Father, we just recently sang to you as an act of praise
that when Satan tempts us to despair and tells us of the guilt within,
and the hymn invites us to remember Jesus and his death upon the cross for us.
Father, we ask that your word would come very deeply into our hearts
and into our minds and into our lives,
that the gospel will be more real to us.
So, Father, that we will learn to live day by day out of your great promise to us
and the great gift that you give us in the death and resurrection of your son, Jesus Christ.
Pour out the Holy Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
I'm still sort of all hoarse from singing.
After those things, God tested Abraham and said,
said to him, Abraham.
And he said, here I am.
And God said,
take your son,
your only son Isaac,
whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah
and offer him there as a burnt offering
on one of the mountains,
of which I shall tell you.
You know,
when they teach preaching,
one of the things that they try to tell you
is to try to come up with a story or a line
or something to grab people's attention right at the beginning.
And it's probably harder to come up with a better line
than just reading the scripture
where God tells Abraham to go and kill his son Isaac.
The temptation for us as Christians
is to read that part really quickly,
hoping that nobody really notices it,
and try to get on to better stuff.
Excuse me.
If there's somebody watching,
either now,
live or downstream,
maybe you're a skeptic
trying to examine the Christian claims,
but hoping that you'll find something
that will,
in a sense,
nail Christianity
to the wall
in such a way
that it's just revealed
to be a hateful,
murderous religion
that's bad for you,
and you hear,
take your son,
your only son Isaac,
whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah
and offer him there
as a burnt offering
on one of the mountains
of which I shall tell you,
and you feel,
there you go.
I've got the smoking gun.
What possible,
who could ever believe a religion
or follow a religion
that would tell you
to murder your only son?
For the curious,
it's a bit of a shock.
I've talked to people
who sort of
have been part of the visible church
for quite a while
but aren't very knowledgeable
of the Bible,
and when I've mentioned
that there's a story like this
in the Bible,
they say,
really?
Like, that's in the Bible?
For obvious reasons,
it's a Bible text
that often doesn't show up
in church services.
In fact,
for Christians,
we're probably a bit shocked
and embarrassed.
Our worst fears
are realized.
Why read it?
So,
one of the things
that we do at this church
is we preach through
either whole books
of the Bible
or chunks of the Bible,
and one of the reasons
we do it
is because,
of course,
that's how it's written.
These stories
from chapter 12
to chapter 22
were written
one after another
as a story
after story
after story,
part of a bigger story
in Genesis
and part of the bigger story
in the first five books
and part of the bigger story
of the Old Testament
and part of the bigger story
of the New Testament.
And,
well,
it's good for us
to read texts like this
together on one hand,
even though it's a very
sort of shocking text
to many who aren't familiar
with it.
And so what we're going to do
is we're going to,
we're going to walk towards it.
We're going to look at the story
very carefully
and see what it is
that it teaches.
So just read it again.
If I was to do this
in terms of scenes,
which I've done
for a couple of these
last sermons,
verses one and two,
scene one,
could be called
the shocking command.
I'll read it again.
After these things,
God tested Abraham
and said to him,
Abraham.
And Abraham said,
here I am.
And by the way,
in the original language,
here I am implies
that he's making himself
available to God,
ready to do what God
is going to ask him to do.
Verse two,
and God said,
take your son,
your only son,
Isaac,
whom you love
and go to the land of Moriah
and offer him there
as a burnt offering
on one of the mountains
of which I shall tell you.
A burnt offering,
as you'll discover
as the rest of the Bible unfolds,
is it's a Bible,
it's a complete sacrifice.
Some of the other
Old Testament sacrifices,
either the priest
or the community
or the offerer
would get to keep
some of it,
so to speak,
and eat some of it.
But a burnt offering,
it's a complete offering
to God.
It's an offering to God
with nothing left over,
a complete and utter
offering to God.
God.
So,
I mean,
in our day and age,
if somebody told us
that they'd had this message
to kill somebody,
we would know,
we would suspect
that they were probably
mentally ill.
what happens to Abraham
after he gets this
shocking demand request,
I should say,
from God.
Well,
let's look at scene two,
and if we had a name for it,
it would be thoughtful
and prompt.
Verse three,
so Abraham rose
early in the morning,
saddled his donkey,
and took two of his young men
with him
and his son Isaac,
and he cut the wood
for the burnt offering
and arose
and went to the place
of which God
had told him.
The writer of the story
actually almost does it
in slow motion.
He doesn't just say,
well,
they took off.
Part of the thing
which is shocking about this
is that Abraham acts
very promptly.
He doesn't say,
well,
I've got to think about this
for a week.
You know,
it's a three-day journey.
It's going to require
lots of planning,
et cetera,
et cetera.
No,
he begins to answer
what God has asked him
to do right away.
But he doesn't do it
in a half-assed way.
He does it in a thoughtful way.
He gets the donkey.
He makes sure
there's enough supplies
for the journey
to go there and back.
There's a possibility
that there'll be
no suitable dry wood
for the offering,
so he gets that.
And as you'll see later on,
he makes sure
that there's the knife.
And he makes sure
that there's fire
that he can bring with him
so he doesn't have to worry
about trying to start
a fire from fresh.
He does all of the things.
He does them quickly
and promptly,
and deliberately.
In fact,
actually,
that helps to show,
especially this next bit,
that he's not being rash.
Look at scene number three,
verse four,
and it could be called,
if it was a movie
or a book,
Time to Reflect.
Verse four,
on the third day,
Abraham lifted up his eyes
and saw the place
from afar.
So what's going on here
is he gets this specific request
from God.
He acts promptly
the very next day
to act on it.
He acts with deliberation,
and he has three days
to think about it
as he walks.
In those days,
of course,
he doesn't have iTunes.
He doesn't have podcasts.
All he has
is the walk
and his thoughts
and the three younger men
with him.
And so,
it doesn't necessarily mean
72 hours.
Let's say he left
on a Monday morning.
He's walked all day Monday,
all day Tuesday,
and sometime on Wednesday,
the third day,
three days of walking
all towards this destination
where God has asked him
to do this thing,
which we all understand
to be horrific,
that Abraham would kill
his son Isaac.
Now,
as you can well imagine,
there's been lots
of philosophical
and theological
and commentary reflection
on this story.
And one of the common things
of all the stories
is what was Abraham thinking
for these three days.
And lots of pages
have been filled
with writing
as to what Abraham
might be thinking about
during these three days.
But what they all often miss,
not all of them,
but many of these things miss,
is we don't have to guess
as to what Abraham
was thinking.
We know
what Abraham was thinking
because the storyteller
tells us
what he's thinking.
So the next scene,
which would be
verses five to eight,
if it had a title,
it would be
The Mirror.
Look at what it says.
Then Abraham
said to his young men,
stay here with the donkey.
I and the boy
will go over there
and worship.
And note this,
they're going to go there
to worship
and then they're going
to come again
to see the two young men.
In verse six,
and Abraham took the wood
of the burnt offering
and laid it on Isaac,
his son.
Isaac's going to carry
the wood
that will be lit under him
to burn him.
And Abraham
took in his hand
the fire
and the knife,
the instruments of death.
So they went
both of them together.
And Isaac said
to his father Abraham,
my father.
And Abraham said,
here I am,
my son.
And Isaac said,
behold the fire
and the wood,
but where is the lamb
for burnt offering?
And Abraham said,
God will provide
for himself
the lamb
for a burnt offering,
my son.
So they went
both of them together.
Over the last year or so,
I've often said
about different Bible stories
that the story
is both a window
and a mirror.
I should give credit,
I think I got the phrase
from Jackie Hill Perry
in her most recent book,
and it's a wonderful,
a wonderful image,
just as both of her books
are wonderful books.
And the Bible stories
are a mirror
because if you read them,
there's the possibility
by God's grace
that they'll reveal to you,
they'll help you
to see yourself
as you really are.
Not beneath your appearances,
beneath the things
that you do
to try to sell yourself
and cover yourself up.
It'll reveal who you are
at the level of your heart,
the real you.
In that way,
the Bible stories
are a mirror.
They're also windows often.
They help you
to see the real world.
They help you
to see the triune God
and what the world
is really like.
And this story here
is a profound mirror.
And it's a mirror
because when we first hear
the shocking thing
in verse 2,
take your son,
your only son Isaac,
whom you love,
and go to the land
of Moriah
and offer him there
as a burnt offering
on one of the mountains
of which I shall tell you.
we hear this.
Well,
our reaction reveals
what we usually think
about God.
And if you're watching this,
you know,
maybe you're a Buddhist
or a Hindu,
maybe you're just
one of our many
secular Canadian friends.
This might surprise you
about Christians.
but we Christians
share something
with you,
is that
beneath the piety,
we actually sort of worry
that God just wants
to hurt us,
that the true God
wants to belittle us
or harm us
or keep us down.
There's almost always
a small,
still voice within us
that says,
be careful,
don't get too close,
don't get carried away,
don't be too religious,
don't be too Christian,
don't pray too much,
it'll get in way
of other things.
Like,
don't really listen
to what the Bible
has to say
about money
and generosity.
If you listen too much
and you get carried away,
it'll just make you poor.
Don't listen
to what the Bible says
about sexuality
and identity,
it's just going
to make you lonely,
it's just going
to hurt you.
don't listen
to these concerns
about humility,
it'll just make you weak.
Other people
will get the promotion.
Be careful,
don't get extreme.
Before we know it,
unrecognized,
but now maybe
beginning to be recognized,
we hear the voice
that says,
did God really say
that you should be generous?
Did God really say
that you should be chaste?
Did God really say
you should be humble?
Listen,
nothing bad
will happen to you
if you don't do
those things.
Be careful
because God knows
that if,
God knows
you have the possibility
to be great
and to be like God
and he wants
to keep you down.
And we hear God
out of this perspective
and so when we hear
the opening word
of verse 2,
our basic fears
about God hurting us
come to the fore.
But the shocking thing
about Abraham's answer
in verse 5,
and it's really shocking,
look at it again,
verse 5,
then Abraham said
to his young men,
stay here with the donkey,
I and the boy
will go over there
and worship
and come again to you.
Like that's a shocking thing
for Abraham to say.
You see,
you and I
hear verse 2
and we interpret it
from our fear
that God will harm us,
that he will belittle us,
that he will make us less.
but Abraham
hears it
in the context
of promise and miracle.
God's
free,
loving,
generous promise
that he will make
Abraham
not just great,
not just a,
but that,
not just that Abraham
will be blessed,
but that he will be
a blessing.
And Abraham himself
has seen time and time
and time again
how God has acted
miraculously on his behalf
to uphold his word.
And the story
that just goes before this
and right from chapter 11
all the way through
to chapter 21,
the story time and time
and time again
makes it clear
that if Sarah
is going to have a son,
that son
is going to have
to be a miracle of God.
Only a miracle of God
will produce that son.
And that's what
immediately just happened
before it.
That God has kept
his word.
He visits Sarah
as he promised
and as he promised
he has kept his word
and a miracle
is performed
and the baby
is there,
the seed,
the offspring
is born.
And when Abraham
hears God's command
to go and do this,
you and I hear it
out of our flesh,
he hears it
out of God's promise.
Now,
how's God
going to keep
his promise?
Abraham doesn't know.
What Abraham
does know
is that they're
going to worship,
they're both
going to come back
and as he says
to Isaac,
God will provide
for himself.
How does it go again?
God will provide
for himself
the lamb
for a burnt offering,
my son.
He doesn't have
a lamb with him,
doesn't know
how it's going to go,
but he interprets
God's command
in light of his promise
and in light
of his love.
So what will God do?
How does his story go?
Well,
if we had another thing
for the next scene,
it would be called,
verses 9 and 10
would be the next scene
and it would be
prepare to die
or maybe
in light of,
what is it,
from Star Trek?
Is it the Vulcan war cry?
It is a good day to die?
Some of you
who are more,
eh?
Klingon.
I always get them
all mixed up.
You can just show
that I'm not really
a science fiction
type of guy.
A Klingon war cry.
It is a good day to die.
Verses 9 and 10.
When they came
to the place
of which God
had told him,
Abraham built
the altar there
and laid the wood
in order
and bound Isaac,
his son,
and laid him
on the altar
on top of the wood.
Then Abraham
reached out his hand
and took the knife
to slaughter
his son.
Once again,
note all of the detail
and the deliberation.
But then God intervenes.
Next scene,
verses 11 and 12.
Faith's fruit.
But,
verse 11,
the angel of the Lord
called to Abraham
from heaven
and said,
Abraham,
Abraham.
And Abraham said,
here I am.
And the Lord said,
do not lay your hand
on the boy
or do anything to him.
For now I know
that you fear God,
seeing you have not
withheld your son,
your only son,
from me.
This is a story
which is talked about
a great deal
in the New Testament.
And the reason
I called it
Faith's Fruit
is this.
I'm not very good,
anybody who knows me
know that I'm not
very good at
trying to figure out
plants and stuff
like that
in the garden
or trees.
But if I go up
to a tree
and I see an apple
on it,
I know it's an apple
tree.
I'm an Einstein
when it comes to that.
I can pick out,
that's an apple tree
because it has
an apple on it.
And what we see
here
is
is it
Abraham's
great faith
that whatever
it is that God
has told him
to do,
God's promise
and God's miracle
and God's grace
and God's generosity
is that Isaac
will be
the means,
he will be
that seed,
that ongoing
offspring or seed
that will be
a blessing,
that will be
blessed and that
will be a blessing.
And he's living
and acting
out a promise
that God
will keep
his word,
that God
is a God
that's sovereign
and can do miracles.
And so what
you see in all
of this
is like
you can't see
what's going on
inside Abraham,
what you can see
is what he does.
I can't,
I'm not good
at recognizing trees
but if I see
an apple on a tree
I know it's an apple
tree.
If I see a pear
on a tree
I know it's a pear
tree.
And when God
sees this
he knows
and sees
and we see
because the text
is written
not so much
for us
as it is
and not so much
for God
as it is
for us.
See,
one of the things
about this
when Abraham
enters into
a covenant
with God
and God
enters into
a covenant
with him
in a very
very real
sense
Abraham
now belongs
to God.
And when
Isaac
is circumcised
and brought
into the
covenant
Abraham
is saying
in a sense
that not only
do I belong
to God
but Isaac
belongs to
God.
One of the
ways to
understand
what it
means to
become a
Christian
is
and we're
going to
celebrate
the Lord's
Supper
in a sense
the covenant
meal
where we
remember
what Jesus
did for us
on the cross
and we also
remember his
resurrection
and the fact
that he will
come again
is that
when you
ask Christ
to be your
Savior
and your
Lord
he hears
your request
and he says
yes or when
you recognize
that you've
given your
life to
Christ
but you've
given your
life to
Christ.
Jim Elliott
was famous
for the
quote
he is no
fool
who gives
what he
cannot keep
to gain
what he
cannot lose.
He is no
fool who
gives what
he cannot
keep.
None of us
can keep
our lives
or our
possessions
or our
reputations.
We will
lose them
all but
when we give
ourselves to
Christ
he gives
us something
that we
cannot
lose
which is
that we
will be
his
forever.
God not
only now
sees in a
sense the
apple
but he
provides.
The next
scene verses
13 and
14 the
Lord's
provision
and Abraham
lifted up his
eyes and
looked and
behold behind
him was a
ram caught
in the
thicket by
his horns
and Abraham
went and
took the
ram and
offered it
up as a
burnt offering
instead of
his son.
So Abraham
called the
name of that
place the
Lord will
provide as
it is said
to this day
on the
mount of
the Lord
it shall
be provided.
And so
what we see
here is
there's a
short-term
provision but
there's also
a riddle
which is
posed.
But
the really
big thing
in this
look at
verse 13
again it's
just a
very very
little tiny
word which
is very
important.
And Abraham
lifted up his
eyes and
looked and
behold behind
him was a
ram caught
in a thicket
by his
horns.
And Abraham
went and
took the
ram and
offered it
up as a
burnt
offering
instead
of his
son.
Instead
of his
son.
and this
is the
first time
in the
Bible
where this
idea of
a sacrifice
an offering
in the
place of
or instead
is introduced.
And as the
rest of the
story unfolds
and the rest
of the
Pentateuch
and the rest
of the
old what
we call
the Old
Testament
and our
Jewish
friends
call the
Tanakh
and we
see it
unfold in
the rest
of the
New
Testament
is this
idea of
one
dying
on behalf
of
another.
Now
one of
the things
which makes
the Christian
faith so
beautiful
so emotionally
beautiful is
it touches
on something
that human
beings recognize
as being
deeply
beautiful.
It's not
that great
a movie
but there's
a movie
on Netflix
called
The Last
Full Measure
and it's
based on
the true
story of
a fellow
by the
name of
Pitts
who was
a medic
with the
Air Force
and in
the Vietnam
War
in one
of the
bloodiest
battles
of the
Vietnam
War
he
continually
left
the
safety
of his
helicopter
to go
down
to help
and bring
back
the wound
to care
for the
wounded
and to
bring them
up into
the safety
of the
helicopter
and at
the height
of the
intensity
of the
battle
his
commanding
officers
order him
to come
up with
the last
patient
leaving
the soldiers
on the
ground
to have
to deal
with no
medical
help
to a
very
fierce
battle
and in
the movie
the true
story
he refuses
to go up
to the
safety
of the
helicopter
and he
stays
on the
ground
60
different
soldiers
lives
are ultimately
saved that
day by
his heroism
and he
dies
and the
story is
told
later on
for political
reasons
he was never
given the
medal of
honour
and the
movie
which is a
so-so
movie
tells a
story
of how
he eventually
gets the
medal of
honour
for his
great
courage
one of the
interesting
things about
the movie
is that
they show
or portray
some of the
men who
were saved
and their
struggle
coming to
terms
with the
fact that
they
live
because he
died
so on one
hand you see
here something
which is very
beautiful
you recognize
this profound
beauty
that
this person
would act
in such
a way
that these
many people's
lives are
saved
and you can
we all
understand on
one level
that it
makes us a
bit uncomfortable
if we're the
recipient of
such profound
love
so on one
hand we see
the beauty
of it
and the
beauty of it
is made
even more
clearly if
you think
of the
opposite
it
I don't
know how
to pronounce
it
I never
listen to
the news
on the radio
and I never
watch the
news on the
radio
it means
there's
one of my
problems
and is I
don't know
how to
pronounce a
whole pile
of things
but that
terrible
school
shooting
in Texas
where the
police
armed with
automatic
weapons and
bulletproof
vests
didn't go
in to
save the
children
they
didn't go
in to
save the
children
that's the
opposite
and when we
look at that
we realize
there's
something
we see
the beauty
of the
sacrifice
in the
case of
the fellow
pits
and there's
something not
right there
just over
ten years
ago
the
Concordia
cruise ship
hit a
rock
began to
sink
one of the
very very
first people
to come
to land
safely
was the
captain
who fled
the ship
and 32
people died
you see
at a very
very deep
level
there's this
mystery
of a person
who would
sacrifice
himself for
another
and that
mystery of
the beauty
of it
and the
power of
it is
seen even
more clearly
when we see
the opposite
but there
is a mystery
I'll tell you
just one more
story about
it
somebody that
Louise and
I know
we didn't
meet the
person
but we
met the
people after
this was
over
there was
a couple
they fell
in love
they married
they wanted
to have
children
she got
pregnant
and after
she got
pregnant
she discovered
that she
had
cancer
so the
doctors
told her
she needed
to take
the cancer
treatment
immediately
if she
wanted to
have any
chance
of surviving
and living
she asked
what the
cancer
treatment
would do
to the
baby in
her womb
and they
said well
the baby
will die
but you
might live
so as
we've been
told she
thought about
it and
she thought
about it
don't know
all that
went on
in her
thought
and I
know this
is actually
one of
those cases
that when
people discuss
abortion
are complicated
but for
her
she chose
the baby
she didn't
take the
cancer
treatment
the baby
was born
and after
the baby
was born
she took
the cancer
treatment
and I
think it
was about
a year
later
she died
part of
the reason
that's
complicated
of course
is because
we have a
complicated
relationship
with seeing
what's in
the womb
it would
be a
simpler
thing in
a sense
for us
to see
if it
was a
little
baby
held in
the arm
and we
would all
understand
why a
mother might
go into a
burning
building
even if
it meant
her dying
if she
was able
to have
the baby
live
and we
recognize
there's
something
emotionally
powerful
and beautiful
about
sacrifice
here we
see this
very very
two little
tiny words
instead of
this
insertion
it's the
crack
the
lifting
of the
curtain
in the
window
for we
as the
reader
to begin
to see
into the
heart of
God
and what
the triune
God is
really like
you see
it's really
only
truly
the case
that the
triune
God
the
gospel
Christian
faith
is a
religion
of love
in the
short
term
the
ram
dies
in the
place
of
Isaac
and
Abraham
and
Isaac
return
to the
two
young
men
and
go home
after
they
have
worshipped
but
the same
story
poses
a bit
of a
riddle
which
points
into
the
future
I'm
not
going
to
read
the
verses
15
to
19
but
if
you
go
back
and
look
at
them
later
the
word
offspring
I
haven't
commented
on this
throughout
the
11
chapters
that
we
looked
at
the
word
offspring
is a
very
unusual
word
sometimes
in
the
King
James
version
it's
translated
as
seed
it's
called
in
Hebrew
a
collective
singular
and
that
means
that
sometimes
it's
understood
as
referring
to
a
collective
but
it's
a
singular
it's
a
singular
it's
a
he
and
the
New
Testament
writers
realize
that
it's
this
prophecy
not
just
of a
line
of
the
seed
but
that
out
of
the
Jewish
people
there
would
be
a
savior
who
would
be
born
and
Emmanuel
would
come
and
so much
of what
happens
in
verses
15
and on
corrupted
so aware
man
could
be
uniting
taks
uniting
stone
or a woman. An animal ultimately isn't a proper substitute. If it was to be a human being who
would be volunteering to die for the person on death row, well, that's a very problematic thing.
We would worry that there was some type of coercion or mental illness on the part. It would
be too easy for a rich criminal to hire some poor man or some poor woman to die in their
place so that they could walk free. There is no true sacrifice, and there is no true love.
And the Bible closes the door with this story and with the stories that continue on about
any type of thing of human sacrifice. In Psalm 40, it recognized that the blood of bulls and
goats ultimately can't satisfy and die in the place of a human being, leaving behind a mystery
and a riddle as to how God is going to provide for himself the sacrifice for Isaac, and ultimately
not just for Isaac, but for Abraham and for you and me. Only God can die in the place of
you and me. You don't have to worry. You can't possibly cajole him, force him.
Bribe him. He's God. And it's very, very interesting. If you go back and you look at how it develops,
that God's revealed as being a God of relationship, of Yahweh, of the Lord. He's a relational God.
And God is revealed in the story of Hagar as the God who sees, the God who sees me.
And God in the story just before this is revealed as the everlasting God, the God who is from all
ages and in all places and in all times. And here God is revealed as Jehovah Jireh, the God who will
provide. And since only God could die a death instead of human beings that could cover me and you,
and you on you, you who are watching.
And then given that there is a beauty and a power to sacrifice the woman who died for her baby, the man
who died, that 60 soldiers would live. And that God, the Son of God, would die for you and for me.
One of the things that the people in the movie, the last full measure, wrestle with is whether or not
their lives have been worthy of the sacrifice made by pits. And one of the things which makes the
gospel even more beautiful is that we know that our lives aren't worthy. I mean, one of the things
which so bedevils us as human beings is that we want to maintain our fronts. We worry that if people
were to see behind our appearances and to know us as we really and truly deeply are, if they saw those
things for which we are ashamed and of which we have done that are wrong, that people wouldn't want to
have a relationship with us. And the God who sees me sees both your excellencies and your virtues
and your uniqueness and your beauty, but he also sees your shame and your wrongdoing. He sees the
worst about you and still seeing the worst about you, he dies for you instead of you.
And so it is that the gospel has this power and profound
sacrifice at the very heart of what it means is that we receive what he has done for us, that we enter
into that and that enters into us. And there is this, the beginning, the dawning of the possibility of a
secure identity and a secure place to love and to be generous and to forgive and to give and to serve
and to pursue justice and creativity, not just out of our accomplishments that make us feel very,
very confident, but those things can come crashing down. There can be that tweak that we made five
years ago that could get us cancelled or that thing, that momentary act of temper or selfishness or
something that reveals that there's something within us that's not just as good as all of our
accomplishments seem to have been and that at some point in time we come face to face with the hurt that
we might have done or that the good that we failed to do. But there's this begins as we not only
receive Christ as our Savior, but to understand that he died knowing the worst about us.
But still he died instead of that I could belong to God.
And he did it out of just out of love and out of grace and out of mercy and out of kindness.
And so the gospel begins to change us that we can live out of promise.
That we can live secure, begin to learn to live secure out of an identity rooted
in his sacrifice. The God who sees me, the everlasting God, my provider, has died for me.
And I can live out of the promise of his blessing.
And that's why we open the word and that's why we remember his sacrifice for us.
And then it becomes a place that we can stand where we can begin to
come face to face with the fact that there's still part of us deep within.
We've been clothed with his righteousness, we are his, but we still need to die to our sin,
to our lack of living out of promise, and our fear that if we pray, that we could pray too much,
or be too generous or we're too loving or too just.
The gospel opens up to us as the gospel opens up within us,
a place to live out of, a place to stand
and truly be healed.
Please stand.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Father, we thank you that Jesus died instead of each one of us.
We thank you, Father, that because he is God, he can die not just for one person,
but that he can be the one who is instead of every one of the elect,
everyone who puts their faith and trust and confidence in Jesus.
We thank you that he did this as the God who sees me,
the God who is my provider,
and that there is in fact, Father, a beauty and a power in the gospel.
And we thank you, Father, that you're not a God who desires others to die
so that you might be exalted,
but that you have died so that we might be exalted to your presence.
So, Father, we ask that you help us to receive the gospel,
to trust this promise of life in Christ.
And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit, as we sing, as we pray,
as we celebrate the Lord's Supper,
that the gospel will become more real to our hearts
so that day by day we live out of your promise to us in Christ.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.