Genesis #27 - The Gospel According to Abraham #17 - "Faith for an Uncertain Future" (Gen 24)

Faith for an Uncertain Future in Genesis 24

We turn our thoughts once again to the sermon series that we have been in for the last few weeks now called the gospel according to Abraham. We are walking our way passage by passage through the life of Abraham and this afternoon we come to our penultimate message.

We've got this and one more next week and we will have finished our study through Abraham's life. And so if you have a bible and I hope you do take it and turn with me to Genesis chapter 24. Genesis and chapter 24.

If you've grabbed one of the red hardbacks we give away that's page 17. Genesis chapter 24 and this is a very long chapter so we won't read the whole thing. I will read verses 1 through 9 and the rest will just read as we go.

So Genesis chapter 24 verses 1 through 9 page 17 and if you're able to do so can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's word. Genesis chapter 24 then reading from verse 1. Brothers and sisters these are God's words.

Abraham was now old getting on in years and Yahweh had blessed him in everything. Abraham said to his servants the elder of his household who managed all he owned place your hand under my thigh and have I will have you swear by Yahweh God of heaven and God of earth that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughter of the Canaanites among whom I live but will go to my land and my family to take a wife from my son Isaac.

The servant said to him suppose the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land should I have your son go back to the land you came from. Abraham answered him make sure you don't take my son back there.

Yahweh the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from my native land who spoke to me and swore to me I will give this land to your offspring he will send his angel before you and you can take a wife for my son from there.

If the woman is unwilling to follow you then you are free from this oath to me but don't let my son go back there. So the servant placed his hand under his master Abraham's thigh and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

Pray that God would bless that reading of his word and give us understanding of it. Allow me to pray ask for the Lord's help and we will dig into his word. Well Heavenly Father we thank you for yet another opportunity to gather and another opportunity to worship another opportunity to leave the busyness and challenges of the week and to render to you thanks and praise for all that you have done to us and for us.

And so father we ask that as we come to your word now that you would speak to every heart you would grant us understanding of your word help us to see your glorious work your glorious person and most importantly help us to see the glories of redemption even in a passage like this.

Father it's our custom to pray for churches in our area during this time and father I want to pray for two churches in particular pray for Medford Neighborhood Church pastored by Dr. Lee Gregory and the Living Room pastored by Dan Gregory.

Their churches are part of the Christian Missionary Alliance and this week their denomination meets for what could potentially be some rather large conversations regarding women's ordination and issues and conflicts surrounding that.

Father we pray for clarity as their churches gather pray that you would grant grace to both Dr. Gregory and Pastor Gregory as they have made their stance very clear and agreement with your word and so we just pray that you would help them that they would know your blessing they would know your help as they seek to speak faithfully for your word and we pray for votes and decisions that will be made in this next week as they gather that ultimately they would glorify you by obedience to your word and father we pray that that would be the case for us too that we would glorify you by our obedience to your word even as we hear it preached now and so we ask all these things in Jesus name and for his sake amen.

Please be seated. Well this afternoon I want to speak to you on the subject as we near the end of our study in Abraham's life. I want to speak to you from the subject faith for an uncertain future faith for an uncertain future.

Would life be easier if you knew the future in advance? Let's do a little bit of a thought experiment together this afternoon. Would life be easier if you knew the future in advance? All the uncertainty, all the unknowns, all of the complexity, all of it for the most part basically gone.

Would life be easier if you knew the future in advance? Let's build on our little thought experiment here. Let's ask uh what would you do differently if you could know exactly how your individual future would pan out?

It's not a question I ask myself all the time but I do ask it occasionally because if we're honest most of us will probably say that we would love to have that kind of knowledge of the future because not much you can do about the past that's happened but at least you can skip all of the mistakes all of the missteps every faux pas you could possibly make you could skip all of that and just get straight to the good stuff after all you know what to avoid.

So again what would you do differently if you knew exactly how the future would pan out? Well I invite you I invited you to do this thought experiment with me for a couple of seconds but the reality is from a Christian perspective this thought experiment starts to break down once you start pushing back on it a little bit because despite the fact that we as human beings not always wrongly but we generally prefer what is easiest and what is least painful despite our general bent towards that what if the hard moments the moments with the least information the mistakes and missteps actually were what we needed?

What if not knowing the future was actually a good thing for us because it forced us to act in greater faith? I mean think of it this way would you really need to have faith if you knew how things would pan out?

But putting aside the fact that God alone is all-knowing so none of us will ever get to know the future with perfect knowledge the reality is I would venture to say God doesn't tell us the future at least not our individual futures his word says a lot about the end of all things to be fair but he doesn't tell you your individual future precisely because faith grows best day by day as it seeks understanding and the only kind of understanding that comes from God.

Well as I said we are on the home stretch of our study in the life of Abraham. Actually next week will be the final part in this series in Abraham's life and as we're on the home stretch of Abraham's life the question that looms large over this text is if you wanted to boil it down to one word uncertainty.

Again just to kind of pick us up and where we are in the narrative of Abraham's life if you remember all the way back in chapter 12 God came to him spoke and said you should leave your father's house you should leave everything that you know everything you're familiar with leave all of that go to a land that I will show you.

Oh by the way you have no children but I'm going to give you offspring and in fact not just a few offspring but so many that you won't be able to count them. Well Abraham obeys God not really knowing what this is going to look like.

And so off he goes. And now almost 30 years has passed. Actually more than that if you count the years of waiting for Isaac years and years have passed. Remember in the last chapter we noted the death of Sarah his beloved wife has now passed.

The text begins in verse one by telling us that Abraham is getting on in years and as Abraham is getting on in years the question that kind of hovers over this text is how is the covenant promise going to advance.

How do we move to the next part of the story. So to speak and though we are not Abraham having to be faced with this question we should ask the question. Well how exactly do we approach a future that is fundamentally uncertain.

None of us know what will happen tomorrow. And since we don't know that how does faith approach the future. How does how do God's people approach the future knowing that we don't know the future. Well if I can leave you with one big idea this afternoon from this passage I think it's very simple.

I think the big idea that we're left with is that it is through the lens of God and his faithfulness that we can have confidence in the face of an uncertain future. The reality is if we try to have confidence or have faith for the future a future that we don't know we're going to find ourselves falling short every single time.

Ultimately the only way that we can have confidence in the face of an uncertain future is when we look at that future through the lens of God and his faithfulness. So again it is through the lens of God and his faithfulness that we can have confidence in the face of an uncertain future.

Well for the rest of our time we have a long text to get through. So just a heads up. I'm going to summarize a sorry about that. I'm going to summarize a lot of this passage because there is so much to get to and so for the rest of our time I want to consider four faith-driven responses to the uncertainty of the future.

Four faith-driven responses to the uncertainty of the future. And they all come out of this passage. How does faith view the future. How is it that faith looks at the unknown. Well the first response that faith has when it comes to the future.

Response number one is that faith recognizes the providence of God. Faith recognizes the providence of God. Faith looks to the future recognizing the providence of God especially his past providences.

So our text begins with the reality of Abraham's old age and impending death. So verse one Abraham was now old getting on in years and the Lord had blessed him in everything. Don't skip past that second clause there in verse one Abraham had been the graced beneficiary of God's kind providence for decades.

Now at this point he knew what it was for God to care for him and to protect him and to provide for him even as he had left the land of his birth even as he had given up the security of where he had been raised and having no doubt at home and all of those things to go into a land that he didn't know to give up the security of an actual house for the general insecurity of tents he knew what it was for God's providence to go before him.

And as we have as you've been here if you've been has been walking through Abraham's life as we have lived through the rises and falls of his following God by faith we've seen that God has been with him and God has indeed kept him.

Well I put it to you that it's that knowledge of God's providence that fuels a desire in Abraham to tie up a pretty big loose end as he knows his days are coming to an end. And so in verses two through four he essentially says to his servants swear to me that you are going to go back to the land that I came from to go and find a wife for my son Isaac.

Isaac is basically a grown man at this stage. So the question becomes why is Abraham taking on this responsibility. Why is he just leaving it to his son to find a wife. And now there are theories that abound some have more merit than others.

Ultimately it's all speculation. So the text doesn't really tell us why. And really it's not that important to figure out the why per se as much as to note that it's important enough to Abraham so much so that he makes his servants swear by the way if you're wondering what's all this business about hands under thighs and making him swear that way not the typical way we make somebody swear or like promise something.

If you try do that to me it's not going to go well for you. That's generally not what we do in our culture. Well in the culture of the ancient near east when you wanted to when a man wanted to basically swear by the most serious thing he could this was one way they did it because in their understanding your thigh or your loins were where children came from.

It's a symbol of your manhood essentially. So quite frankly this is a big deal to Abraham. Basically he says swear to me by my manhood as it were that you will not get a son excuse me a wife for my son from this people.

But you'll go back where I came from. Well that raises a question why. Why does he have to go all the way back to where he came from. Does Abraham dislike the people of Canaan that much. Is this just racialism kind of gone a little bit wild here.

Why is it such a big deal to him that he has to go hundreds of miles. We'll see in a moment. This is almost a month's journey. Why. Well this isn't racial more than anything else. This isn't I really dislike these people and they get on my nerves not even close.

You see this is more spiritual than it is racial. Abraham's issue with the Canaanites who surrounded him was their idolatry. So now for us as readers thousands of years removed from this story we might lose some of that.

But for the original audience this wasn't quite so out of their realm of normal understanding. A couple of texts. Exodus chapter 34. This is what God says to his people in the wilderness. He says do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land.

Or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.

Deuteronomy 7 3 and 4. Again this is God speaking about Israel's conduct with the nations around them. You must not intermarry with them. And you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.

Why. Because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then Yahweh's anger will and he will swiftly destroy you. This isn't so much about where these people come from as much as what these people worship.

This is really a matter of spiritual separation from the peoples of the land. And again I can't 100 prove this. But I think there's a sense here of Abraham recognizing where has Canaan grow. It's not excuse me where has Isaac grown up.

He's grown up in Canaan. He's grown up around these people. These people don't seem as weird to him or as off to him as they maybe would have to his father. The the urgency of being separate from them maybe wasn't as heightened for Isaac as it was for Abraham.

So Abraham essentially says okay we need to ensure that whoever Isaac marries is not one of these people who will draw him away to worship these other gods. So Abraham lays out this mission. And of course his servant.

And by the way the servant is not named. I personally think this is the same one who was mentioned back in chapter 15 if you remember he mentions Eliezer of Damascus who would inherit his help his estate if he were to die.

He's mentioned in similar language. He's the one who's the leader of the home kind of the man house manager if you will. I happen to think it's the same one. So for the rest of the sermon I'm just if you hear me say Eliezer.

That's what I'm talking about. Well his servant Eliezer I think he has some questions. So verse 5 it says. The servant said to him suppose the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land. Should I have your son go back to the land you came from.

I mean these are reasonable questions. Women have the power of consent to a relationship. Just because a guy asks doesn't mean they have to say yes even in ancient Near East. So reasonable question why she doesn't want to come back.

Well Isaac's also not there. So there's already a couple of steps removed from this. It's not like Isaac's dad is asking on Isaac's behalf. It's Isaac's dad's servant asking on Isaac's behalf. He's an intelligent man.

And so he's asking a reasonable question. And Abraham's an intelligent man too which makes his response all the more striking. So verse six and seven he says. Abraham answered him. Make sure that you don't take my son back there.

Yahweh the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and from my native land who spoke to me and swore to me. I will give this land to your offspring. He will send his angel before you. And you can take a wife from my son from here.

Abraham's not concerned because Abraham responds with providence in his sights. He recognizes that God had acted in the past in the interest of his promises. And given the importance of this he would do so again.

I need to pull up here for a moment. Is that your perspective when it comes to the future. If I can be vulnerable with you for a moment this doesn't always come naturally to me. I find this actually quite hard.

It's easy to recognize and be thankful for providence when it happens in the past. It's like the Presbyterian minister from Scotland rabbi John Duncan called rabbi because of his love for the Jewish people.

Reverend Duncan famously said that providence are like Hebrew letters. Providence is like Hebrew letters. Excuse me it's read backwards. It's easier to do that. It's kind of difficult though to view the future through the lens of providence.

Especially when the present looks kind of bleak. And I put it to you that in moments like this like I have and I'm sure you have them too we maybe would do well to remember God's past providence and allow that to be the lens through which we view future providence.

I remember the example of David before he goes to Goliath. If you remember that story first Samuel 17 in verse 37 David says something really interesting when he's speaking to Saul. The text is then David said Yahweh who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear.

No he's looking back at the past. He rescued me past tense from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. That same Yahweh will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. If God had been good in the past.

That should be the lens through which Abraham excuse me David looks through the future. That should be the lens through which we look at the future. And so when things get difficult and when things look shifty can I give you something that I've been trying to do of late.

Like I said I don't do it perfectly. So I don't say this from up on high down below. Might I recommend giving yourself a history lesson. And might I suggest that this history lesson not start with your own personal history.

But it should start with redemption history. Because think about it every time we are reminded of the gospel. Aren't we celebrating past providence. Think about this with me for a moment. Aren't we celebrating the fact that God acted in power.

A very different way of acting in power than we would think as human beings is almost kind of subversive. That's a sermon for another time it's subversive power but power. Nonetheless. Aren't we celebrating that fact every time we think about the gospel.

Aren't we celebrating the fact that before time was even a thing God within himself father son and spirit covenanted to redeem a people. Aren't we celebrating the fact that the love that he planned before time came into bold relief when he sent his son.

Aren't we celebrating past providence when we remember the fact that this son that he sent lived a life empowered by the spirit of perfect obedience to God's law. Aren't we celebrating past providence when he we remember that he capped off that life of obedience with the supreme act of obedience in the giving of his own life.

And aren't we celebrating past providence when we remember what he did in raising up from the grave his own son. If you understand the gospel properly. Brothers and sisters the gospel properly understood is one long glorious act of providence.

And as I've had calls to you even this week I would do well to remember that act of providence every time I'm tempted to think that things look hopeless. In fact Abraham coming back to our text Abraham is so assured of God's providence over the situation he's even willing to give Eleazar an out.

There's a release clause for this oath. So look at verse eight he says if the woman is unwilling to follow you then you are free from this oath to me. But don't let my son go back there if this doesn't work.

Okay come home. So the servant placed his hand under his master Abraham's thigh and swore an oath to him concerning this matter. Faith recognizes the providence of God in the face of an uncertain future.

Faith Seeks the Guidance of God

But there's a second response that faith has. There's a second response faith recognizes the providence of God. And secondly faith seeks the guidance of God. Faith seeks the guidance of God. Verses 10 right through to 27.

Now I need to give a bit of a sermonic health warning. This text starts to get very detailed very quickly from this point so I will do a lot of summarizing. Well Abraham's servant has his orders. So off he goes.

And as you read verses 10 right through to 27 there is quite an emphasis and I want you to notice this emphasis on the leading of God throughout this process. The servant doesn't go in with his own plan and his own side.

He is very carefully trusting God to lead and to guide in this situation. And this is an attitude that is encouraged to God's people all the time. We're told constantly in God's word not to trust in ourselves but to trust in God.

Not to seek our own wisdom but to seek God's wisdom and to allow him to guide our path in the direction that we need to go in. And as you move through this text really there are three moments in the actions of the servant which I think we can learn from.

We can learn some lessons about what we should do as faith seeks the guidance of God. But how exactly does faith seek the guidance of God. Well first off faith says I might not know but I will pray. I might not know but I will pray.

This is a massive undertaking on Eliezer's part. Verse 10 the servant took 10 of his master's camels. These were not cheap animals with all kinds of his master's goods in hand. He went from Aram Nahariim to Nahor's town.

Now if we assume that Abraham is where we left him in chapter 23 that's a month's journey from this point to where he was going. So it takes a month's journey. Oh this is a month's journey with animals that granted they were used to long journeys.

But he's got all kinds of goods and this is a long time. Well eventually he arrives in verse 11 and before he sets off on doing anything in verse 11 note what he does in verses 12 through 14. So look at it.

Verse 12 he prays Yahweh God of my master Abraham. He prayed make this happen for me today and show kindness. Pay attention to that word kindness. We're going to come back to that later on in this message and show kindness to my master Abraham.

I am standing here at the spring where the daughters of men the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw water. Let the girl to whom I say please lower your water jug so that I may drink.

And who responds drink and I will water your camels. Also let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I know you will have shown kindness. It's the second time this word has come up to my master before he does anything else.

Eliezer prays. And can I put it to you that when we are seeking the guidance of God that's probably the best place to start. If you need more biblical proof of that James chapter 1. Verse 5 if anyone lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly.

And it will be given to him. Can I put it to you that when you don't know how to make heads or tails of your next step wisdom might be a good idea. And who better to ask than the God who the Bible says is the only wise God.

What's all this servant praise. I think his prayer is worth paying some attention to for a moment. His prayer is very humble. He doesn't pray for success on his own mission. He prays that God would make it happen and would show him kindness.

Not only is it humble it's specific. He doesn't pray in spiritual vagaries. He doesn't kind of pray around the point we've all been in prayer meetings where people are very good at saying absolutely nothing in the time of prayer.

I praise God that God's ability to answer prayer is not hindered by our ability to be clear. But you can give Eliezer points here. He is not vague. His prayer is humble is specific. It's also a big prayer.

See verse 14 might fly by you. But here's what we need to do. Some quick details. I promise you I will keep this technical moment as short as possible. So remember back in verse 10 we were told that Eliezer took 10 camels with him.

The average camel. I looked this up as we I didn't know this. The average camel drinks up to 25 gallons 25. So he's got 10. So let's do some quick maths. I know you didn't come here to do math. But bear with me.

So 10 camels 25 gallons. I make 250. Verse 14 he specifically says that. Look at verse 14. Let the girl to whom I say please lower your water jug. Well in the ancient world these water jugs were actually fairly standardized.

You know it's kind of like how if you go into a store and you grab a can I drink a lot of sugar-free soda in my life. So I'm drinking a lot of cans. Anybody know what the standard amount in a can is.

Yep someone said 12 12 ounces in a standard soda bottle. Not a longer one. Just your standard soda bottle. Anyone know how much is in that 20 to be exact kind of like how we just know that those things instinctively.

Well in the ancient world when they made their water jugs they were pretty standardized. The average water jug could hold about three gallons. Give or take. So let's do some maths here. 10 camels all drink 25.

So that's 250. Remember he prays not just that she would give me a drink but she would water the camels also 250 gallons. So if you say you have to water all of these camels let's say they drink the maximum.

Let's just go with that. After a month I imagine they'd want to drink the maximum. So 250 three gallons. That's 84 trips. So think about that. It's 84 thing down the well. Because that's how typically you got water in those days.

Water jug down the well lift it up carry it to wherever they were. Typically the troughs were not too far from where the well was. But still that's you still gotta carry that thing 84 times. This would be a herculean task even for the strongest person among us.

Almost as though only God could do something like this. And if that's the sense you get from this passage knowing all of those details that's exactly the sense you're supposed to get. He prays a big prayer because he knows who he's praying to.

I mentioned my favorite quote on prayer earlier from well not earlier but I've mentioned it before from this pulpit John Bunyan a guy who wrote Pilgrim's Progress the Holy War some really great stuff.

John Bunyan in his little book on prayer says you can do more than pray after you have prayed. But you cannot do more than pray before you pray. I wrote myself a short remix of that because that gets a little wordy to remember.

Here's my remix of that pray and then do something and don't mess up the order please pray. Do something and do it in that order. I think we can learn something from the servant and the fact that he is first and foremost before he does anything else willing to pray and ask for the help of God.

And so when we are seeking God's guidance it's okay to say I might not know but I'll pray. It's also okay to say I might not know but I'll watch. I might not know but I'll watch. You see prayer is critical but just praying and doing nothing actually gets you nowhere.

As one of my favorite preachers back home used to say pastor Asheville Blaze pray with your eyes open. We skipped over the verse. But verse 11 he essentially says that he's going to go to the well the place where the women draw water.

Well the plan of going to the literal watering hole actually starts to pay dividends because we're introduced in this passage verses 15 and 16 to Rebecca. And there's a description given of Rebecca that again because we lack the context of the ancient near east we might miss some of this.

So allow me for a moment to kind of sketch some of this out. Why. She's perfect as the requirements go for one thing. She's from Abraham's family. It's laid out that she is from the family of Abraham's brother Nahor.

Okay so he's from the family. The text goes out of its way to say that she is a virgin. This might get missed on us but Canaanite worship was extremely sexual in nature. The fact that she is a virgin means she has not engaged in that worship.

She's from Abraham's family. She's a virgin. Look at verses 17 and 18. Note that she's incredibly humble to verse 17. Then the servant ran to meet her and said please let me have a little water from your jug.

She replied drink my lord again. Note the humility refers to this man that she doesn't know as my lord. She quickly lowered her jug to her hand and gave him a drink. Oh by the way remember our little math project we just did a few minutes ago these 84 trips.

Verse 19. When she had finished giving him a drink she said. Remember he prayed specifically that she would initiate this. She said i'll also draw water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.

So that's why i went with the maximum 25. She quickly emptied her jug into the trough and hurried to the well again to draw water. She drew water for all his camels. So verse 21 and 22. Of course he's gonna start paying attention because this is everything he'd been praying for if i can pause here for just a moment when it comes to this whole issue of god's will and guidance and knowing you know what god desires for us as his people some of you have maybe heard some interesting ideas about how we know god's will anyone grow up like i did with the idea of laying a fleece.

I don't know something. And so what i do. I'm gonna lay out a fleece. God if you do this then i know you want me to do that. Well this isn't a message about god's will and guidance entirely. But what's causing that.

Um please note that the bible never actually says that. Actually the bible presents knowing god's will. Very simply there are the things that god commands you to do for everything else we are commanded to pray seek the wisdom of god get counsel and make a decision.

Okay. Coffee. What does this have to do with this. Well one thing in the study guide this week there's a ton of resources there about god's will and guidance from what's called the wisdom view. But i have us pause with that for a moment because the reality is the server demonstrates how you're supposed to seek god's guidance.

You pray and he's because he prays and he pays attention he watches. And so when we are looking for god's guidance we it's okay for us to say i might not know but i'm gonna pray. I might not know but i'm gonna watch.

It's also okay for us to say i might not know but i'll worship. I might not know but i'll worship. Verses 23 through 27 eliza's had enough time to watch and be like okay. This might go our way here. So verse 23 whose daughter are you he asked.

Please tell me is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night. She answered him. I am the daughter of beth. I am the daughter of bethuel son of milker who she bore to nahor. She also said to him we have plenty of straw and feed and a place to spend the night.

She meets the criteria. This is the one and i can't help but smile. When i look at verse 26 is where this point comes from. Verse 26 then the man knelt low worshipped yahweh and said blessed be yahweh the god of my master abraham who has not withheld his kindness and faithfulness.

Oh there's that word again from my master. As for me yahweh has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives. This is a great faith driven response. He responds in worship as matthew henry puts it when god's favors are coming towards us we must meet them with our praises.

Some of you know i grew up pentecostal. And what growing up in the tradition i grew up in. I would hear preachers say varying iterations of the same theme. At times they would say that you should praise god before you see something happen.

And my hypological self growing up always struggled with that. How am i going to praise god for something i haven't seen yet. I mean i'll thank and praise god when i see it. I mean that's what you do.

Someone gives you something. You say thank you. I'm gonna say thank you for something you haven't given me yet. But as i got older and i read my bible a little more i realized they might have been onto something.

In a few weeks we're gonna start. Well a few weeks a couple of weeks we're gonna start the lesson to the philippians together. Listen to what paul says in philippians 1 18 and 19 where he talks about the fact that you know though there are some who are preaching christ from poor motives.

And some are preaching christ from um pure motives regardless whether it's poor or pure. I rejoice either way. Listen to what he says philippians 1 18. The end of that. Yes. And i will continue to rejoice because i know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and the help from the spirit of jesus christ.

Paul hadn't seen the deliverance yet but he knew who the deliverer was. And since he knew who the deliverer was he could rejoice in advance even though he hadn't actually seen the deliverance yet. So maybe the preachers in my you know little pentecostal church that i grew up in in london were onto something.