Here I am - Bishop Jose R. Hernandez

Here I am

During last week’s service we explored the theme of how a faithful believer must answer God. That study led us to the conclusion that as faithful believers, we cannot hide the talents or blessings that He has given us, but rather we must share them with those that surround us. In last week’s study we concluded that we must invest the talents that God has given us in His labor, so that in that fashion we can produce the growth of the Body of Christ here on earth. However, before we can do this, before we can have this strong conviction, there are two things that we must posses and develop. These two things are obedience and submission; therefore, this will be our theme for today. Today we will be exploring the theme of absolute obedience and submission to God, and we will discover the extreme blessings that these two things produce in the life of a faithful believer. To explore this theme we will be use the best example of submission and obedience that can be found in the Word of God; we will be examining some events in the life of Abraham. Let us now turn to the Word of God.

Genesis 22:1-12 – Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ²Then He said, “Take now 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.” ³So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. ⁵And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” ⁶So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. ⁷But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. ⁹Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” ¹²And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Like I always say, in order to have a better understanding of the message that God has for us today, it will be necessary to conduct a brief history review. Abraham grew up in the city or Ur, which was the most important Chaldean city. I say that it was the most important because they had a great commerce with other cities, and they also had a very extensive library; it was here that Abraham received his education. The family eventually decided to move to Canaan, but when they got to Haran they stopped and settled there. It was here that Abraham received his inheritance after the death of his father, as was the custom of that time. This is something that is clearly reflected in Genesis 11:31-32 when we read, “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. ³²So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. Therefore, based on this we can confidently say that in this point in history Abraham was pretty comfortable. However, when he appeared to be the most comfortable in hi life, when his life appeared to be the most complete, God called him to leave behind his comfort and security. This is something that is clearly stated in Genesis 12:1 when we read, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.” Something of extreme importance to note here is that God asked Abraham to do something that was very difficult. I say that it was something very difficult because when God called Abraham, he was not a young man.

Abraham was called by God when he was seventy five years old, and the trip to Canaan would not be very easy; however, regardless of this Abraham submitted and obeyed to accomplish that which God had commended him to do. This is something that stated in Genesis 12:4 when we read, “So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

Once they got to Canaan, they dwelt there and began to enjoy God’s blessings due to his obedience. Therefore, when we reach this point in history we see that everything appeared to be going very well in Abraham’s life; his wife had finally given birth to the son that God had promised them, as we find stated in Genesis 21:1-2 when we read, “And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. ²For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” And for several years they enjoyed peace and prosperity; they enjoyed the blessings that God had bestowed upon them. Why must we know these things? It is important to know these brief details in Abraham’s life because they establish the foundation of today’s message by letting us know two things. Number one, they let us know that God will not always call you to action when you want, but rather according to His will. Number two, these brief details clearly illustrate that God has no limitations. Therefore, keeping these things in mind, let us now continue with our study for today.

Continuing we read, “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ²Then He said, “Take now 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.” The text in these verses on occasions prevents many from understanding its true meaning. I say this because as we can see here, God told Abraham that he had to offer his only son in sacrifice, and this is something that causes the understanding of many to shut down, as the offering of a human in sacrifice, specially the offering of a son or daughter, is something that is completely unacceptable to us all. However, the question that we must ask ourselves is, does God demand human sacrifices?

The answer is absolutely NO! God condemns this practice; this is something that is clearly reflected in Leviticus 20:1-2 when we read, “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.” But if God condemns human sacrifices, what was He demanding of Abraham? What God was demanding of Abraham here was for him to offer God his best.

Now let us examine our life and ask ourselves, do we give God our best? The truth of the matter is that throughout our Christian walk numerous situations will arise when it will be difficult to remain faithful; in our Christian walk there will always be times when it will be difficult to trust and obey God. There will always come the time when we will think that in the direction that God is leading us is not correct. We will think that what God demands too much of us, we will think that the price that we will have to pay for following His is too costly. I say this because when we make a genuine commitment with God, when we truly decide to follow Christ, there will always be a price to pay. Christ paid the price of our salvation on the cross of Calvary, so then, what price must we pay? The price that we must pay is clearly reflected in the words of our Lord in Matthew 10:14 when we read, “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.” What is the Lord telling us with this? The Lord is telling us that the price that we must pay is remaining faithful to God. Remaining faithful to God means that on occasions, we will have to distance ourselves from certain family members and friends. Remaining faithful to God means that on occasions, we will have to leave behind some traditions and customs. Remaining faithful to God means that we will have to leave behind all religion and superstition. Tell the person sitting next to you, “shake off the dust from your feet.”

If we are unwilling to pay that price, if we think that the price is too high, then we must recognize that this is where our error begins. I would say that the most common error committed by a large number of believers is to think that we know God’s exact purpose with our life. I say that this is an error because the truth of it all is that no matter how hard we try, our human understanding will never fully understand God’s mind. This is not something that I have just made up, God tell us this fact very clearly in Isaiah 55:8-9 when we read, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. ⁹“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Therefore, with this God lets us know that no matter how hard we try, we will never know his exact purpose on certain situations. However, when those certain situations reach our life where we will have to reach a difficult decision, this is, to serve God or to continue serving the world, let us always remember what happened with Abraham. Let us remember that when God demanded the sacrifice of his son, he did not waiver, he did not question, he obeyed and was willing to give God the very best that he had. When faced with this demand that more than likely made no sense to him at all he said, “Here I am.” Brethren, God expects the same of us. God expects us to give Him our very best. Although the circumstance or situation may appear to be senseless, although the circumstance or situation may appear confusing, although the price to pay may appear too costly, we must trust in God at all times and we must be willing to give the very best of us to Him.

What God asked of Abraham was something that more than likely confused him quite a bit, after all, God was asking him to give up Isaac, God was asking him to give up the promise that He had given him. Can you imagine what it means to give up a son or daughter up in sacrifice? I do not even want think about it, but Abraham had a lot of time to think about this. Abraham had at least three days to think about what he was about to do. Look carefully at what happens, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. ⁵And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” ⁶So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.” I am sure that these must have been the three most difficult days in the life of this man; I am sure that he spent three days completely anguished and troubled; but regardless of all of this, his faith did not waiver.

One of the problems that the church suffers from is that many do not persevere in the faith. On many occasions, if things do not happen immediately our faith waivers; we fail to persevere and we fail the tests. Why do we fail? We fail because we do not offer unto God the very best of us. I am sure that many of you have already asked yourself, what is the best of us? The best that we can offer God is our faith; the best that we can offer God is the time we dedicate to Him. However, when it comes time to give God our very best, we skimp, we doubt, we waiver. When it comes time to give God our best, in the majority of the time we fail to do so. If we have time to spare, we go to church. If we have money to spare, we give an offering. If we are not too tired, we will sing and worship. If we are not too preoccupied, we will pray. Now I ask, are we giving God our very best when we act this way? Are we demonstrating a genuine faith? The answer is NO! The majority of believers give God what they can spare, they do not give God their best; they give Him the crumbs. But I tell you today that God does not want the crumbs, God wants our best. How can we give God our best? We do it by persevering in our faith. We do it by remaining attentive and obedient to His voice at all times. Abraham had three days to think about what God had demanded of him, but he did not think about it, he obeyed. Let us ask ourselves, do we persevere in what God demands of us? On occasions God acts in our life in a way that can be a little confusing, He could act in our life in a way that may leave us thinking, but regardless of this, He expects our faith not to waiver. God expects our faith to be genuine and without doubt. Abraham’s faith was tested at that time, and I tell you that our faith will also be tested daily. However, there are many that will fail this test; many will just simply make excuses.

Just like Abraham had to go through this very difficult test, all of us will be tested. Why? The reason is because God is looking for the faithful believers. God is looking for men and women willing to enter the battlefield without fear, men and women willing to give Him their very best. We do not have to be perfect, we do not have to be wise, all we have to be is willing to trust in His word, and allow ourselves to be led by Him. All we have to have is absolute faith and trust in His word. We will have to traverse through difficult situations; we will have to traverse through things that we may not fully understand God’s purpose with it all, but let us recognize that there is a purpose in everything that He does. This is something that is clearly reflected in Psalms 138:8 when we read, “The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.” God expects us to conquer our fears and vanquish our discouragement so that we can clearly see His glory, power, and grace in our life and in the life of those that surround us.

Abraham’s faith was tested in this instance, and he passed the test with an “A+”. When God called Abraham, Abraham said, “Here I am.” God wanted to test Abrahams faith because He wanted to know if he was worthy of the blessings that He would bestow upon them. Abraham had the time to back out, he had the time to doubt, but he did not do so. Look carefully at what happened when we read, “⁹Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.” Abraham would give God his very best; Abraham would give God what He had asked. Abraham did not skimp, Abraham did not waiver, and because of this all of us here can today call ourselves sons of the almighty. How so? Brethren the truth of it all is that Jesus Christ was a descendant of Abraham’s seed, and only through Jesus can anyone be saved. God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his only son; the Word here tells us, “¹¹But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” ¹²And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” However, in John 3:16 we find, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We cannot allow our faith to falter; we cannot stop persevering in our walk with Christ. Situations will inevitable arise, difficulties will suddenly come up, but Christ will strengthen us so that we may defeat them.

In conclusion; Abraham had only one son, God only has one Son. Abraham loved his son, God loves His Son. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son in Moriah, place that would later be known as Jerusalem, but God did not allow it. God did not allow the sacrifice of Abraham’s only son, but He gladly gave up His Son as sacrifice for all us. God gave us His very best, He gave up His only begotten Son to die for our sins. God gave up His very best, so that today we could share His kingdom. Our faith and obedience to God will be rewarded just like God rewarded Abraham, but only if we remain steadfast. Only when we stay obedient and submitted to God regardless of how difficult a situation may seem, will we see His hand in all that we do. Abraham was greatly blessed as we find in Genesis 22:15-18 when we read, “Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, ¹⁶and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— ¹⁷blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. ¹⁸In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Our life was blessed due to his submission and obedience, and the life of all that live in this world can also be blessed through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our life was blessed due to his submission and obedience, and the life of those that surround us can also be blessed by ours; all we have to do is say to God, “Here I am.”