O.K. I am going to need a volunteer. The kids are already assuming that I’m talking about them. I see hands going up. I need somebody between the ages of nine and twelve, ok? Let’s see. Right here. Come on down.
Ok. If you could just stand right here. Can you tell the audience your name? (“Daniel.”) Ok, Daniel. Now, you’re going to have to trust me on this one, ok. Are you ok with that? Ok. Can you answer a question for me? How would you feel if I gave you 10 dollars? (“I’d be happy.”) Well, I’m not really going to do that. But let’s just say, hypothetically, if I gave you 10 dollars and put it into your hand, put out your hand, and then as soon as I put it into your hand, I ripped away and took it back. How would you feel? (“I’d be very mad.”) I think that’s how I would feel too.
Great! You did good. Good job. But I have something for you. It’s kind of a thank you, appreciation for coming up here. This is a gift card, for 10 dollars, to a Christian book store called Lanhams. It’s near Aldis. Your mom might know where that is. So, I’m going to give this to you. Now I’m not going to give it to you right now, though. O.K.? I am going to give it to you though. Do you trust me? Do you trust me? Are you sure. (“Yes.”) Can you do me a favor? Would you be willing just to sit right here through my sermon? Normally I would have had you sit right there but the bells are a little bit in the way, so if you could just sit right there, would that be great? Would that be ok? You just sit here and a little bit later I will give you this card. I promise. OK? Alright. Kids are so trusting.
Have you ever felt that God was an indian-giver? You know, God gives us money and then He want us to give a tenth of it back. He gives us time and then He wants us to give a seventh back. Sometimes God gives us beautiful people in our lives, and then He takes them away.
My wife and I experienced something like this early on in our marriage. We had moved down to Miami, and we were not excited to be there. It was my first church district, and I didn’t have a choice to go there. And it was very hard. We moved into a place that was right in the flight path of the airplanes that landed at Miami International airport. Literally we could sit on our front porch and watch the planes go by as they landed. So it was very loud. Lots of traffic. No place to escape to. There was ocean on one side, and the Everglades with alligators on the other side. And alligators in your back yard. And just on and on and on. And then some of our church members turned out to be a lot like alligators. And we were just not having fun.
And then my wife became pregnant and we were so excited. We’d been wanting to have child for awhile and nothing had happened and now, Wow! We were going to have a baby. And I went down and bought my wife a beautiful maternity dress. And she went down and bought some baby clothes. We were just, we were thrilled. And then we went off to, came up here actually, for Christmas to visit the family and told everybody about it, and then went back to Florida to pastor’s meetings.
And sometime during pastor’s meetings, something terrible happened. And we had to go to the emergency room and while we were at the emergency room they told us that she would likely miscarriage. And we were devastated. And for the next few weeks we had to watch each time as we went to the doctor where they checked and the ultrasound said the heart rate is getting slower and fainter and slower and fainter, until finally the last time the tech looked at us and just very coldly said, “No heartbeat. And by the way, go pay your bill up front.” That’s how cold it was. It was terrible. And I remember driving back home, and just tears streaming down our faces, and me, I was just saying to God, “God, why? You gave us this awesome gift, and now you’ve just taken it away. Why do you have to be such an indian-giver?”
A story I have to share with you from the Bible, a story that I believe hits the nail on the head when it comes to understanding our indian-giver. It’s a story that I believe helps us to understand how beautiful the indian-giver can really be. And it’s tells the truth about Him. And here’s the truth. The truth is that you can trust the indian-giver. We can trust the indian-giver!
Well, this story begins much the same as my wife and I, our story. It’s a couple that’s been wanting to have a baby for a much longer time. It’s been about 50 years since they started trying and wishing and hoping and praying. Nothing has happened. And then God comes to Abram, and He says, “Abram, I’m going to make you a great nation.” I can just imagine Abram running back home to his wife, and he throws his arms around her and says, “Honey, we’re going to have a baby.” And she says, “Excuse me? Usually I’m the one that would tell you, um, and God hasn’t told me that.” But then she begins to have hope, and they’re hope is rekindled, and they follow God’s command to leave and to go to a different land. And from then on, God shares with them over a period of a number of years seven promises. Not seven different promises. The same promise seven different times. Seven times, God promises that He would make Abram a great nation, and that he would have a son. Seven times. Now does that number sound familiar to you? Number seven? God’s favorite number. It’s like God is saying, “This is so important to Me, I’ll use My perfect number and come to you that many times.”
Let’s review these seven promises just quickly.
The first time, it was the first one that I already mentioned. When He sent him out to a strange land. God promised, God promised, to make him a great nation.
[to volunteer] Oh by the way, Danny, I promise. Remember that? Ok, I’m going to give it to you. Ok. Just making sure.
Again, the second time. After Abram arrived in Canaan, God promised, Genesis 12, verse 7. “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’” He said to your children I’m going to give this place. You’re here now, I’m going to give this whole land to them.
[to volunteer] I promise, Ok, ok.
And then after Abraham let Lot take the best of the land God again promised.
[to volunteer] I promise. Ok.
Abram had given the best of the land to Lot, and then God took him and showed him the whole land and said, “look in the north, south, east and west. I’m going to give it all to you. Your nephew may be a little bit greedy, he thinks he has the best of the land, but I am going to actually give it to you.”
And then again the fourth time God came to Abram after he’d rescued Lot and the kings of the Jordan valley He came, and He promised.
[to volunteer] I promise, you’re going to get this.
This time, when God came to him, Abram said, “Lord, what about Eliezer? Couldn’t Eliezer be the one?” And God said, “No, it’s going to come through you, through your son.” And then God made a covenant with him and He had him, this is a hard thing, He had him cut up a number of animals. The word covenant, by the way, means cut. So I guess that’s what God was trying to show. Cut up a number of animals and He made a covenant with him, sealed it with their blood, that He would keep His promise.
Then the fifth time, after Abram was having troubles with Hagar, God promised. God promised.
[to volunteer] I promise.
Abram demonstrated a lack of faith when he took Hagar as his wife. She was his wife’s servant, and they were trying to help God out a little bit, trying to take things into their own hands. And what a mess he created. Already there was friction between Hagar and Sarai. And you know how it turns out, right? Later on there was friction between them and Isaac. And Hagar and Ishmael had to leave. And eventually they would create two different peoples that would be in conflict down to the very end of time, as far as I can tell. They’re still in conflict today. If not the physical descendants, the spiritual descendants of these people. So much trouble because Abram failed to put his trust in the indian-giver.
Well, this time when God came to him He wanted to make it very clear. And this time He says to Abram, “I’m going to make Sarai the mother of a great nation. Ok? We’re doing it through the woman too. Ok? Not just you.” And you know what Abram’s response was? He fell on the ground and laughed. I’m sorry, but if God was speaking to me, I think I would not laugh at what He said. But maybe I’m wrong, you know? Maybe that just shows how close a relationship he had with Him. Abram laughed! You know, we sometimes pick on Sarai because she laughed. Abram was the first one to laugh, ok. She was following his example, perhaps. He laughed. And so God told him that he would have a son, and the son’s name would be Isaac, which means “he laughs”. Little bit of a rebuke there.
And then He says that Abram’s name would be changed to Abraham which means “father of a multitude” and Sarai’s name would be change to Sarah which means “princess”. Both of their names being a reminder of God’s promise. Can you imagine? Now your name reminds you, every time you hear it, that God has promised.
The sixth time God visited just before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And again He Promised.
[to volunteer] I promise.
He promised. All the times before, God had visited in a dream or in a vision, and this time God comes to Abraham in person. And Abraham being one of the wonderful middle-eastern individuals, with so much hospitality and just so much a part of the culture, he’s anxious to give God, now he may not have known this was God for certain at first, but he sits Him down and he goes out and he prepares the fatted Worthington Beef slices, and he makes a sandwich out of it and gives some cottage cheese. And while God is sitting there eating, He asks, “Where is Sarah your wife?” Abraham answers, “well, she’s in the tent.” And God says, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Sarah overhears in her tent and she chuckles, and she didn’t fall on the ground and laugh like Abraham did. She chuckles. And then God asks, “Why did Sarah laugh?” And she has the gall, again, these people, I cannot believe how they react, how they are in front of God’s presence. She says, “Oh, I didn’t laugh.” And God replies, “No, but you did laugh.”
And God kept his promise. One year later a son was born. And they named him Isaac just as God had said. God had promised and God had delivered. And now, every time they called Isaac, “Hey Isaac, come here. It’s time to eat.” Abram was reminded of his doubt. “He laughs.” “Hey He Laughs, come here. Oh that’s right. That was me. I laughed when God said I would have this son.” But God has a little bit of a sense of humor. Perhaps that’s the understatement of the year. He’s the inventor of humor, right?
[to volunteer] Well I promised I would give you this card, so if you could step forward here. God promised, and He delivered and I’m going to do the same. So here you go. (“thank you.”) You’re welcome. Could you sit down though again? I’m not through with you yet.
The seventh time God promised again. Abraham and Sarah now have a son. But God still came to them with a promise. Genesis chapter 21, and verse 12. The conflict between Sarah and Hagar had gotten out of control, and Abraham was forced to send Ishmael and Hagar away. And the Bible says that the matter distressed Abraham greatly, because of his son. And God says, when Sarah says “I want these people sent away.”, God says to Abraham, “do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid. Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” So like I said, he sends them away and he’s heartbroken as he watches the two forlorn people, images disappear over the horizon. So sad. “Lord, how can I possibly bear this test?”
But God is not through with him yet. He has an even tougher test to bear. In fact, we’re told in the book Patriarchs and Prophets, it was “the closest test”, that’s my word “test”, but it’s in context, “closest which man was ever called to endure.” Abraham experienced the hardest test anybody has ever been asked to experience.
Now there are some of you here today who may have experienced a similar test. No, you haven’t been asked to kill your child. But you’ve lost a loved one for the sake of the gospel, perhaps they’ve turned on you. Or God has taken a spouse, a child or a sibling or a parent, and you’ve been asked to trust God when He’s done it. And you did it.
Perhaps you’re facing a test right now as we speak. I don’t know what’s happening in your lives. Perhaps the grief and the pain are as fresh as the flowers you put on the casket. Or perhaps you’re expecting to lose someone very soon. You understand how hard this test can be. Perhaps your faith has wavered. Perhaps you’ve shouted to God and wondered if He was listening to you. Perhaps you’ve wondered why God can be such an indian-giver. Why did He take away this beautiful person that He gave to you as a gift?
So how do we respond to God when He is an indian-giver? You can trust the indian-giver. You can trust the One who takes back what He gives. You can lean on the One who gives and takes away. You can trust the indian-giver. At least this is what I learned from the story of Abraham.
Years have gone by. Abraham is now very old. He’s very tired. He’s ready to retire. And God brings him this test.
“Abraham. Abraham!” “Here I am.” “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, into the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
It’s as if God is trying to make this test as hard as possible. He doesn’t just say “go take your son.”, He says, “Take your son, your only son, the one whom you love.” The words pierce through Abraham’s heart. How could God by so cruel? And how in the world is he going to become a great nation if God has him kill the very son that it’s supposed to happen through?
And then Satan moves in to harass and annoy. “Would God really ask you to kill? The One who says ‘thou shalt not kill’?”
Abraham is so distraught he rushes out of his tent and he looks up into the sky and he sees the stars and he remembers the promise that he had over fifty years before from God. A promise that said that his descendants would be like the stars.
Then he steps into Isaac’s tent and he looks down at his child sleeping peacefully. Have you ever done that? As a parent you step inside their room and you look and you peak. The other day my wife took a step-ladder so she could look in at my son, through the window. Outside. It’s a long story.
So he looks at his son sleeping there very peacefully. Of course, he’s an older son, he’s like 20. So peaceful and innocent. How in the world could he do this?
Finally he wakes him up. Isaac wakes up ready to go. He’s been on lots of these excursions with his father. They’ve done many sacrifices, it’s part of their routine and he’s excited and ready to go. This time they don’t tell Sarah, and you can imagine why. And they head off.
They have two servants, fire and a donkey loaded with supplies and wood, setting off for Moriah. The trip is long and hard and it’s not just because of the geography for Abraham, he’s thinking and praying and wondering and agonizing, and at night he can hardly sleep and he’s waiting for the Angels to come and say, ”Ok, just kidding.” They don’t come. Finally, they look out and they see a cloud hanging over the mountain. And he takes it as a sign from God.
Not wanting to have anybody be with him in this. It’s a very personal thing. It’ll just be him and God and the Angels. Abraham says to his servants, “wait here.” And he says something that tells us how he was able to do this. His words tell us how he was able to have the faith in God. He says, “. . . the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and WE will return.” “We will come back.” Abraham believed with all his heart that even though he would kill his son, he was prepared to do that, he believed that he would walk back with his son after it was all over. This was no “I’m just going to go up there and kill my son because God said so. And that’s it.” God had promised, he believed the promise, and he believed that somehow, someway he would return with his son back to his servants.
Hebrews confirms this. This is our text for today. Hebrews 11 and part of verse 19, “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead.” If God can raise people from the dead. If God can give a child to people who are almost dead with age, certainly He can raise him from the dead.
Finally, Abraham is passing the test. And he’s doing it by remembering God’s promises, and how He’s been faithful to keep them in the past.
Has God taken back a child or a sibling or a parent or a spouse? Has His truth separated you from the love of relatives? Has He taken back a good job, or asked you to give Him back more money than you’re comfortable with? Well, God has a promise for you, too. He promised to Abraham.
Listen to this promise. I love this promise. Jesus said. Mark 10 verse 29 and 30. Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times,” now this is the best part, well not the best part, but the part that I like, “a hundred times as much now in the present age.” He’s not talking about heaven. God has promised to replace those that you have lost and the things that you have lost in this age. And then He says, “and then receive eternal life.” I don’t know how He’s going to do it. But a hundred times. He’s going to do it. He’s promised.
You can trust the indian-giver.
After a breathtaking hike up the mountain, the travelers reach the special spot. And all along the way, Isaac just put another sword through his father’s heart by saying, “My father. Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb?”
But now the time has come. Abraham has delayed explaining to his son what’s going on, but now he must tell him. Leaning on his staff he turns to his son. “Isaac. Isaac. Come here.” Explains the dream, and he has a look in his eyes that says “trust me”. And Isaac, who has learned to trust the God of his father, and has learned to obey, and even though he’s a strong young man, he refuses to run away.
And he climbs up on the altar. And I can imagine he climbs up and tries to get on top of the wood. It’s poking into his back. It’s very uncomfortable, but it’s going to really hurt anyway so what does it matter. And then in one of those moments, those terribly frustrating moments where everything, time seems to stand still, and Abraham is standing there with tears streaming down his face, and he’s trying to tie Isaac down, and he can’t seem to get his fingers to work, and he can’t, and he’s just crying like, “why? I can’t do this.” And his son turns and helps him actually tie himself down.
And then Abraham takes the knife, raises it above his head. The sun glitters on the knife…
[volunteer comes forward] Do you have strong hands? Could you cut this card for me? Make sure you go right through those little lines right there, the black lines. That’s the bar-code. Yeah, just cut it right there. That’ll work. That should significantly disable it. Cut. I’m not going to stop you. Cut. Listen, I’m not like God. Go ahead, cut it. Keep cutting. Very good. Thank you. Alright, you can sit back down please.
The sun flashes on the knife.
“Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am. Whew! Here I am.”
“Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Can you imagine the hug that took place after that?
“Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him there was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”
And now, we begin to have a deeper understanding of our indian-giver. The ram reminds us of the lamb of God. Now we understand why He said, “Take your son, your only son.”
“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.” And this is why God is able to keep His promise. This is why God is able, even though He’s the indian-giver, and He takes things away, this is why He’s able to give them back to us again. Because He gave His Son to die. And God is able to give back your lost husband, because Jesus died for him. God is able to give back your lost child, because Jesus died for them. God is able to give you back the money that you lost. He’s able to pay, He’ll give you streets of gold because Jesus died. If you’ve lost a house, Jesus paid for a new mansion.
And then there’s some who are saying, “what about my loved one who’s lost? What about them?” I don’t know. That’s a hard question. But God has promised a hundred fold. So how He’s going to do it? Maybe He’ll replace them with the family of God, and hundreds of new, wonderful family members. Certainly, with Jesus Himself. Jesus died for that person to be saved, and if they won’t accept the gift, then He’ll take their place. Jesus will be your lost husband. Jesus will be your lost child. Jesus will be your lost brother or sister.
You can trust the indian-giver.
[to volunteer] Come here. There you go. (“Thank you.”) That’s for you. You can go sit down.
You can trust the indian-giver. You can trust him when your house is lonely. You can trust Him when the cradle is empty. You can trust Him when the casket closes. You can trust Him when the bank forecloses.
You can trust the indian-giver. You can trust the Lamb. And you can trust your God.
Hymn of Praise: #518, Standing on the Promises Scripture: Hebrews 11:17-19 Hymn of Response: #522, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 5/2/07.