Summary

Transcription

Morning everyone. It's nearly afternoon by the way but cheer up. Often when you're
running out of time in things like this the first thing a preacher will do is not read the Bible
and just go into their notes because obviously what we have to say is far more important than
scripture. It's the big mistake we make. I'm going to read, this is the, I've been given,
you'll be pleased to hear, one of the longest chapters in the Bible to speak on today.
So I'm, it is but it's a story so it's great. It's a very well-known story about an arranged
marriage. It was a love match, a match brought together by God of Isaac and Rebecca and I'm
just going to read quite a chunk of the 67 verses to you and then I'm not going to bother much with
my notes and just try and wing it a bit based on the time we've got left. So this is Genesis chapter
24 as we're going through Genesis and this is my newer version of the Bible because my NIV became
a loose leaf version when I was preaching at a church recently and Ephesians ended over here
and Revelation over there and a bit of Genesis I've never seen since so I had to, I had to pick
up another Bible and I had this copy and I'm not sure what version it is but it's not a paraphrase,
you'll be pleased to hear but it is a modern version and here we go. Genesis 24. Abraham was
now a very old man and the Lord had blessed him in every way. One day Abraham said to his oldest
servant, the man in charge of his household, take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh
and swear by the Lord the God of heaven and earth that you will not allow my son to marry
one of these local Canaanite women. Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives and find a wife
there for my son Isaac. The servant asked but what if I can't find a young woman who's willing
to travel so far from home? Should I then take Isaac there to live among your relatives to the
land you came from? No, Abraham responded. Be careful never to take my son there for the Lord
the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and my native land solemnly promised to
give this land to my descendants. He will send an angel ahead of you and he will see to it that you
find a wife there for my son. If she's unwilling to come back with you then you are free from this
oath of mine but under no circumstances are you to take my son there. So the servant took an oath
by putting his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and he swore to follow Abraham's
instructions. Then he loaded 10 of Abraham's camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master
and he traveled to distant Aram Neharaim. There he went to a town where Abraham's brother Nehor
had settled and he came to the he made the camels rather kneel beside a well just outside the town.
It was evening and the women were coming out to draw water. Oh Lord God of my master Abraham
he prayed please give me success today and show unfailing love to my master Abraham.
See I'm standing here beside this spring and the young women of the town are coming out to
draw water. This is my request. I will ask one of them please give me a drink from your jug and if
she says yes have a drink and I'll water your camels too let her be the one you have selected
as Isaac's wife and this is how I'll know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.
Before he finished praying he saw a young woman named Rebecca coming out with her water jug on
her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel who was the son of Abraham's brother Nehor
and his wife Milka. Rebecca was very beautiful and old enough to be married but she was still
a virgin. She went down to the spring filled her jug and came up again running over to her
the servant said please give me a little drink of water from your jug. Yes my lord she answered
have a drink and she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink
and when she'd given him a drink she said I'll draw water for your camels too
until they've had enough to drink. That's 10 camels that's a lot of water.
So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw water for
all his camels and the servant watched in silence wondering whether or not the lord had given him
success in his mission. He is so alike us we'll come to that in a minute. Then at last when the
camels had finished drinking he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracelets
for her wrist. Whose daughter are you he asked and please tell me would your father have any
room to put us up for the night. I'm the daughter of Bethuel she replied my grandparents are Nehor
and Milka. Yes we've plenty of straw and feed for the camels and we've room for guests.
The man bowed low and worshipped the lord. Praise the lord god of my master Abraham he said the
lord has shown unfailing love and faithfulness to my master for he's led me straight to my
master's relatives. The last verse verse 67. Isaac meets up with Rebecca as she comes back
with him and Isaac brought Rebecca into his mother Sarah's tent and she became his wife.
He loved her deeply and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.
Now on the surface of this story of course it's a great love story.
There's a there's a program on the tv which I haven't watched I might call the Never Meets
which is about people who meet online and then suddenly decide they're going to meet together
and and this love story that they've met online they'll meet and see what each other are like
and I mean honestly for the little bits I've seen it's a complete and it's a car crash. I mean
totally. At the heart of this there is this arranged marriage arranged by god actually
that end up ends up as a true love match but at the heart of this chapter is the story of faith
and I would say in particular how a servant discovered faith for himself. He spent his life
serving Abraham and here he was called on a mission where he had to trust god for himself
and the question I'm going to place with us and where I'm going to finish today
and what I felt god wanted to say to us is you know there'll be people in this room that have
the faith of Abraham that I'm going to talk about in a little while. There'll be others who might
have the faith of a Rebecca but the vast majority of us have a faith like this servant
where we're not really sure you know what god can do is this is this possible that this can happen
and and even when god does something we're not really sure if it's god or not and we kind of
like stumble our way through a journey of faith and I want to talk about that because he discovered
something about god through the process of a journey through the process of asking god's help
that he would never have discovered if he just spent the rest of his life in the shadow of his
master's faith there are people in this room you rely far too much on the faith of other people
in this church far too much on the faith of leaders far too much on on other people's faith
you know we've just said communion there isn't two types of communion one for a superior christian
who knows god and he's empowered by god and equipped by god and others for just those lot
who are hanging on there and living in the shadows and living under the blessing of other people's
blessing we're all come before the lord in need of his grace and mercy we all receive god's spirit
we all know his salvation we all have the ability to know god for ourselves and this journey of
faith is really important for you as much as is important for me you know we say we need a problem
need to go and ask someone to pray for me about this we need to discover what it is to pray to
god ourselves in situation and find the surprise of god actually answering our prayers one of the
values of this church is encountering god it's not about coming here it's not about sitting under
people's ministry it's about us as individuals as couples as families knowing god for ourselves
and finding god for ourselves in the challenges of life and what i want to say to you today we
all stand equal before the cross each one of us and if you're waiting for the superheroes you
read genesis you look at the the mess that abraham made of things you look at the mess of some of the
other patriarchs there's no one who's superior before god we all stand equal before him we can
all know god for ourselves in the challenges we face in life come out of the shadows
come out from underneath stop piggybacking on somebody else's faith
learn to find god for yourself and the way you're going to do that is by asking god
so here we've got this scene sarah's died about three years before isaac is still this mummy's
boy he's 40 he's living at home do you remember that that sort of um ronnie corbett you know
sort of with timothy at home still at mum and dad's place he's still pining for his mum he's 40
it's time he grew up um abraham is coming to the point of understanding he's old
and when you get older you start to reflect on what happens next
but abraham might have become frail in body but he was sound in spirit his faith remained strong
for all the ups and downs of his life he had walked by faith and the bible says he in verse
one he was being blessed in every way that god could bless him here he still had a conviction
that god was going to give him descendants that outnumbered the sands on this on the shoreline
or the dust in the mud depending on what version you've got um you know he was going to have
multitudes of kids but he had a 40 year old bachelor who's pining in his mum's tents and
and wondering about the future he knew that something needed to happen so he gets his most
so he gets his most trusted servant and asks him to make a vow and he does so in a very delicate
way and this is where we you know censor it a little bit thankfully we don't make vows like
this today but essentially um you know the servant is asked to hold hold abraham's crown
jewel shall we say and make a vow because that's the source of life that's where this promise had
come from isaac right on on this on life i want you to promise that you will find a daughter
sorry a wife for my son and uh wow it's a big place to be and he says two things he said look
this this wife is not coming from these local people i mean look at the mess that lot got into
he's not going to come from this kainite people where he assimilates the culture local culture
and picks on the local habits of people um he's gonna he's gonna come from my family back home
about 400 miles away in what is they'd moved to harren which is in turkey area they moved away
from erring the coldies which is in iraq they'd moved to harren which is up in turkey and they
were still hundreds of miles away in a day an age when camels were your fastest form of transport i
mean about the same speed as british rail but that's another thing um and and actually you know
he's he's he's saying that's that's where we're going to go but you don't take eyes there because
i don't want him to get his eyes onto a more sophisticated urban sort of lifestyle as opposed
to this nomadic lifestyle here because god has given us this land the promised child has a
promise to fulfill in the promised land and and he and i everyone was absolutely clear
i don't want him to get his eyes off this but he had this conviction that god would find isaac
a wife and that the angel of the lord or god would guide his servant to this to to the right wife
that's a big ask i want you to go off on a long journey it's not a wild goose chase but it's a
long journey and you're going to bring a wife back now i mean the the the servant's thinking well
everyone knows that young girls are told not to get onto strange camels you know or to
or to spend time with strangers clearly strangers do give you gifts you know this would be a really
dangerous thing and so the the the servant is already hedging his bets and saying well look
okay i've made this promise but she won't come back with me can you let me off it
and abraham says yes but abraham's faith is strong he's convinced the god who has promised
him these descendants will obviously find a wife for his promised child so that these descendants
will be fulfilled at the end of this story you've got rebecca so you've got a tested proves faith
and experienced faith at abraham we've seen god at work in his life before and he's trusting god for
the future as well as the past and you've got rebecca who's basically on a faith adventure
it's all new to her and like so many new new christians you know we believe everything that
god can do everything and anything and will do everything and anything and she's up for the
challenge isn't she she's ready to go you'll find at the end of this story
i just want to say this see she didn't just go she was sent her family were involved in this process
and recognized god was doing it it wasn't just her going off on a whim and a prayer there was
a real sense that the family agreed with this laban her brother who you'll hear about a bit
later rebecca's rebecca's brother he plays a real key role in jacob's life a little bit later
the son of isaac and rebecca but that's for another week and and anyway he says well obviously
god's in this the family agree but in the end and i guess we've got people in this room who
felt called to go to other countries we've heard from fiona today lizard took communion
in the end she had to be willing to go on a one-way journey hundreds of miles from everyone
and everything she had ever known to marry a man she had never met she'd not even swiped left or
right on tinder she'd not written a love letter they're not exchanged pictures she had no idea
whether this guy looked like brad pitts or me she had no idea
but she said in verse 58 yes i will go
a different type of faith to abraham's faith which is based on a conviction of of what god
had promised and what god had done hers was going to be a faith adventure but she was willing to say
yes however the biggest part of this chapter is reserved to this servant who not only found a wife
for isaac but also found if you like a living faith in god for himself who was able to acknowledge
that the lord has led me in this way he's willing to obey to begin with if you read verse five
even though he's got no real faith that the outcome is going to be success
he's he thinks it's unlikely that she's going to come back with him
but he sets out on this journey he prepares for this journey and in this passage this chapter of
genesis 24 you see three acts of worship stroke prayer that he he he brings himself to he's always
referring to the to the lord of his master abraham rather than his lord and that's also a deference
because i believe this man had some faith don't get me wrong but what he hadn't done is tested
or proved faith in the way that abraham had and rebecca was going to for him he wasn't quite
certain it's like so many of us we hear the stories and testimonies of faith of other people
in this in this building and we think that's great but when it comes to our own lives or the
own challenges that we face or the things that we feel god's asking us to we're much more hesitant
we're much less confident we we lack that sense of thinking god wants to use us
and he's in the shadow of abraham's faith throughout this but he prays this prayer
when he arrives at the scene he says oh lord god of my master abraham there is again
please give me success today and show unfailing love to my master abraham
this is my request wow i'll ask one of the one of the girls please give me a drink from
your jug and if she says yeah you have a drink i'll water your camels too then she'll be the
one you've chosen this is how i'll know you know that you really are a god with unfailing love
covenant love towards abraham okay it's what christians often call putting out a fleece based
on the story of gideon that you can read in the book of judges but what he's really asking for is
a sign god show yourself in this god you need to show yourself to me you need to reveal yourself
to me do you know it's never wrong to ask god for help you don't have to be a you know a strong
christian have a strong faith have a strong belief system to invite god into the situations you face
in life and say god help me and this servant was going to learn a journey of faith by actually
saying god help me and even you know i mean actually looking for a sign can be a very dodgy
thing if ever you've read it's an old book now showing my adrian plus you know uh looking for
a new car basically and how many how many cars had seen that day which was a sign that god was
asking him to buy that type of car you'll know that this is open and fraught to real danger
however god says sometimes in a different place prove me prove me in this
find out for yourself discover for yourself that i am the living god discover for yourself
through the circumstances in your life that i am in alive that i am involved
ask me ask me jesus said ask and keep asking and we've got to get to a place where we don't feel
reluctant about inviting god into the circumstances we find ourselves in in life
this all felt too much for this guy where do i start looking it's not like a beauty contest
they're all there with the jugs of water they're all there you know drawing water for their own
animals and this that and the other who do i pick where do i start you know um he needed god's help
and he asks for a sign
and we read that before he'd even finished praying and actually it says a bit later on
in this chapter that he prayed in his heart he wasn't praying out loud it was what he was
thinking sometimes we feel a bit cautious about saying things but you know god hears our thoughts
too so we can pray them in thoughts when he finished praying before he finished praying
this answer came rachel turned up and he did what a lot of us think is this a coincidence
is this god
actually it's not a term i've coined for myself but the truth is it's a god incidence
it's god involved in life it's god interacting with you and me in our day-to-day it's us being
aware that god meets us in the day-to-day places where we ask him and invite him in
is it a coincidence that when i prayed about this i found an answer is it a coincidence when i ask
god for helping that that i received an answer no we're inviting god into our lives into our
circumstances and we don't need the pastor or the preacher or somebody you know whether we think in
high regard to do that for us we need to learn to do it for ourselves we need to encounter god for
ourselves by inviting him into our lives he started to ask god to help him to guide him
to enable him to do the task he'd been asked to do and he gets this answer
he discovers that rebecca is from abraham's family and the next thing we read in in verses
26 to 27 the first prayer is is verses 12 to 14 it's thanksgiving a prayer thanksgiving
he says thank you to god it's just polite to say thank you to god when he answers your prayers
it's just it's just polite but you know there's people who find you know we we sometimes asked
in in church you know to let's just all start to thank god for what he's doing in our lives
and there's people who've what do i thank him for you know where do i start what what should
i be thanking god for but if you've never invited god into the day-to-day of your life
and you haven't seen god at work in the day-to-day of your life then it's very difficult to thank him
for something that you don't think he's been involved in well the first thing is ask him
invite him into the situations you face and when you see god at work thank him
and this guy says praise the lord god's answered my prayers and the final thing that this man does
and there's a lot of toing and froing really with the family over over rebecca coming with them but
we read in verse 26 and verse 52 that he bowed low and he worshiped the lord
when we start to see god at work in our lives when we start to understand that that he's a living god
and that we're not just an act of worship being led by somebody at the front but i myself i'm
worshiping god because god is my savior he's my lord he's my helper
he's my guide he's my deliverer he's my strength he's my helper worship flows from seeing god at
work worship flows in that way it doesn't just become lip service it is something that is much
deeper in our lives thankfulness and worship flow out of the sense of answered prayer
the servant who set off thinking well you know how am i sure this is going to work and will you
let me off if it doesn't work has become a worshiper of god through the answers that he's
seen that god has brought into his life and actually he discovers something else not only
he's got a testimony that he's able to give to the family where he declares the lord has led
me and he's emphatic if you if the original language is very emphatic i know you know i'm
convinced i for myself know the lord has led me today i have a testimony of god's grace in my life
in this situation just as you have rebecca just as abraham will have a testimony of his faith
being uh you know being seen to be proved right in this situation i myself have a testimony of
god at work and laban declares over him you are blessed oh gosh we need to know we're blessed
god wants to bless us god wants to bless you who think you're in the shadows of somebody else
who thinks you're just serving somebody else just doing things for the church just doing my
little bit because i'm not really worthy and i'm not really anyone and i'm not really anything
but god says i want to bless you i want to bless you so what can we learn from this passage as i
close obviously we learn that god will fulfill his promises and work out his purpose through
actually the weakness frailty and vulnerability of us human beings with all the mistakes abraham
made with all the mistakes sarah made with all the mistakes even you know that that the rest
of the patriarchs made god worked out his promise and his purpose but what does this servant say to
me i i wish you know i think the older you get you do get convinced don't you you've seen the
goodness of god in your life jeff and pauline you know you can look back with the confidence
that god has led us this far will lead us on in the future there's many of us in that place in
this room today there's others that you're just starting out on a journey of faith and you're
willing to go for anything for god but you need to know that you have to have a more than just your
your ideas you need to have a group of people around you who is going to say
yeah we'll send you off with a blessing because they sent rebecca off with a blessing
there was a sense of not doing their own thing but actually being involved in something bigger
than themselves but the servant's faith it reminds me that faith is not just an acknowledgement of
god's existence but that faith is something we have to act upon in our daily lives it
requires each one of us in this room however weak your faith may be to say things and do things as a
response to what god is asking of you it's an active doing word and god wants each one of us
in here to discover a walk of faith for ourselves to encounter him and his presence and his spirit
to not just piggyback as i said on someone else's faith i'll have a second hand or a second rate
experience of god to not live in the shadows of somebody else's faith but to encounter god for
ourselves we've got to get thinking beyond the fact that our prayers aren't good enough
or strong enough we need somebody else to do all the praying for us
that actually i need to be in a better spiritual place before god will listen to me you don't
god wants you and me to start asking him the bible is full
of god asking his people to ask him ask for help ask for guidance ask for his will to be done
and you will discover if you start asking god and inviting god into the the situations you face
each day i'm not saying you will always see the answers you want to i'm not promising you a blank
check of blessing in in in every situation that i asked for this and god didn't answer it
what i am saying is you will start to see god at work or you'll either have to say it's a
coincidence or or it's god you're going to have one of those choices to make and you will have
something to be thankful about and it will it will actually enliven your worship of god too
because god is real in my experience too when we start to prove our faith test our faith
our relationship with god grows it's not just an abstract concept it's about how we live each day
there are no superior christians we all have access to god through jesus
however unqualified or inadequate you might feel today the word of the lord over you is to start
asking god to start coming to god and bringing your life to him amen