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I will try to give you stephen-weaver-reader’s-digest-version: First the backstory… Isaac is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. In Isaac represents God keeping his word with Abraham and is pretty important to the genealogy and lineage of everything important. Isaac was precious for many reasons beyond just being Abraham’s son.

So, God asks Abraham to go to an undetermined place and offer up Isaac as a burnt sacrifice. Crazy, right? Even crazier, Abraham goes along with it and does exactly what God says… and just when he is about to kill his son, God interrupts him and provides a ram for the sacrifice.

There is so much in this story, and even more that we hit on last night that gave me some fresh perspective on it. I will give you the notes from the study, and then we will go through all the goodness in list form today…

Strong faith is often exercised with strong trials.

Our faithfulness affects our character and those around us.

v1 Easily overlooked, but a key to the story and the testament to the character of Abraham, when God called to him, he heard him, he answered.

v2 It almost seems like God is rubbing it in… He emphasizes that he is asking Abraham to kill his “precious” gift… This is not only the struggle of a father being asked to kill his son, but a follower of an almighty God who is apparently going back on his word…(key word=apparently)

v3 One of my favorite parts of the story… “THE NEXT MORNING…” There was no week to pray about things; there was no day of fasting to make sure he heard things right, there was no argument, just immediate obedience.

v4 Something that I had overlooked in this story for as long as I have been teaching it… It was a three day journey… a lot of time to think about what was going on… we don’t have the internal struggle of what Abraham or Isaac was thinking or dealing with…

v5 Word choice is so important isn’t it? He tells the servants that he and his son will go over the hill and… worship… worship? He knows what he is about to do, and he calls it worship… this act of sacrifice and this act of obedience is him submitting to God’s authority… it is him bowing down and saying God you are God… that is true worship… then he prophesies a little and says… we will be right back, not, I will be back, but say goodbye to Isaac…

v7-8 This had to be the moment that Abraham was dreading… “daddy?” It is one of those moments where you realize that they realize what is going on… their little a-ha moment… and you thing… ah-crap… but, not for Abraham… “God will provide” I know that there is some power in just saying the words… “God is in control”

v9-10 One of the other major issues in this story, where the drama ensues… but, what it is really all about to me is the fact that he is going all the way with what God has called him to…

v12-13 There was a ram that just happened by… coincidence? But, it doesn’t say that Abraham went looking for the ram… he looked up and there it was… I know that I spend more time looking for the ram in the thickets than trusting that it will be there when I look up…

v14 Again, it is important the words we chose… as well as what places are named… Jehovah-Jirah… The Lord will provide.

v16-18 There is a reward for obedience and faith… The promise is really big… and the reward is great. Here is where we see the direct affect of our obedience and faith on those close to us and all around us.

To look at the topic of “temptation,” we ended up studying and discussing Genesis 39 that has the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. It is one of my favorite stories. Joseph is one of the most interesting character’s and someone that really gets it right… He is a true man of “intentional character.”

I am going to make this pretty quick because the points of this story are pretty obvious to me. I would encourage you to go and read the story in Gen 39.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Tempt: To entice (someone) to commit an unwise or immoral act.exp by a promise of reward.”

Joseph is in charge of everything, and kind of already has everything. But, He is presented with the opportunity to have a little bit of “fun” on the side. His boss’ wife comes on to him pretty strong. If he were to give in, there was a great chance that he never would have been caught, and actually could have gained some status by forming a “power couple.” (to steal a term from reality TV)

When push comes to shove, Joseph says “NO!” and his explanation of why he can’t do this is brilliant.

v9 “There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

This brings us to our first big point.

The ultimate problem with sin is what it does to our relationship with God.

When we get to verse 12 we get the best advice modeled for us on how to handle temptation. The boss’ wife tries to entrap Joseph, she is not a women who is used to being told “no.” When Joseph figures out that she is trying to trap him and he does one of the wisest things he could do… HE RUNS!

When you face temptation: R U N !

Joseph does the right thing and gets out and does not sin. The boss’ wife is so upset that she lies and says that he took advantage of her and Joseph gets thrown in jail. He loses his position, authority, freedom, but, if we read through to the end of Joseph’s life, things turn out okay for him.

Gen 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

We also have some promises in the New Testament that help us when facing temptations:

1 Cor 10:13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Our final point…

Resisting temptation keeps us in a right relationship with God and effects our character.

The first study had us in Colossians 1:15-23

Paul was writing to the church at Colossae who was dealing with a lot of different religions and philosophies. Paul writes to establish that Jesus is Lord over all and the supreme being.

Col 1:16 sums it all up: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”

Jesus is in control of everything.

vv 21-22 re-establish the fact that God has made it possible to be in relationship with him. This shows the value and the priority God places on relationship. This is a relationship gained through faith

Jesus died so that through faith we might be in a relationship with him.

v 23 This section is wrapped up with an encouragement and a condition. We must stay rooted in our faith and holding onto our hope.

To stay in relationship we must keep our faith and put him first.

We then jumped into Luke 14:25-35 to discuss what the commitment to leading a disciple’s life looks like. This is the scripture where Jesus lays out what it will cost to be a follower.

I must choose to follow every day.

I must give everything up.

vv 34-35 When Jesus talks about “salt” it makes the direct connect for me with issues of character… it is about the effect that we have…

in Revelation 3:15-16 it says:”I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

How we see where Jesus ranks in our life and our daily response to where we put him effects our character.

Next week: Temptation, not a fun one, but, a great story, one of my favorites.

READ Romans 3:9-26

In the first section vv 10-18 we see the Old Testament scriptures quoted to help emphasize our spiritual and moral condition “under the law.”

vv 10-12 It is important to note that there is no room to wiggle here… the language is pretty clear… no one, none, all…

vv 13-14 It is key that the first thing he uses to talk about our condition is our mouth… the end of Matthew 12:34 says “…for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

vv 15-18 we continue to see our bodies used to exemplify our condition… what it is that we are capable of, not necessarily specifically guilty of…

vv 19-20 This tells us why just read all of that… so that we might become aware of sin…

To achieve righteousness we must be conscious of sin.

v21 here is the shift… “But, now…” there is a way apart from the law to gain God’s approval

v22 “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

Faith as defined in Hebrews 11:1 is “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

It is important that when we talk about faith in, or belief in something that we might better understand this concept if we said we have faith on or belief on something. If I tell you I believe in a chair’s ability to hold me up, there is only one way to prove my faith… SIT ON IT! (thanks Happy Days)

v23-24 again, we are all in the same situation… we all fall short, but here is the good news: we are all justified freely through grace. The God’s Word version of v24 is “They receive God’s approval freely by an act of his kindness through the price Christ Jesus paid to set us free from sin.”

Grace is getting what we do not deserve.

There are a few terms that we will look at here…

Justified: this comes from the law court system… it means there is no charge against the person. He is righteous in the eyes of the law. Looking back at vv 10-18 it is pretty clear that there is enough evidence to prove us guilty, but through grace we are right-standing. Another way to look at “justified” is “just-as-if-i-never-did-it”

Redemption: this comes from the slave market. it means to buy someone out of slavery. If we jump over to Romans 6:6 it says “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” It might be understood in how we use the word redeem today… redeem tickets or coupons… if you have a ticket to the show, you can redeem the ticket for entrance to the show…

Sacrifice of Atonement: In the Old testament system of the law, a sacrifice was required to regain right standing with God… It was usually an animal… it is where we get the imagery of Jesus being the lamb of God, being slain for us… what Jesus did on the cross was the ultimate once-and-for-all sacrifice.

It is important to note that God’s character is to be a God of justice. When we stand before him guilty, he won’t just look the other way, the price for our sin must be paid… it has been in the sacrifice of Jesus, who bore all of our sins; past, present and future.

God’s Word version of v25 is “God showed that Christ is the throne of mercy where God’s approval is given through faith in Christ’s blood. In his patience God waited to deal with sins committed in the past.”

Mercy is not getting what we do deserve.

The way I understand this is that when we stand before God on our day of righteous judgment, (Rom 2:5) We stand before him a sinner and when he goes to dole out justice and give us what we deserve, if we believe through faith on Jesus and his sacrifice, God no longer sees us, but sees Jesus standing in front of us arms open wide. And says, welcome home… you are justified, you have my approval, you are in right-standing with me.

God’s approval (justification) cannot be earned, It is a free gift if we chose to believe.

This might all seem heady… and it might seem elementary if you are a believer… I look at this as a prerequisite course… if we are going to look at what it means to have intentional character, this is the foundation, building block to how we go about.

We do not seek to develop character in an effort to earn God’s approval, that is DONE. We seek to develop character because we are called to obedience.

Think of it this way, if someone gets you off the hook, pays up your debts, would you not be indebted to them?

If we look to define these words separately we will see:

Intentional: done with intention, or on purpose

Character: moral ethical quality; reputation

The origin of the word “character” means “engraved mark”, “to engrave from a pointed stake” It emphasizes the concept of the impression, mark, or reputation we leave.

From Andy Stanley’s book Louder than Words, He defines it this way:

“Character is the will to do what is right, as defined by God, regardless of personal cost.”

A simple definition of “Intentional Character” might be:

“Making God-ly Choices on Purpose”

The study book that we are using as a guide is Christian Character from the Lifeguide Bible Studies.

In its introduction it states:

“The effectiveness of our deeds in the world is determined by the holiness of our lives. But today our standard is often far too mediocre, a standard which has been lowered to enable us to live comfortably. Jesus, however, calls us to live in a counterculture which speaks a prophetic message to the world by its very existence. He demands nothing less of us than perfection.”

Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”