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PROCLAMATION
Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord will provide!
Genesis 22:14
December 17, 2000pm
Growing up was a difficult task for my sisters and I. Our only income was welfare payments and food stamps. I have to admit, Christmas time was perhaps the most difficult time of the year. After third grade we never had Christmas presents. What gifts we did receive came from the Goodfellows Organization. We would make some kind of project- maybe a drawing or homemade card and exchange on Christmas day. One time I painstakingly sewed together a couple of pillows stuffed with paper-towels and made a cardboard crib for my little sister. And then when school resumed I would lie about all of the items I received for Christmas because I was too embarassed to tell others how poor I was.
I find this time of year especially special. This time of the year is special because I look back and realize that the things I did or didn’t get really wasn’t what makes Christmas Christmas. What makes Christmas Christmas is the fact that God sent His Son Jesus Christ as the substituionary sacrifice for my sin and provides for all of my needs. This is my proclamation tonight: I am saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. My faith is intact because of God’s grace and I am freed from the power of sin.
My Christmas moment came on November 12, 1978. I knelt at an altar and prayed to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That gift was a gift that keeps on giving. God has always been there for me no matter what the situation or circumstance. I believe even now, that as a pastor God will continue to lead me and direct me so that we can see this church be a glory to His kingdom.
Abraham needed a Christmas moment. God had promised Abraham in his old age that he would father a great nation whose numbers would be like the stars of the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. So God provided Abraham with a son- Isaac. And Isaac grew into a fine young man. I am sure that he was his father’s delight. But then God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering.
Abraham’s faith was tested. He had believed God and was considered righteous for believing. But now God was asking him to give up his son and give up all that he had dreamed for.
There isn’t a person here who has not had a dream of the future. We look ahead and plan according to what we believe is God’s will. And then we enact that plan. God had promised Abraham a son. So Abraham followed through with the plan.
Abraham had plans for his son. He knew that his son’s future was bright and would be great but now God was asking for Abraham to give up what was given to him.
Abraham’s testimony of God’s faithfulness will go down as one of the greatest moments in history. Because of Abraham’s faith in God that He would provide, we are able to see more clearly God’s love for mankind. No matter what, just remember that God will be faithful, if we let Him.
1. God Provided the Right Sacrifice.
Isaac was to be the means of the worship. He and his father Abraham went up to the mountain to worship. After erecting an altar and laying all of the wood for a sacrifice Isaac looks around and asks where the sacrifice is to come from. There is no lamb available. Abraham simply says: “The Lord will provide.”
Have you ever noticed that the Lord will provide when we are willing to give up? The Lord will provide peace between individuals when they are all willing to give up their personal opinions. The Lord will provide for your needs when you are willing to give up trying to to everything on your own. The Lord will only be able to provide for your salvation when you give up trying to save yourself.
God provided for Abraham’s need. Just as he raised the knife above his son whom he had tied up ready to sacrifice, the angel of the Lord shouts to Abraham. And a ram is provided as a substitute for Isaac.
Obviously, it is no stretch for us to understand that God provides for each of us Jesus Christ who is the one and only sacrifice for our sin. Not any sacrifice will do. Only the precious blood of Jesus Christ can save from sin.
2. God provided at the right place.
Remember the day you got saved? Do you remember the place? Most people seem to remember where they got saved and the circumstances surrounding it. Abraham could point to the mountain of the Lord as the physical place where God provided. And so could I.
A few years ago I roofed the Bible Holiness Church in Muskegon. This is the church I got saved in. During one of my breaks from the roof top I went inside and knelt at the place of the altar and thanked God for what he had done in my heart. There was no great bright light nor did an angel appear. I didn’t hear the voice of God. I got up and went back to work.
So often we put emphasis in the wrong place based on this kind of scripture. And true, perhaps Christ was sacrificed on that very same mountain where God provided for Abraham however, the spot doesn’t save. Where I got saved is just a physical place that one day will be windswept away.
What matters even more in the days of Jesus Christ, is that my salvation comes on the altar of my heart- the spiritual place. The memory of that time is with me always. What God does today is the same thing then except it is accomplished through the fulness of the Holy Spirit in our times.
God provided the right sacrifice at the right place and 3. God provided at the right time.
When I needed God the most He was there. His love is always right on time. I’m not just talking about a chronological time but in the fulness time. At just the right time Jesus came to die for us. At just the right time God provided a ram for Abraham. God’s love is always on time.
Dr. James Gray had this to say: “We have to get to the end of ourselves to see the beginnings of grace.”
And that is when God’s love is on time. When we reach the end of who we are and can look no further ahead. Our faith plus nothing.
Abraham’s faithfulness led to his thankfulness. And so it should be in our own life. I am thankful for what God has done in my own heart. And my thankfulness should lead to proclamation. Look what Jesus has done. I was lost but now I am found!
What happens when we believe God as our provider?
We can say it confidently. God has given us his son.
We can say it expectantly. He will provide wisdom for the meek, strength for the weak, weapons for warfare, comfort in sorrow, grace in need, and a mansion in heaven.
We can say it continually. God said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
In life, in death, in eternity- Jehovah Jireh. The Lord is my provider.
