Your Faith Must Stand Trial—Gen. 22:1-12; 1 Peter 3:1-7; 4:12

You will never know if you have real faith until you’ve been in a fight. Real faith is proven in the furnace of adversity. Hebrews 12 shows us that we are compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses, further saying let us lay aside every heavy weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. It makes us look back at chapter 11 where we see great men and women of faith that faced fiery darts and dynamic persecution; and in spite of their peril and distress God saluted them because the identity of their faith was not identified by their apparel but by the faith in God that was like Job saying though He slay me yet will I trust Him.

Your Faith Must Stand Trial

Sooner or later your faith will stand trial. It doesn’t matter whether you are married or single, where you stay, rich or poor, educated or not, there will be a trial of your faith. No one will escape the courtroom of God. God knew we would face a generation that would not expect to go through anything. He doesn’t just speak of the trials but also the attitude of the person going through the trials. He says think it not strange that the fiery trials come upon you. I’m not talking about a preliminary hearing (hate and being talked about) but a real trial.

I’m afraid that when this generation stands before God alongside with the great patriarchs of faith and some will say I was stoned to death, crucified upside down, sawn usunder, children killed in the fire, but through it all I wouldn’t deny you. The worse thing this generation would be able to say is that somebody talked about me. I am embarrassed because we have more word available to us than any previous generation. We have it on tape, CD, DVD, books, internet, everywhere. We’ve got all types of preachers; the quiet intellectual, country hand slapping. We come to church more but we are getting less out of it. We have all types of professionals, preachers, drummers, keyboardist, worship leaders; everybody’s on payroll, salaries, and resume’s but no power.

For Every Trial There is a Glory

For these light afflictions work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory. In other words if we can just stand. For every trial there is going to be a glory. We’re asking God to fix, and move things He will not do. Because His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He won’t move it but He’ll give you the grace to stand. He will give you mind boggling grace that no one around can understand. God won’t always take you out of the fire but He will regulate the thermostat. That’s why I trust no one but the Lord because He knows the way that I take and when He’s tried me I shall come out as pure gold.

Abraham the Father of Faith

You can’t talk about faith without talking about Abraham. By faith he birthed a new nation from old loins. Because of faith God made him righteous; he wasn’t right but he believed God so good until He made him righteous on credit. God said I’ll accept your faith as a medium of exchange because faith is the commerce of the spirit. He said not only will I give you righteousness I’ll give you the blessings.

By faith a grown man cut his own self and circumcised himself. He cut away unnecessary flesh out of his life. Faith will bring you into holiness and make you clean up your lifestyle. It will make you cut away stuff you thought you couldn’t live without. Faith took him through many trials, troubles, and adversities. Faith, in a preliminary hearing told him he would bring forth a son. And held the case up until his wife was past child bearing age. Now she is old and barren, and he’s old and impotent. When it was completely impossible by man’s standards God gave them a day and said now I’m going to bless you. As long as you can see your way clear God will wait. But when there is absolutely no way then God will bless you. Here in Gen. 22 God give Abraham a chance to stand to a trial.He says take thine only son, he’s acting as a shadow of what God would do with Christ. I want to talk about the place, purpose, and provision of the trial.

The Place

If you walk with God He will give your place.He won’t always let you rest in the place you want to rest in. He’ll tell you this isn’t the place. He said go to MountMoriah which was a ridge of mountains. Abraham didn’t know which mountain in those mountains that he was to go through. He looked and saw the place a far off. There is a place where your faith will be challenged and even your innermost circle can’t go with you, they are barred from the courtroom. So he says to his people this is as far as you can go. He told them me and the lad is going yonder to worship. Because real worship is a sacrifice. You have not worshipped God until you have laid something down on the altar. Abraham at the pinnacle of worship says we are going yonder to worship but we will be back again. If you keep in the back of your mind that you will be back then no devil in hell can stop you. You may not know how, when, where, or who but you know that I’m coming out of this and I will be back. I may look bad right now but you can expect me to come back.

The Purpose

The first purposeis to teach you how to do the will of God no matter your personal loss.The second purpose is to teach you how to worship and praise Him. You learn this lesson through your test. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.There is nothing like a good test to teach you how to worship and praise Him. When you start to look back over your shoulder and see all that God has brought you through no one will have to teach you how to praise Him it will come out of your wounds and broken places instantly and instinctively. The third purposeis to authenticate your worship and praise.When you realize that God hung the jury and reversed the verdict you’ll praise Him not because it’s the right time but because you now realize that it was God.

Abraham takes his son up the mountain to worship. One of the great betrayals we use in this text is to portray Isaac as a little boy. It makes wonderful preaching but it’s inaccurate. It’s important that you understand that Isaac was old enough to resist but he became obedient to death. No doubt he has done this plenty of times before. He says daddy, we have the knife, the wood, but where’s the offering? What are we going to do for this sacrifice and burnt offering? Whatever is to be offered up must be completely destroyed. What are we going to stab to death and burn? He said don’t worry son, God Himself shall provide a sacrifice. Abraham was saying I can’t trace Him but I still trust Him.Trust is a form of worship. When you trust Him you are saying God I’m relying on your plan and purpose for me even in the trial. So he tells him to lie down on top of the wood, and he tied him down. He tied him to show us that there are some things you can’t get away from. I know you want to get away but some times He will tie you down (marriage, kids, jobs, etc).

The Provision

Right at the last possible moment when Abraham has his hand raised God calls him and tells him it’s just a test. I just wanted to know that I can trust you even if my will hurts you. Would you hang in there and stand even when you wanted to run away, follow through even at the expense of your flesh, trust me even when you can’t trace me. Look over your shoulder because God always has a plan. All the while Abraham was climbing up the mountain on this side there was a ram climbing up on the other side. You can’t always see your provision coming but its coming. You can’t always understand how He’s going to do it but He will do it. God has your provision climbing the mountain to meet you at the point of your need. Just look over your shoulder because God has already made a way of escape for you. For every struggle, test, trial, and problem there is a miracle if you just look over your shoulder.

The Position

Rams don’t even climb that high, but when God is ready to bless you He will break a natural rule and turn everything upside down to bless you. He will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you won’t have room enough to receive. Some of the blessings you have you don’t even understand yourself. It didn’t work out on paper or figure out in the books but God decided to open up heaven just to pour you out a blessing, now you don’t have room enough to receive. Not only was the right ram in the right place at the right time but he was tied in the bushes. That tells me that what God has for me is for me. The devil can’t have it, my enemies can’t take it, because it belongs to me. I feel a blessing tied in the thicket. It’s been waiting on you while you’ve been crying and worrying. God was just testing you to see if you could stand.

Jehovah Jireh is my provider. He’s not just a provider but He’s my provider. He can’t be yours until you’ve been through a trial and test and cried all night long. He will show up and provide you with the overflow. When life hit me hard and fast with one thing after another the Lord provided.