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Well, did you see that final episode of Lost last Sunday night? Neither did I. In fact, I didn’t see any episodes of Lost. Still the show had a long run and a lot of fans. Some people had a hard time explaining what it was about but one of the producers and head writer was interviewed by the NY Times a couple of weeks ago and he gave some interesting insights.

Q: Your show traffics in a lot of big themes…what were the most important ones to you?
DAMON LINDELOF: If there’s one word that we keep coming back to, it’s redemption. It is that idea that everybody has something to be redeemed for and the idea that redemption doesn’t necessarily come from anywhere else other than internally. But in order to redeem yourself, you can only do it through a community. So the redemption theme started to kind of connect into “live together or die alone.” These people were all lone wolves who were complete strangers on an aircraft. Let’s bring them together and through their experiences together allow them to be redeemed. When the show is firing on all pistons, that’s the kind of storytelling that we’re doing.
The characters on Lost weren’t just trying to survive they were in search of redemption. Apparently the writers of the show see the island where the survivors of the plane crash were marooned as Rehab Island. There is a lot of cultural confusion between rehabilitation and redemption. Rehab has limited results. At best, it takes a person back to where they were before they got hooked. If there is no change internally then the cycle of addiction will likely be repeated. That’s why I’m thankful for a process like Celebrate Recovery. CR is a process built on the assumption that what people need is not human techniques of rehabilitation but God’s sovereign work of redemption.

In our series we have explored answers to life’s most profound questions. Genesis 1 answers the question, “Where did I come from?” Genesis 3 answers the question, “How did it ever get so crazy?” Today we look for an answer to the question, “Who will save us?” Is there a way out of this mess? Is there a chance any of us will survive in the aftermath of the crash of Adam and Eve on this island called Earth?

I want you to know that God is not in the rehabilitation business. He is in the redemption business. Only God can raise up what is fallen, repair what is broken, straighten what is crooked, and find what is lost. If you were God how would you save a rebellious creation living on a fallen planet?

We saw a hint of God’s plan to restore His fallen creation in Gen. 3:21 when God shed the blood of an animal to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. In Gen. 22 God paints a vivid picture of the ultimate solution to the problem of sin and death. The gripping account of Abraham offering his beloved son is a foreshadowing of the divine solution that God offers us. Gen. 22:1…video clip…


Abraham did not go through with the sacrifice of his only son. God did. A millennium before Christ, Abraham and Isaac foreshadow what will happen centuries later on that same hill to pay the penalty for our sin and open the door of heaven to all who believe. Jesus was offered up as a substitute for you and me. His blood was the price of our redemption. Just as Abraham took the wood and laid it on is son, God’s only son carried the cross up that mountain, the place Abraham called, “Jehovah Jireh.” (22:14). On this Memorial Weekend as we commemorate those who shed their blood for our freedom let’s not forget that God gave His only Son to provide a way of redemption for those who put their trust in Him. How should we respond?  The Bible says “by faith.” What is faith?

Faith is trusting God even when we don’t understand. V. 2…God asked Abraham to do something that was not just beyond his understanding. It was shockingly personal. What God asked of Abraham made no sense. God appears self-contradictory. He says, “Do not murder,” yet He requires Abraham to kill his son. He condemns child sacrifice but he asks Abraham to sacrifice his child. Of course God never had any intention of letting Abraham follow through on this act but Abraham didn’t know that. Stuart Briscoe summarizes the situation eloquently, “The dilemma was obvious. The promise of God required that Isaac should live while the command of God demanded that he should die. Abraham was suddenly confronted with the most awesome of problems – a self-contradictory God! Unbelief stumbles over such problems while mature faith waits to see how the distant recesses of the wisdom of God hidden from human reason and understanding will be made known. But the waiting can be excruciating and many people, rather than bear the pain, simply abandon the faith.” Stuart Briscoe

We don’t have to fully understand to fully trust. I don’t fully understand electricity but I still trust that when I hit the switch the lights will come on. I don’t fully understand the laws of aerodynamics but I still get on an airplane from time to time. If we don’t trust God even when we don’t understand our obedience will be conditional obedience. I will only obey that which I understand. If I don’t understand, I don’t have to obey.

Prov. 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

Faith is trusting God even when it costs us our future. Abraham’s problem was not simply one of mental understanding. His obedience was intensely personal. His faith would cost him his only son. But what about the promises God made to Abraham? What about the great nation, descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky, all the nations of the world being blessed? Isaac is the promised son. If Abraham sacrifices Isaac he sacrifices his future. He has to choose, either he will place his confidence in his son or he will place his confidence in God.

Abraham believed that God would provide. Notice v. 5. The writer of Hebrews even goes so far as to tell us what was on Abraham’s mind. “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned (considered – logizomai)  that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” Hebrews 11:17-19

Abraham didn’t believe by a leap of faith. He knew God so he “reasoned” based on his rational understanding of God that God would provide. He believed the promise of God so He hung on to faith when circumstances appeared to contradict God’s word. One of the advantages of being nearly a hundred years old is that Abraham had walked with God for a long time and found Him trustworthy. Have you ever noticed that older saints seem a lot calmer than younger ones? It’s not just because they have arthritis! They have seen God at work time and time again. They have seen God turn losses into gains. They have seen God turn life into death. They have seen God find the lost sheep and bring them home. God will provide. What do you need today? God will provide it.

Faith is trusting God enough to obey. It is one thing to believe that God can do anything, it is quite another to act on that belief. We are suffering from a shortage of “shema” in our society today. Shema = “to hear” AND “to obey.” There is no distinction in the Bible. But we hear and then decide whether to obey. We separate faith from action.   
    
James 2:21-24, “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God's friend.  24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”

All of life is a test, a test of trust. God will not compete for our allegiance. He wants to be #1. He wants us to declare like the psalmist, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” Psalm 20:7

“I want to trust but where do I start?” The purest expression of Abraham’s faith is found in vv. 1 and 11. “Here I am.” I don’t know what God will ask of you but He will test you. Will you say, “Here I am?” On our journey we will encounter frequent disappointments. Our disappointments are God’s appointments. In our disappointment God says, “Will you trust me?” Let’s say, “Here I am.”

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