How many of you like something free? I have it in my hands right here, but they're on my table back in the foyer in the back, BMI World Magazine. I don't usually say anything much about them, but this particular edition, there's two things I want you to see. Number one, it has this really handsome bald head man on the front cover. Anyway, my grandkids think so. And the main reason, there are a lot of good articles in it, but there's an article in here by Carrie Phillips, who works with the Setfins down in Uganda. And God's given her many ministries there in their school and church and orphanage. But she gets invited to go to public schools. How many of you know that all across the world, we get invited to go into public schools and preach and teach all the time. And she goes and she teaches Bible and she teaches them to play basketball. She's very athletic. Well, she was invited to this school for the blind. And she thought, I would love to do that. So she went to the school for the blind and she realized, hey, I can teach them the Bible, but how am I gonna teach blind children to play basketball? But she did. And I'm not gonna read the article to you. That's all you need to know. For no other reason, take the Beyond My World magazine, it's right toward the front of the magazine, and read Kerry's story about teaching those blind children about Jesus Christ and teaching them to play basketball. An amazing story. Well, for God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven, so loved and longed to see forgiven, the world in sin and pleasure mad, that he gave the greatest gift he had, his only begotten son, to take our place, that whosoever, oh what grace, believeth, placing simple trust in him, the righteous and the just, should not perish lost in sin, but have everlasting life in him. Wonderful, powerful, surprising words for God so loved the world. Why did God wait to John chapter three to tell us that? Well, the answer to that is very easy. He didn't wait to John chapter three to tell us that. We see the love of God from the very first pages of the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not go seeking God. They went to hide in their shame and God came looking for them. And God found them. He knew where they were at already. God was looking for them. He clothed them. He promised to them that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. I want you to be finding Genesis chapter 22. If there's any one portion of the Bible that I have used in witnessing to people, especially Muslim people, we lived there for so many years. If there's any one passage that I've used witnessing to people, it's this passage, not in the New Testament, I always ended up there. But I often, most of the time started right here with this passage. See, Abraham, back in Genesis chapter 12, God told him to leave the home where he had grown up and go to a place that God would show him. Now that sounds pretty much like a missionary to me. I want you to leave where you're from, to leave your home, and to go to some place, it doesn't have to be around the world. It may be in a different city. When I teach my college classes, I tell them very often, I'm gonna redefine the 1040 window for you. Brother Godfrey, what are you talking about? Many countries in the 1040 window you cannot go to as a missionary, but did you know that there are more Tibetans who live in Toronto than any other place in the world outside of Tibet? And we have a church, one of our missionaries who had a burden to reach Tibetans, but he couldn't get into Tibet, he went to Toronto. Did you know there are over half a million Chinese living in Vancouver, British Columbia? Did you know there's so many Filipinos in that side of Canada, the Western side of Canada, and probably the Eastern side too, that when I preach out there, sometimes I'm the only non-Filipino in the church. And all I have to say is I like Adidas. Does anybody beside me know what Adidas are? Okay, some of you. Chicken feet. Chicken, Adidas, and shoestrings. That's chicken feet and chicken intestines on a grill. Anyway, I preach up there. All I have to do is say, I like catty-catty. I get some the next day. I like Balut. I get more than one the next day. If you don't know what Balut is, you're really missing out. But I'm saying that, you see, you don't have to go the other side of the world. It might be across the street in Washington, D.C. and Herndon, Virginia. because there are people here from everywhere. And I want you to hear me tonight just to remind you, nothing new, but God did what he did so that all the world would know there's a loving God in heaven. And in Genesis chapter 12, listen to what God, Just keep in Genesis 22, but let me quote part of the verse there. God said to Abraham, and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now it's very clear God did not call Abraham so that the Jewish people could exalt themselves above other peoples. God called Abraham and his family so that the rest of the world would know there's a God in heaven who keeps His covenant. Now, when Linda and I arrived in Senegal, I'm headed to Genesis 22 shortly here. When we arrived in Senegal, we'd spent a year and a half in France. We studied French eight hours a day for a year, and then we lived in a home with a French family for six more months. And then we arrived in our country that had been a former French colony, and we got off the ship and we moved up to our place we were gonna live, and people would come up and say to me, salam, malakoum. and I would say, Je ne comprends pas. They would say, and I would say, Je ne comprends pas. How you doing? Je ne comprends pas. What's your name? Je ne comprends pas. A brilliant conversation going on. But once I learned to speak the language, And really after we'd only been there for a short time, people would come to me and say, how can you be a Christian and you have a wife and children? Because their idea of Christian were the priests and nuns from France. They'd never seen someone that had a wife and children and who were modest and dressed right and didn't smoke and drink. It kind of blew their stereotype of what they thought Christians were. And when they would ask me, how can you be a Christian and you've got a wife and children? I would say, well, let me tell you why. In the very first pages of what you call the Torah, in the very first pages here, look at it. It says, for this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife. And before I get finished, they're jumping up and down saying, I mean, do you believe that? Oh, we all believe that. And they're shouting amen in Arabic. And I would say, let me tell you another story, just a few pages over in the same book. And I would read this story that I'm going to share with you tonight. And I want to talk tonight, it's not about missionary giving really, but I want to talk tonight about Abraham's faith promise. And look at this. chapter, I'm going to read more verses than I normally do, but it's such a wonderful story. Genesis 22 verse one, and it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, behold, here I am. Hey, look, folk, that's the right answer. When God's dealing with you and your heart, Lord, I'm here, I'm listening. And he said, take now that son, that only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, clayed the wood for the burnt offering, rose up, and went into the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass and I and the lad will go yonder and worship. and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together and they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord it shall be done. Now look, I told you when I was talking with those Muslim people and they would say, how can you be a Christian if you have a wife and children? And I would read those verses in first chapters of Genesis and I would turn to this passage and I would say, let me tell you a story of how God told Abraham to take his son up on the mountain. And before I got started, those folk were jumping up and down, their eyes got wide and sort of lit up, and they would say, you believe that? You believe that story? You see, they kill a ram every year. Every family kills a ram every year in memory of God providing the ram for Abraham's son. And the moment I started the story, they got all excited. And I said, well, look, you then understand that the son did not have to die because the realm took his place. And when Yahia, that's John the Baptist, when Yahia saw Jesus coming, he looked up and he said to those around him, Well, this is a great story. Abraham was a man of faith. So many things in our lives are determined by our faith in our creator, in our savior, in our God, in our friend. How would you dare say that if he didn't tell us we could say it? But all of those things he is. Abraham believed God. In Genesis chapter 15 verse six, it says that Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. Now if it's in the Bible, it's great, it's important, you better pay attention. But when you read something in the Bible and it keeps showing up all through the Bible, it's just a way for God to underline this is very, very, very important. So in Romans chapter four and verse three, in Galatians chapter three and verse six, in James chapter two and verse 23, those same words are spoken, Abraham believed God. and it was counted unto him for righteousness. It's important. When you read this story, you not understand the story and you not understand how much of his life goes back to his faith. Faith, what is faith? Faith is, you know, people try to make it so complicated. Have you ever noticed that Americans, they were redefining words and making them mean what they don't mean at all. Faith is not jumping off the cliff in the dark and hoping things will turn out all right. Faith is not, well, I hope it'll be okay. Faith is confidence, it's trust, it's love. I say, I trust your pastor. I could take my bill full out and throw it down there to him. I wouldn't have to worry too much about it because it's not enough to help him. But I could do that, drop my credit card in, I could do that. I wouldn't hesitate, you know why? Because I trust him. Faith is so important in our lives. And when you go through this story, you see that every aspect of the life of Abraham was governed by his confidence. Folks get so confused. I was traveling, I travel. Have you ever met somebody, I hate to even tell you this, because it sounds like I'm lying. Linda and I, we don't even like to travel. I mean, we're really homebodies. We just love to go home and have a bowl of soup and a sandwich, but God has given us a burden that people are lost, and people need the right kind of faith. When I was traveling one day, Linda wasn't with me, and this man, dignified guy, suit on, got on the plane, sat beside me, smaller plane, two seats on either side, you know, and I start trying to witness to him, and he said, sir, I'm a Catholic, don't have time to listen to that. He said, I'm an executive for IBM. And so he got his laptop out and he worked and we're getting closer to landing. And he had to fold his laptop up and I started trying to talk with him again. And he said, sir, now I've already told you that I'm a Christian, but I believe it doesn't matter what you believe. It's all the same. If you're an atheist or a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist or whatever, it's all the same. As long as you're sincere. And I said, Sir, you shocked me. He said, what are you talking about? I said, well, when I sat down beside you in this seat, you told me that you work for IBM. I just assumed you were rational. He said, what are you talking about? I said, well, you're sitting there beside me and you're not even smiling telling me that you believe in 30 million gods of Hinduism and no god of Buddhism and the creator God of the Bible all at the same time. That is not faith. That's the worst kind of stupidity, I'm sorry. That is not faith at all. It's irrational, it's illogical. You cannot believe that everything is true. and I had an opportunity to witness to the man. But I wanna show you some things that always go together with faith. In verse number two, God said, take now thy son, thy only son whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there. Now watch it, faith and offering, they always go together. And if you're giving without faith, you're not really understanding what giving is at all. This was not Abraham's first act of faith in Genesis chapter 22. Abraham had demonstrated his faith when God told him to leave his home and go to a different place and in many other areas of his life, leaving home, having a child. God told Abraham and Sarah, they were gonna have a child and they were getting old. I shouldn't tell this. Does anybody else have this mischievous side to you that just gets you in trouble every once in a while? Can I tell? I'll get myself in trouble. I won't even give a love offering after this. But we were eating together today and had a great time of fellowship. And your pastor and I were talking about our good friend, John Collier. And if you know Dr. Collier, he has the greatest sense of humor of anybody in the world. But as we were talking, pastor said, but he's several years older than I am. And I said, he's that old? I'm sorry, pastor, I apologize. Look, God told Abraham, now we're having a little fun, but I want you to think, God told Abraham, he's getting close to 100 years old, and his wife's 90, and God said, you're gonna have a son. Boy, that takes a lot of faith. But Abraham was not daunted, he did not doubt. He believed when God told him something, God would do it. And by the way, you know the story, God always did. This was Abraham's faith offering because it was based on a promise. Abraham maybe didn't know how God was gonna do it. turned this story out, but Abraham knew that God knew what he was going to do. It's based on promise. The Bible says, in him shall all the world be blessed. And he believed whatever God had to do, Isaac, he'd either bring him back to life or as we saw the story turn out. Listen to these words, you don't need to turn there, but in Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible says, by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. It's interesting also that God told Abraham to take his son to this place called Moriah. In years to come, that would be the place where our Savior would hang on the cross and the offering is part of faith. But I want you to notice in that same verse number two, and he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. Something else that always goes hand in hand with faith, and that is love. The first time the word love is used in the Bible is in this verse. Now, is it the first time we see the love of God indicated? I think not. But the first time you see the word love in the Bible is in this story. Because real offering is costly. God does not want our leftovers. Now often we think, well, I'll just spend my life and do kind of what I want for a time. And when I get tired of living it up and doing all these things, and I don't want anybody to tell me what to do. I don't like authority. I'll join the Marine Corps. There are some young people do that. Okay, that's not smart. And then they come to God and say, well, Lord, you can have what's left of my life. A God-free recommendation, don't do that. There's nothing in life more joy-filled and more fulfilling than to say to the Lord, Lord, everything I have, everything I am, my future, who I'm gonna marry, where I'm gonna live, what I'm gonna do with my life, Lord, every bit of it, I'm giving it to you. It's not an offering with love. It's a costly offering. How much does God love us? You talk about a costly offering. The cross of Calvary, we've heard, you have, I have great sermons about it, the pain and all that Christ went through on that cross. And I would not downplay that at all. I don't think that's even comparable to what he suffered on that cross when my sins and your sins were put on him when he hung on that cross. Real offering is costly and love is costly. When you really love someone, You wanna do everything you can to make that person happy. So, faith and offering, faith and love go together. Something else that goes together with faith. Verse number three, and Abraham rose up early in the morning. How many of you like to get up early in the morning? Don't lie. I do, I get up, I'm up in the morning early. But notice this, faith and obedience go together. Abraham, I want you to take your son Isaac. And Abraham could have said, okay, Lord, can I keep him around here for another week before I have to do this? Abraham didn't do that. He got up early in the morning the next day. Obedience demands no delay. We don't need to say words, we don't need to vow things, we don't need just to wish it. Very often when God speaks through our heart, we just need to do it. Do you know that I've been married to this lady down here for 53 and a half years. We were in church this morning, her phone vibrated, and it was a message telling us that last night we just had our first great-granddaughter. We have a great-grandson, but she became older. Yes, last night she just became a great-grandmother again. Well, how'd I get into that? I hope we're gonna do things, we don't just say things. There's certain things, you don't understand, in the Christian life, there's certain things that you don't even have to pray about. There are, like we never pray about, are we gonna go to church this week? Our kids, Benita can tell you, not one time ever, we have five children, not one time did one of our kids get up on Sunday and wonder, are we gonna go to church today? We don't pray about it, we don't think about it. We believe in God, we believe church is vitally important. We don't think about it, we just get up and do it. Well, that's exactly what Abraham did. When he trusted God the way that he did, we don't pray about tithing. But God, you don't tithe, I didn't say that. I said, we don't pray about it. We don't have to pray about it. God told us to do it. We've done it all of our married life and we will do it till he takes us to glory. Faith and obedience go together. Look at verse number five. And Abraham said unto his young men, abide you here with the ass and I the lad will go yonder and worship. Just like love is found for the first time, that word love in the Bible in this chapter, this is the first time in the Bible, God's word, that you read that word worship. Real worship is life-changing. All those things I just talked about, giving, and going to church, and loving your wife, and loving your children, and your grandchildren, and your friends, and trying to win people to Christ, all of those things, it goes back to our view of His worthiness. When you understand who God really is and who Jesus really is, it'll change the way you think and act. We missionaries, we preach all the time from Matthew chapter 28. And we start, and he's speaking to them saying, go ye therefore and teach all nations. You know what we do? We leave out the verse that's just before that. And I want you to listen to the verse just before the Great Commission verses. They worshiped him and he said go, now look, you're never gonna go for the right reason and do the right thing and see people saved and churches built until you understand who he is and worship him in the right way. Worship, real worship always goes before work. Now I'm all for working, practical. We're saved by grace, but we're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. But the works come because we worship. God does not want cheap worship. So Brother Ephraim, what does that mean? He wants the best you have. whatever it is, time, effort, love, faith and worship go together. Verse number eight, and Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Watch it, faith and trust. Now these words are very similar, but faith and trust go together. See, Abraham believed that God will provide. I may not be able to figure it out, I don't need to know how he will do it. No wonder the Bible says, Abraham believed God. But I see something else in this. How many of you, maybe ladies, maybe gentlemen too, you've ever used Flanagrath to tell Bible stories, those of you who've been missionaries, Betty Luke and Flanagrath, how many of you know what I'm talking about? If you've ever used Betty Luke and Flanagrath and you have this story illustrated, usually here's Abraham and he's got the knife and the wood and the fire, and he's got this little boy, this little child that he's gonna tie and put on that altar. Folk, if you believe that, you never read your Bible. Isaac was not a little child when this happened. He was at the best a teenager, maybe even in his early, maybe 20-ish. Isaac was not a little boy. And when I read this story and I think about Abraham trusting, it was not only Abraham, Isaac was trusting just maybe more. Father, you got the knife and you've got the wood and you've got the fire, but where's the lamb? and he followed his dad up that mountain and let his father bind him and lay him on that altar. There's an element of trust here that's amazing. And then verse number 13, and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold a ram behind him, a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Why the horns? We lived in a place, we lived in the Sahara. It was like Bible lands. We had flat top houses and sheep and goats and camels. We rode camels where we lived. It was a lot of fun there in some ways, but it was hot and dusty and all that too. But there were some very clear promises God had made about the sacrifice that had to be offered. And one of the clearest requirements for the sacrifice was it had to be without blemish. It wasn't caught in the thicket and all torn up and had been stuck by the briars and all of that. It was caught by its horns because God knew exactly what Abraham needed. And Abraham had confidence in God and Isaac had confidence in his father. And God provided a realm, a substitute for Isaac. Faith and provision go together. No wonder Abraham said, this place is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord sees, the Lord provides. And I'm not gonna ask you tonight how many of you have ever been in a place where if God had not provided, it would not have come. God is a wonderful God. And one last thought I want you to see in this passage. I didn't read the verses, but toward the end of this chapter, verses 15, the angel of the Lord called on Abraham out of heaven the second time. And he said, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing and has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee. And in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sandwiches upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Here's what I see in this. Faith always goes with this as well. Faith and wonder. Amazement. The Holy God, the all-powerful, the Creator, how could He love me? How could He love you? Well, He is a covenant-keeping God. The covenant will be fulfilled. The seed did come. And can I say to you tonight that that seed will come again? And there's still a wonder in what Jesus does when missionaries go out across the earth. Look, if it were up to our ability and our persuasive language and how we perceive our great intellect, that's a joke. But it's not about all that. We're not going to the mission field. They didn't go to Ecuador to turn those people into Americans. Why would anybody want to do that? And the only way that any great thing will ever happen on the mission field or here either is when God does it, but God does it. I've done missions conferences this fall. I've been from Seattle to Boston and a lot of places in between. I like to call them mission revivals. I've seen people saved. I had a young man saved in Seattle. I had a young couple saved in Boston. People getting saved, we need to keep the wonder of it. Churches like this one, they're not on every corner. How many of you know there's a church on every corner, but not churches like this one? We need not lose the wonder of it, that God will take us and save us and allow us to be his servants. That's one of the most humbling thoughts I think a man or woman could ever have. Lord, why would you wanna use me? A little backward hillbilly country boy from a broken home. A little girl from a, her daddy worked in a textile mill and farmed on the side. So timid that she'd hide behind her mother. Wouldn't even talk to you unless you just looked her right in the eyes. Nobody in the church we grew up in would have said, there's somebody God can use. Hey, there's a wonder. I mean, I sit back and think, Lord, I don't know why you chose me. I wasn't looking for it, but I'm amazed. And we sing it, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Let's save a wretch like me. But beyond the salvation, as wonderful as that is, God will save us, but God will use us. And God can use you as well. that you have the faith of Abraham. Dear Lord, I pray that you'd strengthen our faith tonight. Help us not to have cheap offering, cheap worship, or cheap love, but may we give you all of our hearts. In Jesus' name we ask it. Would you stand please? I don't know what God's doing in your heart. Even as I preach, you know, God's working on my heart, reminding me again, Lord, you've been so good to me. You've been so wonderful. I wanna serve you with every bit of energy I have. I'm not getting any younger, but I don't feel old yet, not too much anyway. What a joy to serve him. If God's speaking to your heart and you need to come pray at the altar, why don't you come?