Genesis - Part 48 | Pastor Paul McGee

Thank God for his mercy. Hallelujah, Jesus, Amen.

That lid that was upon the Ark of the Covenant, the Old

Testament, the Bible called it the mercy seat.

It's where they would go in and sprinkle the blood of the

sacrifice that was made in the outer court.

That mercy would have blood sprinkled on it and that priest

would go in there and God would meet.

I would meet with that man between the two cherubim that

were upon that mercy seat, cloaked in all of that.

It's that very mercy seat. The Bible says after the ark had

been gone for a while and they came to the place called Beth,

the Mesh, there were some men there that looked into the ark

and had the laws of God. When they did, there were

several thousand that died. Because we can't withstand, We

can't stand the law without God's mercy.

We can't stand it without His mercy, Amen.

And I'm thankful tonight for the mercy of the Lord, Amen.

Just as a few reminders, time changes this weekend.

You're either in a hate relationship or love

relationship with that. I don't know.

But nonetheless, it's going to happen folks, Amen.

Sometimes going to fall back. If you don't do that, that just

means you'll be here early on Sunday morning.

And so my my advice to some of you is don't do it.

Well, it is. Well, it is.

Well, Amen, Amen. Also.

Then next week, next week, we're folks, we're going to dip right

into the month of November here this weekend.

All right, So next week on Thursday is Power Hour.

Amen. We want to come and be a part

Amen of that time of prayer here at the church.

Doors open, Genesis 26. Everybody say next Wednesday.

Next Wednesday is the last time you'll hear about Genesis for a

while, at least on a Wednesday night.

Let's not say it won't make some cameo appearance or something on

a on a Sunday. All right, that as far As for

Wednesday, that will be the case because after that, then Brother

Zach is going to be teaching on a Wednesday while my wife and I

are gone. And then whenever we get back,

we'll be doing that interview with Brother Mason.

And then the week, this Wednesday after that will be

National Youth Convention man. And the week after that we have

a guest, the missionary. We're going to be here.

The Hirsch family to Honduras will be here with us on that

Wednesday, missionaries to Honduras.

So that'll be exciting. All right, so just a few things

to keep in mind. Genesis 26, also in the month of

November, the 5th Sunday, we just have one service.

We'll have Pastor and Sister Taylor and their family on that

Sunday morning from Wilburton. OK, so we're kind of just kind

of piggybacking off them being at NYC and just see if they'll

come by and not yet. They are.

They're coming by, Amen, to be in service.

Genesis 26 and verse 6 is where we left off last time.

And Isaac dwelled in Girar. The men of the place asked him

of his wife and he said she is my sister.

This is the Deja Vu stuff we're talking about.

For he feared to say, She is my wife, lest, said he, the men of

the place should kill me For Rebecca, because she was spared

to look upon that came to pass when he had been there a long

time, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out the

window and saw him. Behold, Isaac was sporting with

Rebecca his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac and

said, Behold of a surety, she is thy wife, how saddest thou, she

is my sister. And Isaac said to him, Because I

said, lest I die for her. And Abimelech said, What is this

that thou has done unto US? One of the people might lightly

have lain with my wife. You just can't help.

I mean, King James just just makes me smile sometimes, and

thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, he that toucheth

this man or his wife just really be put to death.

Then the Isaac sowed in the land and received in the same year a

hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him and the

man waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very

great. For he had possessions of flocks

and possession of herds and great store of servants in the

Philistines envied him. Just kind of put all this under

umbrella tonight. I'm just going to label it the

Gerard Challenge, Amen. Because this is where he was

supposed to stay instead of going to Egypt.

And we'll ask the Lord to help us.

Father, I thank you again, God, that we can walk into this

place, the Lord at midweek, God, when we've already faced the

Lord heartaches and difficulties and God try to reign in Lord

Jesus, our flesh. We can come on a Wednesday

night, Lord, and perhaps to get Lord Jesus another breath of

air, Lord, to help us in this run, this race.

Lord Jesus, God help us tonight. We'll not fail to thank you for

it. In the lovely name of Jesus

Christ that I pray Hallelujah in the church, say Amen, Amen.

You may be seated tonight in Jesus name.

So our dear gentleman Isaac this evening has been obedient to the

voice of the Lord. He he gave ear that whenever God

told him not to go down to Egypt, like his father had went

down to Egypt during the famine, he listens intently and he stays

in Gerar rather than going down. And it's at Gerard that that

Isaac follows, though, in some of the same footsteps of his

father. He might not have went down to

Egypt like his dad, but he's about ready to do something

right here that looks so familiar to what Dad had done

whenever Dad was in Gerar. And so the Bible tells us he

follows some of the same footsteps.

The Deja Vu begins because if you'll recall in Genesis 20, we

have two episodes really with Abraham.

He called Sarah his wife and his his sister rather in Egypt.

And he called her his sister and Gerard.

And Genesis 20 is where he said that whenever he was in Gerard

and here now Isaac, his son is calling this woman that is his

wife, Rebecca, his sister to these people as well.

And Isaac has some of the same, some of the same reasons for

doing what he's doing. He, he testifies, and I think

every any wise man would testify this.

You know, his wife's fair to look upon.

You know, she's, she's a beautiful specimen of a woman.

And so he's a little afraid of of going into the city as she

being his wife for the same reasoning that Abraham was.

Let me refresh your memories that if you have this fine

specimen as a sister, then people's going to be kind to you

to win your favor of this relative of yours.

But if you go in and this fine specimen is your wife, you are

just a obstacle, Amen, that they're going to try to

eliminate in order to get this fine woman.

And so this is the mindset of both Abraham and of Isaac in

Gerard. And so he calls Rebecca his

sister. But again, there's a little

difference between him and his dad.

Sarah was Abraham's half sister. That's not the case in this

scenario with Rebecca and with Isaac.

And so it's at these points then that we see Isaac repeating some

of the things that his father had done in his generation in

time that people start to cite scriptures.

And I may have alluded to some of this because I kind of, you

know, hit everything after I was finished last week, you know,

about these other scriptures. And but nonetheless, it's where

people start citing the Scriptures that that come from

first Kings 15 and three that talks about and he walked in all

the sins of his father, which he had done before him, or other

verses of Scripture that say visiting the iniquity of the

fathers upon the children and to the 3rd and the 4th generation.

Amen. And so we see this in Scripture

and sometimes people try to relay this in the fact that that

if if your father did particular sins, then the generation after

him is going to walk in those same particular sins.

Or if your father committed particular sins, then you're

going to have to give, if you will, an account for your father

sins to the 3rd and the 4th generation.

And So what we have here in Scripture with Abraham and

Isaac, it's not that if the father sins or the previous

generation commits a sin that the next generation and know how

I say this, has to follow suit or has to follow in the same

footsteps or is cursed without anything else in order.

They they're just cursed. They're going to have to take

the same path. That's not necessarily the the

case, but it is a strong indication or a strong pattern

that we've seen from Abraham's day even into our day.

That is humanity. Children seem to follow and and

mirror the generation before them.

They, they imitate in many ways whatever came before them

because that's the pattern that was lived before them.

That's the pattern that was lived before them.

I know sometimes we're a little put out.

We're like, man, there's such a resemblance between that, that,

that guy and his son. And we're not just talking about

looks. We talk about mannerisms, the

way that they hold their hands or that folks isn't necessarily

genetic design. That's a learned design.

That's because they shared the same home, the same space.

And so they stand there with their hands behind their back

because their dad stood with their hands behind their back.

And so it's, it's just a common thing, a mirror that takes

place. And I think it illustrates to

us, even with Abraham and Isaac, the power of the parental role,

the power of the parental role. It shows how how sin is common

and sin is very persuasive for every person across all

generations, that we sometimes succumb to the same things that

other people did in generations before us.

And for one thing, Brother Reese, that gives me comfort

because I don't stand in this century and believe then that

I'm the only one and it's all by myself.

I look through the pages of Scripture and I see other people

that struggled with lust and struggled with pride and

struggled right. And so there's a certain amount

of comfort that comes to me with that too.

The New Testament Scripture says, and many of you may be

familiar with the verse, but the Bible says there have no

temptation taking you but such as is common to man.

The temptations that arrive on our our our porches and, and at

our doors and in our lives, whatever they may be, they are

common to mankind. I know we all thought we were

special and it was just specially designed for us, but

the fact of the matter is there's probably somebody else

that has been accosted, if you will, by similar temptations

that you are dealing with just this week.

But if we stop right there, brother Fred, sometimes then we

can almost start justifying our temptation leading into sin and

say, well, this is just common to man.

So Lord, let me punch my ticket and my participation badge, you

know, for this thing and just start to justify it.

But if we keep reading the Scripture and don't stop there

in 1st Corinthians 10 and 13, the Bible says but God is

faithful who will not with the temptation will with the

temptation will also make a way to escape that ye may be able to

bear it. So that means although the same

things may come to all men, not all men have to succumb to what

pills and waves and lures at our door.

The Bible tells us in the book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel clearly states in his book that a person should not be

punished for the sins of their father.

That nor should the father be punished for the sins of their

children. The Bible states in Ezekiel

1814. Now lo, if he begat a son that

see if all his father's sins which he have done and

considereth and doeth not such like.

So we said there can be a father that sins, but the son doesn't

have to follow in the same path. He does not have to do like his

father had done. And when you read in in Ezekiel,

it gives us some examples of what happened in one generation

that did not have to be repeated in the other generation.

Although there may have been the temptation, the allurement, it

did not have to happen. And some of the things that he

mentioned was just because the fathers ate meat that was

sacrificed to idols. The sons did not have to just

because the fathers worshipped idols gods, The sons did not

have to just because the fathers defiled their their neighbors

wife. The sons did not have to just

just because the fathers were very oppressive other other

people, the sons didn't have to they could keep their pledge.

They they didn't have to worry about being spoiled by violence.

They they could help the poor, unlike what their fathers did

all these different things. And this is what verse 19 then

of Ezekiel 18 says it says yes, say ye.

Why does not the Son bear the iniquity of the Father?

When the Son hath not hath done that which is lawful and right,

and have kept all my statutes, and have done them, and he shall

surely live. 20 The soul that sinneth it shall die.

The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father, neither

the Father bear the iniquity of the Son.

The righteous of the righteousness of the righteous

shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall

be upon him. Ezekiel was saying this during

the rubber meets the road. Every individual's responsible

for themselves. So I can't push off my misdeed

on my parents. I can't push off my misdeed off

grandma and grandpa. Oh yes, I might have a common

temptation come to me, but my choice is my choice for Isaac.

Number one, Isaac's not even alive.

When this whole scenario happens with Abraham, the best that he

has is information through story.

You know, they're all sitting around the fire one day with the

lamb's leg. Mom brings up how Dad one time

Calder is sister. That's the best that Isaac has.

Amen. But he does not have to repeat.

And so there's the influences of all these things that affect all

mankind. That's common to all mankind.

But folks, and I think this is where we need to own things.

We someone say me, we have a choice.

Just because it was Gerard doesn't mean he had to do the

same acts that Dad did at Gerard.

So he might have been influenced maybe by his father's story

because that's all he had was his father's story.

But how he handled it, how he handled it was his decision.

My father might be an alcoholic and I know there's smearing

tendencies there, but how I handle it, the temptation at my

door, it's my decision. Amen.

Amen. So Isaac's not guilty of his

father's sins, but what we see in this chapter is that he does

inherit. In this chapter 26, we see that

Isaac does inherit both positive and negative qualities from his

dad, and it's up to Isaac to choose to adopt them or adapt

them. So if I'm not careful, I can

live my life and blame everything on Marilyn and Paul

McGee. I wouldn't be aware.

I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing right now if it wasn't for

them how they handled XYZ. And please don't misunderstand

me, I'm not saying tonight that our parents choices don't

profoundly affect our lives, all right.

I'm not denying that one bit, but I don't believe their story

has to be repeated in our lives. If it could only be like that,

we would all continue a life of sin.

There would be no one redeemed. There would be no one safe from

addiction. There would be no hope that we

would just all be living a life that we're in a rut in the

trench that we can't get out because every previous

generation followed the generation before that.

And it all started with Adam and Eve who flubbed up in the very

beginning. And so we're cursed with a curse

that we can't get rid of. But I know according to God's

Word, that is not the case. I do not have to repeat.

I do not have to be a product of my ancestors, Huh.

And to believe otherwise, Bishop, then I have limited

God's power. As I said, Sunny, I'm not going

to accept the fallen state of my bloodline.

Yeah, right. And my biological parents,

because there is a bloodline greater than the biological

bloodline. So certain things in our lives

of those who went before us, yes, set us at greater risk,

right? Because we're put in positions

and places that we would otherwise not be put in had it

not been for them. But it doesn't mean you got to

become a statistical outcome. When the Bible says in the books

Old Testament books of Samuel and kings, it states words that

we see over and over again as as you see the different kings.

And I know it's crazy. You see this king comes and it

does something for so long and then he's assassinated.

Another king comes on and you're trying to keep it straight in

your Bible reading. Which king is for the northern

Kingdom of Israel, Which Kingdom is for Judah and the 2 southern

kingdoms, they're popping up left and right and you know,

it's just all over the place. But there's, there's common

words that's often spoke about these two kings.

And they'll say that a king either walked in the ways of his

father, David, or that a king walked in the ways of his

father, Jeroboam. It relates these two primarily

usually always these two kings that it goes back to and it is

David those that one that represents everything that is

godly. It seems like at the man after

God's own heart. It's it's the right way to act

right? That when he did fall, at least

he repented all of those type of things.

And then you have Jeroboam, who is the one that did just so

badly in history that he kind of set the.

He set the bar high for wrongdoing in the lifetime.

And so the history of the nations of the kings of Israel

where either they did after after they followed in the

footsteps of David their father, they followed in the footsteps

of Jeroboam, their father. And so the future, the future

will hold right and wrong here according to those two.

And but each generation, every king that came into power had a

choice to make of which he was going to pattern himself

afterward. And so on the day-to-day, in a

week to week basis, I'll say this.

Sometimes we vacillate between King David and King Jerome.

Jeroboam, huh. You're serious?

Yeah, I'm serious. There's some days I'm on.

You know the old saying used to be please no one crucify me over

this is some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the

statue. Folks, real life's like that

even walk for the Lord sometimes.

But here's the fact of the manner.

Don't judge me too quickly over one day, because I'm going to be

judged by my lifetime. Because whenever I stand on the

day of judgement someday all things will be given account for

this is a scripture I've shared with you off before I'm I felt

this week to share it again First Corinthians 4-5 Paul right

into those at Corinth. He says therefore judge nothing.

Everybody say nothing before the time.

What's the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to

light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest

the council's of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise

of God. So don't judge me over a day

because I'm going to be judged over my lifetime, even though

Testament scripture talks about that.

I've done very, very wickedly in the first part of my life, but

if I have a moment of change that I forsake that and I start

walking differently, the old from that point backward is

seemingly forgotten. So I scrubbed from the record so

that when my lifetime is looked at, it's looked at all the other

days, for that matter. I might flub up one day.

I might be the son of Jeroboam one day, but it's how many other

days where I live in as the son of David.

Don't judge me too soon until the Lord come.

So I'm not sitting here today, brother.

I just can't. I mean the man and you took a

hook, line and sinker. We, we don't want that.

We don't want that. But sometimes it happens.

But whenever the day of the Lord comes, we'll have Brother Trout

made right the wrong on that day.

And how will all the other days of his life look in the full

spectrum of his lifetime? Amen.

So the Lord's not going to be fooled because the Lord even

knows the counsels of the heart, does he not?

He knows the motivations of the heart.

The Lord knows the strugglings of your mind and heart.

When people don't know, they see sometimes someone doing, and

I've said this before and I probably will again, it's only

been 15 years pastoring. Amen.

That someone does something, there's something that's acted

out in their life, but you as an individual don't know how many

times they told themselves no before they came in.

You don't know that, but God does.

Amen. And so, yes, I, I, we want to

endeavor to live each day as though it was our last day

because it may not be the trumpet that calls us home.

It may be death that calls us home.

And so, yeah, we want to, we want to finish well, but in

order to do that, then it means we must decide and then choose

each day in each scenario wisely.

And that's up to us. So a long time is spent.

The Bible says a long time. Bible says a long time that he

was in Gerar verse #8 says that he'd been there for a long time

under the deceit that Rebecca was his sister.

The Bible says the king of the Philistines here Abimelech, and

I've just preached on this this year, but I'm not going to

preach it again right now. But Abimelech spied Isaac

sporting with Rebecca. In other words, we could talk

about things, but whatever was happening between Rebecca and

Isaac undematiably removed all doubt from Abimelech that not

his sister, that's his wife. He saw some type of activity

between them that would have only been appropriate if they

were husband and wife, not brother and sister.

And so they live, though in Girard for a long time before

this discovery, before this was revealed or found out about to

Abimelech that they were husband and wife.

Amen. Matter of fact, since that is

the case, looking at the whole chronologicalness of this

Genesis thing, it may have been a little hard, if Esau and Jacob

were already born at this point, to keep undercover that this is

just brother and sister rather than husband and wife.

One of the marvels of this passage is this is the

difference between how Sarah was discovered as Abraham's wife

compared to how Rebecca was discovered as Isaac's wife.

One for Abraham and Sarah, it was revelation that was given by

God in a dream that that woman was Abraham's wife.

But in this scenario, it's something that the king, mortal

king observed that tipped him off.

God had to reveal the Abraham Sarah situation.

But now this is revealed to the human king here of the

Philistines, Abimelech. They're there a long time before

this has happened. And here's the interesting

thing. But Abimelech saw them, Isaac

and Rebecca, when they were not aware that someone was peering

into their life. And then in that moment of

whatever activity was going on, when they weren't expecting

someone to be peering into their life, they realized that there

was something going on here. See saw something that they were

not aware of. And what he what he witnessed

proved that that that there's something in private here that's

unlike what they are showcasing publicly.

This can happen in two ways, folks in Scripture.

Let's let's just talk about ourselves as Christians for a

moment. And that is this people can

profess one thing publicly and demonstrate and live another way

privately. Or, you know, the inverse of

that can be the case as well. Abraham and Isaac did what they

did, the Bible says, because they were both fearful that they

might lose their life. Or if I can say it like this,

they were both fearful about how they would be accepted in the

community that they were living. And so I don't want a chance how

I'll be accepted in the community that I'm living.

So I'm going to showcase one thing publicly and live

differently privately. I'm going to live publicly where

I'll be accepted in the community, but in the privacy of

my home. I'm going to do who and what I

am by nature with my wife and with you.

Understand what I'm slicing here just a little bit.

They feared for their lives, but their actions, their actions in

reality, for Isaac, his actions potentially jeopardized the

promises of God because had one of Abimelechs men laying lightly

with with again Rebecca, there was going to be a different a

different legacy and lineage of seed that would be introduced in

that womb rather than that of being a Jew and a Jew.

Hey, man, there's going to be something different than the

promise. And so to a degree the Bible

talks about then, then they're here among the people and they

did this and Abimelech says, I can't believe you did this.

I can't believe you. You put some some of my people

even even in danger for having done this.

And in essence, I guess I bring it all around to say this.

Sometimes the way that we live publicly and privately, whether

or not there's harmony between the two, can bring a mockery on

our faith. They're responding according to

their doubts. They're responding with deceit.

But here's the scenario. For fear of no acceptance,

Isaac's like she's my sister, wink, wink, Rebecca, she's my

sister. Because this is the way we want

to be perceived before the public.

This is how we'll be accepted. But in privacy, we're going to

hold our devotion to one another.

Someone say Amen. Or we live in such a way that we

have this big exterior devotion to God, and then in the privacy

of our home it falls apart. We perform our lip service and

we raise our hands in church. We have sweet adoration to the

King of glory, but behind closed doors we can't even speak

sensibly to our children and our mate.

How can you love God whom you've not seen, and love your brother

who you do? James poses.

Amen. The old adage The old adage says

that your character is your private life.

Your reputation is your public life, but there's got to be a, a

harmony between our character and our reputation.

The reputation that people know us by because that's what they

see publicly. Amen must become the character

that we live by in our privacy. It's what it's what we are when

we think no one is watching. Isaac and Rebecca weren't aware

of it, but Abimelech had a had a window view into their private

lives. And it's at those times what

happens is people catch a glimpse of the core of the

individual. The Bible tells a story I'm

trying to move here. The Bible tells a story that

whenever the spirit of the Lord had departed from King Saul and

the evil spirit had replaced that, and he's troubled in his

spirit, he's trying to get relief, some type of soothing

that that he calls for servants in his court to go find someone

that was skilled or cunning and in playing the harp.

And so they went to find someone that was cunning and doing so.

And whenever one of the servants heard the request of his king,

he admitted unto him, this is what he said.

He says I have seen David. It's interesting because the way

that it's portrayed as though this servant had seen David or

spied upon David when David was just tending the sheep in the

backfields of his father when he wasn't aware that anybody was

looking in on his life. The Bible says in first Samuel

16 and verse 18 then answered one of the first servants and

said, behold, I have seen the son of Jesse, the Bethlehem

might. That is cunning and playing and

a mighty man, a mighty valiant man, and a man of war and

prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with

him. Verse 19 Wherefore Saul sent

messengers into Jesse and said, send me David thy son, which is

with the sheep. The servant had seen David in

reality on two fronts of David's life.

He had saw David privately as the songstress and the heart

player in the backfields of his father, and he had seen him also

publicly as a valiant man of war and warfare before all the eyes

of the people. He said he's a comely, A comely

person. But the aspect that Saul was

needed in this moment was the private aspect of David's life

of being a heart player, Amen and a sumptress Amen on the loan

backside of his dad's pasture somewhere, often times just

tending sheep. See what David up to this time,

he mainly up to this time, David had resorted to the private

action and sector of his life. At this time, he's more or less

not known in the public realm for the most part.

Not till the big Goliath gig took place, stones flying to the

air and timber of a man of great stature compared to him.

But he is only known in the private sector.

That hard play in among the sheep.

But the servant says I've seen him.

He wasn't aware of it, but I seen him.

What he is, what he does when no one else, when he doesn't have

an audience. I've seen what he's like, Oh

God, how do we act when we don't have an audience?

And I'm not talking about the church service.

I'm just talking about audience with anybody else.

How do we act when we don't have an audience?

So the question is that we ask ourselves, and this is just to

be introspective tonight, ask yourself this question.

What do people notice about me when I don't think anyone is

watching? Isaac admits that what he did,

the deception that he did Edgar, are he admits that he did it,

and he admits he did it because otherwise he might have died.

However, it doesn't seem as though he gave, similarly to his

father, any regard for his wife Rebecca, or any regard for the

promises of God, for that matter, or any regard of what

might happen to Abimelech's Kingdom or the people.

That is a selfish way to live life when all that matters as if

you matter. Oh God, So what if my husband

gets angry? So what if the kids can't handle

it? So what of people if I work with

with that kind? You understand what I'm saying?

Right now, only whenever everything's OK with me is

everything OK. Oh, God help me, Jesus, the

Bible tells us in Romans 14. For none of us liveth to

himself, and no man dive to himself.

We, we, we are strung together, folks.

We do have impacts and ripples of water where the pebbles fall.

Here they go, Isaac, do. Well, I'll continue on.

I need to go, don't I? We don't.

I continue to end Gerar. And the Bible says, and I

mentioned this last week, that he sowed in the land during the

famine. He sowed seed in the land that

God told him to stay in. Gerar, again, it's in the

southern most, most part of of Israel.

Whenever there's not even a famine, it's usually a dry land,

an arid land, an arid region of Israel.

Hey man, it's known to be parched.

It's barren landscape even when there isn't a famine.

So how much the more now in this place when there is a famine?

Some, even the rabbinical commentary say that the land in

which Isaac was was hard ground and did not usually produce much

on a good day. But just as God attributed his

his promises to Abraham that we did last week in verse 5,

because of Abraham's obedience, the promises of Abraham now

continue in Isaac's life and the blessings of the Lord follow

Isaac. Likewise, because of Isaac's

faithfulness as well, he stays in Gerard during the famine.

God's told him to do so. He didn't go to Egypt.

He's obedient to the voice of the Lord as a result of that and

the presence of God as God says, I'll be with you.

Remember, the presence of God in that prescribed place where God

told him to stay comes into Isaac's life a hundredfold in a

typically dry, now famine stricken land.

But you got to understand that wasn't just Isaac's land for the

moment. That was God's promised land for

the now and future. And so we applaud Isaac, Great

job, Isaac for sowing, great job.

But we got to stop and acknowledge that the results,

more than his sowing, was God's doing.

He incorporated Isaac to see if he would be obedient in the

sowing. But what came from the ground,

Yes, sowing was involved, but what came?

There's been times things have been sown and nothing's come

from the harvest. What came from the ground,

that's a God result. That's a God acknowledgement for

sure a hundredfold. And so here Isaac, yes, in his

life already he's failed to some of the negative patterns of his

dad. Yes, yes, he has been deceptive.

And here's what I want to make plain.

God is not rewarding Isaac's deceit.

God is remaining faithful to his own covenant and his own land,

Huh. That's God's land.

That's God's covenant that he has with that land.

He's not endorsing that Isaac was deceptive.

He's endorsing that. That's my land of promise.

And thank God that He does endorse His own covenant

whenever we're numbskulls. I'm just telling you the truth.

The Bible says in Second Timothy 213, it says if we believe not

yet, he abideth faithful. Do you believe not yet he

abideth faithful? He cannot deny himself.

God turned around and acknowledged what Isaac was

obedient to. You stayed in the land, but I

was going to bless this land whether you were here or not,

Isaac, because this is part of my covenant.

This is part of my promise. It just so happens by staying

and by sowing, you made yourself a part of the promise you, huh?

It's kind of the whole scenario with Esther.

You remember Esther, she's there in a foreign Kingdom of, of

Persia, right? She's in Persia.

Captivity has taken place. She's been brought up by

Mordecai. They went through the the

Nebuchadnezzar, they went through the Babylonian

captivity. Now here's Merc medo Persia that

overtakes Babylon. She's there.

There's a decree out that's going to slaughter all of the

Jews. And Mordecai's weeping heads on

sackcloth, he tells her, Amen. You got to go in before the king

because for such a time as this, perhaps you're in the Kingdom

because of this. Maybe this is what you're here

for. You got to go.

But she says, if, if you've not been before the king, if it's

been 30 days and you go before him and you've not been

beckoned, there's a law that says he might give you the

golden scepter and accept you, but there's also a good chance

you might die, she says. But nonetheless, you know what

Mordecai told her. He says, this is what I know.

He says deliverance is going to come to God's people.

Why? Because they're God's people.

He knew the promise, he says, but if you go in there and it,

he says deliverance going to happen nonetheless, whether

you're a part of it or not, Esther.

But if you go, you can be a part of the deliverance.

You can step into the promise that God's going to honor.

So what is it about? It's about choice, Amen.

It's not God endorsing bad beast.

It's about God endorsing His covenant and His promise.

And we have a choice to be a part of it or not a part of it.

That's what Isaac found here with a hundredfold increase and

flocks and herds and servants constantly increasing.

I think I said last week he's here in the same soil as they

had those Philistines. Same sunshine, same lack of

rain. God blesses his efforts because

he's where I told you to stay, in the land that I've already

coveted with my promise for. And it draws the attention to

the Philistines. This ground's hard.

You're just planting seeds. Harvest time.

Well, better not next year, boys.

Isaac, bringing in the seeds. Bringing in the seeds.

We will come. It drew their attention how the

Bible says that they envied him. In verse 14.

They envied him. When you talk about envying

something, it's talking about someone that's desiring to have

what you possess. You know what the these people

that we become arch enemies of Israel are saying?

I wish I had what they had, but Isaac's living in such a way in

a place that God has ordained where a promise is stamped upon

to get the attention then of the would be adversary saying I wish

I had what they had. Let me tell you, it's not

because my daddy was Abraham, and it's not because I got

everything always right, but it's because I'm keeping my feet

where the promise is. Let's go on verse #13 I'm, I'm,

I'm getting here, folks, we're doing good.

We're doing good. Verse #3013 It's vital.

I think it's vital because here's Isaac and he's, he's

gotten to a, a very clear God view of life.

His world view is a God view and his God view of life is this.

He doesn't see as though life with God has a ceiling.

No limits. Yes, he's inherited great riches

from daddy Abraham. We knew he was rich or they went

on the whole marriage thing. Remember camel's gifts, rich

guy. But the Bible says that Isaac

already having been rich with goods, it says he waxed great.

He's already inherited quite a bit, but even during the time of

a famine, he's waxed great. That's not the conditions that

you waxed great under. But he waxed great.

At that point, Brother Alex, he could have said, but at my

mailbox right here, I'm living. I mean, I got stuff from Daddy

and I've grown to a certain place of status right here.

Boom, I've arrived. But the Bible doesn't stop

there. Says that he waxed great and he

went forward and grew until he became very great.

We can settle for great sometimes when God has very

great for us and the path from great to very great is simply

this going forward. You can't stop or stalemate just

whenever you think through your human understanding that you've

arrived because we think that's all that there could be.

That's human view. That's not God view.

He don't have a ceiling. Israel, the Old Testament, they

stood at the edge of the Red Sea after their deliverance from

Egypt. After 400 years of being under

that type of oppression and bondage, they probably thought,

hang my hat on the hook, honey. We got out of Egypt this pretty

cool, you know, kill lamb and slap some blood, some blazes and

praise God, here we are. Amen.

But God spoke to Moses at the edge of the Red Sea as they're

all just standing there motionless and there's no

movement. And God told Moses, he says, you

tell Israel to go forward. What?

Yeah, go forward. Mountains on each side of them,

Pharaoh's army vehemently behind them.

And here we just got our deliverance.

It's like, man, this is the big we we're we have arrived, boys.

No, God says go forward and they're saying water, water.

You know what God was doing, He said.

I'm trying to move you from your human view to my God view.

You see it as a limitation. I see it as an obstacle to

overcome. I want to broaden your view.

They reached in Sinai not long after crossing the Red Sea.

And the Bible tells us they've witnessed many marvelous things.

Amen. There at the Mount of God, there

were times it was surrounded with smoke and there were

thunderings and lightnings that took place.

And they heard the Bible says, the audible voice of the Lord

from Mount Sinai. It's there that Moses would

receive the law, the Lord, that he would share with the people

of God. But the Bible tells us in

Deuteronomy, after being there for about a year, that the voice

of the Lord came to them again and said, you've dewelt long

enough in this mount. You know what he's saying.

He's saying I brought you 2 here, but I got more for you

than this. It was the mount of the Lord of

God. I brought you here.

I've given you governance, I've given you guidance, but you

you've stayed here for a year. Now it's time to move on.

And so they trampled among the mountain ranges.

The Bible says of Sierra for extended period of time.

And wouldn't you know after they had done that for a long time.

Here comes the Spirit of the Lord again in Deuteronomy and

says, you've come past this mountain long enough, turn you

northward at each juncture. They could have thought, man,

that's the epitome of my experience.

That's the epitome of what God has for me.

But that was not the case. God was constantly trying to

urge them on. Can I ask someone today, is

there a mountain that you've been circling in your Christian

relationship, that you've been circling that same thing because

you thought it was the threshold of what God had for you or what

God could do through you? Can I tell you it's time to go

forward? It's time I'm urging you on God.

There is a God view for your life that supersedes what you

think you can or cannot. As we get stuck on our mountains

as Christians, we get stuck on them.

We get stuck on some of them because it may have been easier

getting to there than it's going to be to get to the next

mountain. And I'm comfortable with where

I'm at without any further effort that would have to be put

in to the next one. I says no, you're great.

But if you go forward, you can become very great.

So the path from one to the next, I'm close to staying with

me. The path from one to the next

then is you got forward motion. Here's the fact that matter.

None of us has reached the limit of God want what God wants to do

in us. There's no ceiling.

I know you our human minds can't wrap around, but there's no

ceiling to that for you and God. So there's a few little things

to think about. I'm closing.

We go away tonight. We're asking ourselves our

private actions and our public actions.

Are they aligning with each other in a good direction?

And I'm, I'm, I'm going away here thinking just because I've

inherited tendencies from the generation before me doesn't

mean I have to choose them for myself.

Then we're just going to keep moving forward in faith when it

feels and looks barren and there's dearth all around.

We're going to stay where God tells us to stay.

We're going to sow and plant in that area and acknowledge God

when God does what God does. And we're going to accept that

God can see things in us, about us and for us that we've not yet

even grown inclined to yet ourselves.

He has, He told Israel, he says, I have plans for you, right?

Everybody loves it and I have plans for you, huh.

He hasn't expected in for you. Israel as a nation.

God has it. That's just not a nation thing

that moves down to an individual thing.

He hasn't expected in for you. And there's no ceiling in it.

There's no ceiling in it. Those are some of the challenges

of Garrar Hallelujah. Let's pray here tonight.

Father, can we lift our voices together?

God, we need you tonight. God, there are some challenges

at Girard. Lord, let there be harmony.

God and the public and private spheres of my life.

God, help me to have a a God world view rather than just my

humanistic world view. I pray, O God, help me Jesus, to

participate, God, in what you have placed your name upon.

Let me participate in what you have placed your promises upon.

Let God, I have a choice to be a part of that or not to be a part

of that. I have a choice, God, whether or

not I'll give in to tendencies that's been passed down to

generation or tendencies that are common to all men, I have a

choice. It's a responsibility of the

ball in my court. I pray, O Lord, help me God to

approach it, God with wisdom and Lord to approach it, Lord Jesus,

in such a way, God, that I will not bring mockery, Lord Jesus,

upon you or your name, but God, that if I do fall, that no one

will. Lord, just judge me on a moment

in the day, but my lifetime is in the scope of the divine.

Lord, when all things are considered.

I pray, Lord Jesus, help me to live the way that you want me to

live and to forgive Lord Jesus and to seek forgiveness in the

name of Jesus Christ that I pray I love you and thank you for it

In Jesus name, everybody say in Jesus name, Hallelujah.

God bless you tonight. Amen.

Services here, of course on Sunday.

Come and be a part of those. Don't forget times change,

unless you just want to be here early and we'll gladly accept

you.