Sermon Nuggets Mon
August 27
Gen 26: 3 Stay
in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless
you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and
will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
Following in
Father’s Footsteps
One young father left his house to
walk to the bar. It was winter time and he left his footprints in the snow. He
heard a noise behind him and turned around only to find his son placing one
foot after another in his dad’s footprint.
‘What are you doing?’ he asks his pajama clad youngster. “Daddy, I’m
following in your footsteps.”
The dad told him to go back into the
house. As he continued on the way he realized where those footprints were
leading and wondered if that’s where he wanted his son to be. He returned back
into the house mindful that parents do lay down paths for kids to follow
whether we mean to or not.
Search
institute reported from a survey conducted in the Braham High School. It has
identified 40 positive assets and values that are important in developing
character and adjustment as a meaningful member of society.. Kids with over 30
of the 40 assets do very well in adjustment to society as a responsible
citizen. The results of this survey showed some sobering statistics. There were
many positive signs among some students, but many concerns that are exhibited
as well. As we talked there was an agreement among the pastors that there were
no fast and quick answers. We needed the power of God and commitment to pray together
for our community. I hope that you feel burdened to pray for our young people.
What also became apparent to us was
that we have more of an adult problem than a kid problem because much of what
we see demonstrated stems from home and family life. We have witnessed parents
cursing their children, telling them they are no good. Only 20 % of those
surveyed feel as if the school cares. Only 48% say they have a significant
adult role model. What we see happening is that we are slowing seeing the
results of a society that has little time for God and what He says will make a
blessed and happy life, and trading it in with lies from the world.
11%
of the sixth grade class last year admitted to either having tried or seriously
considered suicide. Dear people we need
to look inward and ask God what part we as a church, community and parents play
in being an example. We need to confess where we have done wrong and seek Gods’
help in changing.
As we look at Isaac’s life now we see how much he followed in the
footsteps of his father Abraham. We look at the importance of the footprints we
leave behind.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Tues Aug 28
Gen 26: Now there was a famine in the land —besides the
earlier famine of Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the
Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to
Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell
you to live.3 Stay in this land for a while, and I
will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants
I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your
father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as
numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and
through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because
Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and
my laws. ” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
Footprints Resting
in the Will of God-
In the passage we read God gives
Isaac a direction and revelation of his will. The
account begins with a famine similar to the one which induced Abraham to leave
the land of Canaan and go to Egypt.
Let’s face it regardless of how good
things go there will be hard times that come upon us. Famine is one thing over
which we have no control. Famine examples in the Bible is frequently associated
with faith, at least figuratively. In fact, you cannot be a man or woman of
faith and not have famines or dry times in your life. There are times when, for
no particular reason that you can think of when things begin to go wrong-you
feel barren and fruitless, feel that God is not accessible, that he does not
care. Everyone goes through these times. It was true in the life of Abraham,
and true in the life of Isaac.
Isaac followed
the precedent his father Abraham set. He started to go to Egypt. It seemed the
thing to do. There were resources in Egypt, for, unlike Canaan, Egypt was not
dependent upon rain. Its economy was based on the annual flooding of the Nile,
and often Egypt had supplies of grain when no other part of the Near East could
feed its people. So Isaac left the land.
It seemed the reasonable thing to do to meet needs, but it wasn’t God’s
will for his life.
God tells us
that he is going to supply our needs according to his riches in glory. But when
a time of pressure comes, when famine strikes us, immediately we begin to look
around for an alternative to faith, and we forget that God is true to his word.
Now God gives again to Isaac what his will is. He was to stay in the land and
trust the Lord to provide. He was given the same word already promised to
Abraham. Now obey, like Dad.
While we were
traveling one summer we listened to audio books in the car. One book was one of
C.S. Lewis' novels, The Silver Chair, from the Narnia series. Many of you are
familiar with they way he weaves in Biblical theme through the mystical land of
Narnia as various characters symbolize the spiritual warfare going in the
Bible. In this story two children were commissioned by Aslan, the lion, to seek
to find the son of King Caspian who had been lost for some years. Aslan gave
the kids four signs to follow which would lead them to the prince. It was very
important that they do exactly what they had been told.
“But, first,
remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in
the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of
the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your
mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the
mountain I have spoken to you clearly; I will not often do so down in Narnia.
Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down
into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse
your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as
you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so
important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember
the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters."
Well, they did
have trouble following the will of the lion just like we do now. We have the
revealed word of God. We have the fellowship of believers. We have the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but we live in a world which is satanically full
of smog. The air is thick in the valleys of Narnia. And it is easy to forget
the truth which is revealed in a clear and unmistakable way on the mountain.
Therefore we need to go back again and again and again to the promises-rehearse
them, remember them, cling to them. "Remember the signs...nothing else
matters."
Isaac forgot
the signs, and he fled away from the promised land toward Egypt. So God gives
him a clear direction of his will.
“Isaac I told
you once this is the land I have for you. Now stay here and I will bless you.”
Gerar also was a place of his childhood home. Abraham and his family were close
to the royal family, and it was from a former Abimelech (which appears to be a
title, like Pharaoh or Caesar) that Abraham received the deed to certain
parcels of land near Gerar, and the right to dig wells and maintain them. So
Isaac had the right to settle there, and felt comfortable with these people.
Now Isaac could rest in the will of God. He could have peace that every
thing would turn out alright because he had a promise from God and He was in
God’s hands. That is the solution to our famines. Go to the word and trust and
believe that God will do what he says he will do. In that will we will have
peace.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Weds Aug 29
Gen 26:7-10 7 When the men of that place asked him about
his wife, he said, “She is my sister, ” because he was afraid to say, “She
is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of
Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of
the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife
Rebekah. 9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said,
“She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? ”
Isaac answered
him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
10 Then Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One
of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought
guilt upon us.”
Footprints
Reacting in the Fear of Man-
We realize that just like his father Abraham, Isaac
is now following in the same footsteps that are led by fear instead of faith,
of selfishness instead of purity. Just like Abraham, a number of years earlier,
told the older Abimelech that Sarai was his sister, so now Isaac is telling he
people under the leadership of Abimelech the younger that Rebekah is his
sister.
Those women are very beautiful. I am impressed that
both women are older, but real knock outs. Both husbands feared for their lives
believing that if the Philestines knew they were their wives they would be
killed so they could take these women as their own. Can you imagine the danger
these husbands put their wives under? That certainly is not faith. He is not
taking the responsibility to love, cherish and protect.
Even when you
are walking in the will of God you can still fall back in other areas in the
flesh and in fear. The things you say
you will not do you end up doing. Even though Isaac was in the place God wanted
him to be, he was not living like her should.
That fear was seen in his father. This
is a sobering thought for those of us who are fathers: our children will face
fears, and commit mistakes and be sinful just like we were because all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Even as Christians we will sin and should
not be surprised when our children will learn the lessons the same hard way we
do.
Abimelech saw
clearly that had any man taken Isaac's wife, he would have been guilty of adultery.
We often think of the Israelites as living in an island of morality surrounded
by a sea of gross immorality. But that was not always the case. Many times in
Scripture we find people outside of Israel rebuking the patriarchs for their
moral failures.
I wonder if Abimelech didn’t also learn
this from his father. His father had a very great regard for Abraham and his
family. He no doubt heard the stories about how his God provided and protected
and blessed and they wanted a good relationships. He no doubt also got from his
father, how you should take another’s wife and He made that a law. He learned Rebekah
was Isaac’s wife when he observed their private moments. He knew brothers don’t
treat their sisters in that romantic manner and therefore confronted Isaac and
warned his people, as God once again protected the women from danger.
Why
do we have such a hassle when it comes to a judge putting up the 10
commandments in his courthouse? Why does the nation rise up and scream this is
wrong. Does not Scripture teach us that even when the ungodly follow the ways
of the Lord in life, even if they do not accept Christ, it will still go better
for them?
As we have been seeing in the film
series “Speechless” being shown during Sunday School reactions in our political
correct society will attack any public reference to God or the moral teachings
from the Bible. The homosexual coalition has put pressure on companies, like Chick-fil-a
to be quiet about their support for traditional marriage, and pressure other
companies, like Home Depot to give large donations to their cause. People that
express disapproval against sin soon
must find themselves the object of ridicule and harassment. We see the
television programs continually being replaced by vulgar and offensive shows. The
increase in the last couple of years of nudity on prime time TV has increased
over 400%. In spite of voices of parents
protesting in favor of censorship and want trash off the air the network
officials claim freedom of speech allows and even promotes the rights of views of
lewd behavior to be broadcast. There is something amazingly confusing that
Hollywood can censor people who stand up for moral behavior, but promote
violence, explicit sex and say we must be broad minded about this. There used
to be a national respect for things of God even though people were not Christians,
No more. It is an offense to our society, and we are paying the consequences
and people are wondering why.
Isaac was reacting to the fear of men. It is about time
we stand up and be ridiculed for righteousness sake, and repent of our sins of
silence and indeed of even participating in evil and calling it good, because
we do not want to offend anyone. Our job is it to save our society. For to say
no more is also an act of love.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets
Thurs Aug 30
Verses Gen 26:
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year
reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich, and
his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many
flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15 So all the
wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the
Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
16 Then Abimelech
said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”
17 So Isaac moved
away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the
time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham
died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
19 Isaac’s
servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But
the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is
ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21 Then they
dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.
22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it.
He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will
flourish in the land.”
23 From there he
went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am
the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will
bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my
servant Abraham.”
25 Isaac built an
altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and
there his servants dug a well.
Footprints Reaping
in the Blessing of God-
Just like God
protected Sarai from harm, so God protected Rebekah from harm. Both father and
son in their respective generations were rebuked by the Kings for their lying.
And they go back to live life the way God intended and get this; God blesses
them for returning to faith. There is blessing on the way back to God.
There are people Satan wants to
believe that when you have blown it and failed that God is done with you.
You’ve had your chance now there is no more. If there is anything you see the
in Old Testament stories it is the patience and long suffering of God who wants
us to come back to reap his blessings.
Now if I were a preacher of wealth
and health this would be a key passage I would point everyone to and say
blessings dear people mean that God will make you wealthy. Look what happened
to Isaac when he repented and returned to the Lord. Repent and turn to the Lord
and you will find more money than what you know what to do with.
When we look at the Word we want it
to say what it says not what we want it to say. What does it say? Isaac did his
part. He worked the land, got the seed, planted the crops- blessing doesn’t
just fall on our laps, without responsibility to show our faith and our part in
depending on God. What we don’t have control over is how fruitful the crops are
going to be, how cooperative the weather. How the machines stand up with
appropriate maintenance. I don’t know how wealthy Isaac got, but with wealth
comes power and influence and that is what concerned the people living around
him. Jealousy crept in and they didn’t want him around. They tried to outdo
Isaac and it didn’t happen.
Now there was vandalism done to the
wells, and no doubt racial slurs that happen with jealousy. The complaints came
even from the King who should have known better, but it was clear- It’s time to
leave.
There is a hymn we sing. Count your
many blessing name them one by one. Count your many blessings and see what God
has done.
Isaac lived in a culture where
wealth was a sign of divine blessing to the people around. I am wondering if
that wasn’t why God gave materially, with crops, and servants, and hired hands-
so the people could see the work of God in his life.
Although Abraham was a warrior when
it came to protecting his rights, he gave up his rights to Lot and his family
when there would be a family quarrel and tension among the servants. Isaac now
finds these very wells are becoming a problem once again only this time with his
neighbors who are jealous of his wealth.
In the first
case his herdsmen found a well that belonged to Abraham, removed the dirt and
debris from the well, and found a fresh spring. And it was theirs. These wells
belonged to Isaac. He had every right to these wells. Abraham had secured them
through a treaty with Abimelech, and Isaac bore the title deed to these wells
and the parcels of land which went with them But Abimelech's herdsmen quarreled
with Isaac's herdsmen, so Isaac abandoned the well.
Well digging
in that part of the country is no insignificant task. Water lies 40 or 50 feet
beneath the surface, and usually the digging is through many feet of hard rock.
So it is one thing to find a well which already has been dug and remove the
dirt. It is quite another to dig a new well. Isaac did not know if he could
find another well, but he abandoned this one. He called it "Esek",
meaning, "injustice. He could have kept it--either by force, or by
insisting upon his rights--but he did neither. The account also says that Isaac
was stronger than the Philistines. He could have taken these wells at any time
and held them. But he chose not to. They were his by right, but he chose not to
defend his rights.
He moved about
fifteen miles away in the valley of Gerar and dug another well. The Philistines
contested this one, too, so he called it "Sitnah" or
"adversity". Our word "Satan", or "adversary",
comes from it. He did not fight over this well, either; he left it and went to
another place and dug another well. By this time he was about 25 miles away
from Gerar, and the herdsmen of Abimelech left him alone. He named this well
"Rehoboth," "broad place"--"because," he said,
"at last the Lord has brought us into a broad place, has made room for
us." He could have fought for his rights, but he did not; he laid them
aside. He let the Lord fight for him, and the Lord brought him into a broad
place.
While Isaac
may not have realized it for some time, it was the disputes over the ownership
of the wells he dug or reopened that served to guide him in the direction of
the land of promise.
Notice up to
this time Isaac’s decision as to where he should stay was based upon the
finding of abundant water and the absence of hostilities. But now we are told
that he moved on to Beersheba, with no reason stated for this move. Beersheba was the first place that Abraham
had gone with Isaac after they came down from the “sacrifice” on Mount Moriah
God had been guiding him back to the land of promise, back to those places
where Abraham had walked in fellowship with God. The decision was shown to be
the right one, for God immediately spoke words of reassurance: vs. 24.
Notice
especially the order in which Isaac set up residence in Beersheba: First
he built an altar there and called upon
the name of the LORD, secondly he pitched his tent there; and lastly his
servants dug a well v25.
Previously the
touchstone for knowing the will of God had been circumstances—in particular,
Isaac stayed wherever he dug a well, found sufficient water, and was not opposed.
Yet in this verse the sequence of events is reversed. The place for God’s
people is the place of God’s presence. The place of intimacy, worship, and
communion with God is the place to be. Material needs are thus considered last,
while spiritual needs are primary. But seek first His kingdom, and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33).
We have
rights, legitimate rights which often are taken from us by oppression and
injustice and adversity. And if we fight for them and insist upon them, we
create havoc, and destroy relationships in the process. We may get what we
want, or at least partially what we want, but what a wake of wreckage and
destruction we leave behind! Isaac did not fight for his rights, and God supplied
his needs.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Aug 31
Verses: Gen 26:26-3426 Meanwhile,
Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and
Phicol the commander of his forces.27 Isaac asked them,
“Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”
28 They
answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we
said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let
us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do
us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and
sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”
30 Isaac
then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early
the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them
on their way, and they left him in peace.
32 That
day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They
said, “We’ve found water!” 33 He called it Shibah, and
to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.
34 When
Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite,
and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They
were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
Footsteps Revealing the Work
of God
God supplied
Isaac's needs out of his riches in glory. The people saw how Isaac reacted.
Instead of fighting he was willing to leave things up to God and God continued
to bless in such a way the people realized it was God’s doing. They came to ask
forgiveness and make amends and form a treaty of peace. Should Isaac forgive or
not? What would you do? Isaac signed the treaty and the peace was greater than
just not fighting anymore.
Jesus
said it, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us.” If the Lord forgives us our debt of
ten thousand talents, we must be willing to forgive our fellow-servant his debt
of a hundred pence. If any of you have had a squabble with any other remember
the rights that are given over to God. And the forgiveness that is granted. How
can you do otherwise having received blessing and grace of God in your
lives?
If you are
going to pick friends the best ones to pick are those who are friends of God.
Abimelech was not dumb. He reasoned “If God is with him, I better be too.”
I believe that
God has much to teach us by observing that Isaac’s life as he followed in the
footsteps of his father. Both rested in the will of God, reacted in the fear of
man, received the blessing of God, released rights to God, and realized their
witness to others about God. The similarities seem to go on and on.
There is a
process, a long and extensive one, which God uses to bring a person first to
Himself and then to maturity. It began for Abraham and Isaac in a covenant
relationship with God. For Christians today it is the new covenant instituted
by our Lord Jesus Christ when He shed His blood on the cross of Calvary in
order to provide for our forgiveness of sins and for our salvation: This new
covenant is in Christ’s blood by death.
Everyone must
begin his relationship at this very place, the place of personal relationship
with God through acceptance of the covenant He has offered. And from this
beginning we embark upon a spiritual voyage that is, in many ways, very similar
to that of Abraham and Isaac. When we are able to look back over our lives from
the vantage point of eternity and see the footprints we leave I wonder how much
they are in the imprints left by our patriarchs. Times of fear, times of sin,
times of renewal, times when in maturity we give our rights to God
The way we can
best help our own children is by making certain that our footsteps are such
that we would want our children to walk in them. If Isaac’s experience was, to
some degree, a reflection of his father’s life, what a frightening thought that
is. If our children’s lives are to mirror our own, what an awesome responsibility
we have as parents to walk a path of obedience and submission to the will of
God.
The root sin, as I perceive it, was unbelief
or lack of faith. In each case of deception, Abraham and Isaac lied out of fear.
This fear was the result of an inadequate concept of God. They did not grasp
the sovereignty or the omnipotence of God in such a way as to believe that God
could protect them under any and every circumstance.
God’s desire
is blessing dear people. It is not that you will be wealthy necessarily in the
things of this world. Too often those things keep our focus off of God and our
ourselves. Often His intent through the famines and through the oppositions make
us more dependent upon Him that we might be usable for His service as a witness
to others of the greatness of our God. And that our children follow us in that
blessing.
In time in all
of life we can see the work of God in his grace, love, discipline and mercy.
Pastor Dale
