Now, Abraham and dear Sarah waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited not 10 years, not 15 years, not 30 years, not 40 years, 75 years. This woman is way beyond childbearing age. It's one place where the Bible gets a little bit gynecological. Sorry, it's true. And telling us that her womb was dead. Not a very nice thing to say, but it was true. But the Son came, the miracle of God's faithful provision. God keeps his promises. You just think that's the end of the story. Praise God, this is a beautiful story, son came, nation's going to grow, Jesus will come out of that. Close your Bible, we don't need anything more. But that's not what happened. God comes to this dear man who has waited until he was an old man to finally have this son, and he says, I want you to sacrifice him. It seems like a bad divine joke. How dare you? How dare you put me through generation after generation, decade after decade of waiting, I finally get this promise and you're going to take him from me? Abraham says to Isaac, we're going to go out and make a sacrifice. And so, they head out. And at some point, Isaac, he knows the sacrifice drill. He says, "Dad, where's the animal for sacrifice?" Now, I think I probably would've said, shut up and keep walking. But Abraham said something with total calmness of heart, "The Lord will provide, the Lord will provide." And if you pay attention to the original language, the Hebrew that is written there, the word that is used for Abraham, building that altar is, pictures a man who is laying those stones neatly in order. He's not doing this, I can't believe you've asked me to sacrifice my son after all these years. It's a picture of a man whose heart is utterly at rest. Hebrews tells us that he thought that God was probably going to resurrect Isaac. Know what that tells you? Abraham didn't have a clue. He had no clue of what was happening. He wasn't at rest because he figured out what God was going to do, because Hebrews reinforces to us, he didn't have any idea what God was going to do, but he was absolutely convinced that he wasn't alone and that God would provide, in a moment where life seemed to make no sense at all. When life makes no sense, you rise as God's worshiper or you rise as his accuser. There's very little space in between. When life doesn't make sense, you rise as a worshiper of God or you rise as an accuser of God. You will always respond in some way, because these experiences are never ever neutral. I had to face the fact, that in the pure sense of the word, I would never be completely healthy again in my life. I had to face the fact that it would have radical implications on the ministry that God had called me to do. And in those moments, whether in a subtle way or in a angry way, you either shake your fist at God and you say, how dare you? I followed you for this? Or you fall down and worship and say, even though I can't figure this out, even though this makes no sense to me whatsoever, I will believe you and I will worship you and I will believe that you will provide. I want to pastor you for a moment. Open your heart right now. Fire your inner lawyer. I can say that because I have an inner law firm. And when you face hardship, do you have Abraham's heart? Do you? How close are you in the push and pull of life to questioning God's promises? To questioning his presence? To questioning his power and his grace? Suffering is never neutral. You'll always bring something to your suffering and what you bring will shape the way you suffer. And what I want to do in our time together is unpack what the Bible says about suffering, because the Bible doesn't avoid this topic. You could argue that the blood and dirt of this fallen world splashes across every part of the Word of God. The Bible's shockingly honest about suffering. But that's not all. We're going to see that the Bible is gloriously hopeful about these experiences and the candor of scripture about suffering doesn't diminish the hope and the hope doesn't negate scripture's honesty. This is a book that is shockingly honest and gloriously hopeful at the same time. And because of that, we can talk about the subject without fear. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for that beautiful combination in your word of shocking, raw, clear honesty about our experience. But thank you that you don't leave us there. You give us wonderful, specific, applicable reasons for hope. Thank you. Open our hearts. We pray this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. God bless.
Transcript: Session 1
GOSPEL HOPE
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