Genesis - Part 40 | Pastor Paul McGee

Is this house, God says where is this house that you've built me?

Fact of the matter is we can't contain him in any building.

Maybe the essence of who he is, but we can't contain him in just

any building. Not all the buildings of the

world would be able to contain the Lord, Amen.

That we're thankful tonight for him.

This coming Friday and Saturday is a music conference at Haven

Penny at Haven Pentecostal Church in Henderson, KY.

And so there's information of that back on our bulletin board

or if you have any questions about it, the Masons either set

could probably help you out in that regard as well.

So just be advised that also this coming Sunday is our fifth

Sunday, and we will be having Pastor Anthony Wilkes and his

wife with us in that service. And so we're looking forward to

that as well. Amen.

If we could turn to the book of Genesis, trying to for some

reason I can't get into my iPad that's just doing whatever it

is, but Genesis chapter #21. Be there, say Amen, and we'll

give this one more try. Use my other finger.

Now I should be able to have a code, but you know, everything

has its own mind sometimes. Take a picture of you and do

that. Maybe we get a group photo

going. I don't know, folks.

It is what it is. That's fine.

I'll teach off my phone. You can get it.

Yeah, that's fine. We're going to start.

That just is proving for like it seems like the past couple weeks

of my life. Matter of fact, let me hit AO

course right now. It's all right.

That's fine. You can bring it up here.

Ever my spirit, forever I pray. In fact, the lust below of love,

I'm singing peace, Peace. The wonderful peace, it's coming

down from the Father above sweep over my spirit forever, I pray.

In fact, the lust bellows a love.

One more time, Jesus, Oh peace, peace, oh wonderful peace.

Come me down from the Father above.

Sweep over my spirit, whoever I pray.

In fact, the blast below. Oh.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Lord, thank you for it.

God, when life's overwhelmed you, you'll hear, Pastor McGee,

if you're ever at this church and life's over, if you ever

come in this building, you hear me singing peace, peace around

here. You know it's in a fix.

I find great consolation in that old course.

Every time I sing it, I just feel that peace just come and

just laying like a dove on my shoulder.

Amen. Genesis, chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

Thank you, dear. Verse 15.

This is where we left off last week.

If you remember Abraham has ushered Ishmael into the hands

of Haggar his mother, and they have departed and they are

wandering in the wilderness. Start with verse 15.

The water was spent in the bottle and she passed the child

under one of the shrubs. She went and sat her down over

against him, a good way off as it were a bow shot, for she

said, let me not see the death of the child.

And she said over against him and lift up her voice and wept.

God heard the voice of the lad. The Angel of God called the

Haggar out of heaven, and said to her, What elith the Haggar?

Fear not, for God have heard the voice of the lad where he is.

Rise, lift the lad, and hold him in thine hand.

I will make him a great nation. God opened her eyes and she saw

a well of water, and she went, filled the bottle with water,

and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad, and he

grew and dwelled in the wilderness and became an Archer.

He dwelt the wilderness of Puran, and his mother took him a

wife out of the land of Egypt. That's where she was from.

We'll stop there for now This I had a hard time for a title

tonight. It's kind of generic to

encompass everything going to talk about my wife told me to

tell you I had to make it so generic because I talked about

the weaning moment last you know, week had to be generic

this week. Anyway, I want to talk about

God's plan for life and legacy. God's plan for life and legacy

in essence, what we've seen here again, the son of the flesh,

Ishmael, Abraham's and and and Hagar Abraham had certain means

of dealing with it, of course, at the advice of his wife Sarah

and endorsed by God, right and now Haggar, Haggar has a means

of, of dealing with it as well. Amen.

God's plan for life and legacy. Thank you Lord God for your

word. Thank you Lord for the truth of

your word. They are words to live by God.

They are words, God, that are instructional for our lives, if

we'll see them and accept them and such God will give the glory

for it in the name of Jesus Christ and I pray, Amen.

God bless you in the night, Jesus name.

Again, what have we left? Haggar and Ishmael.

Last week they were released. They released for many

obligations to Sarah and to Abraham.

Again, Haggar was a handmaiden or a servant of sorts, a slave

of sorts to Sarah. And so whenever Sarah asked that

Abraham would release both her Hagar and Ishmael, they were

then relieved of any obligations.

And along with being relieved of any obligations, they're

relieved of any perks that may have come with being a part of

the household of Abraham and Sarah way as well.

So the Bible says in verse 14 that they were sent away into

the wilderness of their sheba and they wandered there,

wandered there again, the word wandering tending to the

definition of like a stray animal or like a person who is

lost. They wondered in the wilderness.

And something that kind of struck me this week as I was

considering these verses of Scripture and just where we've

been this far, I went back to to Genesis chapter 16, where Sarah,

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

Sarah, at that moment it was Sarah, not Sarah, had dismissed

Hagar because after Hagar conceived Isaac, the Bible says

that Sarah picked up on that she was being despised in the eyes

of Hagar because now she had conceived.

And of course Sarah was unable to conceive that she was

despised. And whenever I see this, I see

that each time, both in Genesis 16 and in Genesis 21, that Sarah

or Sarah I has been instrumental in having Hagar leave or now

Hagar in Ishmael leave each time again, the first time in in

Genesis 16, she picked up on the disdain that it seemed like that

Hagar had toured her because now Hagar could have a child and,

and Sarah I couldn't. But now she has them leave

because she's picked up on Ishmael mocking of her son

Isaac, the promised son at, at the, at the weaning.

And so this this is interesting as a matter of fact, in in the

time when she dealt with Hagar alone with before Ishmael was

born in in Genesis 16, the Bible talks about Sarah dealing she

dealt harshly with Hagar. And now it talks about her

casting out Hagar and Ishmael. But here's what I'm getting at

as I'm saying all this in both of these episodes.

If there was disdain and if there was mocking in each

instance, Sarah never dealt with the attitude or addressed the

attitude. She only just expelled the

person. She never dealt with what was

going on. She just showed the person the

exit door. She never addressed what was

going on. She's like, let's throw out the

baby with the bathwater. Now let's just get serious for a

moment because that's easy to do.

My kids adopt something I said a long time ago, and it's from a

book that I read. The issues are issues and people

are people love people and deal with issues.

But it's easy sometimes to blur the line that if a person has a

lifestyle of an issue, that it becomes their identity, right?

And so I'm not sitting here with a big whip on Sarah.

I'm just saying I can see where that could happen.

All right? And I'm thinking tonight that

maybe, maybe part and parcel, that was some of Abraham's

struggle as he's telling Hagar and Ishmael that you all need to

move on your way because as he sent him away, perhaps he was a

munker, but maybe he had in the back of his mind, you know what,

We could have addressed the problem.

Instead, we're just getting rid of the people because for

everything, I'm just, I'm just talking a little bit right now.

It's just meandering. If for everything that someone

does wrong, they probably have some things that they've done

right too. In the New Testament the Greek

word sarts. Typically in our our New

Testament is translated as flesh has several meanings though and

you got to apply the meaning according to the context that

the word is used in. For instance, this same word can

mean a soft substance that's covers the bones or flesh.

It can mean the sensuous nature of man flesh.

It can mean the human or earthly nature of man that's apart from

God, that is prone to sin, flesh, all right.

It can mean all these different things.

So you got to see how it's used in order to know what it means.

I guess what I'm saying is this is that Ishmael's flesh or

literally his body, his body, he was literally flesh.

He had a body, all right, But he was also then in Galatians 4, as

Paul looked back upon this setting, the Scripture

representing as one that was born after the flesh, right?

Born after a not just a physical skin nature, but after a earthly

nature that's that's prone to to sin as well.

And so throughout Scripture I read in the New Testament that

we're constantly admonished as New Testament states, Saints to

mortify and it's not mortified the flesh, which the word

mortify means kill. It's not kill the flesh, but to

mortify the deeds of the flesh or the works of the flesh, Or we

might even talk about the desires of the flesh, the Bible

says in Romans 8 and verse 13. For if you live after the flesh,

you shall die. But if you through the Spirit do

mortify here it is the deeds of the body, ye shall live in all

that. I'm saying this, our flesh or

our literal bodies don't need to die to kill the sinful deeds of

the flesh. Ishmael was sent out.

But we find in the few settings of scriptures that we are in

that Hagar is seeing that perhaps he's struggling for

life, literally struggling for life.

His flesh did not have to die for the nature of the flesh to

die. And we all better thank God for

that because there would not be a living one among us, Amen.

Wouldn't be a living one among us.

The Bible says in Galatians 524. And they that are Christ or

belonging to him have crucified the flesh with the affections

and lust. Again, it's not your literal

body has been crucified, but it is those that nature of the

flesh, that sensuous part of man that is prone to sin, that part

of man has been crucified with the affections in the lust.

So the human body wasn't crucified.

Christ's human body was crucified.

Ours don't have to because his has, but that human nature was.

And so I say all this kind of the preface, what I'm going into

tonight, because without that clarity, sometimes we might be

confused why God would allow Ishmael to live in the

wilderness being a son of the flesh.

Why even allow him to live? He's Hagar, son of the flesh.

He's Abraham, son of the flesh. But here is a woman, and I

stated this last week as we was going to go into this week, Here

is a woman that's lost in the wilderness, aimlessly wandering

in the wilderness with Ishmael, the son of her flesh.

And so when we're talking about crucifix, crucifying the flesh,

the only crucifix we really need to be rallying around is the

death of the human earthly nature, not the human beings.

I guess what I mean? And all that is this.

Sometimes we can crucify the person rather than crucify the

deed. So there's been some time that's

passed already here in the wilderness.

All right. Evidently they've been here long

enough, however long. I don't know how long it took

Sister Sheila, but Abraham gave them a bottle of water and that

has now been spent. That has been spent at their

time here in the wilderness. And so Hagar is fearful now

about her son again. He's not a kid.

He's not sucking his thumb. He's about 16 to 17 years old.

But none the less, she is fearful about him surviving, and

she she places him under the shade of a shrub.

The Bible says to us in verse, skip the chapter here in verse

#15 that she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

And that word cast there is interesting.

It means any time that this word is used and the human body is

the object of the verb, any time he's used in the human body as

the object of the verb, it almost always is referring to a

lowering down of a dead body or a lowering down of a body into a

grave or a person into something that will become their grave.

So that underscores then how determined that Hagar was that

this guy is eating away. He's he's, he's going to die.

She cast him under that shrub of the shade of a tree.

And so God here begins not as though he hasn't, but he's doing

a work in the wilderness. And this is the way that,

listen, you can go through your Bible.

It'd be a good little topical study for you and look at God,

the different times that He's moved concerning his people in

the wilderness or wilderness situations.

In Genesis, again, chapter 16, Hagar was disdain, Amen.

Disdaining Sarah because she felt, of course, unseen.

Now she was conceived and pregnant, so she's disdaining

Sarah. But again, God had her at that

moment flee into a wilderness where while she was there, He

stripped her of all of this sense of being abandoned by

humanity and not seen by anyone. And it was there in the

wilderness. Then she came to that

conclusion. You are the God who ease me.

He reframed her, thinking a man and she returned to Sarah to

serve under her, knowing that God had seen her.

You look at the 40 years of wilderness journeys of the

nation of Israel in the wilderness.

Here they are while they're in the wilderness.

It exposes their unbelief. It exposes they're grumbling and

they're murmuring. That's happening all the time.

It exposes their rebellion while they're in the wilderness, but

it also teaches them to depend upon God.

They have to wait each day for manna from heaven and water that

would come from a flintstone, and they're going to have daily

guidance. And when the Spirit of the Lord

moves from the Tabernacle, they move.

It also was a place where they learn to depend upon God.

Moses in the backside side of the desert, his wilderness,

Midian wilderness, a Midian experience on the backside of

the desert. It prepared a Moses to be a

humble deliverer, shepherd for Israel.

That happened in the wilderness. And even when we read about

Elijah, we see him take a day's journey into the wilderness, and

it's there that he's empowered. He went in there as a

discouraged prophet, a prophet that's really requesting God

just take my life. But in that place he was

empowered that that that that just disappointed, discouraged

prophet was empowered to listen to God and to leave that place

in the continuing ministry. And from there he would go and

anoint some key people amends for some future things.

A man that his ministry wasn't over and all that shifted right

there in a wilderness. In the wilderness, David finds

himself in The Cave of a Dulum and all kinds of people that are

in debt, discourage and like the four DS show up, you know, just

not a ragtag group of people, but it's there.

His leadership, his leadership skills are really honed right

there in that aspect in place. And so wilderness, typically

through scripture are places where God redirects people.

It's where he can reorientate our our perspectives.

And he does the same here with with Hagar.

Hagar is sure that Ishmael is dying or death is around the

corner. And you can only imagine as a

mother, she's feeling hopeless, right?

The water is spent. There isn't any around that she

she sees. And so as a result of Sister

Grace, she don't want to see her baby die.

She lays him under the shrub and she goes like 50 to 100 yards.

That's a bow shot 50 to 100 yards away from him.

Because she don't want to. She don't.

You know, you've heard some people, you know, I just want

to, I don't want to go to the hospital and see such and such

that's on their deathbed. I just want to remember them as

they are, right? And so here she's not wanting to

be, she was there when the baby was born.

She don't want to be there because she don't want to take

in and consume what he's going to be like whenever she dies.

She can't, she's not able to bear this.

So she even says, she cries out to the Lord, Lord, Lord, let me

not see the death. She says in verse #16 let me not

see the the death of the child. And here she is.

She's feeling powerless to change any of this.

We're at a circumstance right here that only God can change.

Only God can change. She wept, the Bible tells us in

verse 16, right? She lifts up her voice.

She wept, the Bible says. But evidently she has not wept

alone because the last sentence of verse 16 says, look at it

now. And she sat over against him and

lifted up her voice, or lift up her voice and wept.

Look at verse #17 and God heard the voice of the she's the 1

weeping. But God has heard the voice of

the lad. God's heard the voice of the

lad. Now, the only way that this can

come about here, we have no record in Scripture that Ishmael

cried out. We have no record of that.

We're told that Haggard wept, and we're told that perhaps

Ishmael may have been crying too, because God heard the voice

of the lad, whether he literally cried out or if it was the

musings of his heart and mind. We talked about that before here

too, in the past 40 weeks. All right, whether he heard that

nonetheless God was included into the voice of Ishmael.

Now just just just walk with me here a little bit.

I looked up this word voice. I looked it up in the ancient

Hebrew lexicon of the Bible, and it gives the old pictographs

like this real, real ancient Hebrew, right?

The pictographs like pictures and so the picture for the word

voice in Hebrew going from right to left was the picture of a

circle with a line through it, which was like a sun at the

horizon. And then the picture of a staff,

which they don't show the staff like curved up, but they show it

like AJ curved down a staff and the the the lexicon or said this

it said the picture graph is a picture of the sun at the

horizon. The gathering of the light and

the picture of the shepherd's staff representing authority

said combine these gathering to the staff.

When the shepherd called the sheep, they swiftly came to him.

That's interesting to me because God heard the voice of Ishmael.

God heard the voice, if you will, of a if I put it in terms

like this of a young man, a young lamb that was gathering to

his staff or his authority. If I put in terms like this,

when we talk about the son of our flesh, He was at a place of

surrender. He heard the voice, the

gathering of Ishmael. We have all these different

variables of the wilderness, all these different things no doubt

had help influence Ishmael to get to where he is.

Lack of water lost in the wilderness.

I've noticed personally that my flesh cries out sometimes

whenever certain circumstances are going on.

When nothing else can reach my flesh circumstances, they'll get

just right and there will be a gathering of my flesh that would

normally not want to have anything to do with God nor God.

My flesh then starts gravitating toward him.

And so God heard the voice of the lad and this say what you

will tonight. Maybe it's just basic force to

see but that's OK. The Bible says he heard look in

verse 17. He God have heard the voice of

the lad. He told to Hagar where he is.

That's simple, Brother Mason. But God heard the voice of, of

of Ishmael right where where he is, right in his present

situation. God heard the gathering of his

voice to his authority right where he was at.

What are you saying the night, brother?

Yeah, I'm saying this. I want people to come to church

and I want them to cry at an altar and repent with contrition

and all that. But can I tell you that long

before they ever arrive here, God hears their voice that's

gathering in His direction right from where they are.

Before they've ever stepped a foot in the building, there's

already been a gathering of their cry to Him, right in the

middle of their mess. Amen.

And so he's crying out to God. God hears him right there where

he is tethering of his voice in that direction.

That weak voice, that hopeless voice, that a strange voice.

And Haggar, she may not have picked up on Ishmael's voice,

but God had. God had heard it right.

Notice she's might just a distance from him, but it

doesn't even tell us that she picked up that she heard the

voice, but God heard the voice. I have great comfort tonight

that whenever other humans don't hear my me crying out to God,

that God hears me crying out to God.

Whenever we don't pick up on the crying of somebody, so that God

picks up on the crying of somebody.

So it had not gone unnoticed by God.

And they're in a predicament right now.

They are totally isolated from the rest of society in this

wilderness, but God knew where they were.

He hears us where we are, whether it's despair, whether

it's sin, whether it's the wilderness moments, He hears us

where we are again. He met Elijah in his despair,

and Gideon in this fear, and the widow of Sarah Path and her

poverty. All these things God met them

where they are. He met Peter and his failure.

He met the apostle Paul in his weakness.

He meets them all where they are.

Because I find in my life that God often meets me in the point

of my need, not necessarily the point of my strength.

My neediness draws God. Not when I have it all put

together. So God told Abraham, you'll

remember last week God told Abraham that Ishmael was going

to become a nation. But we don't see that Haggar was

in on that telling. She don't know, just like other

times God told Abraham about Sarah having a son and Sarah

wasn't around. He says Ishmael is going to be a

nation. Hagar's not aware of the

conversation. He's not.

He's not even giving her instructions like we find in in

verse #18 where he told her to rise, lift up the lad and hold

him in thine hand. We don't read that prior until

right now, not until the flesh had cried out and there was a

recognition. I want you to follow this

tonight, that there was a recognition and really a

surrender and submission to the Shepherd's authority in that

moment. And it was them based upon that,

that he says in verse 18 to Haggar, arise, lift up the lad

and hold him in thine hand. For if I say for or because of,

he's given us the why, why, why should I do this?

Lord, I will make him a great nation.

I'll make him a great nation. That the amplified says, Arise,

lift the Ishmael and support him with your hand.

I'm going to make him a great nation.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. What's going on here?

Sometimes we view flesh is just flesh, but when you have

submitted flesh, that submitted flesh may unlock a potential

destiny, Amen. Abram already heard he would be

he would be a nation, but now this boy is went to a place of

crying out. God's heard his voice.

There's some type of submission that's going on here.

And now God's saying Haggar, he says go over, don't stay

separated from him. Go over and support him, if you

will, with your hand, because he's going to be a great nation,

Amen. But it's it's amazing sometimes

how we act differently, the people or the things when we

understand the plans God may have for them.

The leadership gurus say this always view everybody with a #10

above their head. On the surface they may look

like a low down good for nothing, but you're not to see

them as they are. You're to see them as they can

be. In other words, Haggar, while

you're laying what very frail, weak thing over underneath the

shrub. If you knew that was going to be

a great nation, how much would you fight for it?

If you knew it was going to cry out just a few moments later in

submission to the King, right, with a recognition of the

authority, how much would you how much would you try to work

with it in a submissive state? I know I don't want to deal with

nothing that's unsubmitted. Yeah, but if it becomes

submitted, it could unlock a potential that's on site.

I've told you before, I believe God has destiny for everybody in

this world. There's something on their life.

But what will lock or unlock it is their point of submission to

the higher power. Thou either bind it up or thou

set it free. Amen, He said.

Here, here's the Son in the flesh.

It's got submission. It's recognizing me.

It's submission, she says. I need you now to support it.

I need you to support it with your hand.

Amen. I know he looked weak and frail.

He's the perishing boy before, but now he's the seed of a great

nation. You've just learned, huh?

There's some, there's some God potential that's here now that

he submitted. You can't do anything with flesh

unless it's submitted. Old coal miner, preacher, right?

What was his name? But Russell, They've all stated

here 1000 times before. You can cast demons out, but you

can't cast out the flesh. You speak to a demon on the

authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and it can go.

You can't do that with flesh. Flesh has a will, and it has to

bend its will into submission. Amen.

So I believe there's destiny for everybody, but whether it lives

or dies, or whether it grows, or whether it lies dormant, it's

all at that point of submission. Some, some of us at times have

been driven by the deeds of the flesh, the works of the flesh,

like Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit.

But the works of the flesh are spoken of there too, The works

of the flesh, right? All these different things,

we've been driven by them, Huh? An amazing thing to me.

The Bible says after she had done this in verse 19, that God

opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

This was my mind, because the way Scripture even reads almost

it's not as though the well was never there.

It's as though the well had always been there.

Now her eyes are open to the well.

Well's there all along, but now God has her eyes open to see the

well. After she supports the submitted

flesh. After she supports that her eyes

are open to the well, it's almost as though she couldn't

even see the established well until she understood the

potential of that impoverished, impoverished flesh laying under

the shrub of a tree. God opened her eyes though, the

Bible says to both. She seen both the child then for

what he could be and also saw the well.

And the Bible says she gave him drinks.

She nourished him. I guess I say all this because I

think sometimes we've always just painted the Ishmael as some

evil that's deserving of death. His mockery needed to die.

And yes, there had to be a separation to preserve the

Isaac. But that's not to say there were

some redeemable qualities whenever flesh becomes

submitted, where all of us would be a dead end.

Verse 20 says God was with the lad.

What? Yes, God was with the lad.

And Hagar found him a wife from her people.

She was an Egyptian herself. And the Bible talks about how he

grew and he grew where? Right there in the wilderness

and he become a skilled person with the bow.

Well, you pastor, I'm saying let's be careful about riding

people off that they're unworthy of greatness or they're unworthy

of blessing or they're unworthy of XYZ.

Because the fact of the matter, God may be hearing their

yearnings before your ear is even heard it.

If, if you could think, if you knew everybody's origin story

and we wrote them off based upon where they started, you would

have stolen yourself from some great missionaries and

evangelists and pastors and. Let's go on.

We got to go, right? We're going to finish up chapter

21, probably verse 22. And it came to pass at that time

that Abimelech, remember he was just in the last chapter.

Remember the whole she's not my sister, my wife scenario

favorite Abimelech and Picole, the chief captain of the his

whole spake and I'm going to just keep reading unto Abraham

saying God is with thee and all that thou doest now, therefore

swearing to me here by God that that will not deal falsely with

me nor with my son nor with my son's son, but according to the

kindness that I have done unto thee.

Perhaps he's referring to you know the episode in the last

chapter you got your wife back. Everything was well.

I didn't touch her so and so forth.

Thou shalt do unto me unto the land wherein thou has sojourned.

And Abraham said, I I will swear.

And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water,

which Abimelech servants had violently taken away.

And Abimelech said, I want not who have done this thing.

Neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it but

today. And Abraham took sheep and oxen

and gave them to Abimelech, and both of them made a covenant.

And Abraham set 7 new lambs on the flocks of the flocks by

themselves. And Abimelech send to Abraham,

What mean these seven new lambs, which thou has set by

themselves. And he said, For these seven new

lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness

unto me, that I have digged this well.

Wherefore he called that place Beersheba, because there they

swore both of them. Thus they made a covenant air

Beersheba, that Beersheba. Then Abimelech rose up and

picoll the chief captain of his host, and they returned to the

land of Philistines. And Abraham planted the Grove

and Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the

everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned in the

Philistines land many days here by saying it came to pass and it

came to pass at the time. It's almost as though back to

the previous chapter if you will, in chapter #20 that

wherever Abraham when he prayed for Abimelech healing and his

wifes healing and all of his maidservants healing, that their

womb would be opened up, if you'll recall that their wounds

were healed and they were then able to bear children.

And this also still seems to all be in the same setting.

And it came to pass at the time. This is the same setting then

when Isaac was born and given to Abraham and Sarah.

And this seems to be the same setting.

Amen Of that taking place of when Abraham and Sarah are in

this position of Gerar and Bear Sheba.

Now location here. All of this happened at the same

time that Abimelech has been set back.

With Abraham and Sarah in his land.

And he has been observing all of this.

He's been observing how God opened the wounds of his own

people by the prayer of Abraham. He is observed how God has

opened up Sarah's own womb after 25 years of it being shut.

He, he's observed, if you will, how Abraham has handled a very

delicate situation with with Ishmael and Sarah, Sarah and

these things. How he's handled all of this

involving his household. He's taken all this in, and so

it seems during the same setting of preserving Isaac, the

promise, and dismissing Ishmael and all these things that

Abimelech exclaims these words here in the Scripture.

He says God is with thee, and verse 22, God is with thee and

all that thou do us. He's an outsider.

He's not, He's not of the House of Israel.

He's an outsider, yet he can see the divine favor on Abraham's

life, on Abraham's choices, on Abraham's decision.

And what he picks up on, probably quite greatly, is this.

He sees that Abraham has some peace with God, and so he,

abimelech wants some peace with Abraham because Abraham has

peace with God. Amen.

The Bible tells us a New Testament scripture in the book

of Hebrews 12/14. As much as it lies within us, we

should live. Anybody know the next word?

Peaceably with all men? That's a horse pill to swallow.

It's not as much as lies within us.

We should live peaceably with all of our family or all the

people that live in our household or all the people that

we like, all the people that we're friends with, all men.

The last verse tells us that Abraham's going to be sojourning

in this area for many days. Folks, you want a sense of

friendliness if you're going to be living among some folk for a

while. I don't know when's the last

time you've been forced into a house that with a bunch of

people that you might not know very much.

I've been there. We do it almost every time when

we go to prison. A lot of them repeatedly go, but

we've all shared one house. You going to have some

friendliness or the Hatfield and the coy's going to break out.

Amen. But Abimelech, he wants peace

with Abraham because he, he, he realizes Abraham has peace with

God and he wants the spillover of Abraham's peace with God.

See, Abimelech has figured out what, what, what Potiphar

figured out about Joseph. Now I'll make him a steward in

my house and he has favor with God.

And if his God cup favor gets too full, he being in my house

is going to spill over on me. Hey, man, look at it.

Genesis 39. This is going forward.

Look worth jumping chapters of Genesis, brother Reese, mark it

down the calendar. Genesis 39 verse #2 And the Lord

was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in

the House of his master, the Egyptian.

That's referring to Potiphar. And his master saw, look, he's

picking up on this, that the Lord was with him and that the

Lord made all that he did to prosper in his land.

Like that's somebody I need to get to know.

That's somebody I need to be friends with.

Seems like what they touch turns to goat.

I need them to touch some of my stuff.

The Lord made all that He did to prosper in his hand.

Verse 4. And Joseph found grace in his

sight, in the sight of this Master, and he served him, and

he made him overseer. The Master made him overseer

over all his house and all that he had put into his hand.

Look at verse 5. And it came to pass from the

time that he had made him overseer in his house over all

that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for

Joseph's sake. And the blessing the Lord was

upon all that he had in the house and in the field.

What is that part of it says? I want to, I want to make peace

with this man because he has peace with God.

I want to find favor with this man because has favor with God.

And if God gets, you know, so much favor on him, he needs to

put it somewhere else. I want to be close to him.

And so Abimelech requesting of Abraham that he would be kind to

him. They're going to make a

covenant. They're striking some swearings.

And I'm not talking about curse words, OK, oaths.

And they're going to be kind to him and his descendants during

his stay in the land, right? And that he would be kind to his

land. It's not just the sense.

He's also his land. And that makes sense.

If Abraham's going to be staying in the land, he should treat the

land good because he's going to benefit from the land that he's

treating good. I said a long time ago, I

preached A sermon here called Harvest and seeing talking about

indigenous people and they started wrecking their land and

they make this quote. I just want to share it again

because it still sticks in my mind.

They said that it's hard to survive if you degrade the land

that gives you life. So when you go treat the land

good because that same land is what's going to feed you while

you're there, that same land going to help you.

You could do it. It may not be quote UN quote

what you really call home, but it's home for now.

Let's go to the prophet will we prophet Jeremiah 29 seven.

This is Jeremiah talking to all those exiles that take it away

the Babylon away from home. But this is Jeremiah's

admonition. He says and seek the peace of

the city. Whether I've caused you to be

carried away. Captives, wait a minute, breaks

on. I'm being taken away from my

home in Jerusalem. I'm going to be a captain

Babylon. And you're saying seek the peace

of that city, Babylon. Yeah.

And he goes on and says pray unto the Lord.

This is his admonition to them. Pray unto the Lord for it.

What? I've been taken away by these

low down good for nothings. They don't believe like we

believe. I have all this stuff and you're

telling me to pray for this and pray for them and seek the peace

of this place. He says pray unto the Lord for

it, for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace.

He said that's where you'll be living for the next 70 years.

That's where you'll be living for the next 70 years.

That might not be home, but that's where you're at right

now. And as you seek the peace of

that place and pray for that place, the boomerang effects

going to come back because that's where you're currently

living. So you can bowed mouth the world

all you want. Somebody hear me right now.

And you and bad mouth the city of Mount Carmel, you want that

might not be home right now, but that's where you're living.

And you need to seek the peace of this community.

And you need to pray for this community because this is where

you're certainly stationed at. It's going to have enough.

I'm not sitting up here charging everybody to hell.

No, brothers and sisters, we need to be seeking the peace of

the community in which our feet are planted, where we live, get

our groceries, go to work. Mason, what would it do for an

outsider like Abimelech to see some of you have peace with God

here and then say, you know what?

I'd like to have peace with them and know them because I like

what I see that they have with something.

But you'll never have that if you don't seek the peace of

where you're at. Not only the Bible says, because

the Bible says here, let me find it, bless it, assurance.

Look at verse #22 this is what this is what it been like said

to Abraham, God is with thee. You know, there's something very

similar to that new test description book Acts chapter #4

with Peter and John, the lame man scenario.

Remember they brought before the people and Acts chapter #4 the

governors and those of high rankings.

And they said with these, these be ignorant man.

But they said these men have been what with Jesus?

That's the way it was said, Newton says.

They've been with Jesus here in the Old Testament.

It says an outsider recognized. Not only so it tells me that not

only can people tell if you've been with Jesus, they can tell

whether God is with you. He's an outsider, the outsider,

he said. But I perceive that God's with

you. How I've been sitting over here

observing while you've been in my land.

I've seen my own family healed, you prayed.

I've seen your own wives open up after 25 years of bareness, and

I've seen how you've handled difficult situations in your

home. I perceive, honey, you don't

listen. It's great.

And you need to have a Bible study turn.

You need somebody, a Bible study.

But your Bible study's never going to be any more effective

or loud than the way that you live your life.

It will either support what you say from that Bible program or

it will contradict. 2nd Corinthians told us we'd say

this all the time. He said ye are epistles 3 things

written, known and read, written, known and read by all

men. Your epistles written, you're

known and read by all men. How they how they read that

again? How do you treat others?

How do you handle stressful situations?

There's even a better one. How do you handle blessings,

God, not just how you handle stress.

How do you handle being blessed? You're arrogant, egotistical.

God. Brag about it.

Well, God, I'm done going home right now, huh?

Then they can pick up gods with you based upon all this type of

stuff. God is with.

God is with you. I've seen how you handled

Ishmael and that whole Sarah situation, how you manage that

conflict and that tense situation.

Your life's been speaking loudly, Abraham, before you ever

opened your mouth. So Abraham and the Biblic

entering a covenant, he's got peace with God.

I want to have peace with him, you know, but let me have a

share of the deal. And so that's the reason of

Scripture. We see animals come into play.

Maybe they were possibly for sacrifice.

And there's an exchange of gifts.

And again, there's some swearing of oaths that are taking place.

And after Abraham swore, after Abraham swore, he says I will

swear. And Abimelech's been talking

about now be kind to me and my sons and my sons, sons and sons.

You know, he's getting all the generations covered.

Be kind to me in the land. Then look here.

Abraham reproved, Abraham reproved, he rebuked, he

corrected Abimelech. All because of something that

was going on with a well he had dug.

Abraham brings up the whole wells situation.

I dug it. There's some of y'all folks that

took it violently from me, cast a little shadow on this whole,

you know, loyalty agreement thing.

You know, it's about ready to shake down here.

But Abraham goes there nonetheless.

Because they're talking about all these terms of the peace

that they're going to live with, right?

Abraham says. Why I need to bring this up?

And in that I say this and please hear me and don't

misunderstand or misconstrue me. But living peaceably with others

also doesn't mean you have to be a doorman or ignore injustice.

We can pursue peace and yet do as maybe what should have been

done with Ishmael, address issues without writing off

people. Amen.

Because real, real peace, it's going to require some openness,

but it's also going to require understanding.

Most things when you talk about conflict, things like that rise

and fall on the point of understanding, misunderstanding

understand. I, whenever before I ever redid

my office, I had a little little small, little square piece of

paper. I, I had three words on it up

there as a constant reminder for me that said, seek to

understand. Seek to understand.

Because people come to me with all kinds of garbage sometimes

or there's garbage that I observe and rather try and

interpret on this side. I say, God help me to understand

because it might not be all as it seems.

And other times it's just exactly as it seems.

So after Abraham has cleared the air about that, the Bible says

they they made a covenant. So look, here's two adults.

Here are two adults that could work through an issue They're

not even of the same faith. Here are two adults that could

work through an issue about a well that had been violently

taken. Abraham brings his seven U's as

a witness of proof that I did dig the well.

We're going to come to agreement that I did dig this.

This is mine. They were able to come to

agreement and they didn't walk away home.

So if we on that go burn your own offering, you know, make a

no covenant with you. No, they made a covenant.

They are able to work, pass their indifference, their

misunderstandings, because Abimelech says.

This is the first I heard of this today.

I didn't even know about this. You didn't even tell me about

it. Can we just stop for a moment?

How many times do we have conflicts where we're expecting

the other person to read our minds?

We are upset at them because they don't know what we're

thinking. Paper him sitting over there.

That's my will. Abimelech don't know, can't

believe he's doing that. That's my will.

He should know that. Not saying a word though.

Sometimes we think because we have knowledge, it's public

knowledge or that we know something.

Everybody knows It's not the case.

Again, from my experience just on this side, shortness of my

life and what I've been exposed to, there's a lot of conflicts

that just come down to understanding.

But we're ready to shoot all six out of the barrel because they

should know my mind for how I feel.

Oh God, I almost feel like a therapy session here.

I'm not a therapist or the son of a therapist.

So they was able, though, to make a covenant.

Abraham gave, gave the testament that it was his.

They went away. Beersheba means well of oath or

or well of sevens. It kind of applies to both

aspects there with the seven ewe lambs that came about, what

happened here? I'm coming to the end.

I know I'm dragging the lake here.

The Bible says after all this scenario, Abraham gives this

name and that he also plants, the Bible says a Grove in verse

#33 he plants a Grove and he called on the name of the

everlasting, the everlasting God, the eternal God.

He plants. What they call this Grove was a

tamarisk tree, a tamarisk tree. Let me tell you a little bit

about tamarisk tree. We'll close this up.

A tamarisk tree is a tall shade tree.

When it is grown, it has deep roots and it needs a little

water to survive. They say it will survive where

most other trees will wither. It grows, mom.

This is how fast? About an inch per year.

But they say they're almost impossible to uproot once

they're established. They grow slow, but when it's

over, they'll have become big. They say this is the same for

the tamarisk, and it's common to some sayings that we even hear

today. They say you plant a tamarisk

tree for the next generation, not yourself.

Abraham's going to stay at Beersheba for many days back

whenever the Lord told him I'm I'm your exceeding great reward

and Abraham says, but God, what are you going to even give me

because I don't have a offspring.

Anything you give me. I don't have anybody to give it

to after me, except maybe the steward of my house.

Abraham back in that day probably wouldn't be planting no

tree like a tamarisk, but he's at a different juncture in the

road today. Not only was he promised a son,

there's a little boy he could go get and put right in his arms as

he's digging the hole for that tree.

It's not for himself. It's for generations to come.

His son will benefit from that tree.

If I didn't say like this, Abraham in many ways was leaving

the legacy both through the well and through the tree.

And the Bible says, look, he was proclaiming Bishop, the name of

the Lord, the everlasting, the eternal God calling up in the

name of the Lord. Again, name.

Whenever you talk about name, you're talking about reputation,

you're talking about nature. He's calling all the reputation

and the attributes of the everlasting God here upon this

spot. And I can't help but also think.

And it's interesting, this again, nice little topical study

for you as you go through the Bible and look at trees.

I can't but think that maybe Abraham is heralding back all

the way to the Garden of Eden, which had a garden that had many

trees in it, evidently because they could eat of every tree in

the garden. Except heralding back.

Heralding back to the paradise, the Eden, the fellowship with

God, the blessing of reproduction, all the things.

Just going to plant a little tree right here.

Amen. As a reminder for me and

generations to come, God's plan for life and legacy.

I know that's generic. Just stand with me.

Anyhow, remember our heads today.

I wonder if we could just start talking to the Lord.

And there's just so much stuff just in chapter 21 that we've

just already looked at that has so much application to our

lives. How we deal with the flesh, how

Abraham dealt with it in its unsubmissive state, how Haggard

dealt with it in its submitted state.

So many different things. The peace, the way that we live

our lives, so many different things.

God, I pray, O Lord, tonight, help me Jesus, God, to adopt the

plans of scripture. God, for the plans of my life.

Tell me God, I pray, Lord, for understanding.

I pray God for understanding. God as I live from day-to-day.

Lord, among others that may not be like me, Lord Jesus may not

be like me at all, but Lord, will they be able to witness

that God is with me? Will the baby be able to witness

that God is with me? I pray, oh Lord, Holy Ghost,

help me, help me. God with hands, The Lord Jesus

of diligence, the Lord to handle issues and people.

Lord God in two classifications, The Lord in two classifications

that handle each. I pray, oh Lord, today, God, I

pray Jesus today that you would help me, Lord, to support God,

to support those things. The Lord that on the surface and

Lord from the standpoint of now, they seem frail, they don't seem

noteworthy, but God, there is destiny, Lord upon their lives,

God and in their submissive state that can unlock that

destiny. Help me, Lord, to be supportive,

the fan, the flames, God of submitted, Lord, God, people and

submitted aspects of people's lives, God that can grow into

something, Lord, meaningful Lord Jesus, even in the Kingdom, help

me God. Help me to have an awareness.

God, I don't want to stick my head in the sand.

I don't want to think Lord Jesus, that God, the way that we

just handle one thing is the way that you we handle everything

God as though they're all the same.

But God, they all have their nuances and they all have their

Lord differences and they all have Lord, their little Lord

Jesus, things that are not exactly like the other.

Help us Lord to take it. God taste by case.

Help us, O Lord, help us, O Lord, today God help us to be

wise. O Lord, help us to be wise.

Give us knowledge and understanding, O Lord, and the

affairs of this life, God, with people or the faith people not

so part of the faith. Help us, God, to be your

representatives, Lord, in the earth Ambassadors, I pray, O God

in the earth, God, let them know that we have spent time with you

and that you go with us. I pray, O God, let there be, let

that not be disputed. Let that be known.

Let that be clear. I pray, O Lord Jesus, today,

touch your people in this week. Lord, as they go their separate

ways. I pray God, you would empower

them. Help them, Lord, to be the salt

and the light Lord of the earth. Lord Jesus, in this hour, God,

if we've ever we needed it, we need it today.

I pray in the lovely name of Jesus Christ, let the peace over

shadow us. In your name, Amen and Amen.

The church say Amen, Hallelujah and Amen.

God bless you tonight. Remember Haven Pentecostal in

Henderson, KY, Friday and Saturday, opportunity Sunday

here in the morning. Pastor Anthony and Sister Lisa

Wilkes will be with us and they'll be a blessing to you.

I know, Amen. God bless you.

Have a great week. Amen.

Let God go with you.