The Word That Gets the Attention of Heaven

If you've got your Bibles, open up to Genesis, chapter 22. The title of my message today is One word that gets Heaven's the one word that gets the attention of Heaven. I believe that this word that I'm going to teach you today, some of you, if you know me, you've heard it, but this one word is an ultimate word. And when it comes out of the lips of a son or daughter of God, I believe that heaven's attention is focused on you. It's an ultimate word.

It's a costly word. It's not a word that is to be spoken to flippantly. And you don't just do it because, oh, the service is so great. And so I'm gonna. I'm gonna say this word.

You do it because you're ready to lay your life down for the gospel. And it gets the attention of Heaven. And before I tell you that word, I want to say that if I'm invited to any church and they say, look, we're only gonna invite you once and you have to give one message, go for it. This would be the message I would give them. Actually, I spoke it at the refuge over 20 years ago because it's a life message for me.

I actually have a ring with the word in Hebrew on it.

The word was drilled into me by my father because my father and my mother actually lived this word. My dad's here today. He's moved in with us. Dad, where are you? Can you just wave at me?

Can you hear me? Got your hearing aids in? Yeah. There he is. Would you guys welcome My dad?

Dad, just stand up. You guys have to see this man.

This is my dad. I love him.

This is my beloved father, in whom I'm well pleased. That's kind of a Bible verse almost. But my dad's moved in with us, and he's a new member of the Refuge. He said he had no choice, but he instilled this word into me as a young man, and I count it like I received this inheritance. So it's special to me because it's a word that's changed my life.

It's a word that I've heard from my dad, and it's a word that I want to give to you today. You ready? All right. Stand with me and open to Genesis, chapter 22.

Now, it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, abraham. And Abraham said, here am I.

Here am I. In Hebrew, the word is hineni. And it's the word that gets the attention Heaven Here am I. I forgot to do the. You guys, forgive me. The proclamation that we do every week here.

Before you sit down, can I give that to you? All right, great. So I don't know it by heart. Oh, there it is. Thank you, Emmy.

Or whoever did that for me. You're the best. Okay, let's go. Ready? I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God.

This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work will believe in Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.

Hineni is a Hebrew word that means literally, behold me. The word hine in Hebrew is behold. So when John was baptizing and Jesus was walking, he said, hine, behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world to behold. Something is stopping what you're currently looking at. And look at something of ultimate value.

Behold Ani. Hine is behold. Ani is me. Together. Hineni, behold me.

Or in English, here am I. What's the word that gets the attention of heaven? Hineni. Everybody say it. Hineni.

Say it again. Hineni. Why do I say it gets the attention of heaven? Because anywhere in the word of God where you see the word hineni, heaven notices.

Here am I. Know the costly thing about saying hineni is this. You're saying, here am I without knowing what God's going to require next.

We're volunteering for something that we don't know what we're volunteering for.

If I wanted to say I need 10 volunteers from the refuge today, you're probably not gonna raise your hand until I tell you what you're volunteering for.

All expense pay trip to San Diego to witness on the beaches of San Diego. Hineni. Ha ha. Here am I. Count me in.

What God is looking for is men and women to say hineni who. Who are willing to do whatever he says. That's the ultimate hineni. I've got it on my ring in Hebrew. And it's a reminder to me that when I have choices in front of me to make, will I be one who is obedient to God, or will I be one simply that does my own saying.

A hanani people is a people that will change the world. Too often we're living for our own pleasures and our own desires without realizing that when we fulfill God's desires, we will be more than fulfilled in our lives. And sometimes the desires that we're going after will bring temporary gratification, but ultimately will not bring fulfillment in our lives because they're our own selfish desires. But when we follow what God is wanting us to do, we'll be ultimately fulfilled. Hineni gets the attention of heaven.

And it's the word that I want to put before you today because I believe that there's an invitation for each of us to say, lord, here am I. Abraham said Hineni. Moses said Hineni. Samuel said Hineni. Isaiah said Hineni. Ananias in the book of Acts said Hineni.

And I'm sure many other people throughout history, but I'm gonna focus this morning on Abraham, maybe touch on one other, but in Genesis 22, Abraham is somewhere between 115 and 135 years old.

Scholars say that Isaac is between 15 and 35.

Abraham waited his whole life to receive the son of promise. Decades. Decades. Decades. Abraham and Sarah were waiting for Isaac.

And listen, without Isaac, there'd be no Jesus. You understand this?

Abraham and Sarah. The Bible says Abraham's body was as good as dead. Sarah was barren. She was beyond the age of bearing children. God does a miracle.

They named their son Isaac because Isaac means laughter.

Sarah laughed when God said, you know someone is coming from your own body. She laughed.

And now, 15 some odd years later, God calls to Abraham.

Verse one again. Now, it came about after these things. God tested Abraham and said to him, abraham. And he said, hineni. God said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac.

Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you what God, you promised him to me. We've waited all these years. God, do you understand that if Isaac is is sacrificed, there'd be no lineage. God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What if there's no Isaac?

God's promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 was that through him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. There's no Isaac. There's no blessing.

But because Abraham said hineni to God, he was invited into a process of either saying, okay, I'm following wherever he leads, or I'm doing what I want to do.

Look at verse three.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him. Isaac, his son. He split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to a place which God had told him, If I were to receive a word From God, like Abraham received. I would have asked God for some confirmations like, like, lord, if you're asking me to do this, please have the clouds spell the word go for me and I'll know it's you.

Nothing. He rises early in the morning and follows the Lord. The book of Hebrews talks about Abraham and his willingness to do this because he knew that God could raise from the dead.

Remember, Abraham's body was as good as dead. There was no natural way for Isaac to be born. But God's life came into a dead womb through a dead man's body and out comes Isaac. Now Abraham knows that if Isaac can be born, then God could raise him from the dead. Verse, verse 4.

On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes, saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you.

This is the first time in the Bible the word worship is used.

Interestingly, we've really watered down the word worship in our society. We've made it all about lights, cameras, microphones, instruments, big choirs. And I don't mind any of that. But let's remember that you can have all of that without an ounce of worship.

Because this worship right here had nothing to do with a corporate service, with any of that. And it had everything to do with a man going to a place to give his best to God. That's what true worship is. I and the lad will go yonder and worship. And interestingly, just thought of this.

Isaac was put on the altar on the very place where God had Solomon build the temple.

Generations later, the temple, the place of worship and sacrifice and meeting with God, was in this very place. If you look today at pictures of Jerusalem, typically the central temple picture or theme will be that gold dome, that mosque on the Temple Mount. You've seen that picture, right? That's the exact place where the temple was, which was the exact place where Isaac was put on the altar.

That's why I believe God chose that place as the place of worship and sacrifice and God meeting with his people.

Verse 6. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac, his son. He took his hand, he took in his hand the fire and the knife. The two of them walked on together. And Isaac spoke to Abraham, said my father, he said, hineni, my son, he said, behold the fire and the wood.

But where is the lamb for the offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb, my son. So the two of them walked on together. Verse 9. Then they came to the place of which God had told him Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

By the way, if I was Isaac, 15 years old, maybe I've seen some pretty wild CrossFit 15 year old boys these days. But even without CrossFit, I think a 15 year old can take 115 year old guy pretty easily. He's like, dad, what are you doing?

115 years old. Dad, I'm not sure you're hearing from God correctly anymore.

Isaac's an amazing picture. An amazing picture of Jesus in that he willingly went and offered his life.

Verse 10. Abraham stretched out his hand, took the knife to slay his son. This, this dude wasn't messing around. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, abraham, Abraham. And Abraham said, hineni, it's like thank you.

He said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad. Do nothing to him. For now I know that you fear God since you've not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Isn't it interesting? Interesting that God asked Abraham to give his only son?

God provided a ram in the thicket. But the lamb that Abraham was prophesying that would be provided was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. God will provide for himself a lamb. God wasn't asking Abraham to do anything that he, as a loving father, wasn't willing to do himself. Now listen, I don't believe on any stretch of the imagination that God is going to ask or require any of you to take anything living and sacrifice it on an altar.

Right now that's off the board. But I will tell you this. God may ask you to do something that violates your own human understanding. God may ask you to do something that seems like the ultimate sacrifice. And go.

I'm sorry, did that hit you? Oh man, I better stay up here. I do that all the time. Or maybe I should just stand in front of Nathan. God may ask you to do something that violates everything inside of you.

He's looking for our hearts. Hineni means whatever you say, I will do it.

Abraham had something inside of him. He knew that God gives life to the dead. And nothing, nothing, nothing is too difficult for the Lord. So he stretches out his hands. God says, now I know.

Verse 13. Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked. And behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up as a Burnt offering in place of his son. Listen to this.

Verse 14. Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day in the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

You've sung the song or heard the song, I'm sure, Jireh, Jehovah, Jireh. Or if you're a Hebrew speaker, which I'm not, Jehovah, Yireh, God will provide. When we say Hineni to God, it opens up the door for supernatural provision. There are so many of us that are living with needs, whether they're physical, emotional, spiritual needs. Can I tell you the one word that gets the attention that will open up the door for you to see your provision?

It's saying, hineni, when whatever you say to me, I will do. Because many of us work day and night to amass for ourselves our own source of provision. When God is saying, hey, listen, if you trust me, I'll provide. The greatest provision in Abraham's life was Isaac. The greatest provision for the earth was Isaac.

And yet God says, take this provision and offer it up as a sacrifice to me because I've got something better than Isaac. I've got Yeshua, the Savior of the world, who will bring ultimate redemption and cleansing. I don't know that Abraham foresaw that in his spirit, but what he did know was if God could birth a son through Sarah and me, certainly he can raise Isaac from the dead. God provided in the thicket a ram. But thousands of years later, maybe a kilometer or so away from this very place, he provided the lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

You need provision in your life, Hineni. You want to struggle, to try to make it on your own. Forget God, work and toil. But I'm telling you that Hanani opens the door for heaven to see a son and a daughter who's not looking for anything but for God's glory to be revealed. So although I would love the free trip to San Diego or wherever I would volunteer for, I'm saying, let's just say, God, whatever you say to me, I'll do it.

I'm reminded in Isaiah 6, which we won't turn to, Isaiah was kind of in tune with the conversation that's going on in heaven. And the conversation was, who will go for us and whom shall I send? And on earth, Isaiah says, hineni, yo send me.

It's almost like that he was intuiting this conversation in heaven. It wasn't like these two people in front of him talking. It was this heavenly conversation. And he says, here I am. Send me.

And you know what happens? God didn't. God didn't go, oh my gosh, Isaiah, I love you. I'm sending you to San Diego. He said, I want you to go and tell these people they have eyes and don't see and ears and don't hear.

Well, that doesn't sound like a great message to bring, man. I speak at the refuge once a year, maybe a couple times a year. I'm excited to come. Scott, I want you to tell them they're blind and they're deaf. It's like, oh, Lord.

I want to encourage them.

Isaiah said, how long he willingly went, but he got the attention of heaven because he said, here am I. And he wasn't even being spoken to.

Where are the Isaiahs today? Where are the Abrahams today?

Where are the men and women who will simply say, God, look no further. Behold me, here am I. Because when we do that, our marching orders might not be what they expected. As a matter of fact, I guarantee you they won't be what you expected, nor will the end result be what you expected, because it will be God being glorified way more than you being glorified.

Flip over really quickly to Exodus, chapter three.

Moses was 80 years old. He just spent 40 years on the backside of a desert. At 40 years old, he knew he was destined to be a deliverer.

So in his own power, he slays an Egyptian God, sends him to the backside of the desert for 40 years forgotten. Moses was in his prime at 40.

Man, if you want to find somebody that was ready and fit to be a deliverer, it was Moses really. The son of Pharaoh's daughter, raised in a beautiful palace with the wisdom of Egypt and the favor of the Egyptian royalty, the greatest army on earth.

Now, 40 years on the backside of the desert. Verse 1 of chapter 3, Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro. He was a shepherd. And by the way, shepherding in those days was the lowest of low jobs. Nobody desired, if they were selfish, to be a shepherd.

It's you and the sheep your rod and sheep the lowliest. I love that the Lord is my shepherd.

Nobody, nobody is born and says, oh gosh, I want to grow up and be a shepherd. No, you want to grow up. You want to be wealthy, you want to be known. You don't want to be scrubbing toilets where nobody sees you.

Well, that's kind of what Moses was doing, shepherding the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the backside of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Horeb, the mountain of God. If I were God, can I tell you what mountain I would choose to be my mountain? Everest.

Beautiful, awe inspiring. God chooses Horeb, which in Hebrew means arid, dry, waste place.

God doesn't choose like we choose. He's not afraid to have his name associated with something that doesn't produce immediate fruit.

Because he sees the future where he is glorified. Friends, can I just tell you something? Little secret. That's why he chose Israel. You think he chose Israel because he knew everybody would love them all the days of their life?

No, actually, he knew what would be happening today. Where nations begin coming against the one nation he chose. And did he choose them because they were the greatest? No, he chose them because they were the least. You know what?

God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Look, if you're saying. Scott, listen, I want you. You're the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers, okay?

I want paraded in front of me, everybody over 6, 5, with 0% body fat on them, running 4, 4 forties march them in front of me. They're the ones that at least will get tryouts. God wouldn't be interested in any one of them. He might be interested in the smallest, frailest. I want you.

Why? Because he knows that through them he can get glory.

That's why he chose Horeb, a dry, arid place to be known as the Mountain of God. That's why he chose Abraham when he was 100 to birth the child of promise. That's why he's choosing Moses at 80, way after his prime. Because maybe Moses would have taken too much glory himself when he was 40.

Verse 2. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush.

This is so interesting. A desert bush. You ever seen a desert bush? You ever driven through, like, Albuquerque, New Mexico? Because I have.

I think that highway is. It's either Highway 40 or Highway 10. It's one of those east west highways.

Not Albuquerque. El Paso, Texas. I drove through El Paso, Texas, and all of these desert bushes, I think they were. They're tumbleweeds just rolling across the road, worth nothing in the natural. And God shows up in a bush again, not the mountaintops of Everest, you know, with fire.

It's like. No, in a bush.

Moses looked, and the bush. But behold, the bush was burning. Yet the Bush was not consumed. So Moses said, I must turn aside now and look.

Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight. Why the bush is not burned up. When the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to look. God called to him from inside the midst of the bush and said, moses, Moses. And.

And Moses said, hineni. Say it. Hineni. God didn't call him by the way, until he looked. God didn't call him until he saw this insignificant throwaway bush.

But there was something special about it. Let me just tell you something, friends. Too many of us desire to be in the ministry.

I love the ministry. But the ministry has nothing to do with being paid by a non profit organization. The ministry has everything to do with being exactly where God wants you to be. Whether it's preaching to 10,000 or flipping burgers at the local burger place. That's ministry.

And God calls Moses from the midst of a bush and at 80 years old. And Moses says, here am I. But you know what he was doing? He had his little rod and his sheep.

He didn't have a congregation going, yahoo. Amen. Moses, you're almost there. You're almost ready. He didn't have these.

Sheep weren't cheering them on. They were probably. I mean, sheep. Sheep are some interesting animals. That was Moses preparation.

Listen, wherever you are, look for insignificant ways that God can show up and perceive it. Moses looked at a bush and God says, moses, Moses, don't think that what you're doing is insignificant in God's sight. Give your whole heart to being a witness wherever you are. And God may one day say, jonathan. Jonathan.

Scott. Scott. Mary. Mary. Because he's not looking for quote unquote successful ministers.

He's looking for faithful sons and daughters who are willing to go wherever he would call them to go.

Moses said, here am I, hineni. Verse 10. Oh my gosh, my time. Verse 10. Therefore, come now.

The Lord said, I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said, who am I that I should go? Verse 12. He said, Certainly I will be with you. Hiney gets the attention of heaven.

It opens up the door for God to speak your destiny to you. Scott. I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.45. I thought I'd be so much further down the line than I am right now, friend.

Simple Hineni. Here am I, Lord. Speak. Whatever you say, I will do. God, I never dreamed I would be in this place with My family.

I thought my kids would be doing this. And Hineni, I never thought I'd be this place in my health.

Hineni.

God's way of judging has nothing to do with with the success of man. We just talked in our podcast a couple weeks ago about Moses, say Moses striking a rock and getting water out of it to feed millions. That would have impressed us all to no end. Let's follow this guy. He just got water from a rock.

But there was one problem. Even though there was a miracle, God wasn't happy because Moses misrepresented God to the people, because Moses said God said to Moses, speak to the rock, and he struck the rock. I'd love to find that message that you preached, Terry, decades ago on Moses. This is from Pastor Terry. I don't know if I'm going to get this exactly right.

I don't even know if you remember, but I remember a fire years ago. Moses had a rod that was a sign of his authority. And anytime he used that rod, God came through, parted a sea, hold up his rod. I mean, the rod was power, but his speech was his weakness. He couldn't speak.

Lord, I can't speak. So God sent his Aaron. He'll be your mouthpiece. So now God tells Moses to do something out of his weakness and speak to the rock. And Moses did what worked in the past and used the authority of God rather than his weakness.

But the crazy thing is, is that water came out of the rock. God doesn't care. Do you think God's in heaven going, oh, my gosh, look at that miracle. Moses did it. Scott prayed for somebody, and they were healed.

Rah, rah, rah. No, no, no. Miracles don't impress God. Faithfulness impresses God. Character impresses God.

Let's not be looking for the grandiose miracle signs and wonders. Let's just be looking for people who are men and women who say, lord, here am I, one last Hineni, because my time is almost gone. This is my Favorite Hineni. Isaiah 58, verse 6. Is this not the fast which I choose?

To loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke. Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into their house? Verse 8. Then your light will break out like the dawn of your recovery will speedily bring forth. When you're in a position of fasting, denying your flesh, getting in a position of saying, lord, whatever you say, I will do verse 8.

Your righteousness will go before you. The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Verse 9. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry and God will say, hineni.

Say it. Say it. God says hineni to us. I mean, Lord, do you know what you're doing? You're saying to us, whatever we say, you will do.

That's a little staggering, but he won't say that just to any ordinary person. It's the one who says hineni to God, that God will say hineni to them.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, glory like the new day. Let me just read this verse while you're standing, please. In closing.

Then your light will rise in darkness. Your gloom will become like midday. Let's. The Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places. He'll give strength to your bones.

And you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will be builders of the ancient ruins. You will raise up the age old foundations. You. You will be recalled, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the street in which you dwell.

Then you will call and God will say, hine.

I believe the Lord is inviting us today to make a potentially costly decision.

It's not a decision based on our selfish desires, but it's a decision based on his holy desires.

Just looking at my ring, which is on my finger, to remind me day and night that every decision that I make is a valuable one and determines my destiny. Hineni.

So I just want you to take a minute and I'm gonna call you to respond simply by raising your hands. I want you to make your little chair area there a meeting place. Make it your horeb. Some of you are probably in the driest seasons that you ever could have imagined. Some of you are in places that you never dreamt you would be for all the wrong reasons.

There's a desert bush that's burning. If you can only see it. The Lord is crying out, Moses. Moses. For those of you who desire to stop and look, I believe the Lord is calling each of you by name this morning and looking for those who would respond with a simple hineni, if that's you, I just want you to raise both of your hands because I want to pray for you.

Don't do it flippantly and don't do it because somebody next to you is doing it. I want you to raise your hands because the Lord is looking.

Dad, if you'll come up here with me just for a minute. I'd love for you to pray a blessing. Keep your hands up.

Father, I pray that you would look down on this congregation.

I pray that you would see not just the hands that are raised, but the hearts in whose bodies those hands are raised. I pray, great God, that you would fill them with courage and strength to face whatever it is that you are calling them to do. Because, Lord, when we say hineni to you, it opens the windows of heaven for supernatural destiny, for supernatural provision, for supernatural courage, for. For amazing things beyond what we could have asked or desired. I'm not a prophet, but I feel like the Lord wants me to say that your greatest dreams for your life don't pale in comparison to God's greatest dreams for you that he wants to do for you exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all you can ask or think, if you can think of.

It's not big enough.

But he's not going to entrust himself to people who don't entrust themselves to him. So, Lord, I pray that you see our hands and that you honor our Haneni today. And we look, Lord, for you to move in a supernatural way. In Jesus name, Amen. Stay standing.

Dad, would you pray the Aaronic blessing over this house? My dad is the best. He would close every meeting praying over people. He just moved here from Phoenix, Arizona, and I just. While I was speaking, I just thought it'd be really cool if you would and if you have anything to say.

And we used to sing it to conclude every meeting. The Lord bless thee and keep thee.

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee. Sing it with us and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.

One thought comes to my mind when you're saying Hineni without knowing what God is calling you to. You are demonstrating a 100% trust in the Lord, Lord God Almighty. So I pray you take this seriously. It's a life changing message. And you're saying, lord, I'm available to you for whatever you would have for me in Yeshua's holy name, Amen.

Amen.