Searching the House for a Bride — Carter Conlon

Genesis 24 and the Search for a Bride

Genesis chapter 24, searching the house for a bride. Now, Father, I come to you today, Lord, and I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit, the strength and the power that only you can give. Lord, this is your house, these are your people, this is your word, and this is your time.

We are the testimony that you have on the earth for this generation. God, I need a touch of heaven on my body. We need a touch of heaven in our hearts to be able to hear, to will, and to respond to your word.

And so, Lord, I'm asking in Jesus' name that you would overshadow all of our frailty, for we're all frail in one manner or another, that you would overwrite all of it and give us the strength to hear this word.

Lord Jesus Christ, my soul cry today is let your kingdom come and let your will be done here in me, in us, as it is in heaven. Draw us away from where we need to be taken from and bring us into what you desire for each of our lives.

And help us, O God Almighty, to be the people that truly are ambassadors of Jesus Christ in this generation. We thank you for it in Jesus' mighty name. I'm gonna be reading a lot of scripture. Genesis chapter 24, beginning at verse one, right through to verse 26.

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house who ruled over all that he had, please put your hand under my thigh.

Now this was a type of an oath that they made, a promise that to the best of my ability I'm going to do this for you. And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife from my son among the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell.

But you shall go to my country and to my family and take a wife from my son Isaac. And the servant said to him, perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?

But Abraham said to him, beware that you do not take my son back there. The Lord God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family and who spoke to me and swore to me saying, to your descendants I give this land.

He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife from my son from there. And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath, only do not take my son back there.

So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter. Then the servant took 10 of his master's camels and departed for all his master's goods were in his hand.

And he rose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, oh Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day and show kindness to my master Abraham.

Behold, here I stand by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, please let down your pitcher that I may drink.

And she says drink and I will also give your camels drink. Let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master. And it happened before he had finished speaking that behold, Rebecca, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her pitcher on her shoulder.

Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin. No man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said, please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.

So she said, drink my Lord. Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him the drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they had finished drinking.

Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. And the man wondering at her remained silent as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.

And so it was when the camels had finished drinking that the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel and two bracelets for her wrists, weighing 10 shekels of gold and said, whose daughter are you?

Tell me please, is there room in your father's house for us to lodge? And she said, I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milchah's son whom she bore to Nahor. Moreover, she said to him, we have both straw and feed enough and room to lodge.

Abraham's Promise and the Bride of Christ

And the man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord. Now in the beginnings of what would eventually become the witness of Christ in this world, there was a man called Abraham. God made this man a promise.

I'm going to bless you and I'm gonna multiply you and through you, the whole world is going to be blessed. Now you and I know that the fulfillment of this promise to Abraham was ultimately made through Jesus Christ and his church of which we are a part.

So we are blessed as the scripture says in the New Testament with faithful Abraham. Now God blessed this man. God told this man, I'm gonna bless the world through you and that is your promise and that is my promise this morning.

Don't let anybody take that from you. Lord says to you, I will bless you. I will multiply you. I will make you a blessing and through you, all the world, that means everyone around you in your circle of influence, where you're led by God, where you travel, people will be blessed because you will bring to them the knowledge of God, of who God is.

Now Abraham was given this promise and the only thing he had near the end of his life was just one son born of faith, Isaac. He had another son born of human effort but God said that son will not be an inheritor of the promise I've made to you.

For the promises of God are supernatural promises, my friend, you have to understand that. They're not natural. They can't be achieved by human effort. There's no seven steps to anything godly. It's just one step.

You go to the cross by faith and you believe the promises of God. Now Abraham was looking for a wife for his firstborn son and to me, it's an absolute type of God, the father who has one begotten son and the whole testimony of scripture in history has been about God preparing a bride for his son, searching out a bride for his son, Jesus Christ.

Folks, you may have been to some wonderful weddings on this earth but you've never seen a wedding like you're about to be made part of in heaven the day you and I get there. And now to accomplish this finding a wife for his firstborn son, he turned to the oldest servant of his house who had rule over all that he had.

In verse two of chapter 24, it says Abraham said to the oldest servants of his house who ruled over all that he had and I believe that in a similar way, God's Holy Spirit is again searching for an end time bride for his son, Jesus Christ.

I personally believe this. This is something God has put in my heart, you are free to accept or reject it but it's something that I feel deeply. We're living in the last moments of history as we know them and God will have a bride for his son.

God will have a visible testimony of those who belong to Jesus Christ and the search is already on and the Lord's, the search begins in the house of God. Remember, Abraham said, go to my family and find a bride for my son.

And I personally believe that living on the edge of eternity as we do now, that God's Holy Spirit is searching the house of God and looking for that bride for his son, Jesus Christ. The second Chronicle 16 .9 says, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.

From the Natural to the Supernatural

Not only searching out a bride but looking to bring that bride into the supernatural. Remember that this girl was part of the family of Abraham but she lived in the natural. Abraham was in a place of the supernatural and she was gonna be drawn from this place of the natural into the place of the supernatural.

That's what God is looking for again today. A people who are willing to undertake that journey that will bring you out of a life of simply struggling in the flesh to try to live a Christian life or to be a witness for God into that place of the supernatural where God says, I will multiply you, I will bless you, I will make you a blessing.

It will not be by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord. It will be by something that I do inside of you that you will become everything that I have destined you to be. There's a supernatural strength in Christ that is available to everyone who wants to be a partaker of it.

However, those who will partake of it must be willing to follow where he is and not attempt to bring him back to where you are. That's the difference, that's the key. Verse four, it says in chapter 24, you shall go to my country and to my family and take a wife from my son, Isaac.

And the servant said, perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came? But Abraham said to him, beware that you do not take my son back there.

In other words, do not bring Jesus Christ back to a place of the natural. Do not make him like every other idea in the land. He's a supernatural God. He's an awesome, incredible God. He raises the dead.

He walks on water. The Lord God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family and who spoke to me and swore to me saying, to your descendants, I'll give this land. He will send his angel, that means his messenger, before you and you shall take a wife from my son from there.

And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you'll be released from this oath. Only do not take my son back there. God said, I will send a messenger before you. Now we don't know because the scripture doesn't tell us how this messenger went before him.

But he said, I will send a messenger before you, an angel. The word really just means preacher. It sends messenger. And he will go before you and he will speak to that heart. He will speak to the hearts of those who need to be spoken to.

And he will make a way for this bride to come where my son Isaac is, but do not take my son back there into that place. Abraham knew that the life of God could only be found, could only be lived in the power of God, in the power of the supernatural life that God plants inside of every one of us.

We made a grave error when we brought Jesus into where we are as a society. When we made Jesus look like us and think like us and walk like us and made him into a natural savior, we made a grievous error.

We actually brought Christ to where we are. That's why the church is on almost every corner in much of America and we're not affecting our societies. We made our savior a very natural God. But Abraham said to his servant, don't take my son back there.

And if the woman is not willing to follow, then you are free from this oath. You go, the messenger will go and the choice will be hers. Now, the messenger was a man of prayer. And the scripture says he took 10 camels of his masters.

He departed and he went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor, the family as it was of Abraham. And he was by a well and he prayed and he prayed a specific prayer. I think this should tell us that we should pray specific prayers when we gather to meet, especially on Tuesday night.

He said, behold, I stand by the well of water and the daughters of men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, please let down your pitcher that I may drink.

And she says, drink, and I'll also give you a camel's drink. Let her be the one that you've appointed for your servant Isaac. And by this, I will know that you've shown kindness to my master. That's a very specific prayer.

And he's asking for a lot. You're gonna see that in a moment. And it happened before he'd finished speaking that behold, Rebecca, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, before he was finished speaking, the answer came.

The Bride's Moral Purity

Isn't it amazing? The bride that was appointed for the master's son. Now there were four characteristics about this bride that made her the perfect choice for Abraham's son. And I want you to pay especially attention to this.

It says in verse 16, the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin. No man had known her. In other words, she was morally pure. She was morally clean. A lot of people in the body of Christ today are not morally clean.

And yet say, I want the power of God in my life. I want the testimony of the Lord. But yet they're looking at pornography, they're involved in premarital sex, they're involved in all kinds of immoral activity.

They're not clean. And so I'll tell you something, if you're not willing to walk morally clean, you're never gonna know the power of God. I'm not gonna tell you you will because you won't. It's not possible.

You have to make the choice. First Corinthians chapter six, verse 13. Let me just read it to you. The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. And the Lord for the body. And God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

In other words, he'll give us the power to be clean. Give us the power to be pure. Thank God that when you and I came to Christ, no matter how we lived in the past or what we've done, that was put away by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

And when God looks at us, when we've received him as Savior, he sees us as clean, he sees us as pure. He sees us as lovely and undefiled. You have to understand that no matter what you've done, that's how God sees you.

And so it's so important that everyone walk the way God sees us as his bride. That we don't continue to live in a moral lifestyle after coming to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh.

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?

Whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. She was morally pure. Make the choice to be pure.

This is a filthy generation. Television is filthy. Most movies are filthy. You've got to make the choice and say, I'm gonna walk with God and I'm gonna walk clean. When you're tempted, open your Bible and read your Bible.

Unselfish Service to Others

But make the choice to be morally pure. Secondly, scripture tells us in verses 19 and 20, when she finished giving him a drink, he asked her for a drink of water. She said, I will draw water for your camels also until they've finished drinking.

Then she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran back to the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. Second characteristic of this bride-to-be was that she saw a need she was willing to give herself to meet it.

In other words, she was unselfish. She wasn't going to the well just for herself and just for her own need. It'd be a type of you and I coming to church and having the courage to ask ourselves the question, why am I here?

And why am I part of the body of Jesus Christ? Am I here just for myself? Is it just for my own needs? Do I come down to New York City and go to Times Square just saying, God, give me something to drink?

Is it all just about me? And there's a great contingency of people today. Not only are they not morally pure, but the whole seeking of God is for themselves. The whole reason why they're there. And this girl was not only pure, but she was unselfish.

This man had 10 camels. They'd come on a long journey. And I did some research on this. And a thirsty camel can drink 30 gallons of water in 13 minutes. And you know, the scripture says she went down to the well and came up again.

And the well at that time that she would have been taking water from generally had steps down to a pool of water and then you'd come back up the steps. She probably could carry about a five gallon pitcher.

If that, that would be about the maximum she could carry on her shoulder. And so if there are 10 camels there that are thirsty, that's 300 gallons of water. That means she had to make 60 trips to the well.

Down the steps, fill up the jug, come back up, pour it in the trough, down the steps, fill up the jug, come back up. This was no light undertaking. Now, even if the camels were only half thirsty, that's still 30 trips down to the well.

That's a lot of effort. And that came out of her heart. It didn't come out of any bribing or plotting. It just came out of her heart. As the bride of Jesus Christ, as those who are going to honor Christ in this hour, we can't just walk away from human need or just go to church or even just open the Bible and say, what's in it for me today?

There's gotta be something of God that comes into our heart that says, what can I do to help people around me that have a need? What can I do? And this was obviously a work that involved a bit of sweat and time.

Knowing the Father's Generosity

It would have taken her at least an hour. She must have been really strong, young lady. And the third characteristic in her life, in verse 23, he said to her, whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to lodge?

And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah's son, whom she bore to Nahor. Moreover, she said to him, we have both straw and feed enough and room to lodge. Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord.

She knew the heart of her father. She was unashamed to be declared as his child. And she boasted of his generosity. Do you know the heart of your father? Do you fully understand how much God wants to give his Holy Spirit to those who ask?

Do you fully know how generous he is? The scripture says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. That word liberty means generosity. Where God's Holy Spirit is, there's this incredible generosity of God.

God is willing to give a new mind, a new heart, a new spirit, new healing for old wounds that have been grinding us into the dust for years of our life. He's willing to give us a new future. He's willing to give us new hope, a new song that people will see and fear and begin to trust in God.

Do you fully know how generous God is through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit? If you're in the Word of God, if you're reading the Word of God, you're starting to get an understanding of how generous God really is.

So that when you're out sharing with people, you're not just squeaking out these little bits of God, making them look like a stingy, begrudging old grandfather that doesn't want to give any inheritance to his children.

No, sir. She boasted of her father. No, sir. She said, I am his daughter, and we have straw and food and room. You imagine, that man must have been an incredible man. Imagine your kid coming home with somebody with 10 camels and a whole bunch, it'd be at least one man per camel, probably 20 men, 10 camels, and seriously comes down the road.

Hey, dad, look what I found. See, he really has to know the heart of her father. I've shared this story one time, but I was driving my middle son back from a hockey game one time, and in those days, I hardly made enough money to pay the electric bill at my house.

We were pastoring in a little country town, and I was driving home, and he had a couple of really hungry hockey players with him and we stopped at a McDonald's. And, you know, everybody got out their money, the little bit of money they had, and I'm standing in line behind them, and my son turns to his two friends and he says, put your money away, guys, my dad will pay.

And I remember, I remember it was double, double, super-sized, it was, but there was no way in my heart, I don't care if I had to dig into my gasoline fund for the next week, there was no way in my heart I would embarrass my son.

And the scripture says, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him? You and I have to be willing to boast of his generosity, but in order to boast of it, you have to know his generosity.

You have to open your heart to him first. You have to let him be everything to you that you're going to declare he will be for others. You have to know freedom before you can declare it. You have to know the generosity of God.

And in order to know the generosity of God, there has to be a willingness in each of our lives to walk with him. The generosity is not given to those who choose to sit on the couch watching television, folks.

I wish it could, no, I don't wish it could be that way at all. It's when you get up and walk with him, that generosity just opens, this floodgate of heaven opens, and all the resources that Christ won for us suddenly become available.

It is truly an amazing journey. And we walk with him, and others bow their heads and begin to worship because of it. This is exactly what happened when he saw the quality, when he saw the character of this girl, when he knew that she was from Abraham's house.

The scripture says he bowed his head and worshiped the Lord. Bowed his head and thanked God. Not only a bride for the master's son, but what a virtuous bride. What a diligent bride. What a bride who has an understanding of the ways of God.

Leaving the Familiar for God's Promise

What an incredible match for the son of my master Abraham. And yet there was one more characteristic that was found in her life. In chapter, again, chapter 24, verse 50 and 51, it says, and Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing comes from the Lord.

We cannot speak to you either bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you. Take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife as the Lord has spoken. And here's the good news. When you choose to walk with God, when God's speaking to your heart and you say, yes, Lord, I will go with you, everything that has the power to hold you back has to let you go.

These names, Laban and Bethuel, represented the former authority in her life. That which had the power to hold her back. But when the word of God came, as the word of God comes to you today and say, I'm calling you to be a bride fit for my master's son.

Everything that formerly had the right to hold you no longer has that right. It doesn't any longer. Here is Rebekah before you. Take her and go. It said, we can't speak good or bad to you. We can't say one thing or the other because this comes from the Lord.

There is no power of hell. There is no lack of anything. There's no past experience. There's no words that have been spoken over your life. There's nothing that can stop you from being everything that God has called you to be in Christ Jesus.

Every prison door has to open. Every wound of the past must be healed. Every blindness of your eye will receive sight and you will understand the path before you. All the old wounds can't drag you down in the dust anymore.

All the old bondages have to let you go. All you have to do is get up. Just get up and listen to the voice of God. And now comes the final test. Verse 57, Rebekah's family said, we will call the young woman and ask her personally.

You see, because the decision to follow Christ to the full that he would have for our lives is a personal decision. I can't make it for you, your church can't make it for you. Being part of some missions group can't make it for you.

It is a personal choice to walk in purity, to be available for the needs of others, to know God, to experience his generosity and to be able to tell others about how generous he is. Far away from being a program, something of the heart that causes us to speak about him.

But the final thing, they said, we will call the young woman and ask her personally. Then they called Rebekah and said to her, will you go with this man? And I guess that's where it all comes to, isn't it?

No matter what I preach, no matter what the messenger that stands before you has to say today, the Holy Spirit, I've been the messenger and the Holy Spirit is coming to you now and asking you, will you be a bride that is fit for my master's son?

Will you come out from among your former, your place where you dwell now? And will you take the journey? In other words, will you leave the familiar for the promise? Will you walk away from where you are to where God wants you to be?

Will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of 10 thousands and may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them.

And this was not an idle blessing. It's a blessing that has been fulfilled through her lineage. She was grafted into the lineage of Jesus Christ, the promise of God to be a blessing in the earth. And we are descendants of this girl through Jesus Christ.

And the blessing upon her life is to become the mother of 10s of thousands, the mother of many, those that are grafted into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And that our descendants may possess the gates of those who hate them.

In other words, we will have spiritual authority over all the plans of darkness. That will come to try to rob, to kill, to steal and to destroy. Remember Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.

God will fight for you. God will fight for your families. God will fight for your children. You say, if I go all the way with God, my family are gonna think I'm nuts. Yes, they will, but they will follow you eventually.

They will follow you. God will fight for you. God will be your defense. God will be your health. God will be your strength. He will be your tower. He'll be your healer. He'll be your friend. He'll be your increase.

He'll be your defense. He'll be your battle plan for the future. He'll be the source of your heart. He'll be the song of your mouth. Everything will be him. We're living in a dark, dark time. We're living on the very threshold of eternity now.

The End-Time Bride and the Call to Go

Most everybody is becoming aware of it increasingly every day. And now, one more time, the oldest and dearest servant of God Almighty is searching for a bride for his son. A bride that's pure, a bride that's unselfish, a bride that's not ashamed to be called by his name.

A bride who's willing to leave the familiar to obtain the promise. We would always like to bring Jesus back to where we are, wouldn't we? Given the choice, we would all do that. And given the choice, much of Christianity in this nation has done that.

But remember, Abraham said, no, you don't take my son back there. The bride has to come to where the son is. And that's what you and I have to do in this generation. And so the question to you is, will you go?

God is calling, I'm going. Whatever that means and wherever it leads. I've never known all my life and I still don't know. I just know it's been one incredible journey. And when you make the choice, you'll have battles, there'll be struggles, there'll be trials, there'll be difficult, but you wouldn't trade a day of it when you get to the end of your journey because it's brought glory to the name of Christ.

I want you to think about this for a moment. And for those who have a tendency to get up and run for your car, we just hang on for a little while this morning. Your car will be there, most of them will be there anyway at the end of the, think about this.

Think about this, think about it deeply. Even if all you can come up with is an if, if what this pastor is saying is true, if Christ really is looking, if the Holy Spirit is searching for a bride that truly will honor Christ in the last moments of time and be part of the supernatural lineage of God, am I willing to go?

Am I willing to get up from where I am and go to where he calls me to be? Or am I going to be one of those who tries to bring him to where I am? And ask him, bless my work, bless my plans, bless my life that I've formed for myself, bless my career.

Or am I willing to say, Lord, if you lead me, I will follow you, I will follow you because I want my life to be a supernatural life. I want my life to count for something in this generation in which we're living.

I want to make a difference. If that's the cry of your heart, I'm going to give an altar call this morning and I'm going to ask for those in the sanctuary to join me really at the front of this auditorium and for the annex to stand between the screens.

And for those that are in North Jersey, the same, or at home, maybe at home you could just stand to your feet as a way of saying, Lord, you call me and I will go. You lead me and I will follow. I want to promise you one thing, it's an incredible life to live for God.

It's an incredible life to follow him and not try to make him follow us. It's a wonderful life. And I challenge you with all my heart, with all my heart, husbands and wives that are here today, you might want to take a moment, just discuss it with each other and saying, are we willing, are we willing to do this?