Genesis 24:7-9 Bible Study | Episode #296

November 28, 2022

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Genesis 24:7-9 Bible Study | Episode #296

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Alive, Applying God's Word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you.

And allow you to see him and to know him, and to know his will, that you might glorify him, and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus' name. Good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church. Morning Bible study. We are in Genesis chapter 24, and we are going through the story of Abraham sending his servant to go find his son, Isaac wife.

And we're in a little. Paragraph here. And and we're gonna reread verse six, but then go through seven, eight, and nine. And I think I think we can draw upon some information and some knowledge here and understand how Abraham saw doing the will of God. Because as you read this, you're gonna see that Abraham.

Is actively doing the will of God. He's he's teaching his servant how to do it. He's say he's go, he's teaching his servant how to hear and know the will of God. And I think it is as a fabulous, a few verses. About understanding who God is and then also understanding God's will that you can find in the Bible.

It is it is an insight from the man of faith about how to operate in faith. And it is it's just so rich in understanding and so rich in in how. Abraham lived his life. And so it says, But Abraham said to him because the servant had asked him what if I can't find a wife or him?

Should I take him with me? To, to the land where Abraham came from? Abraham said to him, Beware that you do not take my son back there. And what he's saying is they, he didn't want his son to go back back to The place where he is from. Because of his great wealth, because of his great fame, because of his great power and strength, he's afraid that they will force him to stay there.

He doesn't want him to stay there. Why? Because he wants his son to remain in the anointing and the will that of God that he is in. And if he allowed his son to go back there. His son would be going back to as we would say nowadays In his reference. But go back to Egypt.

And and that's a picture of the children of Israel being delivered from the Egyptian slavery and then them desiring to go back there. And the principle is that you don't wanna go back to Egypt. We don't wanna go back to the world. We wanna live by God's standards and not our own standards.

We wanna live according to God's will and not our own will. And when you come to this passage Abraham strictly forbids the the servant from taking his son back because going backwards is never going forward. And I don't know if y'all know that or not, that principal seems to be difficult for some people to understand, but if you're in reverse, you'll never be going forward.

You will never, ever. Have God's best if you keep going back to where you were before. And that seems so logical at the start, but so difficult sometimes for us to do. Difficult for us to keep from going back toward Egypt. Back toward the things we used to be involved in rather than moving forward to the great things God has ahead of us.

And we're so easily distracted by the world and our minds and our hearts are so easily turned toward the things that are going on around us, rather than keeping our heart and our mind focused on the things that God has already promised us and told us to do. And. Abraham strictly forbids his servant.

He says, Do not take him back to where I was before. There, there's no reach for reason for it. I have an anointing. I have a calling. God has told me what he wants. He's given me his promises and his promises are here, not back where we came from. And you need to realize. So many times in people's lives, they uh, they want to go back to what's comfortable.

They want to go back to what's easy. They wanna go back to the things that. That they used to do just because they're what they're used to, they're what they know. And let me say this, you don't know God when you come out of the win. You don't have a relationship with God. You don't know his promises.

So I can promise you this, the things that God is going to do in your future are going to be new things. If you're going to be growing, they're going to be new things if you're going to be growing. And so you have to, in your own heart and mind decide. That I want to experience those new things that I want to experience, the things that are going on in this, in, in God's will, in God's way.

I'm thankful even though we have a very broad church as far as ages, as far as race, as far as. Interest as far as backgrounds, religious backgrounds, we have a very broad church, but we have a lot of older folks in our church. We have at least five, maybe six fa, six couples that have been married for more than 50 years.

And those people are the type people who want. Who actively want to see new things happening, to see God move in new ways, to see open doors that they've not seen before in this area or seen before in their lives. And that is a powerful thing. It's a powerful understanding. It's a sign of maturity actually.

We wanna see God move in a new day. lot of times you'll run into a a pastor that in his. Ministered in all kinds of cities, in all kinds of different places. And then he retires. And when he retires, he ends up going to a place and being a part of a church. That wasn't anything, like anything he'd done before.

You know why? Because that pastor's out there looking for god's new day for him. Even though he may be retired or even though he may be old, that doesn't mean that God doesn't have new things and new open doors. For him to experience and for him to walk through. Abraham understood that, cause his son Isaac, was born to him when he was an old man.

So the promises of God are not just for the young, the promises and the hope of God. It's not just for those who are newly coming to God. The hot promises and the hope of God are for everyone, and they're for everyone all the time. If God's got you breathing, that means he's got promises down the road.

He wants you to experience. He's got opportunities and things for you to be a part of, and to see as a, as who he is in your life. And Abraham said to that servant the lo the. Don't take my son back backwards. We need to keep moving forward. We need to move forward as a family. We need to move forward in the will of God.

We need to be move forward as the children of God, the Lord. And notice, notice. Abraham will explain why he says the Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family and who spoke to me and swore to me saying, Notice He starts out with. And he starts out with God and his sovereign will.

He says, Let me give you an explanation of what happened. God took me from my father's house and he took me from my family and he took me from where I was in the past, and he spoke to me. He actively told me his will and that's a key part of the Christian life is hearing from. As a pastor I would say that's one of the hallmarks that one of the things I try to focus on the most with other believers, it, it helps them not place other people on spiritual pedestal.

It helps you mature on your own and it helps you chase after God, after I'm no longer a part of your life. Very few people are a part of your life for long periods of time, Meaning for a. Most of the time they're just family members, but every once in a while there'll be one or two other people that'll be a part of your.

For the majority of your life, the rest of everybody else are just passing through your life as you're passing through this world. And I want to, as a pastor, I want to be able to feed into people as much as possible. I want, I wanna be able to feed into people as much as possible, and I want them to be able.

To understand how to walk with God on their own. I want 'em to be mature and to walk with God and to know God's will on their own. And so one of the things I try to focus on is teaching people to hear from God. Teaching people to read God's Word and allow God to speak to the heart. Teaching people to understand that the Holy Spirit is the one who leads us and guides us into all truth.

And we're not the ones who do it. Our St our ourselves. I try to make sure that people underst. That your walk with God is a very intimate, personal walk. Your covenant relationship with God is a very intimate and personal one. And when you're learn, when you learn how to hear God's voice, when you learn how to know his will and define his will.

Especially through the studying and through the meditating and through the listening and hearing of God's word. When you learn to do that, then you begin to be strengthened in your core. And, when we talk about working out, we talk about, working out you and you biceps and your triceps and and making sure all the showy muscles look good.

But the truth is, If your core is not strong, all those muscles really don't have any value. You got to have a strong core in order for everything else to work properly because you're gonna pull those outer muscles if those inner muscles are not strong. The same is true with your walk with God.

You gotta work on that core those core values, those core things that matter the very most. And one of those things is to hear from God. The second thing is to realize that God's sovereign, to realize that God's over things. To realize that God is walking in all things and reveals himself in all things.

And when you understand that God is in ultimate control, then you learn to trust him. You learn to understand that everything that happens each and every day in your. Has purpose and meaning everything that you see, everything that you hear, all that you struggle with and all that you struggle against, has purpose and meaning, and God is working that out for you.

God is actively, intimately involved in what's going on and he is. Actively and intimately in charge of what's going on. He's sovereign and he's always speaking. He says, he spoke to me and he swo to me. Notice God, not only does he speak, but God tells us things that have significance in the future.

He swore to to Abraham. What he's saying is, God gave me a promise, and his promise was based off his character as well. Later on you're gonna see Later on, you're gonna see that you're gonna see that as God is speaking to Abraham, and you're gonna see in the New Testament, as that is described, is gonna God swore by his own by God.

The truth is God's swore by his own. His own name when he made his promises to Abraham. And what does that mean? God said, I am telling you this and you can trust it because of my character, because of my nature. You can trust me and you can hear what God has to say to me by that character in nature.

And as you look at this, as we study this, as we see this,

As you see this, what God's doing here what I would say to you is that you can trust in God's nature. You can trust in his character. You can trust in His name. And God does give us promises. And those promises are based on his character in nature. He said to your descendants, I give this land.

He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife for my son From there notice he's. Listen, you're gonna, you're gonna be able to, you're gonna be able to you're gonna be able to to fulfill the will of God when you go. He says he will send his angel before you notice. God's already prepared the way before you leave everything you ever experience and do.

God is prepared right before you go and do it. And so he says here. God's already going before you sending his angel and you go, Why did he say sending his angel? Because that's how Abraham is related to God. He's related to God By the angel of the Lord. Pre-incarnate. Jesus has come and spoke to him many times and he's telling him the way I know.

That God's going before me is the angel of the Lord goes before me. I'm telling you that the angel of the Lord is going before, before you in this. Why? Why is the angel of the Lord going before you in this? The reason the angel of the Lord is going before you in this is because, and you need to get this is because I have experienced it myself.

I, and he's relating this to his servant. He's saying, Listen, you go because I know how God operates and he's gonna go before you. That's teaching that's mentoring that's showing somebody how to walk with God. And that's what Abraham's doing. And he's saying, I know that's gonna happen.

He's gonna take, you're gonna find a wife for my son. You're gonna fulfill the promises that God has made to me. And you're going to you're gonna be actively involved in what God has promised and you're gonna be a part of it. And sure enough, that's what happens. But. The servant has to listen and we have to listen also.

Then he says, And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from the oath. Only. Do not take my son back there. What he says is, Look, if it doesn't work out, like I think God is in instructing for this to happen, maybe there's another opportunity. Now you go that's not faith.

Absolutely it is. Faith let me ask you something. Did Jesus not have. That's not, that can't be true. Jesus had faith. How do I know how'd I know? Because when he came up from out of the water, when he was baptized by John the Baptist the father, Of him. This is my beloved son, and whom I'm well pleased.

Okay. And you go what does that matter? The Bible says, Without faith it's impossible to please God. So Jesus, pleased God, which means he must well faith God. He must, faith God. In such a way that he he, it was obvious that he trusted his Heavenly Father. And so therefore, that pleased God, it pleased God that he trusted him.

And so you need to understand, You need to understand that when you're when Jesus was in the garden right before he was, He said to the father, he said, If there's another way let this cup pass from me. If there's another way please open that door so that I can see it.

But then he said, But not my will, But fine. What he's saying is there's an open, if there's an open door out there that I don't see another way for this to be accomplished, please reveal it to me. He's looking for the option of seeing God's will somewhere else. He's not locked into what he perceives God will to be.

He's allowing God the opportunity to show him something new and something different. He says, if this womans are not willing to follow you, then you will be released from Oath. What he's saying is once you go and find the woman, that's for my. If she's not willing to follow you, then there must be some other plan of God at work and you're gonna be released from this.

There must be something else God is going to do and you're released from this. But until then, do what we understand God's will to be. That's one of the things that was taught maybe 30 years ago and it. It seems like it was far less than that. But in the study experiencing God one of the things that was taught was when God tells you to do something, you continue to do it until he tells you to do something different.

The same is true here. When you are doing God's will. The only reason you would change that is if it's obvious that whatever you understood to be God's will has now God is leading you in a different direction. And remember, God does that. He has the right to do that.

He has the right to lead us here and teach us, and then lead us there and teach us, and lead us into places that are difficult. And sometimes he leads us into the pastures with the steel water. And so his options to lead us through life are numerous and many, but where he has for you today, you need to be zealously doing the things he asked for you to be doing today and allow him to open doors in the future for you.

And Abraham said that to a servant. You go and do what what we understand to be God's will, and if the door closes, then the door closes and you're released from that. But if the door's open right now, you chase after that door until it's finally closed. And so the servant put his hand under the five Abraham as master, and you go, What in the world does that mean?

It was a method of making an oath, and it was it was not just so that you would say something and then go on and do your own thing. It was a A way to swear that you were going to follow through to the very end and it really has the connotation that if you don't follow through, may you be cut into pieces.

May you be destroyed, may you be utterly. Brought down. And that's what the servant does. The servant says, I'm going to do what you have instructed me to do. I'm gonna chase after God and I'm gonna chase after his will. And I'm going to follow through on the destruction, on the instructions that you've given me.

And I am going to follow through until the door is. And that's a principle that a lot of believers don't do. They don't keep on going and they don't endure through difficulties, and they don't endure through struggles and they don't endure in their spiritual walk, and they never, ever mature in their spiritual walk.

If you're always. Taking your helmet off and going to the locker room, you're never ever gonna grow. If you're always taking your sneakers off and heading toward the locker room, you're never ever gonna become what God has for you do. If you lay your instrument down every time you hit a wrong chord, you're never ever going to find God's will and God's purpose in your life.

There's no way, in any way for you. To as you're walking with God, there's no way for you to grow. If you stop walking. When struggles and difficulties come, you got to continue to walk in his will and his way, and you got to learn that struggling and difficulties are the natural part of the Christian life.

They teach you how to trust God better. They teach you how to hear. More precisely. They teach you how to deal with other things that you're going to have to help other people through during their walk and during their life. And so if you're never ever willing to take up your cross and follow Jesus you're not really gonna understand what the cross really means, and you're not gonna understand the power that comes from that.

And You got to keep going and you gotta keep moving forward. And the only way for you to do that is for you to have a mindset that Abraham is trying to give his servant. And that is that you say, I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to do what he says for me to do, and I'm not gonna turn back from it no matter what happens.

Down the road. And when you have that mindset and you live your life that way for a long period of time the promises of God are revealed to you. The purposes of God are manifest to you. And the truth is that ultimately you come about to a place where you hear from God regularly and the power of God flows from.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus' name.