Like Father Like Son

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Don Filcek, Beginning with God: A Walk Through the Book of Genesis; Genesis 26:1-33 Like Father Like Son

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service.
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This message is by Lead Pastor Don Filsack and is a part of the series Beginning with God, Walking Through the
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Book of Genesis. If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com.
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Here's Pastor Don. Pastor here.
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Be sure to check out the worship folder you received when you walked in, announcements, different things that are going on there. I think there is a correction on there, men's breakfast on September 28th is turned into a bonfire on the evening of September 28th.
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Is that right, Kyle? Okay. Take notice of that change there. Somehow it's changed from a breakfast to a bonfire.
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You could probably bring breakfast to the bonfire, just be in the evening. Then, also be sure to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in.
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If you fill that in for the first time and turn it in in the black box, then please take a free coffee mug back there. Just our way of saying thanks.
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Then, remember to put any prayer requests that you have or any suggestions or communication that you would want to have with the leadership on that.
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Those are very helpful to us to get feedback from time to time from you guys and also to be able to pray for you. Then, also remember any offerings that you choose to give, there's an envelope provided for you.
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Those go in the black box back there. We don't pass an offering plate. Anything marked expansion fund will go towards our future hopes of building a building.
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Just continue to ask for you to be in prayer for that. A lot of people have asked, what can we do about that or where are we at in that process?
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The process is just be praying that God would guide and direct us. Obviously, that fund continues to grow and we're grateful for that.
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We're talking with a couple of different banks about some financing options. Nothing is just like that's it or whatever to bring before you.
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Just constantly be in prayer as you think about it, about God's future for us.
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Be in prayer about the current lease situation here. As far as we know, our landlord still is in the process of trying to work with the banks to hold on to this and maintain it.
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Our lease is through November and then we're month to month after that. Just be praying that God works all of that.
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I believe in trust. He's carried us this far. He's given us this great facility that's worked great.
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I'm confident that he's got a plan for us in the future and will continue to bless us. Be in prayer about that. With all that said, this morning is going to be our last sermon in the book of Genesis for a while.
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We're going to be in Genesis chapter 26 this morning and then out of Genesis 26 into 1
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John starting next week and carrying 1 John through basically around Christmas time. Then, we'll do a couple of things before we pick up back into Genesis after the first of the year.
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We're going to take a little bit of a break here. We've been in it for a while. If you've been here consistently hearing from the book of Genesis, I know certainly
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I have. I generally hear when I'm preaching what the content is usually.
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There have been two themes that have stuck out to me throughout this study in the book of Genesis as far as my personal study goes and as far as the sermons.
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I'm guessing that if you've been here, you've heard these two themes strike you as well. The first is that humanity is busted up and broken and not what
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God designed us to be. From the account of the fall in Genesis 3, through the flood, through the
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Tower of Babel, Abraham. How many of you feel like you've gotten to know Abraham? Have you gotten to know
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Abraham over the course of time? That's great. I know that I have. I'm studying his life and his life is like a roller coaster ride of faith.
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There's ups. How many of you know? In any human life really, there's ups and there's downs. The peaks looked a lot like obedient trust and faith in God in Abraham's life.
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Then the low points seemed to be passive self -interest and trying to save his own skin. There's these ups and downs in his life.
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Last week we saw Jacob swindling his brother Esau out of his birthright. When we get on into Genesis chapter 27, we're going to see
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Jacob swindling his brother out of his blessing. How many of you would agree with me that throughout the book of Genesis, humanity has not been painted in a very nice light?
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We are broken. We are messed up and we behave poorly. I appreciate that scripture shows us that, that it doesn't pull any punches or just try to candy coat everything, but it shows us that, okay, we're made out of the same stuff as these people.
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How many of you wouldn't need to go to the pages of scripture? You just could look in your own mirror to say, you look at your own life and you go, yes, humanity has fallen.
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I am fallen. But that leads to the second theme, which I've really been seeing shine through the book of Genesis and has actually challenged my thinking of God in the book of Genesis as I've been studying it, and that is the faithfulness of God.
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Really against the backdrop of human sinfulness and inconsistency, God shines out as the one faithful character in the story of history.
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In all the narrative of Genesis, God shines out as the one who is faithful. He promises things and then completes that which he promises.
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He is shown to carry his plan forward to bless his people. Hear me carefully. I said his plans to bless his people.
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I noticed that I think a lot of people have in their minds that like the Old Testament is a
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God of wrath, a God of anger, a God of vindictiveness, a God who's going to get back at us for that whole fall thing, and so he's angry and he's full of wrath and vengeance and it's not that God is looking to punish us for our failures.
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That struck me as we've gone through the book of Genesis. He's setting about a plan to provide blessings and redemption through one male offspring of humanity, and that's what we see his promises and his promises towards blessing and towards bringing about a remnant and saving people for himself.
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In our text, we will see God once again moving in the life of his chosen family to take them one more step closer to fulfilling his promises.
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One more step close in the life of Isaac, the son of Abraham. What we're going to see is that Isaac is not that different from Abraham, his father.
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We're going to see him do a lot of the same things that his dad did, people responding to him the same way that they responded to his dad.
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I titled the sermon, Like Father, Like Son. I toyed with just calling it the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
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It's kind of the same notion, right? We're going to see a lot of behavior and patterns in the short account of the life of Isaac that is very similar to Abraham.
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That means, if we think back, it's going to mean moments of sin, moments of great faith, moments of struggle, remembering the promises, trusting in God, and a richness of a blessed life that is good even though it is not perfect.
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I want you to open your Bibles to chapter 26 of Genesis, that's page 17 in the Bible in the seat back in front of you.
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Follow along as I read chapter 26. I'm going to leave off the last two verses and I'm going to pick those up when
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I preach on Genesis 27 because it really ties in better there, but follow along as I read
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Genesis chapter 26 in the English Standard Version. Now there was a famine in the land besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham and Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the
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Philistines and the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt, dwell in the land of which I shall tell you, sojourn in this land and I will be with you and will bless you for to you and to your offspring
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I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
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So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, she is my sister, for he feared to say, my wife, thinking less the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah because she was attractive in appearance.
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When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife.
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So Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold, she is your wife. How then could you say she is my sister, Isaac said to him, because I thought lest I die because of her.
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Abimelech said, what is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us.
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So Abimelech warned all the people saying, whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.
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The Lord blessed him. And the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants so that the
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Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.
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And Abimelech said to Isaac, go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar and settled there.
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And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the
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Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.
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But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen saying, the water is ours.
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So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well and they quarreled over that also.
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So he called its name Sitna. And he moved from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it.
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So he called its name Rehoboth saying, for now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.
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From there he went to Beersheba and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the
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God of Abraham, your father. Fear not for I am with you and I will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant
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Abraham's sake. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there
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Isaac's servants dug a well. When Abimelech went up, went to him from Gerar with Ahazeth his advisor and Phicol the commander of his army,
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Isaac said to them, we have come. Why have you come to me seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?
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They said, we see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, let us make a covenant with you and you will do us no, that you will do us no harm just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace.
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You are now the blessed of the Lord. So he made them a feast and they ate and drank. In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths and Isaac sent them on their way and they departed from him in peace.
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The same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, we have found water.
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He called it Sheba, therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship. Father I rejoice in your promises,
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I am grateful that you set things in motion in ancient times to bring about blessing to even us here where we live.
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Father you are good, you are kind, you have been merciful, you are everlasting and even as we have an opportunity to sing to you, we sing to you as the same
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God, alive, living and active today as the God who was back in ancient times with Abraham and Isaac and that you are still a
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God carrying on your promises and your promises are sure and your promises stand because you are a God who is eternal and everlasting and you are still here present working out the promises that you made to Abraham and Isaac centuries and centuries ago.
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We rejoice and I ask that you would help us to catch a vision of what it means that you are everlasting
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God and that as we sing these songs we would recognize that you are both past, you are present and you are future and you are the same consistently and that you are loving and merciful and kind and a
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God who keeps his promises and I rejoice in that and ask that we would worship with our hearts engaged in recognizing who you are in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Be sure to make yourself comfortable. You can get up, get any more coffee, donuts, juice,
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I know we just took a break but feel free at any time, men's restroom back there, women's back here especially if you've been taking advantage of the coffee, you might need that, know where those are and then encourage you to have your
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Bibles open in front of you, Genesis chapter 26 in case you weren't here when we read it earlier, that's page 17 but having that open,
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I am always grateful to just kind of look out and see Bibles open and people actually following along, it really is the structure of my messages every week is to walk you through a text of the scripture and so having that open is beneficial.
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We start off right away with the phrase, now there was a famine in the land, which is just kind of a loaded comment when you think about it, if you think about we're talking about the land of promise, right, and there's a famine in the land, now have we seen famines in the land of promise before, we've seen them happen before, are they going to happen again later in the text of scripture, yes, now this is the land that was promised to Abraham and his offspring, promised to Isaac and his offspring, we're going to see here in the text, but have you ever noticed that being chosen by God doesn't make us famine proof, have you noticed that, that being blessed by God and going through famines are not mutually exclusive ideas, in other words a person can be blessed by God, chosen by God and equally go through difficult times.
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Now you could probably right now go out to your car, turn on the radio, tune it into some speaker out there right now speaking who is going to tell you that what
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God wants most from you, that if you are living a life of faith then he's going to make you wealthy, he's going to give you the means to buy that Ferrari that you want, he's going to give you all of your health, that you're going to be perfect and fine and everything's going to work out hunky dory in your life if you have enough faith, have any of you ever heard that preached before, that is not what
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I see consistently through the life and character of those chosen by God in the pages of scripture and case in point his own son hung on a cross for you and me, the very son of God suffering for us,
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Isaac the chosen one of God in the text going through a famine and that's reality of life,
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God loves us enough to sharpen us through adversity, he loves us so much that he will allow things in our lives that sharpen us and how many of you could actually testify that some of the most sharpening things in your life, some of the most formative, positive things have come through hardship,
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I know it has for me, I know that I am in part who I am because of some of the difficulties that I've had to face in life, some of the best qualities
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I've learned in life, a couple you know and I've got just small ones but they have been as a result of difficulty and hardship,
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God is often like a parent who makes their children eat their veggies, right, now how many of you when you were a child your parents made you eat the veggies, did they make you eat the veggies before you got dessert at least, yeah, how many of you now that are raising kids you make your children eat the vegetables, yes, uh huh, did
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I hear an amen in there, that was pretty, that was a significant one over there, somebody is in the thick of it right now, watch out kids at lunch time, but a person might argue and I mean
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I think you could probably hear this side of the argument, like you could hear somebody logically saying this, a person might argue that the loving thing to do is to always give your kids what they want, like if you really love your kids you'll give them what they want but those who are parents or those who have been children might know that what you want is not always what's best for you,
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I'm convinced that most of them, that at least one or two of my kids would not have survived to this age that they're at right now were
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I to give them everything that they asked for, you know we tell our kids to not play in the road, why, because we love them and we want them to survive, right, how many of you know that your kids would make some pretty bad decisions if you just let them do whatever they wanted and we did the same when we were their age as well.
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So Isaac is in the midst of a famine, I believe he's on his way down to Egypt because God is going to tell him don't go down to Egypt so that kind of presupposes that he was thinking at least mentally hey
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I think I'll go to Egypt but he's on his way and on the way he stops off in Gerar and God appears to him there or meets with him or however it happens in a dream in the night or whatever but because the
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Nile River has a very stable source way far south in Africa if there was a lack of rain in the
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Middle East it's unlikely that there's a lack of rain in the mountains in Southern Africa, okay, the rainforest and all that stuff so the source of the
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Nile is pretty steady and so it was very common for people in that time and that's why you constantly hear people in famine where do you go, you go to Egypt, the
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Nile River doesn't dry up regularly and so it's got a good source way down in a very different climate than the
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Middle East and so it's pretty consistent so he's probably heading there, it seems unlikely to me now
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I don't know the timing of this chapter is difficult for us because we're going to see that by verse 18 it's going to say that which the
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Philistines had stopped up all of these wells after the death of Abraham but I think at the beginning of this
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Abraham is actually still alive we're going to see that Isaac becomes wealthy in this not many of you know if he's received his inheritance from Abraham he's wealthy, okay, and it's going to say he became wealthy in the midst of this text we're going to see that Abraham is certainly dead by the time we get to 18 but I don't think he is at the beginning of this we're also we also know that the twins were born to Rebecca prior to the death of Abraham by 15 years give or take according to the chronology and the things that I've been able to figure out and different people and scholars have looked at and so it seems unlikely also to me that when we see the scenario and situation where Rebecca is going to be considered his sister how many of you know she's toting twins around with her everywhere she goes it's going to be kind of hard to hide that she's a mom and it's going to be hard to hide that husband wife relationship there
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I mean not that that couldn't happen but it seems like the text indicates or guides me into the conclusion that this is this is covering a span this chapter 26 is covering a span of Isaac's life that these events are kind of kind of drawn drawn out in accordion together into one chapter so that when he's digging up all these wells by the end of the chapter that's that's subsequent to the death of Abraham and this is an ongoing long -term thing is that making sense everybody we're talking about the timing of this and all that but the
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Lord appears to him just as he had to his father but God tells him to not go down to Egypt now we know that Abraham did go down to Egypt but here he's told directly not to and then
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God commands Isaac to remain in the land of Gerar and set up a temporary encampment there he says sojourn in this land stay here and now
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God specifically refreshes his covenant with Isaac now God had made a lot of promises he selected out Abraham from among the people of the earth and said your offspring and your family is going to be in special covenant relationship with me and I'm gonna make some promises to you and I'm gonna promise some significant things so he promised that to Abraham but and and part of that promise was that this is gonna pass on to your offspring right and now
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Isaac being the chosen offspring of Abraham and now he's going to pass that along to Isaac as well and there's at least five parts of this promise that we see in chapters three and four the first is that God promises his presence he says
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I will be with you Isaac how many of you think that that's a that right there is like that's golden right like if God ended there and stopped the promises there
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I'd be pretty happy if God just said I will be with you is that is that a is that an awesome promise okay and by the way that's something that carries forward to those who are his children today that's a cool that's a cool notion he is with his people but God promises his presence specifically to Isaac he says
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I will be with you secondly he promises his blessing wow okay this is taking it and ratcheting it up a notch
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I will bless you the third thing God promises all of these lands he says he says
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Isaac look around you and the lands that you see I promise to your offspring I'm gonna give this to you this is gonna be your this is gonna be your land to possess and he promises that two times in the text says you're gonna have an awesome abundant land the fourth thing
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God promises is that his offspring says yes your offspring is gonna possess the land and look up at the stars your the off your offspring is gonna be as numerous as the stars in heaven okay now does that I've mentioned this before in previous sermons but does that mean that on there like if we counted up the number of Jews on the face of the planet it's not quite the number of the stars that we've found right so what's this what's this talking about well certainly it's it's hyper hyperbole a sense of exaggeration or a sense of just astronomical numbers but then there's an also also an aspect in here that anybody who is a child of faith according to Paul in the
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New Testament anybody was a child of faith is a child of Abraham and so anybody in this room there was a star that as Abraham looked up he saw a star for you and for me there's nothing that's exciting
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I'm not saying that you're a rock star or that you're you've got a you know there's there's oh there's your star or whatever but are you getting are you getting what
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I'm saying in this that he saw moving forward into the new covenant and said anybody who exhibits faith in the in the same line as Abraham in the promises of God obviously us through Jesus Christ through the fulfillment we live in a backwards looking
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God fulfilled it they looked forward saying God will fulfill it them faith forward us faith backwards either way we are considered to be children of Abraham sons and daughters of Abraham there was a star that he looked up and he saw for you that day that's it that's a cool thing to me
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I don't know if that strikes you but we are sons and daughters of Abraham we are part of that offspring but then the fifth thing last but certainly not least
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God promises that all the nations of the earth will be blessed in Isaac's offspring now another way to state that and I think sometimes
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I said that so much in this series that I fear that you just might get okay immediately when you hear that you just think
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Jesus and we know the backstory right we like we can we from our vantage point in history can you look back and see the fulfillment of that promise all nations will be blessed but think about it from hit from this perspective what
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Isaac is hearing in his ears is that something is gonna happen in my lineage a big deal is going to happen and it's going to have a global impact my family is going to have a global impact on this planet and someone one of my offspring and I think he could put together the promise to Eve and that that one of your one of your offspring he will crush the head of the serpent it's gonna be a male offspring there's some things that he could actually see
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I'm looking forward but ultimately saying one of your children one of your male children is going to have a global impact on the world but you think
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Isaac had any notion what that really meant at this point in history I think she's kind of like okay that sounds really cool
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I don't know what that looks like yet but um he was had to write had to recognize at that point that we're talking about more than just the
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Jews here what God's call to Abraham God's called Isaac had more to do with the entire globe and more to do with the impact that one of his offspring was gonna have on the world notice how many times in the text in verses three and four
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God says I will who is gonna accomplish these promises who's gonna get it done he will
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I will be with you I will bless you
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I will give these lands to your offspring I will give you an offspring as numerous as the stars of the heavens
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I will bless all nations through you now how many of you know a promise is only it only as good as the one making the promises
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I could I could promise you a half a million dollar house and I'm not gonna be able to make that work so I could promise it but it's just not gonna it's not it's not a good promise right
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I was mindful of this I know how many of you are mindful of this when you make promises how many how many of you are just like a staunch like I don't make promises because I know that I'm not in control of my life like is anybody kind of in that category not not really it kind of there's there's a part of me that says okay
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I couldn't I could make promises to my kids that I'll be there for them in in the future for all all things and how many know
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I don't have control over that that's that's reality okay so I recently took my oldest son
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Adam I took him on a weekend retreat away just the two of us how many of you ever heard of passport to purity have you ever heard of that something if you were interested it's it's a it's a great opportunity to kind of help your kids going into the teenage years and stuff and if any of you are have kids that are at that age
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I'd love to sit down and talk with you about this is a great program a really good time but part of it at the back of the back of his journal so he gets a journal for the weekend we walk through all kinds of topics and stuff but at the back of his journal
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I wrote him a letter father and son and part of that part of that letter was me wanting to and I asked his permission to share this with you but part of it was just sharing my heart and my desire to be there for him as he goes through the tentative years of going in through middle school and high school and stuff like that and I desire to be there for my son but the reality is as I'm writing this letter promising these things is saying
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I want this for you there's a tension in my heart going I don't know if I'm gonna be here tomorrow are you getting what
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I'm saying I am finite in my ability to impact anything right he can he can just take me right now and I could be done are you getting what
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I'm saying and so there's something that's significant about the one who is making these promises and I want us to see that and I want us to grasp this and get it in our hearts and in our heads better a promise much sure as a promise that God is with you to write that in their journal and say
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God will be with you and he's always a step away a step of faith away from you and he's always ready to embrace you at any time in your life he's there for you
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God here in this text says I will and that is so different than any one of us saying
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I'm James actually tells us don't be careful when you say I will always say
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I will with what if God wills our will is subservient to his would you agree with me on that so be careful when we say
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I will but the timeless eternal omnipresent meaning there is no place he is not omnipotent meaning there is nothing he cannot do omniscient meaning there is nothing he does not know that God will be there fulfilling his promises long after Isaac is dead and gone is this a significant promise is that does that does that add some force to God being able to say something about Isaac's offspring
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Isaac's children centuries down the road he is still there the same God the same
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God that you and I serve the same God that you and I sing praises to the same God that you and I desire to walk with in relationship throughout our week is the
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God of Isaac is the God of Abraham is the God we're talking about here in the Old Testament he's not just some removed deity like in these crusty documents of ancient times with are you getting what
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I'm saying there's something that's awesome in this verse 5 shows that in no uncertain terms that Abraham was faithful in these things look at verse 5 so he says all of these
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I wills because Abraham obeyed my voice kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws so we saw that Abraham's broken right he does some he makes some mistakes he does some things that are wrong but Abraham did indeed obey
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God's voice so many times we encountered in the book of Genesis so far when
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God appeared to Abraham in a dream and or in a vision at night and what's the first thing we see him do early in the morning he's up obeying he's up and saddling the donkey and getting ready to sacrifice his son
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Isaac he's getting ready for the journey he's doing things immediately often it's early in the morning
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God meets with him in the night and he wakes up right away and is in the process of obedience the various phrases that are used in verse 5 shows that when
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God told Abraham to do something he did it he wasn't morally perfect but he was a man who heeded the voice of God and here
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Isaac obeys like his father so God says settle in Gerar and in verse 6 we see
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Isaac settles where in Gerar he obeys the voice of God he's acting like his father but within this brief chapter we have a summary of the life of Isaac and we see so many reflections of Abraham in his son how many of you have identified those of you that are parents in the room how many of you have identified at least at some point in your life a sin that you struggle with in your children a couple of us a couple of us that's one of the most
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I think that's one of the hardest things in life isn't it when you actually identify they're at oh they're so cute they act just like oh they act just like me you know and I'm like kid stop being so dramatic and loud you're acting like your mom and that's not that's not true that's not true she's not in here is she didn't get away with that she was in here in the first service so it wasn't quite that dramatic it wasn't quite that dramatic in the first service um are you getting what
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I'm saying I mean like father like son right and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and we see the sins that we struggle with replicated in our children and that's a painful thing to see and this fallen planet
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I know I don't like it and here Isaac is going to do the same things his father did even replicating a specific sin that his father committed he tries to pass off his wife
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Rebecca as his sister have we seen someone do that before we've seen Abraham do that twice now and now
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Isaac follows in the footprints of his father as I mentioned earlier most scholars point out that this likely occurred during the 20 childless years of Isaac and Rebecca if they had twins it might have been difficult to hide that they may have
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I I don't know I wasn't there and the text isn't abundantly clear but there's some indicators in the text that it probably happened during that time but Isaac is uh
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Isaac is afraid he knows his wife is a hottie and he thinks someone is going to kill him for his wife and so he takes the same exact tack as his father well the king of Bimelech may be the same king that's just really ancient by this point or it's possible that the name of the title of Bimelech or the name of Bimelech is actually a title for the ruler the king of Gerar and actually we're going to see later much later in the old testament another king of the philistines named a
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Bimelech and so it it's kind of like hey maybe scholars kind of say okay king of the philistines a
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Bimelech under Abraham then Isaac king a Bimelech and then later like like near the time of David another king a
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Bimelech so um people are kind of saying that sounds to me like maybe a title so it's possible that this is not the same guy we're going to see another guy a military leader named
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Feichel um a Bimelech and Feichel approached Abraham now a Bimelech and Feichel are going to approach Isaac again could be the same guys um just kind of hard to determine but either way um a
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Bimelech sees something going on outside his window that indicates that Isaac and Rebecca are more than just brother and sister now the word laughing he sees them laughing together in Hebrew um it has a huge range of meanings but some kind of some kind of range of flirtation is going on between the two of them that leaves no question to a
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Bimelech that they are not brother and sister he's like brothers and sisters don't do that whatever they're doing okay and um i don't want to get into too much detail and it's unclear actually so i can't um but whatever they're doing a
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Bimelech's like that's they're not brother and sister so in verses 9 through 11 a
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Bimelech confronts Isaac about his lie he's just he's he's confident that they are um husband and wife and just like his father
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Isaac has tried to save his own skin while risking his wife and an entire city good call hero of the faith great job so the entire city is at risk and his wife is at risk in this and once again once again just like Abraham just like his father once again despite his self -serving motives he is blessed by God it's
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God's chosen and he is still blessed by God even despite his messy life he's blessed with a royal edict of protection the king of Bimelech says anyone who even lays a hand on Isaac or Rebecca will be put to death um sounds like he's pretty safe and secure now in the land of Gerar right and so the blessings promised by God begin to take form in Isaac's life in tangible ways he's protected he receives um we see in the text he plants a field and in that same year receives a hundredfold return a hundredfold harvest um even in a time of famine does that sound blessed to you sounds pretty significant the
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Lord is surely blessing him and the text outright says God is blessing Isaac the indication that he became rich and became very wealthy again
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I think indicates that he has not yet come into his inheritance yet he would have been filthy rich if he had inherited already from Abraham but Abraham is going to die at some point in the text because by the time we get down to verse 18 it's actually outright declared that he's dead but wealth produces envy in the hearts of humanity you experience that somebody else gets something good and you want it have you um you know even just uh going out and window shopping can be a sin uh sin inducer for me or driving up and down the the the coast of west
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Michigan uh looking at um houses have any of you ever done that before anybody ever just kind of coveted somebody else's house over there on the beach um it'd be no nobody else struggles with that I see a couple a few of us um you know so so wealth and coming in contact with wealth in the reality of our human hearts is it often produces envy or covetousness and with with Isaac's blessings with his obtaining significant wealth comes strife in his life now how many of you in all honesty you really you really have thought at some point if I just had more money a lot of my problems would go away you've really thought that I know
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I have I've thought man if I just had just a little bit more money just a little bit more of this or a lot more money all my problems would go away right and and I think we've deceived ourselves we're deceived if we believe that the fact of the matter is if we receive significant wealth it would just make us be able to afford bigger problems right we'd be able to afford them then but um that's what happens here to Isaac he becomes wealthy and he inherits some problems
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Abimelech literally kicks him out of the land he says you're not welcome in Gerar anymore you you go out into the valleys get out of my city leave there's not enough room here to contain your wealth and you're sapping all of our resources move on so Isaac moves to the valley of Gerar outside of the city and he redigs a series of wells that his father had originally made the people of Gerar had filled them in and stopped them up but how many of you are just all of a sudden curious like as you read this you're like why would he feel why would anybody fill in wells in the
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Middle East where where water is like gold it kind of kind of jogged my mind I had to do a little bit of research and some people were indicating that what's likely the case is that Gerar had significant water sources already they were already doing okay that's one of the reasons that it was okay for Isaac to stay there and then one of the reasons he probably got a hundred a hundred fold yield
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I mean obviously God was blessing him but he also has access to water and so Gerar is doing okay but the problem is if you've got a bunch of wells in the outlying areas of your district who's who's that going to attract it's going to attract all kind of all kinds of Bedouins and settlers and all kinds of people are going to go well well
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I heard there's water over there and they're going to all settle around your wells and what are their sheep going to do eat all your past eat up all the eat up all the pasturage right and so they would stop up these wells in ancient times to basically preserve their pasturage because people coming through they're looking for water if they don't find any water they just keep moving and so it was a way of keeping people from settling at your borders and keeping your borders secure by stopping up any wells that were around them around the fringe of your territory does that make sense that made sense to me anyways it kind of clarified because I'm like if there's a famine going on I'm not stopping up wells right
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I'm not taking that time but now Isaac's been kicked out of Gerar and he's in need of water as soon as possible so he begins redigging a series of wells and renames them what his father had named them but two in particular produced conflict and so he gives them different names than his father named them the first is named contention and the second is named quarreling um he digs the wells and Abimelech's men immediately come in force to claim them as their own which is not cool um and I don't know you kind of as you get the image the
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Abimelech's men are kind of bullies to some degree we saw them kind of bully Abraham and now they are going to bully his son
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Isaac how many of you think Isaac would be justified in retaliation or anger like like really
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I mean you're out there okay you just got kicked out so you're digging wells they belong to your father anyways you strike water you're celebrating somebody comes and says hey bro that's that's our water that's our well um how many of you think that like like even just fighting over that well might be somewhat justified right like you'd be like but instead
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Isaac just moves on he proves himself to not be to be a non -violent individual he moves on seeking ample pastures and good uncontested source of water okay well if this is yours we'll just keep moving he finally digs a well that is uncontested and so he names it
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Rehoboth which means spacious because he finally finds an area with enough room without contention without strife against others around him and how many of you think that's a wise move
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I think that's pretty wise move on his part actually to rather than just settle where he knows he's gonna have to fight for his way of life he moves to a place that's spacious enough to handle everything and so he comes back to a significant place in the life of his father we find that he ends up moving on to Beersheba it's 20 miles north of Rehoboth so he digs up this well and now he moves 20 miles north and it's likely due to his great wealth that we're to imagine that he's actually has encampments along this 20 mile stretch going from Rehoboth up to Beersheba and so he has probably several settlements with a lot of servants and family and all that along the way and now we find him in Beersheba at the very location where Abraham called upon the everlasting
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God he was told that to us in previous chapter earlier in Genesis and he first calls
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God the everlasting God there in conjunction with his promises and again this highlights that God is the eternal one who is there he was the
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God of Abraham and now he is the God of Isaac and he is everlasting Abraham now out of the picture and his son meeting with the everlasting
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God the one who will always be there and the way that God titled titles himself what he calls himself is significant to me
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I've mentioned it before and yet it's so amazing to me every time I see it in scripture you'll probably hear about it and I'll make it a point in my sermon again but God identifies himself with his people he meets
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Isaac and he says you know who I am in case you didn't know who I am I am the God of your father
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Abraham is that a pretty significant title that it is to me and that God would
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God would take on a title that incorporates a human name that incorporates a person a real live person's name
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I am the God of fill in the blank I am the God of Abraham I am the
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God of Isaac I'm the God of Jacob could he say think carefully about this could he correctly say
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I am the God of and put your name in there would it be accurate for the
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Almighty the God the king of the universe to say I am to introduce himself to somebody else and say by the way I'm the
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God of think about your co -workers think about the people in your life around you could he say I am the
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God of and use you as a reference God use you as a reference or is it more accurate in our life to say
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God is sitting like like at the secretary of state's office with a number how many of you know when you walk into the secretary secretary of state's office it's very rare that you walk in unless you go to pawpaw now
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I'm now my secrets out but um uh it's very rare that you are first in line right what do you usually do when you walk in hurry and fight somebody for a number right you're like quick get in front of the people and got there at the same time as you um so you get the number right and you sit there and it's until they call your number and for some of us if we were being honest and we were doing business with God and we're listening to the
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Holy Spirit God's holding a number like three or four or seven and he's not our only
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God well what other things might get in the way what other things might be number one what things might be number two and number three and on down the list goes what is your
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God who is your God I mean I can get in the way
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I can I can take the number one seat pretty fast right I'm not saying me for you I'm saying me for me right
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I mean how you're yourself right so does self ever get in the way sometimes then there's there's wealth serving money there's family there's career there's popularity there's friends what we see in the text is that Abraham had a
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God and his name was Yahweh the everlasting and God was pleased to introduce himself as the
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God of Abraham he's connected with people he's connected with our history he is not distant he is not removed he is not cold he is not indifferent he is the
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God of his people is he your
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God and just when I imagine Isaac needs it most God reminds
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Isaac of his promises okay so I believe that we've had time in here that that the text you know it takes us maybe five minutes to read through the text and I think it covers the span of a significant chunk of Isaac's life so Isaac had the promises of God we talked about all five of them early on and now there's going to be a refresher course for him
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God is going to come to him after all of these things and comfort Isaac's fears Isaac may maybe
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I think at some point has lost focus because God actually has to say do not fear I'm present with you well
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God what was God's first promise I will be with you so now he needs a refresher right he's lost some perspective and there's
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I mean God doesn't say don't fear unless there's something he's fearing now
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I want to suggest to you that God is good about giving us reminders when we need them have you have you had that experience in your life
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Isaac like us could probably get caught up in the stuff of life think about the things that we even just see in the text wells flocks servants rulers drama current events saving his own skin and here
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God reminds him of the big picture sometimes I lose the big picture lose the forest for the trees does that happen in your life the big picture of what
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God is doing versus all the mundane daily activities of life I need
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God to break into my life and remind me of the eternal things that matter most and I'm at this point the text is preaching to me
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I mean you guys can listen in and maybe you get something out of it too but just having God break into my day today everyday stuff
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I can get carried away by schedules appointments food exercise games parties friends family and all kinds of good things and suddenly realize that God hasn't been a part of whole chunks of my life you've been there can you relate to what
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I'm talking about if you're anything like me then you need constant reminders you need to spend time in the word of God throughout the week this isn't me making a case for a daily bible reading plan or read through the bible in a year or have a checklist or anything no
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I'm talking about being connected to the source of encouragement in life and challenge and although what we need here connecting with God hearing from him letting letting his word saturate us wash over us we need that we need the reminders that we find here in the word that he takes priority sunday morning will never be enough to keep us fueled all week right it's not it's not going to be enough uh to think that we're going to come in here for an hour and a half and fix everything from this last week is just that that's that's naive or to think that you're going to have enough power when you leave here some of you are going to walk out at five minutes out the door and you're not going to remember a word that was said and some of you are going i'm not even tracking with you right now don i mean i don't even know what do you mean five minutes it doesn't take me five minutes to lose this right a couple of you are tracking with me we need more than just sunday mornings we need reconnecting points throughout the week with God we need smaller group relationships and don't hear me say we need small groups small groups is the method that we've used here at recast to connect people in relationship it's a tool it's not the only tool available but at the same time we need smaller groups in which we can be authentic where we can be known and and uh truly know others and really share one another's burdens and encourage one another and walk with each other in life we need that we need times of prayer when we essentially remind ourselves that God is in control and we leave the results at his feet how many of you that's a refresher in the midst of your busy week kind of going on i'm gonna do it all i gotta get this done i gotta get this done oh that's right
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God you're in control and you are the one who is in charge of the results of this whole business how many of you know what it means to work a lot for nothing okay to actually get nothing accomplished but spend a lot of time doing it anxiety is one of those things right you work a lot of anxiety it stresses you out it gets your heart racing and it doesn't accomplish anything right we need times of prayer we need times of worship and praise to remind us uh that he is indeed super awesome to refresh that in our minds he really is worth it but what i need most are constant reminders of the presence of God in my week and i think that's one of the reasons
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God called me to be a pastor i kind of say that tongue in cheek but um in all honesty he knew that i needed to be in the book all week long and so he said why don't you uh why don't you come and be a because i know that you need it otherwise you'll just wander away and just be out doing who knows what and so i think sometimes he calls people and he goes i i know that you're going to need the extra focus so that's why i'm here having been comforted and reminded of God's presence and promises then
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Isaac builds an altar and worships God re -establishes that connection with him and he rejoices and worships his
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God he's excited about it and his servants go to re -dig the well of Beersheba now he shouldn't have to because Abraham already bought that well but the the friends
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Abimelech's friends uh buried the well again and so it stopped up and it needs to be re -dug and Abimelech now shows up again makes an oath he wants a pact of non -aggression he says you know what i kicked you out but you're so big right now i think if we were to if we were to go um if we were going to play uh play one -on -one basketball you're going to take me every time here so if we go to war uh you're going to win and so um let's make a pact that we're not going to go to war and he had done that with his father
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Abraham and now he's going to make that same pact with Isaac and Isaac cordially makes a huge feast just like his father and in the morning they exchange oaths and Isaac receives peace and favor even from the pagan king over this territory and the blessings keep rolling on that very day they make the pact he depart ways
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Isaac's servant show up and say hey dude we struck water and the well of Beersheba is reopened and given the same name that his father had given it many years before Isaac didn't avoid conflict in his life did he it was conflict he didn't avoid famines but he was blessed in the midst of conflict and he was carried through the jaws of famine
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Isaac responded like his dad people responded to Isaac like they responded to his dad and God was faithful to Isaac like God was faithful to his dad
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Isaac is not perfect but he's a man he demonstrates for us a man with a God the true
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God he is learning to follow God he is learning to trust and obey God and he is learning that God is good and loving and kind and powerful and faithful he is learning that trust placed in this
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God is by no means misplaced and what about us are you at a place of growing in your relationship with this
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God on your journey of life have you encountered the God of the Bible have you seen his mercy have you experienced his grace are you trusting in his faithfulness for your salvation
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I think it's quite possible for us to start out strong in a relationship with God through Christ and then quickly become sidetracked into the diversions of life
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God wanted Isaac to keep his focus on the promises to not lose heart and to become discouraged or fearful and that's why
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God appears to him at Beersheba a second time and says fear not I am with you he knew our tendency and our hearts are prone to fear and the reality is the experience of life can begin to crowd out our relationship with God and when that happens
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I find it for for me personally when the busyness of life crowds out time with God or relationship with him the first thing to vanish is hope have you noticed that in your life that hope and that that hope is motivation that keeps you moving and keeps you joyful that goes away quickly when
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I'm not in constant and consistent relationship with God hope goes away and when hope goes away something comes in to fill the void that hope had in our lives it's called fear have you experienced that where as you as you go through dark times of the soul where you're not relating to God and you're not spending time with him and you're not connected with him you're not connected with his people fear begins to settle in and own us and we lose our sense of direction for some of us trusting
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God in a relationship with him is kind of ethereal and mystical right like how many of you like checklist just being honest you like a checklist like it'd be really nice if your spouse gave you a checklist and just said
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I mean and when you think of it in context of relationship if your spouse just gave you a checklist and said do these things and then I'll know you love me you just do it like you're a list person right it'd be easy okay that that makes sense to me right now
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I got it now I've got you figured out because that's what you want okay flowers the first Tuesday of every month got it okay a box of chocolates anytime
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I want once a month that's great okay I can I can I can manage that I can get that on my schedule but how many of you would admit that like sometimes you go to bed at night and you're like I'm not sure if I'm super great with my spouse
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I'm not sure how that how connect them or to take it into the spiritual realm I'm not sure where I'm at with God well the night the cool thing is we're gonna we're gonna be taking a break from Genesis and going over to first John and first John is actually going to give us some tools to talk about our relationship with God and how are we how hot or cold are we with our relationship with God based on things like how we love our brothers and sisters in Christ he's going to give us some indication some uh some some diagnostics if you will about the spiritual life in a way of determining like where are we at in our relationship with God but it can be mystical for us and so it at the sake of you know all this relationship stuff it's easier to move through life in terms of career and family and wealth and entertainment or whatever the stuff of this earth is that captivates you sometimes a relationship with God is difficult and hard mystical and mysterious but if we're not constantly returning to the promises of God and hearing from him we begin to try to get things done on our own like like Isaac who is passing his wife off as his sister and many of us know the busy aggressive stressful striving of a self -made life we've been there how stressful things become pretty quickly when you own all the results and you think it's all up to you if i think it's all up to me i will work myself to a nub i'll burn the candle at both ends and eventually i will come to the end of my life with a self -made kingdom with very little that really really matters to show for it so we need to come back to the truth in order to destroy the lies and here this morning as we come to communion we come to the most powerful truth that has the power to destroy all lies within the good news of God the cross is the mighty crazy powerful truth that we could not earn our way back to God we could not work off our debt we need a savior in Jesus Christ the offspring of Abraham the offspring of Isaac Jesus Christ the son of God God made flesh he loved us enough to step out of heaven to come to earth to suffer and die and be raised again three days later we are dearly loved and it's demonstrated by Christ and in the good times and bad we need to come back to the cross and understand it understand our lives in terms of those rough wooden beams our sin was so offensive to God that it took the death of Christ the death of Jesus to cover it but he also loves us so much that he died for us if you believe that Jesus is
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Lord and have asked him to save you based on his sacrifice on the cross then please join us in communion this morning and take it with joy recognizing that he is our only hope that all the striving and the effort and all the other things that would capture our attention here on this earth amount to nothing in light of the cross let this be one more reminder one more place where you recognize the gravity of sin and the depth of his great faithful love let this be the place and time of remembering the big picture the big picture of the promises of God that we have nothing to fear he is present with us he is keeping his promises and he is blessing all nations through his offspring let's pray father
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I thank you for your promises and I look at the way that you worked with Abraham the way you worked with Isaac and it gives me hope because I'm messed up like them
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I'm broken like them but I love you like them and you are my God and father
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I pray that for all of us that we would genuinely do business in our hearts to determine where we are at where you are at in our lives where where we have allowed you to be would you would you be pleased to be called our
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God would you be pleased to introduce yourself as our God father
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I pray that you would help us to think and contemplate about these things the only way that you truly become our God is through Jesus Christ and so father
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I pray that if there's anybody in this room who has not not recognized Jesus as king and asked him to save them that they would come and talk with me or come and talk with one of these guys serving communion or father that we would um we'd be able to talk with them about things that matter most in the big picture father help us to walk as big picture people resting and trusting in your promises this week and leaving the results up to you