Covenant With Enemies

Morning, church.

Morning.

Scripture reading is Genesis 26, 23 through 33.

From there he went up to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.

So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's servants dug a well.

When Abimelech went to him from Jarar with Ahusath, his advisor, and Fekal, the commander of his army, Isaac said to him, Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?

They said, We see plainly that the Lord has been with you.

So we said, Let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you, and have done you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.

You are now the blessed of the Lord.

So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths, and Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.

That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water, and he called it Sheba.

Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

And uh before we get started, uh and I've got a couple of announcements, thought it would be appropriate for us to uh pray for the conflict in Ukraine, the particularly the church.

Um uh here we are on a Lord's Day.

And um uh I remember like you remember the strangeness of when COVID just started.

We were like, do we meet?

Where do we meet?

And there's all the complexity regarding that.

And then you imagine what that must be like in the middle of a war for the church to gather.

So let's pray for them.

Holy Father, we lift up to you, our brothers and sisters uh on the other side of the world in the midst of a um immense tragedy.

Lord, we know that you draw close, you are an ever-present help in times of trouble.

Lord, who else can we appeal to but you?

The some of the highest authorities in the world seem to have gone mad, but they are not the highest authority in the world.

Lord, so we come to you in confidence, knowing that you are King of Kings, Lord of Lords, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you.

Lord, we pray for peace and for a resolution.

Lord, we pray for strength and encouragement, especially for our Christian brothers and sisters uh in the Ukraine in the midst of this conflict right now.

Holy Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

A couple of announcements.

The If Gathering is a women's uh conference that we are hosting as a church.

It is uh an uh it's like a streaming conference, um, but you come here and you you don't just like watch it on your own computer at home.

You come gather together here and watch the uh conference together, and there's the times to talk and all sorts of things.

Anyway, the last year it seemed to be really wonderful and really wonderfully received.

So uh you can sign up.

That's that's this next weekend, March 4th and 5th.

Um, and you can sign up in our app.

Uh just go to the app calendar and uh sign up for the if gathering.

And then that next Sunday, if you're a member at Redemption Church, then we're having a members' meeting.

They are mandatory, whatever that means.

Um you'll go to detention if you miss.

Uh so the members' meeting will be uh that Sunday immediately following the service.

So that's March 6th.

And also coming up on March 11th, we are joining together with a church that meets downtown called Emmaus.

And we are having a worship night on March 11th.

So that church and our church are gonna join together, and that worship leader and our worship leader, Zach.

You guys remember Zach?

Is uh um going to we'll we're all going to join together and sing and and praise the Lord uh together with another church in our city.

So that should be a wonderful time.

That's the evening of March 11th.

And last oh where is that?

Here.

Here.

So you guys already know how to get here.

I can tell just by looking at you.

And lastly, um uh if you need prayer, and I'll say this again when we take communion, if you need prayer uh for something particular that's happening in your life, then uh when communion begins, you can head straight to the back in the foyer back there, and there are folks here to pray with you.

All right.

Now let's pray and we'll move into our text for the day.

Holy Father, we praise you for your loving kindness, for your encouragement, and for your steadfast love towards us.

Lord, we thank you that when you give us your promises, you don't give your promises and then disappear, but instead you promise to be with us.

Lord, I pray that today you would allow us to understand more completely how it is that you draw close to us and how it is that you encourage us in the midst of our walk with you.

Lord, pray that today would be a source of encouragement, of meeting, particularly the people in our church who find themselves in seasons of difficulty.

Lord, we pray that you would attend this time.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Growing up, I did a lot of fishing.

Um, I grew up in Florida, and there's a lot of water.

Fish live in water.

You can do the math.

And uh one thing that I've noticed about the Christian life is it's a lot like fishing.

And when I first was writing this analogy, I was like, is this a am I making up this analogy?

But you know who came up with this analogy first?

Jesus.

Yeah.

So I know it's not uh I know I'm not totally making it up.

Um we you know we just think so much alike.

Anyway.

So um look, there's lots of great churches in the area that you can find.

So the uh the the reason one of the reasons that it's like fishing, I'm not gonna take a drink, is is that uh most of the time while you're fishing, you aren't catching any fish.

Like if you were to add up all the time that you're fishing, there's no you're you know, you're not catching any fish.

That's why they call it and not right.

So the uh you guys knew my grandpa.

So they uh uh but the Christian life is a lot like that.

You know, when we uh when this church was first coming out of L2 and and um we were just just kind of like uh becoming cohesive as as Redemption Church Denver, and part of that becoming cohesive was like shrinking.

And each week it in and also like meeting in the evenings and in in another church, and it was all like, what is happening here?

And many of you were a part of that process.

And I rem remember thinking like all the time of like, should I is it when do you know that it's time to just kind of like call it a day and go back to selling cars?

And then the way that the Lord was was working in in my heart through that time was it was like, man, this this just doesn't seem to be working, seems like just shrinking a church.

And then there would be like a conversation with somebody who a sermon really impacted.

And it was like God would just kind of like put one fish on the line, you know, and you'd reel it in and be like, all right, I guess I'll keep fishing.

And the Christian life is so often like that.

It's so often just like these stretches of it is the Lord present?

Is he working?

Is he just constantly sending us into places of confusion or discouragement?

And then the Lord so often knows just when to offer you the precise encouragement that you need.

He is faithful to do that, and it is so worth noticing when he does this.

I think one of the great skills of Christian maturity that you can develop in your walk with Christ is recognizing the clear encouragements that the Lord gives you.

You know, you don't want to become strange and just like have a have some sort of a phrase to justify whatever you want to keep happening.

Uh, you know, we can do that too as a mode of self-deception.

But we can shy so far away from that, so far away from recognizing the present encouragement that the Lord gives us, that we can miss an ordinary way that the Lord works with his people.

We see this happen all the time in scripture.

One of my favorite moments is in Acts 18, when Paul is preaching to the Jews in Macedonia, and it's completely fruitless.

He's going to the synagogue daily, arguing, trying to convince, trying to persuade of the hope of the gospel that's being revealed in Christ.

He's had great success in ministry elsewhere.

And then here in Macedonia, it just completely falls on deaf ears.

So Paul must have been just incredibly discouraged and even begins to see the violence that's that's looking to mount towards him from the very people that he's trying to encourage and persuade of the hope of the gospel.

It's those moments where Paul must have thought, you know, he literally shakes out his coat and uh uh says, I'm not I'm not preaching to you guys anymore.

I'm just going to the Gentiles.

You can sense this just incredible discouragement in Paul's heart.

And right there, in that moment, the Lord comes to Paul one night in a vision.

This is Acts 18, verses 9 through 10.

Acts 18:9–10

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you.

For I have many in this city who are my people.

You know, Paul must have received that vision and been like, I'll tell you what, it was close.

If I hadn't have received that vision, I I might have just shaken off my coat and been like, This is over, this is impossible, this can't work.

And God knows our frame.

And he knows the type of encouragement that we need.

And so he comes right to Paul in this moment of despair and he says, Don't fear, I'm with you.

I'm still with you.

I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but I'm still with you.

And your mission isn't fruitless.

I have many people here who are my people, who I'm sending you to get, and you won't be hurt.

I will protect you.

Here we see just a clear picture of the way that God encourages.

And today we're going to see that same pattern take place in the life of Isaac.

Isaac was blessed from the Lord, and then because of that blessing, he was kicked out of the kingdom that he was living in by King Abimelech.

And he's kicked into a land with no wells, no water.

And so he's between a hostile kingdom and a waterless land.

And then each well that he digs only breeds more controversy and more conflict with the people that are already living in that land.

And so he's at this point in his life where he's like, What does the Lord's blessing even mean?

Does it just mean when the Lord blesses me and I gain this incredible wealth?

Does it just mean, oh, that means you're gonna get kicked kicked out of your home?

And then once you're kicked out of your home, you're gonna God's gonna send you a place that's way worse with no water, and you're going to be surrounded by conflict on all sides.

And Isaac's got to be thinking, thanks for your blessing, Lord.

Um, maybe you can keep it next time, and I'll just kind of do my own thing.

Well, right in the midst of that moment, God comes to him in a vision with a precise encouragement.

We're going to see exactly how the Lord attends us to keep us going.

He says this in Genesis 26, 23 through 24.

From there he went up to Beersheba, Isaac did.

And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, your father.

Fear not, for I am with you, and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant, Abraham's sake.

Do you hear the parallel?

Do you hear that it's almost the same phrase that he gives to Paul when he's in this moment of discouragement?

And God comes to Isaac in this moment of wandering, and he says, I am the God of Abraham your father.

Who am I?

I'm the one who gave your father this promise, the promise of the land that you've never left and that now feels particularly hostile towards you.

But I am the one who holds this.

You're standing in my promise.

Fear not, just as he told Paul, fear not, for I am with you.

He's in the wilderness.

He is expelled from any place of security.

And this is where God reiterates, I am with you.

And then he reminds him of the promise that he had been given by his father Abraham, that God had been given, excuse me, that Abraham had been given by God, which Isaac is now heir of.

This is where things just decay and just end.

But God says to him in that moment, fear not, I'm with you.

There's more people of mine here that you will go and get.

How is it that God encourages us in our moments of despair?

This is the mode of the Lord's encouragement.

The mode of the Lord's encouragement is always reminding us of the very promise that He has already given to us.

It's exactly what he does for Isaac here, where he says, Look, that promise that I've given you of this land and many offspring, and of being with you and of not forsaking you, remember it.

Don't fear.

Live within that promise.

Let that be the way that you interpret the world.

And then we could see that this same sort of promise is being reiterated to Paul.

Paul might have remembered the Great Commission, you know, as he had learned it from the other apostles.

And what would he have remembered?

What was the promise of Christ?

Go make disciples of all nations, okay?

I'm trying.

And what is it that Jesus promised us with regard to our commission to make disciples of all nations?

It's that it, you know, my favorite translation is the N A N A S B because it says, Lo, and I like that.

And lo, I am with you always, even till the end of the age.

That is the last verse of Matthew.

It is the promise.

And so what does he reiterate to Paul?

Fear not.

I am with you.

We often think that the way that we will finally receive encouragement is by getting new information about the circumstances that we're in.

But God most often does not encourage us by giving us new information that resolves the particulars of the circumstances that you're in.

That's where our minds meditate and dwell.

You know, we game theory our particular situations, and we try and discover, we often think of life as in terms of problems and solutions.

And so we look out at our lives and we think, okay, what is the solution here?

And we just wander around our minds thinking we just haven't thought of the right answer yet.

And then what does God say to encourage us in those moments?

He says, Don't try and figure out.

Remember.

Remember, I am with you.

Remember the promise that I've made to you.

It won't fall short.

Remember.

And Isaac, he knows precisely how to remember because, you know, in wandering around looking for water and trying to, you know, shepherd his flock around in order to get them the water that they need.

Gets this vision from the Lord.

And at receiving the vision from the Lord, Isaac builds an altar.

This is common for the patriarchs.

When they receive a vision from the Lord, they mark the location, they mark the spot.

So he builds an altar.

I don't know what it was, but some sort of marker that says, The Lord spoke to me here, and I can return here and remember the promise, the promise to not fear that he is with me.

Now, at this point, the uh servants of Isaac had begun digging a well.

They're looking for water in this place called Beersheba.

And uh that's where the story takes a turn.

We see this encouragement from the Lord, and then the building of an altar.

I want to say one more thing about this.

What is our altar that we return to?

As a Christian in the world, you don't stand a chance without the ability to clearly articulate the simple truths of the gospel to your own heart.

This is the difference between people who remain in Christ and people who walk away.

I think this is the difference.

Those who are able to say to their hearts, in the midst of in the midst of the terrors of your sin, and in the midst of the discouragement of a repeated sin in your life, or in the midst of the confusion of a relationship, or of just like the the sometimes life is impossible to interpret.

And you need to be able to say to your heart, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I know that because Christ has come, and because he took the death that I deserved, that there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

You have to be able to say that to yourself.

You have to be able to let that truth settle into your heart.

This is the promise that we return to over and over again.

The way forward is back.

Do you see it?

The way of moving forward in encouragement is remembering the promise that we've been given.

We have something so much more than an altar that we can return to, of a promise of land and children.

We have the realized thing.

Not just a hope that the sacrifice may one day show up.

We have a certainty that the sacrifice has been made.

They would say, Why were they going out?

We would often say, we often we often think in these terms of like, why would we go out to bring others into the gospel?

Well, it's because without the gospel, then you're destined.

Towards an eternity in hell.

And we don't want to see others suffer this horrific fate when we see, when we know that there's been a grace that's been extended to them.

And yes, that's true and a good motivation.

But the Moravians had this understanding that was so unthinkably God-centered and so centered on Christ, they would say, May the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering.

May the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering.

This is the same as, why are we going out?

Because Jesus already bought them.

Because those who don't know Christ, he has I like he says to Paul, I have people in this city.

I've bought them, they're mine.

Go listen to them, they will respond.

So why do we have such confidence in the Lord?

Because we know, we know for certain that the Lord will not miss out on any of whom he has chosen, on any of whom he has laid down his life for.

And when we come to him in faith, then we can in absolute confidence count ourselves in that number.

And what do we rest in then?

We aren't resting in the strength of our faith.

We're resting in the absolute certainty of the effectiveness of the cross.

What is our altar that we come back to?

It's God on a cross, dead for your sins, risen three days later.

What does that mean for the uncertainties of your life?

What sort of promise do you have for your life?

You have a promise of knowing him, of being united to him, of being brought home to him, of being in communion with him, of receiving his spirit.

And so you can see things in the scripture like Paul will say things in the scripture like, who can know the mind of God?

And you'll think, great question.

Who can know the mind of God?

And then he'll say, he'll say, well, who can know the spirit of a who can know the mind of a man?

Well, only the spirit that is in that man.

So who can know the mind of God?

Those that have his spirit can know the mind of God.

And what is our promise in Christ that we're given the spirit of God?

That is how with us he is.

You need to build this altar of the gospel in your heart to return to.

This is our only hope of encouragement.

What happens if our nation falls?

What happens if we need to figure out where to meet one day?

You know what happens if the world crumbles around you?

It can crumble around you.

You need to have an altar of remembrance built in your heart, and ours is the gospel.

How does God encourage his people by bringing us back to the promises he's already made, reminding us that he is faithful to them.

Know the promises that he has already made.

Okay, that was the little bit extra that I wanted to say.

The story takes a turn here.

And we see uh this strange event take place.

Genesis 26, 26 through 27.

When Abimelech went to him, so so background.

His servants, the Lord just spoke to him, he builds an altar, his servants are out digging a well.

That's what's happening right now.

That's what's during the when.

When Abimelech went to him from Gorar with Ahuzath and his advisor, and Fikal, the commander of his army.

So Abimelech is the king that kicked Isaac out once Isaac became the most rich person there.

And he was like, Look, you're a little too too rich for my taste, is what Abimelech said.

And Isaac said, I catch your drift, and they moved on, kicked out of the kingdom.

So Isaac sees the king who kicked him out, his chief advisor, and the commander of his army come over the horizon.

And so Isaac asks the obvious question: Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?

It's called naming what's there.

Sometimes in the midst of a hard conversation, you need to name what's there.

Isaac begins by doing that.

Genesis 26, 28 through 29, they said, rather unexpectedly, We see plainly that the Lord has been with you.

So we said, Let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm.

Just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace, you are now the blessed of the Lord.

They come across and they say, We've seen your life.

We've witnessed this from afar, and there's only one conclusion that we can draw.

The Lord is with you.

You know, Isaac, experiencing his own life, likely wouldn't have thought that of himself.

God needed to come to him in a moment of intense despair and say, Don't fear, I'm with you.

But his arch nemesis and his arch nemesis' compatriots come over the horizon, and what do they announce over him?

The Lord is with you.

It's undeniable.

And because of that, we would like to make a covenant of peace with you.

You don't have to be Stonewall Jackson and oh, you want to make a covenant of peace with whoever side the Lord is on.

And so they make a covenant of peace with him, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.

That's called rebranding.

You are now, listen to this pronouncement.

You are now the blessed of the Lord.

Amazing to hear from Abimelech.

Amazing to hear.

So what happens?

We see some of Isaac's wisdom here.

How tempting it would have been for Isaac to have said, you know, what would have been great is if you didn't send me into this waterless land where all the wells were filled in by your people so that there would be nothing for me.

And do you want to know while you've been discovering my blessedness, what I've been doing?

Fighting and quarreling while I try and get these herds and flocks fed, and I try and keep my servants alive.

He didn't say that.

Instead, he made them a feast.

Genesis 26, 30 through 31.

So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths.

Eating and drinking to establish a covenant of peace, those are like synonymous in Scripture.

We always establish a covenant, a real covenant of peace, you establish over a meal.

You've got to make the meal.

We have to eat to make this real, to actualize the oaths that we're entering into.

And so Isaac, he says, okay, let's have a feast.

And so he lays a feast before them.

They eat and drink.

Why is it essential?

Why is the meal essential?

Why is it that we we have to eat in order to make the covenant real?

You wondered that?

I think John Frame puts it the most simply.

He's a uh theologian out of Metropolitan Orlando.

And he he puts it so so well.

He says, when two people are at odds with each other, they need to be reconciled.

Reconciliation can, of course, be rather superficial, right?

But when it is deep and profound, when it is complete reconciliation, not only do you become friends again with your former enemy, but you have him to dinner.

How simple.

We have to eat together in order, in order what does it mean to be a friend?

It includes eating together, having meals with one another, talking over food, sharing food together.

We're we're this is this is just so ordinarily human.

We have to have the meal to establish the covenant.

What does it mean to be a friend?

We eat together.

In the meal, the truth of the covenant is revealed.

That we are moving to a place of actual friendship together, that these once enemies are now friends.

That's what that meal means.

These once enemies are now friends.

God knows this.

And so he establishes his covenants with meals.

In Exodus, when he goes to free his people, he brings them through, but not after giving them a meal of memorial, the Passover meal.

And at the Passover meal, he then, after they've been freed and they've moved through the waters, then he says, This is the marker, this is the first of the year for you now.

And you're gonna celebrate with a meal together.

And so he builds it into the rhythm of their life to establish this friendship between them and the Lord.

In the Bible reading plan that we're doing as a church, we just uh, well, about a week ago or so, we made it through Leviticus.

Whoa.

Great job, everyone.

And in Leviticus, you see it just constantly this pattern being laid out over and over again.

We're gonna bring the offerings of our food into the temple, and it basically looks like this.

Some of it gets burnt up to the Lord.

Some of it gets eaten by the priests, and then some of it gets eaten by the worshipers.

So when we come into the temple to make our sacrifices to the Lord, what are we doing?

What does the pattern look like?

It looks like a God eats some, the priest eats some, and the people eat some.

It looks like a meal.

The covenant is signified by a meal.

There's a friendship that's being shown here.

And then, you know, there's another Passover meal that perhaps became even more famous than the Passover meal before the Exodus.

And that's the Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples.

We recreated every Sunday, our meal of communion.

Do you know what it was what Jesus said to his disciples just before they began the meal?

Listen to this.

This will in Luke 22, 14 through 15.

And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him, and he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

Have you noticed that before?

Now, do you know what happens right after the Passover?

One of the disciples that's there goes and betrays him.

By the end of the night, all of the disciples that are there will have betrayed him in some way.

Right after this, they'll go, uh they'll go.

Sorry, what just flew through my head was in the children's Bibles that I read, JT, it says they go to an olive garden.

And it cracks me up every time I read it.

And then they all went to an olive garden.

It's true, but it connotes unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks to me.

They go to an olive garden and all of his disciples will fall asleep when he asks them to stay awake in his deepest moment of need.

So before that night, when they will all betray him, before that night when they will, the truth of who they are and what their relationship was to his disciples will be exposed.

What does Jesus say?

I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.

I've looked forward to this night.

What I'm establishing here.

This is not how could any of us imagine that night with anything other than dread?

But Jesus says, I've earnestly desired to eat this with you before I go and suffer.

And the Passover, what is it?

It's a covenant meal.

It's a meal of the Lord's promise to us.

Luke 22, 19 through 20, and he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

And likewise the cup, after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

This is not a covenant that's established in the blood of circumcision.

This is not a covenant that's established with the blood of rams and goats.

This is a covenant that is established with the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And then he says, He commands us, do this in remembrance of me.

Return to this meal.

Make returning to this meal a marker of your community.

May returning to this meal be a demonstration of your constant return.

And what is it a return to?

It is a return to the promise of the Lord towards us.

It is a return to the night of Christ's suffering.

It is a return to a remembering that we betrayed him and he went through with his suffering.

And when he knew we would betray him, he earnestly desired a meal with us.

And we remember over and over again every single week.

I was thinking just yesterday, as I was examining my heart and I was looking back over my week, and I and I noticed just an intense sort of prayerlessness.

I don't know how that can be intense.

Because when you're not praying, you're just watching YouTube.

But a prayerlessness that just showed that I didn't.

I didn't trust the Lord to work.

I trusted me to work.

And I was just thinking, I can't wait to get to the table tomorrow.

I can't wait to re-establish, to remember that the Lord earnestly desired to eat with me, even when I'm like I am.

You know, that's what that's what transforms our hearts.

Do you see the freedom of the gospel?

Do you see the freeness of the offer?

Do you see the goodness of the Lord to you?

It's just there for you, laid out like a feast that you can come and eat from.

And every time you do, you remember he went to the cross.

So I am free.

He went to the cross on my behalf.

So I'll never taste the sting of death.

He went to the cross, so I know all his intentions for the renewal of the world have been purchased, and he will get what he has bought.

And so I need not fear that these circumstances won't in some way amount to my good and to his glory.

So I come to the table again to remember his promises.

This is what we do.

We come to the table over and over again to remember his promises.

What is our altar?

It is the gospel.

And where do we experience it?

How do we experience the Lord's encouragement?

We experience the Lord's encouragement by him reminding us of the promises that he has given us.

The promises that we have in Christ are unshakable.

Your shakable.

These promises in him are unshakable.

And so he builds into our lives the ability to return to them over and over and over again, so that in him we might experience the encouragement we need in waterless places.

That same day, after Isaac had received this blessing and made this covenant, in verses 26, excuse me, chapter 26, 32 to 33, that same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.

He called it Sheba.

Therefore, the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

Sheba means oath.

The name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

There was water there.

There was water where God's promises were.

Look at the pattern.

Over the horizon walks Isaac's enemies.

And he says to them, Why have you come seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?

And then they say, You are the blessed of the Lord.

What is the pattern of the Bible?

We are sent out, cast out by the king, sent out of the garden.

Enemies.

We are his enemies.

We are God's enemies.

Because we've rejected him as God in our hearts.

Because we are prayerless in our weak.

Because we deny him and we serve idols that we've concocted for ourselves.

And so we are idols, excuse me, we we are cast out, exiles, wandering about in waterless places east of Eden.

This is what the human life looks like.

And then on the horizon walks our enemy.

And we say, Why have you come, seeing that you hate me and have sent me far away from you?

And he says, I've earnestly desired to eat a meal with you.

Blessed of God.

You see that this is the gospel?

That the Lord comes to become our friend because of the sacrifice that he made in Christ.

One more pattern.

And I hope that this last thing serves as sort of an anchor.

For you, a place that you can go to and meditate on to remember the way that you relate to the Lord.

I was thinking that this all sounds familiar.

Like looking for water for sheep in the wilderness, and then eating a meal with enemies, and then being given the water at the end of the story by the Lord.

Here's how we I was like, what if what if Isaac were to write down something to tell the story?

If he did, it it might sound something like this, like Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

Isaac might have said that.

As he stood and tried to lead his sheep to water, he might have said, you know, in all this wandering, as it turns out, the Lord has been my shepherd.

I shall not want.

He's given me everything that I need.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

When I was in a dry and weary place, he came to me, and he said to not fear, and that he was with me.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

The paths of righteousness, the valley of the shadow of death, Isaac would look back and he would say, It turns out those were the same.

The Lord was with me in the midst of all of that.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This is not just pretty words.

This is returning to the absolute promise of the Lord towards us in Christ.

Be encouraged.

Come to the table.

Remember the promise of the Lord towards you.

Let the gospel become the foundation of your heart.

He comes across the horizon earnestly desiring to eat a meal with you.

Come to him.

I forgot a question.

Carlos, is there a question?

Sorry.

No question.

Okay, great.

Holy Father, let's pray.

Let's pray before we take communion.

Holy Father, I pray that your gospel would work its way so deeply into our hearts that we might even look naive for how deeply we believe it.

That we might come across as fools for how trusting we are of you in the midst of deserts and in the midst of fear and disappointment.

Lord, I pray that you would meet us in this meal of communion.

And that you would establish your covenant in our hearts, that we might take it up by faith.

And remember that you earnestly desire to eat this meal with us.

We praise you for your steadfast love.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.