even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’ We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)
BUT Paul warned Timothy to “Command those who are rich in this present world not… to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17)
In other words: God’s people need to make a decision NOT to trust money for their promise of security. We need to put our hope in God, not in our the contents of billfold or checking account… because only God can give us what we really want.
The writer of Hebrews 6:12 tells us “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
(REPEAT) We must imitate those who thru faith and patience… inherited what has been promised. (pause) The Bible tells me that Abraham was a man of promise.
In fact, the Bible tells me that Abraham was one of the greatest men of the whole Bible.
Romans 4:3 “…Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Romans 4:16 “…the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring…. He is the father of us all.”
Abraham was a great man and what made Abraham great was his faith.
When God made a promise… Abraham believed God. And because of his faith, Abraham received what God had promised him.
So… Abraham was a great man and he was a great man because he was a man of faith.
II. Now, Genesis 22 tells us some very intriguing things about Abraham’s faith
1st it tells us that Abraham faith required him to make a decision.
This was not a casual commitment Abraham was being asked to make. It was a hard decision. He was being asked to sacrifice his son. To give his son totally to God. To surrender the one thing in the world that he loved the most, next to God Himself. This was not a CASUAL commitment God was asking of Abraham.
God was asking Abraham to take a chance with his faith. To trust Him with the one thing that had been promised him.
ILLUS: One of the great football quarterbacks of the 1980’s was Ken Stabler of the Oakland Raiders. A Sports Illustrated journalist was interviewing him and – in the process of the interview recited a quote from Jack London that went: "I’d rather be ashes than dust. I would rather have my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and perseverant planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist."
Then the interviewer asked Stabler what that quote meant to him personally. Now Stabler was not a philosopher or theologian… he was a quarterback. So he puzzled over that quote for a couple of minutes, then looked up and said: "Throw deep?"
“Throw Deep”
Every good quarterback realizes that if you’re going to win football games… if you’re going to be a great football team… you’ve got to throw deep once in a while. You’ve got to take chances or you’ll never win. You’ll never succeed. You’ve got to throw deep
And that’s the way it is with faith as well: Once in while you’ve got to “throw deep”. You’ve got to take chances on God. You’ve got to believe in Him and His promises even when it means you might fail.
Hudson Taylor once said, "Unless there is an element of risk… there is no need for faith."
And that’s what Abraham was being asked to: take a risk… make a decision… trust God… throw deep.
2nd – Abraham wasn’t being impulsive in making his decision
Turn with me to Genesis 22:2-4
“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. 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.”
Abraham had 3 whole days to think about what he was about to do. His decision was not made on the spur of the moment.
ILLUS: Last Sunday, I told the true story of the man give his testimony at my last church. He was part of visiting quartet, and as he stood on stage he told of how he came to Christ after many years of alcoholism, self indulgence and waste. When he finally came to Christ, his family’s finances were in a terrible state of disrepair. One night, while attending a Revival at his church, he looked into his wallet for something to put into the offering plate. All he had was a $20. He and his wife looked at one another, remembering a significant bill that was coming due, she squeezed his hand in agreement, and, he placed the $20 in the plate. He said that they both experienced something like a lifting of a burden from their shoulders.
When they got home, there on the dining room table was an envelope containing the precise amount that they needed to pay their creditor. He marveled at the grace of God in supplying his need at the just the right time with just the right amount of money
Following the sermon last Sunday a lady came up to me and shared about how touched they were by that story. This person told me that they had been struggling financially as well, and they had come that Sunday with only $20 in their wallet and they said they wished they had placed that $20 in the offering plate when it was passed.
I was touched by her earnestness and openness. But I told her not to worry about it. She needed to home and pray with her husband about what God wanted them to give. Her gift to God should be something they’d agreed on and had spent time praying about.
Too often, Christians find themselves at worship, rifling through their purse or wallet, looking for something to put into the offering plate. But that really isn’t the way our offerings ought to be. What we give should be something we’ve already decided to give.
2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that “Each man should give what he has DECIDED in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Proverbs tells us we should “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops” (Proverbs 3:9)
The giving of “firstfruits” meant that the giver has given careful thought to their offerings. They were generally not spur of the moment decisions. These offerings have been prayerfully considered. They gave what they had already decided to give.
3rd - Abraham based his decision on a specific promise
I had read several sermons on this text by other preachers. And a couple of them pictured Abraham taking that long walk up the mountainside with his son with a sadness in his heart and a tear in his eyes. Now, I don’t want to detract from the difficulty of Abraham’s decision. But by the time Abraham had reached that mountain, I’m convinced he had his mind made up. He was making this final leg of his trip with an unshakable confidence and conviction.
In fact, I just noticed something this morning that I hadn’t seen before: Genesis 22:5 tells us that Abraham “said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then WE will come back to you.’”
Abraham thoroughly expected to return with a live Isaac by his side.
How could Abraham be so confident? Well, he had already based his decision upon a promise God had made.
Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
This is how Abraham reasoned:
1. God promised him this boy
2. God promised that “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned”
3. God couldn’t lie…
4. Therefore even if Isaac died up there on the mountain top, God would raise him from the dead.
Abraham based his decision upon a specific promise God had made.
When we offer our tithe to God it is based upon specific promises from God. Several times in Scripture we’re told something similar to what we find in Proverbs 3:9-10
“Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
In other words: God is promising us that if we HONOR Him with our firstfruits…
… if we TRUST Him with our tithe…
… then He will honor us. He will reward us
He wasn’t promising to make us wealthy and rich beyond our fondest dreams.
But He was telling us: If we take care of His needs in the church… He’ll take care of our needs.
ILLUS: Last year, I had an epiphany. A “eureka moment”. I had just got done preaching the Sunday before, about giving and tithing to God and I was struggling with guilt. Many of you folks are not “rich” people. And I felt guilty about challenging you to give a tithe to God when you had difficulty simply paying bills.
But then it occurred to me: my guilt was actually a lack of faith.
I have personally always trusted God with my family’s tithe. I believed God could supply for me if I honored Him with my giving. But here I was doubting that God would honor his promise to the rest of you.
My guilt wasn’t based on compassion… but on a lack of faith. I had to spend a certain amount of time in prayer repenting of my faithlessness and asking for forgiveness.
So, let’s revue:
1st – Abraham’s faith required him to make a difficult decision
2nd – His decision was not made on the spur of the moment
3rd – His decision was based upon a specific promise God had made
And 4th – Abraham’s decision increased his faith and gave him a powerful testimony for God.
When Abraham was willing to act upon his faith, God stepped in and said: “Do not lay a hand on the boy. 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.’” (Genesis 22:12-14)
The name of that place – in the Hebrew – is called “Jehovah-Jirah” which means: “The Lord Will Provide”. The writer of Genesis (believed to Moses) was writing this over 250 years after Abraham went there with Isaac. And that writer is telling us “to this day it is said…” In other word, over 250 years after God provided the Ram for Abraham’s sacrifice… people still knew the story. They still knew that God was faithful and that God would provide. That mountain became a testimony of God’s faithfulness and influenced the lives of hundreds of people for years afterward.
CLOSE: This morning, I’m going to ask you to do a couple of things. I have no desire to manipulate you in this… so if you don’t want to take part… don’t feel pressured to do so.
But I do intend to challenge your faith a little this week.
After the sermon last week, one of our deacons shared what he’d heard from a church in Cincinnati. The preacher there had challenged his people – even if they had never tithed before - to bring their tithe the next. After the services he shared how much they had collected… about 3 times the normal offering. And many people were convicted by what took place.
I want to challenge you to come prepared to give a tithe next week. If you’ve never done it before, try it just this once and see what God can do for this church… and for you.
2ndly – I want us to pray right now about next week’s offering. I was reading just this week about a church that was experiencing difficulties. The preacher went walking around the church grounds doing a “prayer walk” and anointed several items in the building as he went.
That got me to thinking. If we just brought our offerings next week and became overwhelmed by what was given… we might be tempted to be proud of what WE had done. But I don’t want this offering to be OUR gift… I want God to be honored in it.
What we’re going to do is pass the offering plates right now. I do NOT want you to put any money in the plate. What I want is for you to do is bow your heads, and as the plate is passed, hold it for a couple of seconds and mentally dedicate next week’s offering to God.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
The Attitude of Ownership - 1 Chronicles 29:1-29:20
The Bondage of Debt - Deuteronomy 28:1-28:14
The Power Of Choice - Malachi 3:7-3:12
The Decision and The Promise - Genesis 22:1-22:19
