The Camels Are Coming

If you have your Bible going to make your way to Genesis chapter

Genesis 24 · chapter mention

24, we are at the conclusion of five months of walking through

12 of the chapters of this first book of the Bible as we have

sought to see what it has to say about answering God's call on

our lives. And each one of us, every single

one of us has a call from God on our lives.

This chapter of the Bible has a special place in my heart

because as a junior high and high school student, I would go

on a mission trip with my student group, youth group every

summer. We called it our mission tour.

We had two giant charter buses and we'd load up and go to

somewhere in the country. And the plan was we'd always be

prepared for this, but we would break up and do backyard Bible

clubs, basically vacation Bible school for a couple 3 hours a

day in various parts of the city or a community.

Then we'd be inviting people back for revival services at a

local church. We'd be partnered with and we as

a youth had practiced in youth choir and we'd be the ones

leading the singing and the worship.

And then we'd have a usually a pastor, a preacher that would

travel with us and he'd preach the revival services.

And I'll never forget the most famous message that one of those

preachers had was out of Genesis 24.

The camels are coming. I have no idea what the sermon

said, but I just remember the title.

All right, so my hope and prayers, you remember more than

just the title, but that's where it comes from.

And that man is a faithful preacher and pastor to this day.

We've been watching Abraham as a living example of what it means

to say yes to God's call on his life over and over again.

Case in point. And this text of Genesis 24 is

another specific example of why it is so vitally important for

you and for me to say yes to God's call on our lives.

In fact, here's what we're going to learn today.

I'm just going to tell it to you up front.

I hope to say it over and over again.

If somebody asks you, hey, what's your pastor preach about?

This is what I want you to say. Are you ready?

It's going to take a few times for you to get it.

It's longer than I want it to be, but here it is.

You ready? When you say yes to God's call,

you get God's plan, and God works powerfully for those who

want His plan. When you say yes to God's call,

you're going to get God's plan, and God works powerfully for

those who want his plan. Listen to chapter 24, beginning

in verse one through verse 9. Now Abraham was old, well

advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all

things. And Abraham said to his servant,

the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had.

Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the

Lord the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not

take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites

among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred,

and take a wife for my son. Isaac, the servant said to him,

Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this

land. Must I then take your son back

to the land from which you came? Abraham said to him, See to it

that you do not take my son back there.

The Lord the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house

and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to

me, to your offspring I will give this land.

He will send his Angel before you, and you shall take a wife

from my son for my son from there.

But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be

free from this oath of mine. Only you must not take my son

back there. So the servant put his hand

under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him

concerning this matter. Abraham is old, about 140 years

old, and he's also a widower. And after losing his wife,

Sarah, Abraham has continued to stay the course of following

God's call on his life. One day it's as if Abraham wakes

up and realizes that life is really no longer about him.

He's not long for this world. His race is soon to be run.

You could say he's about to be before long with his Savior

Jesus. And it's as if he it's as if he

realizes one day, and he looks down in his hand and it's as if

he realizes God has put a baton in my hand.

It's no longer about me, but this baton from God is the

responsibility to pass to the next generation, the call to be

faithful to God's will and God's promises in their lives, the

responsibility to pass on the call of God to the next

generation. In this particular situation, if

the baton is going to be successfully passed, then

Abraham is going to have to have a wife.

In other words, remember all the promises that God has given to

Abraham of land, name, nation, offspring, blessing to them, and

then through them to all the nations of the earth that that's

going to happen. Then Isaac is going to have to

have a wife and listen to this parents.

At this point in time, in these days, that responsibility was

not Isaac's, that was Abraham's. Wouldn't that be nice if we just

had the responsibility to pick out for our children the right

one to marry? Things might go a little

smoother, I'm not sure, but there you go.

This is Abraham's role now that Sarah is gone, and therefore

Abraham gives his oldest and most trusted servant very

specific instructions. Do not take a wife for my son

from the locals. Why?

Well, just a little blast from the past.

Do you remember how that worked out For a lot?

Not so. Well, why not?

Why not from the locals? Because they aren't passing down

the same baton that Abraham has been charged to pass down.

They don't worship the same God. They've not responded to the

same call. They're not living for the same

reasons that Abraham is living for.

So don't take a wife from the locals.

Then he says, return to my home country.

That's like 520 miles to the north, about a 21 day trip.

He says, find a wife for my son Isaac from my kindred from my

hometown. The servant realizes he's been

given a tall task. I want you to just how tall this

task was. Listen closely.

Take a trip, two months round trip.

Show up unannounced. Find a suitable woman from one

family. Propose on behalf of Isaac, a

man this woman will have never met.

Get her to agree to move immediately to a faraway

country. This man's been asked to scout,

date, talk with the father, propose, and return with the

woman all in one trip. He asked the question you would

have asked had you been in his shoes.

What if she says no? What if she says no?

What if she won't go? What if she won't come with me?

Should I then take Isaac back there and then?

What does Abraham say? Swiftly and quickly?

Absolutely not. That would drop the baton.

Do not take my son back there. Whatever you do, notice what

Abraham says and notice the confidence with which Abraham

says it. Verse 7 The Lord, the God of

heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land

of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, to your

offspring I will give this land. He will send his Angel before

you, and you shall. Who shall take a wife for my son

Isaac. From there he's saying, God,

who's been faithful to me is going to be faithful to you, and

it's going to be faithful to my son.

You see, when you say yes to God's call, you get God's plan

and God powerfully works for those who want his plan.

Verse 8, Abraham says, hey, just in case to ease your mind.

If not, if she says no, you'll be free from this oath.

Praise God. They make the oath there, and

they do it in a strange sort of way.

Praise God. We just shake hands or sign the

dotted line today. That's all I'm saying about

that. All right.

The deal here, though, is the intentional responsibility that

Abraham is taking to prepare the next generation to be in a

position to say yes to God's call on their life, specifically

his son Isaac. You see, the call of God always

comes with the baton. That is a responsibility to

ensure the next generation receives from you, receives from

us, what they need to be in position to say yes to the call

of God on their lives. One of the temptations though

that we face as we get older, I think is to sometimes get more

internally focused than externally focused.

One of the temptations we face is to get more self preservation

focused than baton passing focus.

We tend to seek more comfort and less sacrifice.

Let me just ask you a question. What are you doing as we speak

to pass the baton to the people in your life that you know are

going to be in position that they need to be ready to say yes

to God's call on their lives when it comes?

I saw a little post on the Internet made by a pastor that

I'm aware of. That's just kind of a, it's

somewhat of a silly, but not really, but it's just a tiny,

itsy bitsy way that this could come to fruition in our lives.

Just a practical little random may seem random, but I thought,

man, this is great. This is baton passing right

here. And all he, all he said was

this. Hey dads, how many of you would

take up the challenge with me for one month, read a proverb a

day with your son and then do 50 push ups every day.

A proverb for a day and 50 push ups.

How many are you are in? That's just a simple way to pass

the baton to ensure that your son hears the word of God,

learns how to read it for himself.

Write just simple things that we can do.

What are you doing to pass the baton to the next generation?

Let's pick up in verse 10 of chapter 24.

Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed,

taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master.

And he arose and he went to Mesopotamia, to the city of

Nahor. And he made the camels kneel

down outside the city by the well of water at the time of

evening, the time when women go out to draw water.

And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, please grant me

success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.

Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the

daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

Let the young woman to whom I shall say, Please let down your

jar, that I may drink, and who shall say, drink, and I will

water your camels. Let her be the one whom you have

appointed for your servant, Isaac.

By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my

master. Before he had finished speaking,

behold, Rebecca, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milka, the

wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water

jar on her shoulder. The young woman was very

attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known.

She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.

Then the servant ran to meet her and said, Please give me a

little water to drink from your jar.

She said, drink, my Lord, and she quickly let down her jar

upon her hand and gave him a drink.

And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will

draw water for your camels also until they have finished

drinking. So she quickly emptied her jar

into the through and ran again to to the well to draw water and

she drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence

to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not.

When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold

ring weighing 1/2 a shekel, 2 bracelets for her arms weighing

10 gold shekels and said, Please tell me whose daughter you are?

Is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?

She said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of

Milka, who she bore to Nahor. She added, we have plenty of

straw, both straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.

The man bowed his head and worship the Lord, and said,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not

forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my

master. And As for me, the Lord has led

me in this way to the House of my master's kinsmen.

And then the young woman ran and told her mother's household

about these things. The trip of 10 camels was quite

an entourage. During this day and time, camels

domesticated camels in their use was only a symbol and only

something in the possession of the wealthy and the socially

prominent. The equivalent of an entourage

of 10 camels would be if you were to travel today somewhere

on I-75 and be forced to pull over because an entourage of 10

Black SU VS fronted and reared with flash flashing lights

taking up all four lanes forced all other traffic to the side.

That's the kind of impression this entourage would have made.

Abraham is after trying to make a good first impression for his

son Isaac upon their arrival. The 10 camels need refueling.

They're thirsty, right? So they need water.

The servant knows the women are going to come to the well during

the evening, during the cool of the day, to refill their water

jars and make the trip back home.

And this is the perfect place to scout and to refuel.

And it's there that the servant praised this prayer.

Did you notice it? He basically says, God, you've

been faithful to my servant Abraham, to my master Abraham.

Rather, I'm asking you today to give me success.

God, would you show steadfast love?

I know that's who you are. I know that's what you do God,

I'm seeking you for success and then God hears the plan.

Let this let this work. God, I'm putting a plan forward.

I'm going to ask a woman for a drink and God, if she's the one,

let her also not just give me a drink, but let her water offer

to water the camels as well. You know, what the servant is

doing here is exemplary in that this guy is going about his

call, his assignment, by seeking the success that only the Lord

can give. What he understands is, is that

God already has a wife picked out for Isaac.

He's not gone on this trip to be the one to do the finding.

God's already done the finding. He's going to go do the

discovering. Do you follow me?

And this is a perfect example of the difference between the way

most people do life. You see, the way most people do

life is that they're really out there trying to get it done on

their own, in their own effort, in their own intelligence and

their own hard work, by the sweat of their brow or their

bootstraps. They're just trying to get a

break, to get a little luck, to do their best, hoping things

work out, to try to on their own, make a plan and hopefully

things will come together. And yet that's not the way God

calls Christians to live. God caused Christians to wake up

every day. And it's not about what we can

do. It's not about what we have.

It's not about our gifts and abilities.

God's given us all those things. And those are wonderful things.

But for the Christian, it's everyday about daily

surrendering one's life and living and everything you got to

Jesus and say, Jesus, I know you have a plan for today.

God, I know you have a purpose for me today.

God, I know you already have planned in advance the places

you want me to live, the places you want me to go, the schools

you want me to attend, the person you want me to marry, the

house you want us to buy, the job you want me to take.

God, you've got the things in advance plan for me.

You have a call for my life and God, today I'm not.

After they're trying to put it all together myself.

I figure it all out myself. God, I'm asking you for success

in your plan. God, show me the way.

I belong to you. I want to live your plan.

You see, when we say yes to God's plan, yes to God's call,

we get what we get, God's plan, and then God works powerfully

for those who want His plan. This is what's unfolding here

before our eyes. You see, based on who He knows

God is, based on the fact he knows God has a plan, He's

asking God for success, and he's asking God to confirm with a

sign of success. And what I love here is the

conditions of the plan seem to indicate the kind of woman that

he would be seeking and that he would know God would have

selected for Isaac. Now, let me be specific.

Are you ready #1? He says, Lord, I'm looking for a

woman who's kind and gracious enough to grant my request for a

drink of water. Let's put it like this.

He's looking for a woman who's kind.

Let me just give you hint, hint to young people in the room.

You're looking for a spouse who is kind.

You get one who is unkind and you're in trouble #2 he's

looking for a woman who's willing to go the extra mile to

meet the needs of those around her.

Notice here that he's looking for someone that's not just

going to allow him to have a drink, but it's going to offer

outside of him asking to offer to water the camel.

So we're looking not only for a woman who is kind, we're looking

for a woman who is generous. Young people, listen to me.

You're looking for a spouse who's not just kind, but you're

looking for one who is generous. You get one who's selfish,

you're in trouble #3 a woman, he says, that is willing to work

hard. Why would we say that?

Because I want you to hear a little camel ology that I'm

going to give you about what he's just asked.

Are you ready? Watering 10 camels?

They say the average water jar that a woman would have carried

to the well during this day would have held about 3 gallons

of water. And then they say that camels,

after a long trip with no water, can drink up to 25 gallons each

at the gas pump. Do the math 3 into 250 means

over 83 trips to the well to the through.

The Bible says she did it until the camels quit drinking.

Ladies and gentlemen, he was looking for a woman willing to

work hard. Let me tell you, young people,

listen to me. You're looking for a spouse

who's kind, who is generous, and one who has watched this, not

lazy. You marry a lazy person, you're

in even bigger trouble. Just mark it down.

You're looking for that kind of person.

What's God going to do? Will God be faithful to provide?

Will He answer the servant's prayer?

He's been faithful all these years to Abraham.

Is he going to continue to be faithful?

Listen to verse 15. Before he had finished speaking,

praying. Behold, you know who Rebecca

shows up. God doesn't answer all our

prayers immediately, but sometimes he, sometimes He does.

Amen. Just like that, before he'd even

gotten the prayer out of his mouth, God provides again.

When you say yes to God's call, you get what you get.

God's plan and God powerfully works for those who want His

plan. Rebecca is the granddaughter of

Abraham's brother Nahor. She steps out, water jar on her

shoulder. Could she be the one?

The Bible says not only is she beautiful, but she has saved

herself for marriage. Young people, please do the

same. You'll save yourself trouble and

heartache if you'll do the same. She fills her water jar and the

servant makes his move. I can't help but think the

servant is a little aggressive right here because it says he

doesn't walk up to this lady. Kind of nonchalant.

Hey, we've never met, can I introduce myself?

He runs up to this woman, it's like first one on the scene.

God, let's go for it. He runs up to her, rolls out the

plan, ask for a drink. Sure enough she says yes and

then offers to water the camels. And this is the jaw on the floor

moment. He's looking at her right,

wondering what in the world this is amazing.

God, could just could she be the one?

Could she be? He doesn't even know her name

yet. He doesn't even know she's from

the right family yet. And he's busted out the jewels

about the average value of like an average year's salary. 2 gold

bracelets, a gold ring, He's acting in faith, going on God at

this point and then she communicates her identity and

her family and he drops to his knees to worship God.

The second thing in your notes, if I skip the first one, the

first one was the call of God comes with the baton.

The call of God always comes with the baton.

But the second one is this is the call of God includes seeking

God for success. The call of God includes seeking

God. What what am I trying to what

I'm trying to say there is that success truly only comes from

God, but it requires seeking God for it.

We have not because we ask not one of my favorite proverbs,

this Proverbs chapter 2, verse seven.

Proverbs 2 · chapter mention

I love this. I mean, this will blow your

mind. He stores up that he is God.

He stores up success for the upright.

God's got silos in heaven storing up success, storing up

wins for those who walk uprightly for with him, those

who seek His will and say yes to his call.

God wants us to win in his plan. He wants to work powerfully on

our behalf for His will to be realized in our life.

He's literally stores up success.

And that's what he's giving here.

The godly realize that any and all true success in life

ultimately and only comes from God.

And it's been said that success inflates the ego of the worldly,

but it humbles the godly because the godly realize where that

success comes from. And it's not from them.

It's ultimately not from their blood, sweat, and tears.

Even though God asks you to give it, it's ultimately not from

your intelligence. Even though God has given you

it, ultimately it comes from God.

This is why the servant reacts the way he does, because he is

giving credit where credit is due.

Y'all. Genesis 24 is a living,

breathing illustration of a verse you know well.

Proverbs 3, five and six, it says trust in the Lord with what

all your heart lean not in your own understanding.

Even though God's given us a level of understanding, but He's

asked us not to lean in ultimately on it, but trust Him

with all of our heart. Acknowledge Him in all of ways.

In other words, ask God for success that only He can give in

all of our ways, and then what? Then He'll make your pass

straight. Now sometimes that means

straight through the hardest thing you've ever experienced in

your life, but you wouldn't want to be on any other path.

Then you'll know. Then you'll confirm.

Then he'll empower you to be in his exact place and plan of your

that he's designed for your life.

Y'all. I'm going to summarize verses 29

through 51. But next thing you know, Rebecca

is running to her family with the news and they see her

running and they come running towards her.

Laban, her brother, meets her in the middle and then the servants

not far behind and they then offer the servant incredible

hospitality and they sit food set food in front of him.

But he says, listen, I can't eat a bite until I use my mouth to

tell you exactly a story that you wouldn't believe.

But what I why I've come and the assignment that I'm on.

I got to tell you something you wouldn't believe.

I want you to hear it detail by detail.

And he walks into the plan about Abraham's blessing and God's

blessing on his life and the confidence Abraham had in

sending him and then the plan at the well and then it going down

exactly like he had asked just just just like that.

The first person he sees and the response after he pops the

question for real to the family is in verse 50 through 51.

It says the thing has come from the Lord.

We can't speak good or bad. Why?

Because the Lord has spoken. Behold, Rebecca is before you,

take her and go and let her be the wife of your master's son.

As the Lord has spoken #3 the call of God comes with the

Providence of God. You say, Pastor Kyle, what in

the world does that mean? Let me tell you what that means.

It is the all knowing, all powerful, always present,

unstoppable hand of God that enables the plan of God to

happen in our lives no matter what.

When we say yes to God's call, when we say yes, when you're in

the middle of God's call, there's nothing able to stop.

Who can stand against the Lord? If God is for us, who could be

against this? No weapon formed against you

shall prosper. When you've said yes to the call

of God in your life, there's nothing that can stop God

powerfully working on your behalf when you've said yes.

This is the reality of Matthew 633, that Jesus says if you'll

seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, guess

what, all these other things will be added unto you.

That doesn't mean you'll have everything you want.

That just means every other part to the tiniest detail of God's

plan for your life and what you need is going to be provided

providentially. If you just put first Jesus and

His plan, God's going to take care of the rest.

Say yes to God's call on your life.

Then you get God's plan and then God's power working powerfully

in your life for that plan to be realized.

Now I'm going to read verse 52 through 61.

Follow along with me. When Abraham's servant heard

their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord.

And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold

and garments, and gave them to Rebecca.

He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments.

And he and the men who are with him ate and drank, and they

spent the night there. When they arose in the morning,

he said, Send me away to my master.

Her brother and her mother said, let the young woman remain with

us a while, at least ten days after that she may go.

But he said to them, do not delay me, since the Lord has

prospered my way, send me a way that I may go to my master.

They said, let us call the young woman and ask her.

And they called Rebecca and said to her, Will you go with this

man? She said, I will go.

So they sent away Rebecca and their and their sister, and her

nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men.

And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, Our sister, may you

become thousands of 10 thousands, and may your

offspring possess the gate of those who hate him.

And then Rebecca and her young women arose and rode on the

camels and followed the man. Thus, the servant took Rebecca

and went his way. As you can imagine, the servant

is eager to return to Abraham, his master.

I mean, right? Have you ever found that perfect

Christmas gift that you just can't wait for the person that

you found that Christmas gift for to open it up?

You can't wait for Christmas to arrive.

You can't wait to see their joy. You can't wait to to celebrate

that with them. Rebecca's family, as you can

imagine, is not quite as excited for them to leave, for obvious

reasons. She's about to move a world

away. It's not like they're going to

see her in a few months at Christmas.

Let me tell you the truth here. That's not always easy.

But not everyone will celebrate the call of God on your life.

Not everyone will celebrate the call of God on your life.

There comes a point when the call of God is just between you

and God. Mama can't help you.

Daddy can't help you. Friend, brother, sister, best

friend. Your pastor can't help you.

There comes a point in time when God asked you and you alone to

respond to him not mediated by anything else.

Now looking to the opinion of anyone else what your answer

will be, it's going to come down to between you and God.

You have to decide for yourself. Rebecca here in the first part

of verse 58, will you go with this man?

Her family has witnessed the handiwork of God.

They've already said this is of God.

How can we speak against it? And yet overnight their feet got

cold. Will Rebecca's feet get cold?

Will she say yes? Will she walk down the aisle?

Will she say yes to God's plan? So obvious plan for her life or

not. Notice their words, 3 words in

verse 58. I will go forth and finally, not

finally, but forth in your notes is that the call of God will

sometimes require faith to walk alone.

The call of God on your life will sometimes require faith to

walk alone, y'all? Rebecca did what her family did

not want her to do. When they asked her, she didn't

say Mama, what do you think brother, What do you think?

She already knew what they thought.

At that point it really didn't matter what their opinion was.

What only mattered was whether or not she was going to be

faithful to respond to the call of God on her life.

Can you imagine the level of courage and faith it took for

her to climb on that camel and go hundreds of miles away to a

land she had never seen? To marry a man she had never

met? But what she did know was that

the handiwork of God was clear and she was asked to go about it

by faith. Talk about a blind date.

But let's be honest, the Bible says life for us as believers is

a lot like a blind date to be lived not by sight, but by by

faith. That's exactly what she says yes

to. I will go y'all when she says

that she not only puts herself in the smack middle of God's

plan, that's going to help Isaac be in the smack middle of God's

plan for him. That's going to help Israel be

in God's plan and that's going to allow the plan of God to

unfold even for the nation's is through this family.

God would bring about the promise to bring about his son

for all the nations of the earth.

As I read Sarah's not but Rebecca's response here I will

go. I can't just but help Fast

forward and think about the response of Jesus the son of God

to God the Father. When you think about that in the

fullness of time, God would send his son because God so loved the

world that whosoever would believe in him.

The God so loved the word that he sent his one and only son.

But I don't skip the part, that's pretty important there,

that whosoever would believe in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life. Can you imagine though?

We don't have these 3 words exactly recorded.

Can you just imagine though? Because we see this exemplified

with Jesus on earth. Can you imagine Jesus the Son

saying to God the Father, I will, I will go.

And that same attitude he carried the night before.

He was the night he's arrested in the garden.

And again, all alone. The disciples, he'd ask to pray

with him and for him, but guess what?

They kept falling asleep. This was going to be between him

and God the Father alone. He would say yes to the cross.

He'd have to say yes alone. He'd have to walk a road alone,

sweat drops of blood alone. Carry that wood by himself.

Be hung there for you and for me, paying the price for our

sin, going to the grave, all saying yes to the Father for

your sake and for mine, so that one day we could too say yes to

God's plan for our life. Jesus says I will go.

Rebecca says I will go. Have you say it said I will God,

I'll go. Have you said yes to God's plan,

yes to God's call. When you do, you get his plan.

And then God works powerfully for those who want His plan.

Listen to the final verses beginning in verse 62.

Now Isaac had returned from Beer Laharoy and was dwelling.

And then the gib and Isaac went out to meditate in the field

toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and

saw, and behold, there were camels coming.

Rebecca lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she

dismounted from the camel and said to the servant, Who is that

man walking in the field to meet us?

The servant said, It is my master.

So she took her veil and covered herself.

And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.

And then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother,

and took Rebecca, and she became his wife and he loved her.

So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death 500 miles to the

South, obviously several days later, after the return trip had

already commenced for for Rebecca.

One particular evening, Isaac goes out to meditate in the

field. I think you could read right

past that, but it'd be a mistake.

I want you to realize what Isaac is doing.

Let me be more specific. Isaac goes out that evening to

get alone with God. Isaac goes out that evening to

have his quiet time. Isaac goes out that that evening

to spend time with God in prayer.

He goes out to get a loan to hear from God and to be with God

and to grow in his relationship with God.

I think this was something he was in the habit of daily doing.

You see, you would too on this particular day if you knew your

bride could show up that you never laid eyes on.

And yet this is something I think you had a habit here of

doing every day. And he was in position, right

with his eyes on the Lord, walking with God and doing what

he did every day. That put him in position to be

the first one to see on the horizon coming, the one that God

had provided for him as a bride #5 I want you to write this

down. The call of God counts on

getting alone with God. The call of God counts on

getting alone with God. There was a famous French

mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher by the

name of Blaise Pascal who said this.

He said all of humanity's problems stem from man's

inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Let me translate what he was saying.

In other words, he says all our problems stem from our failure

to be in and spend time in the presence of God alone.

You see, it was Isaac's decision that day to get alone with God

that positioned him to be the first one to witness the will of

God unfolding in his life. If you don't hear anything else

I say this morning, I want you. I want you to hear this.

This one is so critical that the call of God in our lives depends

on getting along with God so often, so often.

More times than not, the thing that we need most, the answer

that we're so desperate for. The answer to the question we

need that we've been asking. The direction that we need to

go, the where we need to be. The how we need to do something

to the response or the next step that we're looking for.

The crucial decision that's on the line, the whatever it is

that we're facing next in life. More often than not, the answer

can be found and found alone when you get a loan with God.

When you like David says, where else does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

No wonder the Bible tells us to look to Jesus, the author and

finisher of our faith, to keep our eyes on him.

Isaac had gone out to put his eyes on God.

Isaac didn't go chasing camels. We so often go chasing camels.

God, I want this and God I want that and God, I want this.

God, I'm going to be unhappy unless you do this, unless you

do that and God, I need to know this.

And we run to and fro, crazy and frantic when what we need to

daily do, most of our problems are the result of simply not

getting alone and listening to the only one who has the answer,

who can give success, who has the plan if we'll just say yes,

and who then will work powerfully on our behalf to see

it. And Isaac Simply put his eyes on

God and guess what? The next thing he sees, the

camel's coming. The call of God in our lives

depends on a willingness to get along with God.

I'm going to say it like this. If you're not daily getting

alone with God, you are missing out on a lot on a lot of God's

plan for your life. You don't even know it.

If you're not daily getting along with God because you're

not asking and you're not sensitive to it, you're not

looking and your eyes are not in the right place and the will of

God and the plan of God that is better than your is, it will

what will pass you by if you're not looking in the right places

for it. When you say yes to God's call,

you get His plan and God works powerfully for those who want

His plan. You see, the deal is that sermon

that I heard in high school. The camels are coming.

I don't remember what he said in the sermon, but I've remembered

the point from the title. And I don't know if he said this

or not, but this is just a phrase, just another text of

Scripture that God put on my mind as I contemplated and

thought through this. But you know, another promise of

God comes in Psalm 23 from the same psalmist that says that

where does my help come from? And he closes it like this.

He says surely goodness and mercy will what follow.

He doesn't say I got to go chasing after it.

It says they're going to trail me on both heels.

Surely the camels of God's goodness and mercy will follow

you all the days of your life if you will just say yes to God's

call, because then you're going to get His plan.

And then God's going to work powerfully for that plan to come

to fruition by His Providence, which is unstoppable for those

who want His plan. And ladies and gentlemen,

friends, that is what we want. Father, I pray that we would be

people who say yes to your plan. God, I pray that if someone is

in the room today that has never said yes to your plan of

salvation through your son Jesus, that today would be the

day. God, I pray they would say yes.

They would confess with their mouth that you are Lord, believe

in your heart, their heart that you were raised from the dead.

Father, they'd be even willing to step out and maybe come talk

to me and. And make the decision that would

change their life forever. And God, I pray for anyone else

in the room that's just not getting alone with you each day.

Or they're not seeking you. They're not asking you for

success. God, they're not, they're not

seeking and and trusting in your Providence and in your power,

their Father. They're trusting and chasing

camels in their own abilities rather than your abilities.

And God, I just pray that you'd reroute them, reorient them in

their priorities. And God help us realize when we

just Simply put you first and get alone with you and say yes

to you, that your goodness and your mercy will not fail to

trail us and protect us and provide for us.

So God help us say yes. Help us say yes in Jesus name I

pray, Amen. Would you stand with me?

I'm going to be here at the front if you'd like to come talk

with me or pray with me or get on your knees at this altar to

say yes to God in whatever way he's calling you.

You say yes no matter what it takes, you come, say I will go.

When God calls, you, come.