Offering Up Isaac

Hebrews
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Hebrews 11:17-19
September 24, 2023

Hebrews 11:17-19: 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 that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Sermon Outline

1. About human sacrifice

  • God hates human sacrifice

  • The near-sacrifice of Isaac pictures Jesus Christ being sacrificed on the cross

2. What made God's command hard?

3. Abraham thought it through

  • "Is God erratic or am I finite?"

  • Abraham's faith-based reasoning

4. Faith is what makes obedience possible

  • Prompt obedience

  • Sustained obedience

  • Willing obedience

5. God testing your faith always has something glorious in mind

6. Applications

  • What hard thing has God asked of you?

  • Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me"

  • God will show you the glory behind what he called you to either in this life or in heaven

Steve Estes

Steve Estes has been senior pastor at Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania, for over thirty-five years. 

Steve’s books and other writings began with his longtime friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada. As teenagers, they grappled with why God allowed Joni’s paralysis in a swimming accident in the Chesapeake Bay. Steve left for college . . . they kept in touch . . . she liked the style of his letters. When her 1976 autobiography Joni spawned thousands of reader responses, she asked Steve to join her in crafting a follow-up. The result was A Step Further in 1978.

Later, Wycliffe Bible Translators commissioned Steve to write the biography of former college friend Chet Bitterman, a Wycliffe linguist who was kidnapped and murdered by political terrorists in Colombia in 1981. Other books and articles followed, including When God Weeps (with Joni) and A Better December (a giveaway book for non-Christian friends at Christmas.)

Steve was educated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He has taught homiletics at Westminster and is a board member of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.

But Steve would say his most significant life achievement was persuading college classmate Verna Stoltzfus to marry him in 1974.  They now have eight children and more grandchildren than can fit in a van.

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Faith for the Generations to Follow
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Waiting for Isaac