FEB 18 2024 | Genesis: Behind the Curtain S3E4 | Here I Am

Sea Change Church · Genesis: Behind the Curtain · "Here I Am" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · February 18, 2024
Genesis 27:30–38
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

The book of Genesis, chapter 22, verses 1 through 8. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Right on, well, welcome to church this morning. If you have your Bibles, open up to Genesis. We're still in Genesis for a few more weeks in this eight-episode series as we continue to look at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I also want to welcome Dani. Was singing right there, just sang for us. She's new to staff. She's going to be our digital media director.

We're going to be doing some worship with her from UCSD, so we're super stoked. Say hi to her. As you see here, they'll be probably hanging out. And let's give it up again for the worship band. UCSD, let's go. Quick announcement. If you want to come to the final four of the CIF Girls Basketball Championships on Tuesday night, which my daughter might happen to be in with a bunch of our kids, it is Tuesday night, 7 p.m.

It's going to cost you 10 shillings to get in. Show up. We need a home crowd. We took care of business the other night. And so Tuesday night, 7 p.m., show up. You will find me there. And thanks for everybody that came. Let me just pray real quick. Lord, bless this sermon. I want to hear from you today, Jesus. I need more of you. And we just bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. Get the climax of the story here. Absolute climax of the story.

Abraham has been middling for a while now, on and off, doing things he shouldn't do, figuring things out on his own. And he's gotten to a place, an apex in his life, where it says that God tested him. And it was from that place that everything changed. He's willing to give away the shiny thing, not to dehumanize Isaac. But we all have a thing in our life that we want, right? And Abraham has come to a place here where God has said, the son that I promised you, that I said you would have nations from, I want him.

I want to sacrifice him. Now, this is a preemptive to what God is going to do with his own son. If you don't see the salvific nature of this, I want to encourage you to re-look at it. And God was never meaning to take and cause a human sacrifice. But Abraham didn't know that. Abraham's new to God. And in the midst of being new to God and looking around at the other religions that were around him and the place that he had come from, way from the east, human sacrifice was part of the deal.

So we get to a place where God tests Abraham, and Abraham moves forward in that test. And from that point on, Abraham's never the same. Abraham doesn't go back to the middling kind of just do the best we can, do things on our own that we have seen before. And so I guess the first question I want to start with is this. And I began to think about it yesterday is, what could you not give up? There's things God won't ask you to give up.

There's things that God, like vows, like our marriage vows, things like that. There's certain things that he wouldn't ask you to give up. So let's just take that out of the question. But then there's this whole group of other shiny things, right? There's this whole group of things that we hold on to, reputation, money, houses, job, job, the thing we want to do, the song we want to sing, the dance we want to dance, the book we want to write.

All these things, the relationship we want to have, whatever it is. What would you currently have a difficult time giving up? Or you just say, I just couldn't give that up. This is a real challenge here, right? Because God wants it all. C.S. Lewis, when he speaks about God wanting it all, says God doesn't want a branch here and a branch there, or a leaf there, or a little bit of fruit here. It says he wants the whole tree down, and he wants to replace it with a new tree, with new fresh roots.

And he says, you know, a new stump, and new branches, and new fruit. He wants it all. And this is the call that Jesus makes. Jesus is never looking for half measures, but his grace allows half measures. Because you see, for over 100 years, Isaac has been doing half measures. So if you think, well, gosh, I'm 64 years old, and I'm still doing half measures. I mean, look at, look at, I mean, excuse me, not Isaac, Abraham is still doing half measures.

And so just to give a little bit of grace, and grace is all over this passage. And so the first thing is, I just want you to take that shiny thing, and just be aware of it here in the passage. There's one point today that I really want to hit. I had a couple points, but I thought this was good enough that we would just hit it. And it's forging a here-I-am faith. It's just a here-I-am faith. Even in the way that Abraham just answers God, it's so present.

It's so available. It's so different. You're going to see that God even understands that Abraham has gotten to this new place. And he calls him in a different way than he'd ever called him before. And so it's forging a here-I-am faith. And I guess the question, once again, because the Scripture is always a mirror to us, is how present are you for the work of God in your life today? For the here-I-am faith. I am here.

I'm ready, God, whatever you have. I wrote in the notes, here I am. This response signifies readiness. Readiness. Obedience. Attentiveness to God's call. I love that word readiness. It's interesting, when Abraham gets called, it isn't a, I'll get back to you later, faith. Somebody does that with Jesus. Remember, Jesus comes up and he says, follow me. And he says, well, I've got to go bury my father. I've got to do this.

I've got to do this. I've got to take care of things at home. And Jesus is all, well, why don't you go do all that? And when you're ready to come, follow me, follow me. And so he says, leave that behind and just make me number one. I think developing this readiness, this here-I-am faith, is you have an alertness. You're on high alert to what God wants to do in your life. So the first point is here I am spirituality. Go to verse one.

So sometime later, we're seeing time movement there. There's been a while. God tested, circle tested. We're going to get back to that. Abraham. God tested Abraham. He said to Abraham, Abraham. That's important. Exclamation point in the usage there on purpose. Here I am, he replied. Man, I love that. I just love it. One, you're going to see in a moment that God in the scripture has never addressed Abraham this way. He's just never addressed him this way.

He's addressed him multiple times. But not once in all the times that we see him addressing Abraham does he say Abraham. He has all these indirect times where it says the Lord spoke to Abraham, God said to Abraham. But he's never said Abraham. I think there's a reason for that. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But this is the first time, as you'll see in your notes, in the entire story of Abraham where he is specifically and directly addressed as Abraham.

Let's look at a few other instances just to show you biblically what I'm talking about. The first one is in Genesis 12.1. It's the covenant of the land where it says that God directs him. You can go back and look these up. But it says God spoke to Abraham. Or God called to Abraham. God said something to him. It was an indirect. All five of these are indirect when he calls him. There's a name change in the covenant of circumcision in Genesis 15, same way.

In Genesis 17.5, you have the name change where they change his name to Abraham and the covenant of circumcision there. And then Abraham and Isaac's birth. So those are the five times that we see. The call to leave Haran when he first began. You can look these up. The covenant of the land when he tells him that he's going to get the land. The name change where he takes his name from Abram to Abraham. And then the announcement of Isaac's birth.

And then you also have the name change in the covenant of circumcision. In all of those, God has never called him Abraham. Why is that? Well, God changed his name for a reason. Because God changed him from father. Abram means father. To a father of nations or to a father of many. And there's a difference. They're both fathers. But there's an absolute distinct difference between a father and a father of nations and a father of many.

God never called him that name. He spoke to him directly. I think because that Abraham had not become Abraham. And Abraham has gotten to a point of liminality. Let me tell you what that word means. Liminality means this. It's a transitional stage from between who you are and who you're becoming. And the word actually says that when you're in the middle of this point, when you're in the middle of this place, in a space of liminality, that it's confusing.

It causes a lack of understanding. But you're moving to something. And there's no sureness. It's because you have one foot here in the old self. And you have one foot in the new self or in the new experience. And you're not fully present. But after some time, Abraham became fully present. And God says to the first time to him, it says, Abraham. That's a big difference. Let me tell you what God is waiting for. God is waiting to call you by the name that he has for you.

Now, God probably isn't going to change your name like he changed Abraham's name. But metaphorically, there's a place that God wants you to attain. We're always going to be attaining. We're always going to be moving forward. It's not a place of perfection. That's what I'm not saying. But it is a here I am faith that has a readiness for God that says I no longer want to be middling, living in the gray area of sin or whatever my own agenda is.

But I am a place where, God, I am fully here, fully present, and there for you. And in that moment, God will reach out and he'll say, Tina, Jeff, Rebecca, Tony, whatever your name is, put your name there because we are going to get to business. Let me say, you can live with one foot in this camp and one foot in the here I am every so often. And God is gracious. You're still going to experience his love. You're still going to do amazing things.

God is going to move in so many different ways. But it isn't going to be, as we'll see in the next point, oftentimes, God's best. And so what we're looking for is God's best. He had moved from this place of liminality to a place of stability in knowing who he is. I guess in order to know who you are, you have to understand who God's called you to be. You see, Abraham knew that his name had been changed and he knew what it meant, but he didn't believe it.

So he kept doing things like marrying Hagar and having his wife pretend like she's not his wife and all these things, as we've seen in the last stories. He hadn't gotten to that place. But after some time, and I don't know what happened in that time. He had lost his son. We know that. Hagar had been sent away. Ishmael was gone. He had been through heartache. He had issues with his family. After some time, he had become Abraham.

And God says to him and actually puts an exclamation on the point, Abraham, and he calls him by it. You know who I want to be? I want to be truly Adam. I want God to come to me and say, Adam, we got business to do. Adam, I know who you are. And in order to know where God's calling you to go, you have to know who he's called you to be. And oftentimes, we never get a chance beyond the distractions, beyond our own things that confuse us and blind us and change our perspective on things.

And we never get a sense of who God has truly called you to be. Some of you, he's called to the poor in such a dynamic way. But you don't have an understanding that he's done that because we haven't spent the time or we've been, like I said, middling. One foot in one camp and one foot in the other. I put the name Abraham essentially means exalted father or high father in Hebrew. And excuse me, Abram means that. God changes Abraham's name to Abraham, which means father of many, a father of the multitude.

The transition from Abraham to Abraham is significant in the biblical text, symbolizing a deepening covenant of relationship with God and indicating a transformation in Abraham's role in his complete identity. I have a feeling that Abraham walked up to the top of Mount Moriah. That's where the temple sits in Jerusalem right now. That's where he was. Up there thinking God's going to do two things. He's either going to stop me or he's raising my son from the dead.

One or the other. Those are his two options. And so when he calls him up, he walks there with boldness because he knows that God has got this. He knows that God has got this. And in the midst of that, he had faith because he was walking up there saying, well, I don't know what you're going to do then, but you promised me and I believe that I am the father of many nations. And it's through my son Isaac, through whom your people will be reckoned, like he said.

And he believed God for his word. And we know earlier on that that faith, it is credited to him as righteousness. You've got to know who you're called to be before you can become who God wants you to be. And so that is an understanding of that and moving to that next place. And we see that to move from the place of liminality to a place of stability. To move from that place. Next thing we see here is, here I am. That word really fast tracks us to God's best.

I will say that that word, I said I'd get back to a test. I'd go back to verse one. Some time later. God tested Abraham. Tested. I want to say that God is testing us all the time. And I can think of five times in my life where God has tested me. Now what does a test look like? It means that God allows a decision moment. A moment of decision. That's what it is. That's what a test is. It's a moment of decision. It might be a temptation.

It might not be a temptation. It might be just letting things go. Giving things away. It might just be being more benevolent. I don't know what it is. It's a decision for righteousness as opposed to a decision for unrighteousness. Whatever it is. But there's distinct moments in our life where God tests us. And you will know when those moments come. Because there will be big moments in your life. I'm not saying God doesn't have a little test.

He's probably testing us all the time. But I can think of five distinct tests. I can think of one when I was in college. New Christian. Where it didn't go as well. It was about being honest. And I wasn't honest. And I got called out for it. And it affected me negatively. I can think of four other times where God has tested me. Distinct. Just hardcore. Apex testing. Where God gave me the ability to make the right decisions.

And I had major doors open in my life after that testing. I'm talking major doors. Like books. All kinds of things that God had for me. The job here at this church. Just major times where I look back and I'm like, that was a test. And if I had not passed that test, perhaps I wouldn't be where I am. Now you say, how can that be? How can that be? That, you know, I believe that one of the tests, I was in a, had a potential for a relationship.

And God said no. And I knew he said no. And I actually said no to the relationship. Met my wife like within two days later. Just, I think it was a day or two days later. Immediately met my wife right afterwards. And I believe that if I had not, you know, overcome that test, nothing against that girl. She's a great woman. But if I had not said no to what I knew God was telling me in my heart, I don't think I'd be married.

You say, how can that be? How can God? That can't be. God can't work like that. He doesn't know the future. We give more credit to Google Maps rerouting us to our final destination than we give to God. For real, right? Go this way. Save you four minutes. Go that way. Save you nine minutes. Takes you two extra hours. Okay? They're getting better. Why do we think Google Maps can do that but God can't? Seriously. You trust Google Maps to reroute you to your destination.

I know I do oftentimes. Then I trust God that he can do that because for some reason God can't do it because there's a theological reason of, you know, his understanding of the future and history and how all that works. But Google Maps can do it. Let's say God can reroute you. And I want to say if you're going to stick in a place of middling liminality and never walk into that place and decide that you want to be the person you want to be, I want to say you're probably just going to keep getting rerouted.

The Israelites, as we know, in Exodus was just rerouted, right? Forty years. It was like two-week journey maybe? I don't know. It was quick. Forty years. Just back and forth, back and forth. God's like, okay, we'll reroute this. I looked up all the times there was a here I am moment. And God knows when you're ready for here I am. He just knows. Here I am. Whatever you want. You want the house, the car, the job. Whatever you want, God.

Whatever you want to take. And in those moments, I looked these up in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, I found that Jacob in Genesis 31, 11, and Genesis 42, twice Jacob responds to God with here I am. Jacob was a mess, right? A heel grabber. He was dishonest, deceitful. But twice he shows up and he says, here I am. Moses, in Exodus 34, when the Lord calls out to him from within the burning bush, Moses responds, here I am.

Samuel, Samuel 3, 4. I love Samuel. A little boy, right? Living in the temple. And Eli can no longer hear the word of the Lord anymore. And so he's got Samuel who becomes the prophet that anoints David. Samuel is in there sleeping in the holy, not in the holy of holies, but in the tabernacle, in the temple area. And God begins to speak. And after two times, Samuel goes back out and says, Eli, I heard the Lord speak to him.

And he says, okay, the third time, if you hear him again, he says, answer, here I am. And that little boy says, here I am. And he was a here I am man from the time he was a child. He was acting as almost in a maturity of faith that young people often don't have. He was calling out the name, the Lord calling him by name and responds with here I am. Once again, he calls him by name. In Isaiah, and probably the most known example, right, is Isaiah the prophet.

We've been looking at him in our Christmas series. Isaiah 6, 8. During his vision of the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted, Isaiah hears the Lord asking, whom shall I send? Whom shall I send as a messenger? And Isaiah responds with, here I am. Send me. Facts. Facts. Slay, Isaiah. Slay. Facts. Isaiah says, I am here. And you know what? Send me. Send me. Not knowing where he's going to go. Remember, Abraham says multiple times, the first time he sent him, and he sends it here and did it in this passage, go to the place I'm going to show you.

Google Maps doesn't even do that, right? It'll try to tell the destination. God's like, I'm going to route you out, and you're going to know where you are when you get there in retrospect. And if you feel that's where you are, that's why we call it faith, you know, and not, you know, complete understanding of knowing, of foregone conclusion in all of these. Isaiah, once again, is saying, here I am. Send me. Do you want to be sent?

It's a great question. Do you want to be sent? Do you want to be like Mother Teresa and sent to the poor? Do you want to be like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sent against the Nazi occupation? Do you want to be like Charles Wesley and sent out of the churches and into the fields in order to sing the hymns that weren't supposed to be sung, in order to preach the gospel that shouldn't have been preached to the peasants and the proletariat?

Do you want to be that person who reached out? Do you want to be that person? Do you want to be the person that God has called you to be? Because he knows who he's called you to be and that'll never, that'll never stop happening and that calling will never stop until you get to heaven. You eventually are going to be the person God's called you to be. You're going to get to heaven and it says he's even going to give you a new name in Revelation and only you and Jesus are going to know that name.

You're going to become that person. But you can get rerouted to a faster track to more of that person today if you want. And we see that. I was reading about Daryl Strawberry. I was looking at different examples. I like to have different examples in sermons that kind of talk to everybody, whether it be the sports person or the brain surgeon or whoever we're talking to. I saw Daryl Strawberry. If you don't know Daryl Strawberry, you guys are young.

Baseball player, so talented. I mean, just incredibly talented baseball player. Just, I mean, and a person of faith but struggled. He was on the Mets, a bunch of different teams, and he had a cocaine addiction. And he was just in the tabloids back in the day, before the Internet. If the Internet was around when Daryl Strawberry was around, it would have been even worse. And I love what Daryl Strawberry says. Daryl Strawberry says, here I am, a baseball superstar, falling into pits, having everyone write you off, and then having God say, I'm going to use your mess for a message.

And how beautiful is that? Man, I love that. God wants to turn your mess into a message. We were workshopping this thought in our small group. I keep workshopping things in small group. I love our small group. I hope you're in a small group. They're amazing. Change your life. We were workshopping that. And we're talking about the difference of just being a Christian whose testimony is, hey, well, I'm just a sinner, and I still got all these issues, and, you know, I'm doing my best, and whatever.

And then having the testimony of, like, hey, we've stepped over. And you know what? God has freed me from that. And both are powerful. Both are powerful. And I understand if we're in that in-between, that liminality, if we're in that place of transition, God uses that. I remember I would do cocaine with people, and I remember actually doing cocaine and PB, and I snorted the line. I looked up, and I'm like, hey, man, you guys got to follow Jesus.

I'm like, you know, I know I shouldn't be doing this. I'm a believer. But, and I know it's not right, but you guys got to follow Jesus. For real. Down on Garnett. And I wrote a chapter on that called Shepherds in the Wilderness. There's a passage in the Old Testament that talks about shepherds in the wilderness. We have all these children who have left the faith and are walking around, and they're shepherds in the wilderness.

They know the faith. They grew up in it. They're on college campuses right now. They're partying. They know they shouldn't be. See, once Jesus gets into them, it's hard to get Jesus out, right? And they're just shepherds in the wilderness. And God told me the prodigals are coming home, just like I came home. God can turn your mess into a message. And if you want your message to be, I'm still, you know, 54 years old, and I'm still kind of doing my thing, but God's good.

Be that person. I think God, it says the word won't come back void. That works. But I think God is looking for people to step over. I think God's looking for people. And this isn't to bring guilt because there's grace. Abraham's 100 years old, okay? It's grace. But it's actually, I don't know what it's going to take to get to that place where you're here, and you're saying, I don't want that no more. That's so distasteful to me.

It's so ugly to me. I want something else for my life. God, I want your glory. Here I am. Send me. Prince of Assisi has this beautiful poem. It's called Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace. If you grew up Catholic, you know it probably. It says, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy. Oh, divine master, grant me that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Amen. I'll give you an opportunity in a second to just say to God, here I am. Here I am. I'm here for you. Whatever you want.

I started asking you a question. Is there anything you wouldn't give to God? There are things that are out of bounds. He's not asking you to give your kids away. He's not asking you to give your marriage away. He might ask you to give controlling your kids away. He might ask you to give up cash, homes, prestige. I don't know. You know your thing. I don't know your thing. But can you get to a place to say, here I am, God.

And if you're not there yet, say, God, let me just start with this prayer. Make me a here I am follower of you. Start there. Let's stand.