Genesis - Part 47 | Pastor Paul McGee

He's a good God. He's a good God.

Amen. Thank him tonight.

I say We thank him for the simple things that we sometimes

overlook. Mobility, soundness of mind.

I guess in reality, though, they're not simple.

They're really complex. They're just things that we kind

of overlook, take for granted. They're quite complex in

reality. Amen.

He is a good God. Amen.

This coming Sunday night, Brother Alex Mason will be

ministering the word of the Lord.

We'll be here too, of course, but he's going to be ministering

the word of the Lord on Sunday night.

We're glad to have Ray Ray with us tonight.

Ray. Ray.

Yeah, girl, we're glad to have you.

We're glad to have you with us. Amen.

Come with the gamblers. Tonight's their niece.

Amen. We're glad to have her.

Amen. Isn't she a pretty girl?

Wonderful, Amen. Absolutely going to be turning

to the word of the Lord, Genesis chapter #26 Genesis chapter #26

Amen. This evening we just have a

about three more Wednesdays here Genesis before we have a little

something different as far as my wife and I will be gone and then

we'll come back with the the interview that we missed with

brother Mason and then it'll be NYC the week of Thanksgiving.

It's hard to believe it folks. I mean Turkey day already around

the corner. But here we are.

Genesis chapter #26 New Testament writer says all these

things looking back at the Old Testament were given to us were

written a four time for our learning right That through the

patience of of and comfort of Scripture we might have hope so

we can look back upon these. I'm going to read the first 5

verses here tonight. Bible says and there was a

famine in the in the land beside the first famine that was in the

days of Abraham and Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the

Philistines, unto Gerard. The Lord appeared unto him and

said, Go not down into Egypt, dwell in the land which I tell

thee of sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, will

bless thee. For unto thee and to thy seed I

will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath

which I swear unto Abraham thy father, and I will make thy

seed, it sounds like I know redundancies.

And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven,

and will give unto thy seed all these countries, and thy seed to

all the nations of the earth. Be blessed because that Abraham

obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my

statutes, and my laws. Amen.

For a little while tonight, I want to speak along these lines,

and probably some next week as well.

But nonetheless, for tonight, living between famine and

fulfillment. Living between famine and

fulfillment. Hallelujah, Father, we need you,

Jesus this evening. God, we're so thankful for your

goodness, God, your mercies that are new every morning.

We're grateful today for those, God, to be able to center our

lives around your word one more time.

That we know they are the words of life.

God. Help them to speak life, Lord to

us. Help us to learn God from them.

God, how to order our own affairs in the lovely name of

Jesus Christ that I pray Hallelujah and Amen and the

church say Amen, Amen. You may be seated this evening.

Genesis 26 in the book of Genesis is one of those chapters

that almost seems out of place in the book of Genesis.

And the only reason why I say that is because the last chapter

that we studied was focusing on Jacob and Esau and these

brothers and their birth order. Kind of a little bit of how they

were like and the competition that they had, or rather how one

despised the birthright, the other one desired the

birthright. It kind of ended with that

tension between them. And then whenever you get to the

next chapter, chapter #27 the focus is going to be on Jacob in

the Esau again. And it's going to be following

how 1 is going to usurp the other and getting the

birthright, or rather the blessing from their father

Isaac. And there was going to be

conflict that's going to happen there.

But between these two episodes, it seems about Esau and Jacob,

we have been a chapter here That concert concentrates pretty

solely up on Isaac. So it almost just seems kind of

out of out of place a little bit.

But it is the interlude. And we see that a little bit in

Scripture sometimes a chapter that comes in a spot that seems

like it's just not full following the flow or line.

But but it is. And the Lord has something to

say to us through it because although chapter 26 interrupts

that flow of thinking, it is an insertion here that's going to

clue us in on some things concerning Isaac.

It's the deja. Genesis 26 is what I would

affectionately called the Deja Vu chapter because so much

through this chapter sounds like man, I've read this before.

I've heard this before, yes, promise and blessing and things

like that, yes. But we also read about how

there's famine in the land and we've read about famine before.

We read about God renewing his covenant, about Isaac repeating

his father's mistake of exception with his wife.

We read about disputes over wells.

We read about Beersheba again. We read about an oath being made

there between Abimelech and Isaac.

And these are things that we've seen before, it seems like,

happened with Isaac's father Abraham.

And it's almost as though God put his thumb down on Scripture

and said repeat, you know, but just in another generation and

in another time. But it is essentially what has

happened. And so God shows, though, in

this chapter that the promises that he has, they're not just

dependent on, you know, just fresh sets of circumstances, but

they're anchored in the faithfulness of his people

through time. He's going to show us that the

God that walked with Abraham is the God that also walks with

Isaac. And it's going to be the same

covenant, similar testing, similar proving ground.

That's the reason why it just seems like it's just a repeat of

Father Abraham. But we see this played out in

Isaac's life. Because my understanding is

this. Each one of us matters not, but

every generation has to experience God's promises for

themselves. And with that sometimes come

similar trials and testings. And the adversary real has not

changed. His tactics are still the same.

He's not like have a new rabbit he could take out of his hat.

He's still a deceiver, he's still a liar, all these things.

And so the trials and the temptation that he comes to the

people with are not not, you know, unique to just the Old

Testament. It's for every people age, which

we can draw comfort from because then we can see things that are

playing out in our own lives that was played out in the lives

of like Joshua and Jacob and other people in Scripture and

see that they made it. That should be the hope of the

trout. See that they made it.

And so that should give us hope that we can make it as well.

And so he repeats this through God's word.

So God instructed Abraham at one time back in Genesis 12, this is

rewind whenever he was an herb choudies.

He said, I want you to leave your country, your people.

He said, go into the land that I will shew him to thee.

Well, something very, very similar to that is being spoken

to Isaac here in Genesis chapter 26, except Isaac is already in

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

the lamb that God had told Abraham to go to.

And God is telling and to Isaac basically dwell in the land,

which I tell the of which is going to be the land that his

feet is standing in right at the moment.

So the one he told to go to get there to the other one, he's

telling to stay there. He's telling to stay there.

The wording is almost identical. So they're they have different

sets of circumstances. Isaac and Abraham do somewhat,

but God's pattern is a little bit the same.

One get to the land, the other one stay in the land where I

told you all to go. And so Abraham Isaacs father,

whenever he reached that land of promise, the Bible says there

was famine in the land and as a result of it, he just no sooner

got there. I mean, he's traveled hundreds,

hundreds, hundreds of miles to get there, no sooner got there

with them in the land and he decides he's going to go down to

Egypt. Isaac is in the land of Canaan

and here comes a famine. It denotes that it's different

from the famine that that that Abraham first experienced.

But there's famine in the land. And so there's something inside

of Isaac that says, you know what, I need to go to Egypt.

Egypt as well. Now.

Now, Isaac wasn't alive when Abraham went to Egypt, but I

don't know if stories were told or something was handed down.

That's what Dad did when famine happened in the land.

And so just kind of following suit in his mind, that's what

he's going to do too. He's going to go to Egypt

thinking that that's going to cure everything that needs to be

cured. But on his way to Egypt, he

stops in a place called Gerard. It's still within the land of

Canaan, but it's a region under under Philistine control.

He stops in Gerard and as he is there God admonishes him

plainly, quite different than what happened with Abraham.

Abraham didn't hear no word either way, but but Isaac hears

from God clearly. In verse 2, God says go not down

to Egypt. He said, dwell in the land which

I shall tell thee of. And so here Isaac responds very

similarly to famine as his father did.

He's fleeing from it, Amen. And Isaac was about to repeat

the same mistake as his father by going down in there because

why there, there, there's, there's famine in the land.

There's, he's looking for human provision right there.

Everything's going to dry up. Cattle's going to kill over.

He's, he's looking to lean on his own thinking, his own

ingenuity in order to solve this, Amen.

But in doing so, he might step outside of the promise of God by

leaning on his own thoughts and his own ideas on how to cure

this. And so God stopped the cycle

before it could get started, sojourning this land in the land

of Gerard. Here in this place within the

borders of the land of pride, God is saying Isaac Egypt's off

limits. Matter of fact, in Scripture you

see this. And this is something you learn

early on in Scripture. But Egypt always has this idea

of representing a self-sufficiency, human

provision, reliance on the world.

It seems like they had everything there was to offer at

Egypt. Whereas Canaan on the other

hand, is usually that thing which which denotes the things

of God, promises and faith and dependence on God.

So the famine is real, absolutely.

But what God wanted Isaac to learn was that his promises were

greater than the famine. This is the land that I said is

going to be yours. Your descendants are going to be

many. If I've said this is going to be

yours and this is going to be many, it's not to say you'll

never have any heartache, but it's to say that the promise

I've given you will be greater than the heartache.

It will not overtake you. You will not be overtaken by it.

And so sometimes God allows, I believe for Isaac, he he's

following a similar, a similar problem of famine like his

father Abraham did, but having that similar problem.

God doesn't want him to repeat the same failures that the

previous generation had, that his father had.

If God wants to redeem a pattern here in Isaac's life, don't just

always look to Egypt as though it's your answer when there's a

famine in your land of promise. Let me put it in layman's terms.

Sometimes people want to jump ship on what God is instituted

as the church when things get rough, but God has his hand on

the church. We we don't always have to look

elsewhere whenever it gets you know, Rocky in the church.

The church is that the old song says the old ship is iron.

She's been test, she's been tried, she's proven herself.

Just stay with it. Amen.

Because whatever the church faces isn't bigger than the

promises the church has been given.

All right? So you just got to stay still.

Amen. And so Egypt, remember, though,

God is looking at this and knows that doubt.

Isaac may not know everything, but he's probably heard some

stories. You know, Egypt played a very

complicated role in the life of Isaac's father, Abraham.

Again, if we go back to the past, that is most likely, that

is the most likely they went down there.

That's most likely the first encounter where his cousin Law,

Abraham's cousin Law had an encounter with Egypt, received

the well well watered planes there that whenever then they

would see Sodom tomorrow it was time to pick land.

He said he chose this because it's like the well watered

plains of Egypt. I don't know if he had had a a

rule of thumb for that. Had they not went down to the

Egypt first, Secondly, that's most likely where Hagar the

handmaiden came from. That became a part of Abraham

and Sarah's family. That would soon be the woman

that Sarah would say. I give her to you, Abraham,

because I'm Baron, although the promise is God, we know gets

very detailed that it would be Sarah's womb.

But I'll give you Haggard. And they have a son, Ishmael,

which causes some havoc in the family, which is still causing

havoc today between these peoples and nations.

And all that is due to a trip to Egypt during the time of famine.

And so no doubt with these things in mind, God is is

wanting to prevent Isaac from repeating the same missteps of

his father or being in a position where some of those

things could happen. And so he says plainly in

Scripture, he ties his blessing to Isaac, linking that blessing

to the land where his feet is standing, linking that blessing

to the land of Canaan. Stay here in this land.

Look at verse 3. And God says basically stay here

in this land, sojourn here and I will be with thee and will bless

thee. Folks, we might as well mean go

on and turn off the car. At that moment when you hear

that, God says you stay here, I'll be there with you and bless

you. We I don't need any other

explanation. If God says he's going to be

there, I'm good. If he says he's going to bless

there, I'm good. It's kind of like Moses later in

Exodus whenever they were leaving and he he came to a

moment, he said, Lord, he said if you go not with us, if your

presence go not with us, then I don't want to go.

He didn't care if the whole nation of Israel wanted to go.

He says, God, what it really comes down to are you going, are

you going to be a part of the trip?

If you're going to be a part of the trip, I want to be a part of

the trip. He was just saying, I don't want

to be anywhere where you're not. And I know God is everywhere,

but he says where, you know, the hand of God's blessings.

I don't, I don't want to, you know, bring something the

presence of God, say, OK, now God, you bless that.

No, just put me where he's already blessing.

So he says, I I want to be there.

And so that's, that's the mindset that God has here with

Isaac. And so there's, there's some

perks then to the obedience. You stay in the land, I'll be

with you. I bless you.

All right. It wasn't connected to his

movement. It was connected to him, staying

to him, abiding. Sometimes, sometimes God's

blessings is just learning how to be content in whatever state

you are. As New Testament scripture says,

it's not always the next flashy thing, the next new thing.

And sometimes we get caught up and we, I mean, there's

sometimes in walks with God. I mean that this is so fabulous.

It's just mind blowing. But there are other times that

you just got to learn how to walk with God.

It won't always be a run and it won't always be a shout and it

won't always be the mountaintop. You got to learn how to just

walk with God. Storm, rain, good bad, valley,

mountain. Just learn how to walk because

the proving of your relationship with God is in the walk.

The Bible says the New Testament Scripture, you know, we read all

the genealogies as we did earlier in the book of Genesis.

Don't worry, we're not going back there.

But that little, that little abnormal phrase that says, and

Enoch walked with God and was not.

We're like man. Yeah.

But note, it just describes it as he walked with God day in,

day out, Monday through Sunday, just a walk.

Oh, Brother McGee, it's not boring because he's with me and

he'll bless me. Amen.

And so then God continues his promises, though he begins to

promise to Isaac what he had already promised to Abraham.

He, he assures Isaac that the promises of his father would be

his. Again, he reiterates, I'll give

you these countries or these nations, your seeds going to

multiply like the stars in the sky.

And because you are a blessed people, your people's going to

be blessed by you, other nations around, you're going to be

blessed because of you. This is the exact same things

that God had spoke to Abraham, Isaac's father.

And note, though this is important Scripture, if you look

at this, that the Lord makes this sure to Isaac.

Look at verse #5 He says all these things that he had said

into Abraham in verse 5. He said because that Abraham

obeyed my voice, that's powerful.

He says all of this, that was Abraham's, He's dead now is now

yours because your daddy obeyed. Your daddy obeyed.

He said the promises are going to continue because your dad

obeyed. They're valid to you because

your dad obeyed. Look, look at these series that

God states here. He says you obeyed.

Note, note, note the pronoun. It's used over and over again.

He said my voice, my charge, my commandments, my statutes, my

laws. He says God, God obeyed all

this. My, my, my, my, my.

They were mine. And I know there's a new nuances

between these words like commandments and laws and

statutes and so on and so forth, but they're listed here for a

purpose. They're not synonyms.

For instance, a charge is something that that speaks a

personal responsibility or duty. A charge, a commandment, refers

to a specific directive. A statute implies enduring

principles or decrees. A law reflects an established

boundary or righteousness. He says your father kept these

things. All right, now let's think for a

moment. This is Genesis.

This isn't Deuteronomy. This isn't after Mount Sinai

where the law was given. This is Genesis before there was

a written law. Isaac's father Abraham were

keeping laws that would later be written law.

Wow. Now we know that God had

conversation with Abraham. We know that God told him about

circumcision and he kept those things, yes, but Abraham was

living out divine principles that were not written in stone

yet. But you know where they were

already impressed On his heart and mine, a man that was already

living in such a relationship with God that he was sensitive

to the likes and the dislikes of his God.

He didn't have to have a letter. He didn't have to have a manual.

No, he, he was impressed by God's Spirit, these laws and

commands and statutes and things before there was ever a Sinai.

And so we we see reflected in all these things and we've seen

this before already in Genesis. Genesis, from the moment of

creation forward, has stuff from creation that the law will later

have written in stone. For instance, a Sabbath.

Creation establishes that the law hasn't written, but creation

established it the the marriage being defined as one man and one

woman. Unity creation established that

the law will have it will have it written whenever you read of

Cain and Abel bringing offerings to the Lord.

Levitical law will establish that in in writing, but it it's

illustrated right there in the book of Genesis whenever you

read of Noah that he takes 2 of each kind, yes, upon the ark,

but he takes 7 of of of the clean birds fouls on kind.

And when we really find out, whenever they come off the ark,

the purpose is because there's going to be sacrifice.

When he comes off the ark, there's clean and unclean.

That language you don't usually see until Leviticus, but it's

established. What are these things?

There are these are things that that God without a written law,

he's already by just even creation itself.

The book of Romans even bears this out in Romans chapter 1 and

Romans 1 · chapter mention

verse 20. It says for the invisible things

of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen and being

understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power

in Godhead, so that that they are without excuse.

The writer of Romans is saying there are some things, Amen,

that we would say are invisible things that are concepts and

ideas that are made clear by what God has done in creation,

by how he he works in the affairs of men.

It's being known into mankind. And so here is God that they had

spoken some things to Abraham. But along with that, here is

Abraham with a God consciousness, right that he's

starting to pick up on things in his spirit.

There's promptings and awarenesses.

And as a result of that he didn't have to have a written

code, but he walked by revelation and by relationship

with God and he obeyed what he knew, Amen.

And when he failed, here's important follow me right here.

When Abraham failed, at least from what we can gather in

Scripture, he made restitution for his failure.

Everybody say repentance. Bible says Isaac, I'm giving you

all this because Abraham obeyed obedience doesn't mean that he

was flawless. Sister Angie, we read in his

life 2 occasions he was deceptive about his wife saying

that's my sister rather than given the full description that

and it was his half sister, but rather than the relationship he

was in at that moment with her. That's my wife deceptive about

Sarah. But he kept the law.

Just just follow me here for a moment.

Consider David for a moment, Brother Alex, immoral, a

murderer, yet he is described as the man that's after God's own

heart. Everybody go follow me just for

a moment. Because keeping the law doesn't

mean that we never break the law, but it means when we do

break the wall, wall law, that we do what is necessary to get

back good standing. Repentance is what we do when

we've been a law breaker. As a matter of fact, repentance

is a part of the law itself. That's the reason why it was

ordered to them and the book of Leviticus.

Sin trespassed these offerings called sin offerings and

trespass offerings. That was for the purpose of

making good what was wrong, what they had done wrong.

Repentance serves as that today. But all of that was a part of

law. So the repentance is a part of

the law. So if I try to walk and keep

God's commands and I do wrong, but I repent, I'm in keeping

with the law because repentance is a part of the law and it puts

me in proper standing with God concerning that.

Now, if you don't repent, if you don't repent, that's a different

story. You're walking in opposition to

God. You're not a law keeper because

you, you, you didn't die with him, if you will.

You didn't crucify that, if you will on the cross, Amen.

Whatever it was if you don't. But in the sense of repentance,

that is part of keeping the wrong law.

So whenever God looked at Abraham, he said he's been

obedient. Yeah, he's made some mistakes,

but he's also made those things right.

He's had contrition, he's had repentance.

He's made those things right. So because of his obedience,

these promises are going to continue upon you.

But the New Testament writer, the Apostle Paul, said it like

this in Galatians 2 and 20, he said, I am crucified with

Christ. I am crucified with Christ,

Christ crucifix on the cross. Amen.

He said I've stood where he stood.

I'm I'm going through a crucifix process, which in the New

Testament in order for us to be crucified with him is through

our repentance. That's how we're crucified with

Christ. And God then says they crucified

with me. I'm going to put them in good

standing. So much so in the Old Testament,

in the New Testament, you know what God says, he says their

sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more.

God chooses to do that. This is powerful to me because

sometimes it's people say it like this, God won't remember

your sins as though as he forgot their your sins.

But it's that God knows every one of our sins.

He just chooses not to remember them, which I think is more

powerful, huh. Because to forget something is

like accidental, right? I forgot my keys, I forgot my

wallet. I didn't mean to, but I did.

But to know where they are and to purposely leave them there,

that's a whole different scenario.

God, God's God's not somebody suffering from Alzheimer's.

He's not forgotten. He just chooses not to remember.

He chooses not to hold it over our head.

He chooses not to cause it to go in the scales against us.

He will remember our sins no more.

The Bible says in Micah 7/19. He will subdue our iniquities

and that will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

The rider of the Psalm says in Psalms one O 3 and verse 12, as

far as the east is from the West.

Have you ever reached the end of the east, Josh?

You ever went West and reached the end of it?

Of course not. You go so far West and then

you're starting to go E. You go so Far East and you're

starting to go West. It's like the Infinity circle.

You can't find the end of the east.

Says that's how far I've removed our transgressions from.

You can't find it. You can't find it.

And so that the covenant that was handed down to Isaac because

of Abraham, it wasn't because Abraham was flawless, that's

because Abraham was faithful. Perfection doesn't pass down

blessing or #1 there's no such thing as perfection.

But there is such a thing as repentance and being obedient

with repentance. God's not looking for those who

never fail. That would be a search of a

lifetime. One person said, I don't

remember who it was said. God doesn't use people who don't

fail because there's no such people around.

Amen. He's looking for those who know

how to get up, rebuild altars, and keep walking in faith.

Now look at this. So the Bible says the obedience,

and I think this is the powerful truth about it, Samantha, that

the obedience of Abraham became the blessing of Isaac.

The obedience of Abraham became the blessing of Isaac.

One generations faithfulness, Amaya created favor for the next

generation. Meaning then the covenant don't

expire with Abraham, but expands through his lineage to Isaac and

even to others. So every generation concerning

the promise was going to inherit a couple of things, promises and

patterns. Patterns, how they deal with the

trial and the turmoil in their life.

Abraham had showcased of how he dealt with some things in his

life. We're going to see in the book,

chapter 26, that Isaac a lot of times follows that pattern,

Sometimes, not always, but promises and patterns.

And so God wants us to keep the promise, but He's hoping that

from looking over our shoulder, we'll redeem some patterns.

What's your meaning? I'm saying just because mom and

dad may have made certain mistakes does not mean you have

to make the exact same mistakes. I know there's the concept.

Oh, there's generational curses. Well, no.

What we have, what we have is the learning capability of our

children speaking up on and capable of mirroring what we

have done in our generation. A curse seems as though it's

inevitable and they can't be changed, right?

But when we think of it in terms of patterns can change, then the

next generation can still have the promise and still face them

the very same things you faced, but react differently to what

they face in their generation from the way that you faced it

in your generation. We can learn, right?

They say they history is supposed to be a tremendous

teacher, right? We can learn from others

mistakes. Amen.

And so sometimes the the blessings of our children are

shaped by our obedience. Today, Abraham, some things are

going to continue because of your obedience.

And so how we handle this is important.

So what was it with Abraham that that that put this into play?

How did he handle my statutes, my commandments, my laws, my

judgment, so and so forth? So how we handle those things

today, how we handle those things today, what we'll put

into place, what type of situation, the promises in going

forward into the next generation, is it redeemable?

Can it be retracted? Absolutely.

But I'm just saying to the best of our ability as we stand here

in the now, we want to try to keep it as intact as possible.

That makes sense. Try to make it as intact as

possible. And so with all that being said

tonight, understand that that Isaac's story isn't just Isaac's

story. Isaac's story is my story.

The Isaac story is my story because he is a generation

that's living between famine and the possible fulfillment of the

promises of his father. He's living somewhere in between

and he's tempted in this moment, do I run or do I stay?

And that's where we find ourselves often times.

But we got to hear the Clarion call of God that says stay Sam.

You appreciate Sam, proud of her all over years.

But listen, there have been times in Sam's life she could

have ran. Have there been rough times you

out? Have there been times she's been

on fire and times that she's all of us.

But you know what The thing is, she stayed.

If you're going to have problems and doubts with God, it's best

you have those problems and doubts sitting right here than

you do out there. You want to struggle, struggle

right here. Anybody you want to struggle,

struggle right here. You huh, You're going to weak in

your faith, Be weak right here. Amen.

Nobody you're going to question your faith, question it right

here. Don't disengage, don't run.

That might be more problematic than you warn with it right

here, because as Isaac standing there wandering day after day, I

wonder when, who you know, when, when the food's going to come,

when the rain's going to come. At least he's standing right

where God said this is the land. I promise.

This is where I'm just going to hold on.

You know, maybe days when there wasn't anything coming from the

soul. Maybe he just picked up a hand

of soul and just kind of rubbed it through his fingers.

This is the land that God has promised.

This is where He's putting his name.

This is what he wouldn't have had that in Egypt.

Pick up that soul. There's nothing for that, but in

the promise he could there, he could go back and he will folks,

which is amazing here. Later in the chapter, he's going

to go back to some other wells, other places his dad has been,

other encounters where God has been.

He could do that being in the land of Canaan.

He wouldn't. There wouldn't have been that

connection in Egypt. He could go back to the same

spot where his dad put a shovel till they reached water.

He could say because he was in that land, this is the same

ground dad tread on. This is this is where they drank

from. He's not going to have that

connection in Egypt, So staying was important to him.

He had to learn to trust every generation.

It doesn't matter. We all got to learn to trust the

Lord for ourselves. The old saying used to be you

can't make it on the apron string of mom or the suit coat

of your daddy. It's true, you can.

Nor can you make it on the apron string or the suit coat of your

pastor. You can't.

Somewhere there will be a pivotal point in your life where

you'll have to trust God for yourself.

You'll be based upon the relationship that you have

forged with God. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

You'll be based upon that relationship, not anybody

else's, but the one that you have forged with God.

And the amazing thing about God is God isn't like we're going to

play leapfrog right here and we're going to skip Isaac's

generation. No, he didn't skip Isaac's

generation and he won't skip your generation.

He's looking for people that will plant themselves.

Amen. Even when the ground feels dry,

right? Even when there's no water to

speak of. Who?

Who we'll see even later next week and Isaac that says I'm

going to sow seed during famine. Seems like the most idiotic

thing a person could do. We're right here in the middle

of the famine. There's no water coming from the

sky, and you go sow seed. I can because God said he'd be

with me here and he'd bless me here.

So I'm going to do what looks unconventional.

The other thing used to be if you could accomplish on your

own, it's probably not faith. But if it takes God in order to

get it accomplished, it's probably faith.

I'm going to put this in the soil.

By all the standards of what's going on right now that should

fail if there's something welling up inside of Isaac by

faith on God's word of being with me and blessing me and put

it in the ground. And the Bible says in the same

year, you'll read it later in the text in the same year.

He reaped A hundredfold. Mind you, it's in the South of

of of Israel, which is Gerar, which is typically a dry place

to begin with. It's famine and he's getting a

hundredfold from the ground in that day for them, just even get

a 25% yield was quite a miraculous, but he's getting

100% yield. Amen.

Why? Because God says I'll be with

you and I'll bless you and I told you to stay and you stayed.

I'm really not supposed to be in all this.

The Bible says it gets such recognition of the Philistines

in the region that they envied. They envied Isaac.

You know what they're wishing. We wish we had the type of

outcome that you're having because we're in the same soil.

We're living right now in this area of Gerard, the same land,

but we're not seeing the same results, Isaac said.

I'm tell you the secret. God's with me.

God's bless me. My father obeyed.

I was handed down some promises and I plan on staying with a

pattern that can be passed on to my children.

I got to go. All right.

Amen. So, and I will, I'll finish up

here soon. So Abraham is known for building

altars. We're going to see that that's

carried out, right? Isaac, he, he builds some

altars. Jacob is going to build some

altars. It's amazing how you see this

process that started in a family pitching their tent, digging

wells. Matter of fact, you know what's

important? We'll get to a probably

mentioned in this chapter, maybe I'm just doing it all tonight,

but the order in which they did things, the first thing Isaac

does in this chapter later at Beersheba, is he builds an altar

before he pitches his tent. He builds an altar before he

digs a well. He gravitates toward the

spiritual aspect before he starts taking care of the more

practical being. Good old humans we are, son.

We're all about getting the home ready and getting the resource,

you know? No, he says.

Alter first, is it not been amazing?

I mean, folks, think about it for a moment.

In the book of Ezra, when are the nation of Israel is going

back to Jerusalem after being separated from it for 70 years

and it's all dilapidated and it's in ruins and all those

things. In the book of Ezra, what's the

first thing that they do? They build an altar before walls

and gates and all this other stuff before houses and homes

altar. It's prioritizing what is

essential and actually important because if you can get you an

altar, houses can be burned from that altar, another temple can

be burned from that altar. Please do not.

If we're getting here toward the end of the year about race star,

New Year, everybody's going to make their New Year's

resolutions. God, I'm going to pray all that.

Think about it again, prayer in the year 2026.

So however, again, I just don't have time to pray.

You don't have time not to pray. Every other thing in your life

can be contingent on your altar. You need walls and protection in

your in your life, your altar. You need God to work in your

family, your altar. You got diagnosis, your altar.

Amen. Well, OK, so Abraham had his

altar. This is what I want to say.

Among all that Abraham and his altar later in the generation of

Jacob, we're going to see that he had a ladder where angels

were ascending and descending in that vision.

But in between the Abraham and between the Jacob, between

Abraham's altar and Jacob's ladder was again an Isaac that's

bridging the two with his obedience.

He's seen what God had done, but he also wanted to see what God

could do in the future. If you'll stand with me tonight,

then I think God's simple word to us this evening is this.

Stay sojourned, so to speak. Trust, trust in the Lord.

Because here is the fact of the matter.

Parents, here's the fact of the matter.

The next generation is watching what you're doing with the

famine you're in. So let's redeem patterns of the

past, huh? Because God will make sure we're

faithful. God will make sure that the

promise doesn't stop with us, but rather that He'll cause it

to flow through us. Sometimes you got to be

somewhere between that famine and that fulfillment.

It's a tenuous place to be in, but it can also be a marvelous

place to see the handiwork of God in as well.

Everybody wants to see a miracle, but no one wants to see

anybody. Sick.

Miracles, healings, all these things only come about if

there's a problem. We want the, we want the, we

want all the, the fanfare of the miraculous by bypassing the

problem. But it's the problem that

necessitates the miracle. Well, glory, let's bow our heads

tonight. Father, I love you.

Oh God, help us tonight. God, help me, Lord as a pastor,

help me God as a father. God, I pray, O Lord Jesus, God,

how I handle Lord, God promises and how I handle Lord, even

statutes and judgments. Lord, today I have things

written, but there are still the impressions New Testament

scripture talks about. Lord God, the spirit of the law,

more so than the letter of the law, the spirit of the law

should still have impressions upon our hearts and upon our

minds for the ordering of our steps and the activities of our

life. I pray, oh God, today, help us

God, to have the staying power, God to hear the voice of the

Lord, to want to be where God said he would be God and where

God would have his blessing to flow.

Lord, I want to, Lord Jesus, to be in that arena and in that

space. Help me God, to handle sin.

Something down, God to those that are coming after me.

Lord, God that I've kept some things intact.

Lord that even if it is Lord in shambles, God, you have the

means of repairing it. But God, to the best of my

ability, I want to be able to transfer something.

I want to be able to hand down something.

I pray, O God, help me to live the way that you want me to

live. The Lord in my generation, in my

lifetime, in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray Hallelujah

and the church say Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

Folks, I know there's no way you'll remember all these names,

but just be praying for the church, all right, with all

these different ones missing sicknesses and recoveries and

travels and so on and so forth and pray, pray a prayer

protection over you that God keeps you healthy, Amen, And

strong Hallelujah. God bless you.

We'll see you on Sunday morning, all right, and Sunday night,

there is no extra activities this week.

There's no revival going on per SE, all right, as far as the

assembly here. So I pray that you have a

blessed, blessed week in Jesus name.

God bless you and and be sure to tell Ray Ray hello, Amen before

you leave tonight. Amen.