God's Unstoppable Will Genesis 24:29-51

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One amazing fact of life is that God is in complete control of everything that happens.
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Yet most people go through their lives never once giving any thought to this. There was a popular belief in the 18th century known as deism.
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What this taught was that God created everything, set the entire universe up like a clock, and then took off and cared nothing about his creation.
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In other words, God would have no involvement in the world with this worldview.
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Now most Christians today would not operate like outright deists. Rather, they operate some of the time like practical deists, as author
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Jerry Bridges has said. What this means is that many Christians live and talk like God is in control some of the time, but not all the time.
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What we have to understand as Christians is that God is involved in the intimate details of our lives.
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In Matthew 10, 29, and 30, Jesus said that the Lord knows the number of hairs on your head.
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He also knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. Nothing happens in this world without God overseeing it.
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Some might protest that God has overseen all the bad things that have happened in the history of the world.
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And the truth is, yes, he has. Ephesians 1, 11, as I read earlier this morning, says that all things happen according to the counsel of his will.
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Instead of this bothering us, it ought to lead us to great comfort, knowing that our good
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God is working everything in history for his glory and for the good of his people.
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What this means in our own lives is that nothing can thwart God's will. You have powerful forces working against you as a believer.
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The world is working against you. Satan is working against you. You are working against you, your own flesh.
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Yet nothing can stop God's good plans from being accomplished in your life.
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As Romans 8, 31 says, if God is for us, who can be against us? And the answer is obvious.
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No one. Over the last several weeks, we have seen the Lord's will play out in the search for Isaac's wife.
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What we are going to see today is that nothing can stop his will from taking place. So as we continue our sermon series through Genesis, we're going to be looking at Genesis 24, verses 29 through 51.
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So I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me there. And if you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 21 and 22.
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This sermon is titled, God's Unstoppable Will. And our big idea, our proposition, is the
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Lord has a specific path that he wants his people to take. The Lord has a specific path that he wants his people to take.
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And we're going to see two important truths in this text about this path. The first is that further confirmation will be seen during the journey.
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So after you make a decision, during the journey, further confirmation will show up.
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And we'll be seeing this in verses 29 through 44. But before we jump in, the last two weeks, we've been looking at the narrative of how
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Abraham's servant found Isaac's future wife. In order to do this, both
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Abraham and his servant needed to discern the will of God. The application for us was clear.
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This passage helped us figure out what to do in those situations where the choice of discerning the will of God for our lives is not clear.
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Because what I've said is that 95 % of the time, it is clear. Because the Bible has told us what to do.
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We know how to live a godly life following Jesus. But this passage addresses what to do when we don't know.
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When those big decisions come, the Bible doesn't give you any clear direction on what path to take.
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The three lessons we learned from Abraham and his servant was to gather as much relevant information as possible, to pray for help, and to look for confirmation from the
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Lord that it indeed was the right decision. Our third point last week described the beginning of this confirmation.
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In our first point today, we are going to see further confirmation by the response of Rebecca's family that this is indeed the right path.
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This is how the will of God works. As you go on the journey, the confirmation becomes more and more solid.
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So today, we are going to see the interaction between Abraham's servant and Rebecca's family, and we are going to see the will of God at work.
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Our passage last week closed by Rebecca going to her home to tell her family about the interaction she had with Abraham's servant, and the gifts that he gave her.
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Verses 29 through 33 explain the process of Rebecca's family going out to meet
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Abraham's servant and bringing him to their home. So let's jump in and look at these four verses.
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Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban. Laban ran out toward the man to the spring.
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As soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and heard the words of Rebecca his sister, thus the man spoke to me, he went to the man.
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And behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring. He said, Come in,
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O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.
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So the man came to the house and unharnessed the camels and gave straw and fodder to the camels, and there was water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
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Then food was set out before him to eat. But he said, I will not eat until I have said what
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I have to say. He said, Speak on. The man who goes out to meet the servant is
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Laban. Laban, as verse 29 says, is Rebecca's brother. You might wonder where Rebecca's father is.
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Her father is mentioned in verse 15, and verse 50 says that he is still alive, but Laban probably took over the leadership of the home because the dad was too old to take on that role.
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So Laban is the one that takes the leadership role in this big situation for their family.
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When Laban sees the jewelry on Rebecca and heard the story, he had to run out to meet this man who was so generous to his sister.
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Laban ran out to the spring where he was and said, Come in, O blessed of the
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Lord. Laban had knowledge of the
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Lord. We know this because in Genesis chapter 12, when Abraham was called to go to the land of Canaan, he was leaving his family.
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This would have been the whole family's personal encounter with the Lord. It is not clear whether Laban and the family are believers, but he recognizes that this man is blessed of the
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Lord by his kind actions toward his sister. You can tell that Laban truly believes that this man is blessed by the
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Lord by how he treats him. He prepares the house for him and even a place for the camels.
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We find out in verse 32 that there were men with Abraham's servant. Laban washes the servant's feet and those with him.
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Their feet would have been dirty from a long journey. This is the day before shoes could keep feet from getting dirty.
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I didn't even need to tell you that, but just a little note there. Laban even prepared food for them.
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As the family treats Abraham's servant this well, this only gives him further confirmation that the
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Lord has indeed led him down this path by bringing him to Rebekah and her household.
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Sometimes when you make a choice to go down a path and everything just goes wrong, you're thinking, and you don't have peace about it, this probably isn't the right path.
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But in this case, things are working out. And you just get that feeling that, yes, this is the right way to go.
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And this is the main idea that we need to see here in point one. As one seeks discernment from the Lord about a decision and becomes fairly confident that it is the right one, then you proceed.
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As you make that decision, over time you will receive more and more confirmation that it was the right choice.
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Abraham's servant is experiencing this. I mentioned last week that when I met
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Brianna, she checked all the boxes early on for what I was looking for in a wife.
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And, of course, as you go on, you learn things about your wife where you can look back and say, okay, I can see why the
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Lord led me to this woman and not to any other. And it's really fascinating to see the
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Lord's wisdom in it. And one example is, actually, Sean and I were talking, I think about a month ago, about how, when you guys called me to be your pastor, we didn't know what we were going to do with the music ministry at this church.
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Because when I came here, there wasn't much of a music ministry, because Larry led the music, the interim pastor at that time.
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And so when they called me, they had no idea that Brianna was going to take the lead role. But it just worked out well.
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And I knew Brianna had some talent musically, but I didn't realize that she had as much ability as she had even, even when
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I first met her. So it's amazing to see the Lord's confirmation. And that's just one of many ways that Brianna is wonderful for me to be a pastor's wife and to go on this journey with me.
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And as we've gone on, more and more confirmation has proved that. And you will see the
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Lord's blessing over a choice that you make and His wisdom in the matter as time goes on.
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And this is what the servant is seeing here. Now this is the time the servant has to explain why he is focused in on Rebekah and Blester.
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The servant is on a mission. He refuses food until he explains why he has given these gifts to Rebekah.
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The servant explains in detail the background story of why he came in the first place and the significance of this encounter with his sister.
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I'm going to read verses 34 through 41 and then highlight a few important details here.
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And some of this will be, he's repeating some of the things that happened already that we saw last week. But there are a few new details that he adds, and I'll show those.
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So verses 34 through 41. And he has become great.
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He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys.
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And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old.
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And to him he has given all that he has. My master made me swear, saying, You shall not take a wife or my son from the daughters of the
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Canaanites, in whose land I dwell. But you shall go to my father's house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.
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I said to my master, Perhaps the woman will not follow me. But he said to me,
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The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way.
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You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father's house. Then you will be free from my oath when you come to my clan.
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And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.
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So Abraham's servant begins by telling Laban about what happened to Abraham since they left them back in chapter 12 and went to the land of Canaan.
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Sometimes when you haven't seen a family member for a long time, you're like, okay, well, fill me in on what happened the last five years.
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I haven't seen you in a long time. That's what he's telling him here. Abraham's servant begins by telling
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Laban about what happened to Abraham since they left back in chapter 12.
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Laban would be Abraham's grand -nephew. He would have heard the story of the
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Lord leading Abraham to leave the family to go to the land of Canaan. Now he hears from Abraham's servant how the
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Lord has blessed Abraham. He has blessed him materially, and most importantly, he has blessed him by giving him a son through Sarah in their old age.
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The servant makes it clear that the Lord is the one behind Abraham's great success. By the way, it's nice when you see a family member and you're like, you know what, your life has gone well.
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It's encouraging to see that because obviously we know the opposite. Sometimes you hear about someone's life and they've gone down the wrong path.
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But in this case, you can see Abraham's life has gone well, and it's because the Lord has blessed him richly.
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It's by his grace that things have gone so well for him. And an impartial observer could look on Abraham's life and say that he has lived a good and faithful life.
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The servant explains who the source of this is. The Lord is the one who has made his life go so well.
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And so it is for us when we look at our life and say things are going well from a spiritual standpoint, then we can say with confidence that we are going down the right path.
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We must give the glory to God. We must say the Lord is the one who has greatly blessed us.
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He set his sights on us and set us down the right path for our good and for his glory. And that's what he's done with Abraham.
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And he's done it with Abraham both materially and more importantly spiritually in his life. He's a great man of faith.
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The servant then explains the oath that he made with Abraham. In verse 40, we get a little insight information that we did not hear before.
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We need to highlight the confidence that Abraham has that this will work.
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So confident that he believes an angel will actually lead his servant to Isaac's future wife.
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Once again, he's not 100 % positive that it will work. We know this because in verse 41 he tells his servant that if the woman you zero in on does not come with you, then you are free from the oath and you can come home.
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So he's mostly certain, but he's not absolutely certain. But Abraham holds confidence that the
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Lord will send his angel to lead his servant to the right place. Abraham is trusting what he believes to be the
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Lord's leading on this. We know that Abraham is acting wisely, remember, because he didn't send him to the
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Canaanites. He didn't send him somewhere else. He sent him to the right place. He gathered all the information. He probably prayed about it.
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We can be confident of that. And he sends him down the right path. And we should follow
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Abraham's example in this. In these situations where we have gathered all the information, once we have used all the resources that the
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Lord has given us, and this includes not only gathering information, but also talking to wise people and praying, we should then proceed confidently that this is the path the
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Lord is sending us down. If I ever have a big decision in my life, there's people who
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I know I'm going to talk to about it. And it would be foolish for me not to talk to them. And so we need to recognize that we need to talk to wise people.
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We need to seek the Lord in prayer, and we need to gather all the information. But we will not have 100 % assurance when we make the decision.
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That will come through confirmation over time. We cannot say the Lord told me to do it, or I had a dream or a vision, or there was a message written in the sky, so I know this is the right path.
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To do that is to test the Lord. And we don't want to do that. No, the Lord's way is using the means that I just mentioned, and then confidently proceeding, believing that it is the right decision, and then receiving confirmation over time.
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But you will not receive a definitive answer up front. And so often when people ask, what is the will of God for my life?
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They want a road map, right? They want an answer saying, this is how your life is going to be. And we don't have that.
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The Lord wants us to seek Him, because He cares about who we become in the process. I think that's why
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He doesn't make things so obvious to us sometimes. We have to seek Him in faith through the process.
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And it's a lot more exciting that way too, because it's a journey that we go down with Him. So once you have carefully done your part in discerning
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God's will on the matter, and have acted, you can have peace that it is indeed the right decision, even without receiving direct revelation from Him.
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And that peace over the decision will increase as the time goes on, as we have seen here with Abraham's servant.
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As he's gone on here, it's become more and more confirming. Yes, Rebecca is the right woman for Isaac.
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Much of what the servant says here is a repeat, but he does say a few new things that I'm going to highlight in verses 42 through 44.
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It's always interesting preaching a sermon where they pretty much repeat exactly what they said in the previous sermon. But there are definitely some highlights here that we can pull out.
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Verses 42 through 44. He says, I noted last week that we should model the servant in that he prayed to the
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Lord as he sought out this wife for Isaac. Whenever you pray, what you are acknowledging is that you need help, and the
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Lord likes it when we come to Him and ask for help. So we should model this, as the servant says this, and actually 1
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Thessalonians 5 .17 says pray without ceasing. And that would include those difficult circumstances where we need to seek the
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Lord's will. And the servant does this well. He seeks the Lord in prayer. But what he doesn't do well, and I mentioned this last week, is that he prays for a sign.
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The sign would be that the woman fills his jar when asked to come to him, and she would also draw water for his camels.
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And he prayed that the Lord would lead him to this woman for Isaac.
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But we should not pray for a sign. Scripture never commands us to do such a thing. God did answer these prayers at times in Scripture, because as you read your
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Bible, you will see it show up. But that's not the norm. I said last week that it might have been that he did it back then in Scripture times, at rare occasions, because they did not have full revelation like we do.
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Or the Lord may have just been kind and blessing the prayer, even though it was a misguided prayer.
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But the emphasis that I made last week, and I'll make again, is that we should not expect the Lord to normatively answer these types of prayers.
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Jesus said, At different times in redemption history, the
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Lord has done things that only he can do. Raise the dead. Cause someone's hand to suddenly appear when they didn't have a hand before.
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I mean, doing things like this, only God can do these things. And so, new revelation was coming to the world, and God wanted to authenticate that by doing these signs and wonders.
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But we should not expect these to be normative events in our lives. As the servant visits
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Rebecca's home and is treated so well by her family, as I've said, he only receives further confirmation that zeroing in on her was indeed the
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Lord's will in this matter. The family did not take the gifts and run, but rather considered this man to be blessed by the
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Lord. And so they gladly welcomed him after he asked to spend the night, and treated him with tremendous hospitality.
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And when you make a decision in your life after doing due diligence in the matter, by using the means that God has given you, you will make a decision without a definitive answer.
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But as time goes on, your certainty will grow, as we've seen in this narrative.
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And when you take the right path, you will not say at a later point, I should have done something else. No, if you wisely make the right decision, the confirmation will show you over time that it was the right path.
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And I want to make this point very clear here. The right path does not necessarily mean that it's the easy path.
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There's churches in America where there's prosperity teaching, where they'll say, if you do this,
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God's going to bless you, and your life is just going to be great, and everything is going to go well, every day is going to be better than the one before, and they just go on and on and on.
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And that's not what the Bible teaches. The path that the Lord has for you, yes, it's the most joyful path.
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But that doesn't mean that you won't have difficulty. Because even in the midst of difficulty, you have the joy of the
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Lord who carries you through that. So I want to make that point very clear, so I'm not misunderstood.
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And what Jesus said, actually, too, in Matthew 11 .30, he says, all who come to me who are weary and heavy laden, he says, come to me and I will give you rest.
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And he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Every person in this world has to submit to something or someone.
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And the one we want to submit to is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you're not submitting to him, you're submitting to something else.
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And what Jesus said is that if you come to me, yes, there's a burden, because I am going to be the
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Lord of your life. But the yoke is going to be easy and the burden is going to be light. Because following me is the joyful path to take.
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So it's not going to be a miserable experience going down the Lord's path. And when you are in the right place, you do not want to be going down any other path.
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Everyone will say that who is closely following Jesus Christ. And the
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Lord sends his people down all sorts of paths as they figure out what direction to go in their life. But he intends each path to fit that person.
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The Lord is not going to have you marry a spouse who does not fit you well. He's not going to have you do a job that you're poor at.
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So if you can't public speak, you're not going to be a lawyer. If you can't teach, you're not going to be a teacher.
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If you can't swing a hammer, you're not going to be a carpenter. I mean, it's common sense here. But the Lord is going to, the way he designed you, he's going to send you down that path.
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And he's probably not going to have you live in a place where you don't have a desire to live. Psalm 37 verse 4 says,
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And he will give you the desires of your heart. And so as we seek him, as we have joy in him, his desires become our desires.
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And as you go down the right path, you will see more and more confirmation that the Lord has sent you down that path, as he has done with Abraham's servant.
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The Lord has a specific path that he wants his people to take. In this text, we have two important truths about this path, and we just saw the first truth.
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Further confirmation will be seen during the journey. The second important truth about this path is that no one can stop the
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Lord's will for the believer. And we'll see this in verses 45 through 51. Now in verse 45 through 48, the servant explains the first confirmation the
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Lord gave him, that Rebecca was the woman the Lord had planned for Isaac. So we will read this, and then get to the main idea of our second point that shows that no one can thwart the will of the
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Lord when he is guiding one's path. Let's first look at verses 45 through 48. This is the servant talking to Laban.
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He said, Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water.
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I said to her, Please let me drink. She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.
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So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also. Then I asked her, Whose daughter are you? She said,
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The daughter of Bethuel Nahor's son, whom Milca bore to him. So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms.
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Then I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son.
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So the servant explains to Rebecca's brother Laban that all the boxes were checked, that this was the right woman.
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She did what he prayed she would do by giving him water and giving water to the camels. Then he asked her whose daughter she was, and she revealed that Abraham's brother
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Nahor was her grandfather. He said that once all this happened, he started to become confident that she was the one.
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And as I already mentioned, then he received further confirmation by how the family treated him.
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So Abraham's servant lays out the events that led him to Rebecca. He makes the offer to him, and he says,
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Will you say yes or no in verse 49? Now then, if you are going to show a steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.
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So what we see here is that he makes the offer by saying, Tell me, so I know which way to go.
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Should I leave her, or should I take her to Isaac back in the land of Canaan?
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And as he says this, he is of course hoping that Laban says yes. He expects him to say yes, because the
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Lord has already given him so much confirmation. If the Lord gives you confirmation, leading you down the right path, then nothing can thwart his will.
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It is going to work. And we see this point right here in verses 50 and 51.
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Listen closely here to how the Lord's will cannot be thwarted. As the
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Lord has spoken. Now we see Laban and Bethel answer. This is the first time
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Bethuel, Rebecca, and Laban's father is introduced. As I mentioned, Laban would have been the spokesperson and leader of the family, but Bethuel, the father, is here as well.
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And by saying we cannot speak to you bad or good, what they are saying is our opinion in the matter doesn't matter.
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This is clearly God's will, and we don't want to stand in the way of it. If Laban would have stood between Rebecca and Abraham's servant, the
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Lord would have made a way for Rebecca to leave on this journey, to go to Isaac. Nothing was going to stop the
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Lord's will from happening. I'm fascinated looking at the history of this church. This church has been here since 1881, as many of you know.
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Obviously, in the life of a church, there's always ups and downs. About 12 years ago, the church was at such a low that the denomination actually stepped in and actually recommended that they close the church.
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Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about because you were at that meeting. It's amazing.
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The church decided, no, we're not going to go with the denomination's opinion. We think it's right to keep the church going.
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It's neat to see that now we're strong, we're building towards the future, and the
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Lord knew that all along, that brighter days were coming in the future. It's a credit to some of you for sticking with the plan and saying, no, we think the
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Lord's leading us to keep this place going and to see His blessing upon it. The Lord knows the big picture.
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He knows what He is doing. He knows where He's sending God's people. And no one can thwart
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God's will for His people. Another illustration would be from the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Jesus knew what God's will was for His life. The will of the Lord was for Him to, of course, go to the cross, to pay for the sins of the world.
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There was no plan B for Jesus. This was it. The future of the world depended on Him going through with this mission.
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In Matthew 16, 21, Jesus told His disciples what the will of God was for His life, that He would be killed and that He would be raised from the dead on the third day.
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Peter, the leader of the twelve, did not like that his friend was going to die in this way, and so he said in verse 22 of that chapter,
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Jesus then responded very strongly to what Peter said. He told him in verse 23,
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That put Peter probably back in his seat, don't you think? Peter did not like the will of the
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Lord for Jesus at this point. But Jesus told him this is how it's going to be, and no one is going to stop it.
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Once Peter understood the significance of the cross, he rejoiced that Christ going to the cross was
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God's will. But in this moment, he was thinking in an earthly way, and he said, don't do it.
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We don't want this to happen to you. And we're grateful that this was the Lord's will for Jesus, because we have hope today because of this.
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No one can thwart the will of the Lord in the lives of His people. God's people do have ups and downs, you do and I do.
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But the story ends well for every one of God's children. We all finish the race to enter His glory, to dwell with our
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God in fullness of joy forever. That's the path He's leading you on as a child of God.
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And if you belong to Christ, you can lay claim to that. No one can stop this, not Satan, not the world, not you.
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John 10 .28 says that no one can snatch us out of Christ's hand. Romans 8 .28
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says that all things work together for good for the believer. Romans 8 .39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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The Lord said to Israel, and this is true for us too in a general sense in Jeremiah 29 .11,
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I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
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No one could thwart God's plan of leading Rebecca to Isaac. Laban and Rebecca's household did not stand in the way, and they were wise to know that.
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They knew it was God's will. The nation of Israel would come from this blessed union of these two becoming one.
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Jesus would come from this union of two becoming one. No one could thwart
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God's will for your life as well. He knows the path He is sending you down, and you must follow Him as you saturate yourselves with the
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Scriptures. And even seek Him in those times where you do not know what to do. The Lord knows the path you are on right now and His plans for you in the future.
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And as you trust Him, as Proverbs 3 .6 says, He will make your paths straight.
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He will make your paths clear as you go, even if it's foggy at the beginning. The Lord has a specific path that He wants
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His people to take. That's our big idea today. And the second important truth is that no one can stop the
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Lord's will for the believer. Okay, so to summarize, and then introduce next week's topic, the
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Lord has a specific path that He wants His people to take. And we've seen two important truths about this path in our text today.
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The first is that further confirmation will be seen during the journey. And the second important truth is that no one can stop the
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Lord's will for the believer. Now next week, we will see that Rebecca is a risk taker.
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And we can see this and follow her example as she follows a godly example.
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And what we will see is that the Lord blesses risk takers, as long as it's a wise risk, when they are willing to follow
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Him down the path. And we will also see Isaac and Rebecca finally meet for the first time.
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As we close out Genesis 24. Alright, with that, let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, we thank You for the truths in the
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Word of God. Every time we open up the Bible, if we understand it correctly, we can say, this is the
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Word of God. And we need to listen, because You've spoken this to Your people. And I pray,
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Lord, that we would listen. That we would live this out. I pray that each week, as everyone comes here, that we would take a step with You, a step in sanctification, to become more like You, to trust
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You more, to follow You in the direction that You're sending us.
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And I thank You, Lord, that the direction You've sent the people here, is that You've sent them here, to this church, to do
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Your will here. One time I read an author who said, the best way that a believer can live is by devoting himself to his or her local church.
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And that's absolutely correct, Lord. You have a design for each person to be devoted to the church, to the local church that You have called them to.
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And I'm grateful, Lord, for everyone here, whom You have called here.
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And we pray, Lord, as the days ahead go, too, that You would use us more and more,
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Lord, to grow together in Christ. And use us more and more to be a light in this community for Christ, as well.