Restoration 2019:  Brokenness

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Restoration Ministry

2019:  Evening and Sabbath Meetings

Dean Cullinane

Father of the Fatherless

When God’s Not Around

God’s Quiver

God’s Dirty Underpants

The Seeds of Babylon

The Privilege of Prayer

The Second Milers

Samson and the Holy Spirit

The Darkest Hour

How to Walk on Water

Everything that we have, everything that we are, everything that's been accomplished, Father, it's because of you.

It's because of the love that you have for us.

It's because of the grace and the mercy that You continually show us.

As undeserving as we are, Lord, Your faithfulness is beyond all measure.

And so, Father, we come here this morning, Our hearts humbled, our spirits grateful that already this week you've done amazing things.

But Father, we haven't come here for yesterday's blessing.

We haven't come here to experience what we've experienced previously.

We've come that your Holy Spirit would be so poured out on us, that we would be so filled with His presence, that we would only have miracles to testify of.

We invite Your presence not only into this room, in this auditorium, but into our hearts.

There comes a point, especially if you didn't grow up reading the Bible, there comes a point where you have to stop, where you have to pause and you have to question, What on earth am I reading?

Many people, for them, if it's your first time, you get to a roundabout Genesis chapter 6.

You hear about a flood that takes over the entire world, and it grabs you a little bit.

I didn't grow up reading the Bible, but I'd heard about the flood.

I got into the family of Abraham and it's there where I began to stumble.

And the stories in Genesis chapter 21 and 22 of Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac, really did awaken me, awaken me to just how serious a thing we are dealing with when we talk about worship.

If you have your Bibles, please go to Genesis chapter 22.

The first verse says, And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am.

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon 1 of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.' And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took 2 of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.

And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder and do what?

And worship, and come again to you." This is the first time in the Scriptures that the word worship is used and I want you to notice that the word worship seems to be synonymous with sacrifice The word worship is synonymous with sacrifice there is no worship without sacrifice just ask Cain Cain decided that he would come before the Lord with an offering that had no sacrifice to go with it, and it was not accepted.

But Abel's sacrifice, Abel's sacrifice, Abel's sacrifice was worship.

And so Abraham, knowing full well what God has asked him to do, to take the life of his son, his only son as God puts it, the son whom he loves, he's about to engage in a worship experience.

The Scriptures teach us that there is no worship without sacrifice.

But I want you to notice the faith of Abraham.

He tells his 2 young men, stay here with the donkey.

Me and my son, we're going to go and worship, and then me and my son are coming back.

Me and my son are going, I'm going to kill my son, and me and my son are coming back.

Now I think that Abraham has a good enough understanding of the state of the dead that he knows how things work.

But in the book of Hebrews we're told that Abraham's faith was so great, it was to the extent that he believed that though he would have to take the life of his son, that God would restore Isaac his life in order to fulfill his promise.

Verse 9, they came to the place that God had told them, and Abraham built an altar, laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son." We too often read these stories as though these were two-dimensional characters, as though these were characters that didn't have to actually go through this.

It wasn't something that could be done from a distance, he had to get right up close.

He had to treat his son the same way he's probably treated a number of lambs prior to this experience.

To take a blade and to slash his son's throat.

You probably know the story, verse 11, And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham.

He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him 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 What had Isaac done to deserve such treatment you tell me?

What was Isaac's great sin that God required his life as a sacrifice.

In fact, we're told that the motivation for such actions was because it appeared that Abraham had put Isaac, the 1 whom his heart had longed for for almost a century, had put Him on the throne of his heart, had put Him in first place.

God isn't going to ask you just to give up the bad things.

It's not just the foul-mouthedness It's not just these things that we already abhor to a certain degree God is saying that regardless of what it is listen Everything goes on the altar Everything goes on the altar And it's not you or me that decides what comes off, it's the Lord himself.

And It's only safe to take something off, it's only safe to allow something into your life if God has first given the green light.

And let's not pretend like there isn't 1.

Let's not pretend like we don't have at least 1 great struggle in our life.

When you think of that 1 sin that so easily besets you, We all have 1.

We all have 1 that daily is engaging in wrestling God off His throne.

Is it that check that you receive at the end of the month or the end of every 2 weeks?

If there's something, anything, in your life today that is going to hinder you from hearing the Word of God speaking to you this morning.

Father in heaven, Lord, we pray especially right now that the message that you have in store for us would not be hindered, would not be blocked out, would not be pushed away because of these sins that so easily beset us, because of these darling sins, as they may be called.

Father, today we want victory in Jesus' name.

Series

2019: Evening and Sabbath Meetings

The Darkest Hour

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Christian Cult, Love Triangle, and Art School: My Story

58m

Morning Devotional

Three Wise Men

1h

Restoration 2025: Revelation of Healing

10 Your First Love

56m

The Spirit of Antichrist and My Fifth Grade Birthday Party

39m

The Price of Blood

56m

Plenary

Truth Only

51m

Plenary

When Temptations Return

1h 18m

The Sign of Jonah and God’s Five Step Formula for Victory

51m

The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

9. A Poisoned Lottery Ticket Winner

1h 38m

Plenary

The First Angel’s Message

59m

Unlocking Prophecy

13- Making a New Start

1h 9m

Don’t Lose Heart

50m

Sound Doctrine