[Pastor Robbie Schmidtberger, our church planting resident, preached this past Sunday from Genesis 22 where we find God testing Abraham’s faith to see if he authentically walked with him. Several people asked about the source of an illustration. Here’s a brief excerpt, linking to the illustration’s source.]
God calls us to walk authentically with him. And to help us have the confidence that we truly do just that, then God tests us. But if we are honest with ourselves and each other, we’ll admit that we do not like being tested. We do not want to be asked to give certain things up; we love our way of doing life just too much…. we really only want to follow Jesus if it is on our terms.
Tests bring us face-to-face with our motivation, to discover why is it that we follow Jesus?
A few years ago I remember talking with my younger sister about America’s actor. If Will Smith was the male lead in any movie, it was a box office success. Just think about Independence Day, i-Robot, and I am Legend. So it makes sense why many would wonder why he is such a success. Variety interviewed him, seeking to discover what motivates him. Will Smith said:
"When I was 15, my girlfriend cheated on me, and I decided that if I was number one, no woman would ever cheat on me. All I have to do is make sure that no one’s ever better than me, and I’ll have the love that my heart yearns for. And I never released that and moved into a mature way of looking at the world and my artistry and love until the failure of ‘After Earth,’ when I had to accept that it’s not a good [motivation for my art] or source of love. When I received box office numbers the following Monday, I was devastated for about 24 minutes, then I received a call that [my] father had cancer. That put it in perspective — viciously.
That Monday started the new phase of my life, a new concept: Only love is going to fill that hole, you can’t win enough, you can’t have enough money, you can’t succeed enough. There is not enough. The only thing that will ever satiate that existential thirst is love. And I just remember that day I made the shift from wanting to be a winner to wanting to have the most powerful, deep and beautiful relationships I could possibly have.”
What did it take for America’s Actor to realize that his motivation for acting was wrong? What had to happen for him to realize that he was living in fear of other people? It took his movie project, that starred his own son, to be a complete failure.
So why do we follow Jesus?
God’s tests are meant to unearth the reasons why, so that we and others know if we are authentically walking with God or just pretending too. These tests are necessary, as our lifestyles matter to God. God tests us to see if we follow him for the right reasons.
You can listen to the full sermon here.