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Well, good morning.
If you have your bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join and me in Genesis, chapter 24 as you turn there.
Today is a Super Bowl Sunday.
I'm a Green Bay packers fan, so I don't really have a heart affection toward either one of the teams that are there.
But I've had several people ask me this morning who I'm pulling for and I'm pulling for San Francisco.
I think Kansas City is going to win, but I'm pulling for San Francisco.
Grayson's a San Francisco fan, so I'm pulling for them.
So here's what I'd like to do.
I'd like to just do a quick survey because these will say a lot about the makeup of our church.
All right, so I'm going to give you four options this morning of who you're pulling for.
All right?
So show a hand.
I'm not going to tell you what they are.
You just got to go through.
All right, number one, raise your hand and leave it up in the air if you are going to pull for the San Francisco 49 ers.
All right.
There we go.
That's good.
Put your hands down.
Raise your hand if you're on that bandwagon of Kansas City Chiefs.
Some of you, some of you.
Or legitimately?
Legitimately, Mike Morgan.
Raise your hand if you don't care.
There's a fourth.
Raise your hand if you're pulling for Taylor Swift.
Now, here's what.
All right.
I have the beauty of seeing some things that you can't see.
Two observations.
All right, observation number one, for the most part, for the first three, people.
Kind of raise their hand like this.
But there's a lady in the back row, I'm not going to say her name.
That hand went up like this for Taylor Swift.
There's also a husband to my right who raised his hand for Taylor Swift and got a nudge from his wife at the same time with that.
Whatever you do, I hope you guys have a good time and I hope it doesn't ruin everybody's night for whatever it comes up with.
I'm kind of more there with the I don't care.
I'm just there for the commercials.
Right.
Well, what we got this morning is for those of you who are going to watch whether you've been invited to a party.
So you're just going for the fellowship, or if you're passionate about it today, traditionally in our culture, has been a day of sports, of football, of all the things that culminate into taking place.
I did find it interesting that Travis Kelsey's mom was interviewed this week and asked, she's got a box seat that Travis Kelsey has for her at all Kansas City home games and most Kansas City away games.
And the mom was asked if she was going to have a box seat from her son for the Super bowl.
And in all seriousness, the mom said this, no, I can't afford it, but I think his girlfriend can.
Right?
So mom's holding out for the seat that's there.
But today, maybe some of you, you're intrigued by the love story.
You're intrigued about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey.
And that's your reasoning for watching it tonight.
And here's.
I'm going to say, that's okay.
That's okay.
What I think is neat today, as we're here on a day, I bet there's a lot of pastors that are starting off their message with a reference to the Super bowl.
But in Genesis, chapter 24, we're going to read a love story.
And this is a love story.
Like, when you read through it, this isn't a Nicholas sparks.
This is not a hallmark.
This is not a love story that could be written by anyone else other than God.
This is a love story where we see the hand of God at work and moving, and what we want to do is dive into this and draw from it.
What do you have for us in this?
I think it's reasonable to say that what we want God to do is that we want to know God's story for our life.
We want God to write our story.
But what tends to happen in my life probably tends to happen in your life.
And I know that it happens in the life of those that we see from scripture.
It's this, that knowing that there's a story, we want to choose our own story.
We want to choose our own path.
We want to choose our own narrative.
It's been the battle that we've seen in humanity since Genesis three, as we've studied back through the temptation of sin, the temptation to take things in our own hands, the temptation of playing this out in our own way.
And no one, as we've read through so far in Genesis, knows this, or we've seen this more in the life of Abraham.
This has been his battle.
Great moments of faith, great moments of sin, moments where he trusts in the.
Plan of God moment, where he takes.
Control of his own plans for himself and everywhere in between.
When you look at your life and I look at my life, here's what I'm going to assume and what I hope and honestly what I believe.
For those of us who profess Jesus Christ, who follow him, he is our lord and savior.
I think this is what your life, for the most part looks like.
Mine is that we are on this spiritual trajectory of maturity.
We desire to be.
We're longing to be.
We're working in that process.
God's working in our lives.
And as we grow day in and day out to love and trust him more with our lives, we begin to filter the decisions we make, decisions that deeply affect us.
And I hope we ask ourselves this question, God, what is your will for my life?
I hope that's not a once in a lifetime question you ask yourself.
I hope that's not a once a year question you ask yourself.
I do hope it's a continual question that you're asking yourself as you're going through the decisions that you make, the plans for your future, on what you're going to do that you ask God, could you share with me?
Could you communicate with me, what is your will for my life?
I know if I were to give you the top five reasons that people want to talk to me about spiritual things, it is in the desire to know the answer to this question, but.
What is God's will for my life?
How can I know God's will for my life?
And if I were to ask you, is this an easy question to answer most of you legitimately, so would say that's a difficult question to ask.
It's a difficult question to find.
And what we're going to look at is this is see that there's great and powerful simplicity in knowing God's will for your life and me knowing God's will for my life?
I think three misconceptions that we believe when it comes to knowing God's will.
I think one is this.
We can buy into the lie.
Number one, that it's impossible to know.
Can we truly know what God's will is for my life?
It is impossible for me.
In my level of spiritual understanding, it is impossible.
Line number two, I think that we can fall into.
It is only through great difficulty and great searching and great seeking that I can know God's will for my life.
Now, is there searching?
Is there seeking?
Is there wrestling?
Sure.
But I think oftentimes knowing his will can be more difficult than we make it.
I think the lie number three that we buy into is only those who we deem as more spiritually mature than us can know this.
And then they must be the ones who tell us what it is for our life.
We look at a person that we deem that we think has got a.
Closer relationship with God than we do.
They're more spiritually mature and I can't know, but maybe they can.
Maybe they can answer these questions for me.
Or number four, the lie that we fall into is this.
Knowing God's will is going to be.
A continual guessing game moving back and forth.
It's one random step after another.
And there's no way that we can know for certain what God's will is for our life.
And here's before we get into Genesis.
24, which is a story only God can write.
It's events that only God could lay.
Out.
Is this knowing God's will for.
Your life and for my life is not as complicated as you and I have made it out to be.
Knowing God's will for your life and my life is not as complicated as we've made it out to be.
It's not impossible.
It is possible.
It's not random choices after another random choice.
It's not dependent on the spiritual maturity of others.
We can know God's will for our life and we can live in the goodness and the certainty of his will.
So let's look.
Start verse one through nine.
I'm going to tell you, this is a long chapter.
We're going to break it up into four different sections, okay?
Genesis, chapter 24.
We're going to get through all of it.
Now it says this verse one.
Now, Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac.
And the servant said to him, perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land.
Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?
And Abraham said to him, see to it that you do not take my son back there.
The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred and who spoke to me and swore to me to your offspring.
I will give this land.
He will send his angels before you.
And you shall take a wife for my son from there.
But if the woman is not willing to follow you back, then you will be free from this oath of mine.
Only you must not take my son back there.
So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.
See, didn't start off the love story the way that you might have thought.
That it would have.
But here's what we can see in understanding and knowing God's will.
Number one is this.
Knowing God's will is found in obedience to God's commands.
Knowing God's will is found in obedience to God's command.
Look back at verse three.
Abraham prepares to send this servant.
This is the servant that had authority to speak to all of the land, all of the possessions that Abraham had.
He's a servant of great authority, specifically for a task, to find a wife for Isaac, his son, the son of Promise.
But he gives him stipulations.
The first stipulation is this, do not take from the Canaanites.
Instead, choose one from my family.
A couple of things about this, all right?
First, marrying someone from your own family was not uncommon during this time.
We see this many times.
Happens all the way back to the garden.
All right, so let's just move past that.
Abraham was married to his half sister.
All right?
Second, this is an important part.
Abraham says, do not choose for my son a canaanite woman.
This would have been the people surrounding them.
This would have been their neighbors, those that they're in contact with.
This would not be sending someone on a long journey, but instead sending someone next door.
Now, why is this important?
Why is this so important to Abraham?
And it is this.
I just said this.
Isaac is the son of the promise all the way through, of what God is guarding and protecting and what he has communicated to Abraham and his covenant since the beginning.
In Genesis chapter twelve, Isaac is the son of the promise, of what God is going to reveal, as he calls, as he chooses, as he selects for himself, a people, and the lineage that will come from them, leading all the way to Christ, Isaac will always be connected to the promise.
But if you jump all the way.
Back to Genesis chapter nine with Noah.
And the issue that we find in.
Genesis nine with Noah and his sons and the descendants of Noah, we see that in Genesis chapter nine, we see that the Canaanites are not the promised people.
They're not the chosen people.
They're not the selected people.
Instead, they're the cursed people.
And so what Abraham is saying to his servant is this, as we go forward with all that we do, it may be easier to stray from what we've been called to, but we're going to stick to the promise.
We're going to stick to the promise.
Knowing God's will for your life is always going to be connected to sticking to the promise of who you are in Christ, in who he's called you to be.
The second stipulation he gives him, though, is the servant says, what if I find her and she refuses to come with me?
Which I think is a reasonable response.
Right, ladies?
Just imagine this all unfolding.
Should I then go back and get.
Isaac and take him to her?
And Abraham says, what?
He says, no, don't do that.
Do not take my son back there.
The promise of God is connected with a people and with a place.
And Abraham, just as he was unwilling to go back to bury his wife, what we read last week, he's not willing to allow the margin for the son of the promise to wander away from what God has for him.
You see, here's what Abraham does when it comes to being obedient to God.
Abraham takes the word of God to heart.
Would it be easier to find a lady that's here?
Sure.
Would it be easier if we find one there just to have Isaac be a part of all of this that's there?
Absolutely.
But here's what we learn in God's word about obedience in the life of Abraham here is that obedience to God's commands for Abraham is not up for Abraham's interpretation.
So many times what I find with you and I, when we're trying to decide on what we should do, is we are taking what is black and white in God's word, in his expectations for our lives, and we're sinfully trying to manipulate it to make it great.
To say that this is what I can do.
When we think about Satan's temptation of eve in the garden, his temptation was not.
Here's what God said his temptation was.
Did God really say in taking of.
What'S there and manipulated, know Abraham in.
This could have said, it's too difficult.
Go back.
It's too difficult of a journey.
Instead, I'm going to be partially obedient to what we're going to do, of what God's called us.
Go find one who's friendly for us or send him back and see what we can get.
But what Abraham knows and understands is that God's will for his life, God's will for his son, God's will for his people, is not found in his interpretation of obedience, but in God's commands for him.
And what this creates in you, what we're going to see when we understand, when we trust and we dive into obedience, God, this is what you said.
This is what I'm going to believe.
This is what I'm going to do.
This is what I'm going to trust in the power of your spirit that you're transforming me into what comes from.
This is a holy confidence.
This is not the initial posturing of Abraham.
But look back at verse one.
Now, Abraham was old, well advanced in years.
This is a man in a life of faith that has seen what taking matters into his own hands can give him.
So next we're going to start read in verse ten.
We're going to read for a minute.
All right, start verse ten.
Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master.
And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.
And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water.
And he said, o lord, God of my master, Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master, Abraham.
Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
Let's just pause here.
I feel like we can hear the stress in this guy's life.
Lady after lady.
Don't know.
Don't know, don't know.
God, show me this one that you have.
Verse 14.
Let the young woman to whom I shall say, please let down your jar, that I may drink.
And who shall say, drink, and I will water your camels.
Let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac.
By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.
Before he had finished speaking.
Behold Rebekah, who was born of Bethul.
The son of Milka, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her.
Water jar on her shoulder.
The young woman was very attractive in.
Appearance, a maiden whom no man had known.
She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.
And then the servant ran to meet her and said, please give me a little water to drink from your jar.
She said, drink, my lord.
And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink.
When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they had finished drinking.
So she quickly emptied her jar to the trough and ran again to the well to draw water.
And she drew for all of his camels.
The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the lord had prospered.
His journey or not.
Verse 22.
Then the camels.
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel.
And two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels.
And said, please tell me whose daughter you are.
Like, I feel like there's some fingers crossed behind his back, you know.
Is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?
And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethul, the son of Milka, who was born to Nahor.
And she added, we have plenty, both straw and fodder and room to spend the night.
The man bowed his head and worshiped the lord and said, bless be the lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.
As for me, the lord has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsman.
Then the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things.
Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban.
And Laban ran out toward the man to the spring.
And as soon as he saw the ring and bracelets on his sister's arms.
And heard the words of Rebecca, his sister.
Thus the man spoke to me.
He went to the man, and behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring.
He said, come in.
O blessed of the Lord, why do you stand outside?
For I have prepared the house and place for the camels.
So the man came to the house and unharnessed the camels.
And gave a straw and fodder to the camels.
And there was water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
Then food was set before him to eat.
But he said, I will not eat until I've said what I have to say.
And he said, speak on.
So he said, I am Abraham's servant.
The lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become great.
He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, camels and donkeys.
And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old.
And to him he has given all that he has.
My master made me swear, saying, you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell.
But you shall go to my father's house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.
And I said to my master, perhaps the woman will not follow me.
But he said to me, the lord before whom I have walked will send his angel with you and will prosper your way.
You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father's house.
Then you will be free from my oath when you come to my clan.
And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.
I came today to the spring and said, o lord, the God of my master, Abraham.
If now you are prospering the way that I go.
Behold, I am standing by the spring of water.
Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, please give me a little water from your jar to drink.
And to who will say to me, drink, and I will drink for your camel.
Draw for your camels also.
But let the woman whom the lord has appointed for my master's son.
Verse 45.
We're getting close.
I promise.
Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca came out with her water jar on her shoulder.
And she went down to the spring and drew water.
I said to her, please let me drink.
She quickly drew from her water from her shoulder and said, drink, and I will give your camels drink also.
So I drank, and she gave the camel's drink also.
Then I asked her, whose daughter are you?
And she said, the daughter of Bethul Nahor's son, whom milk born to him.
So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arm.
Then I bowed my head and worshiped the lord.
And blessed the lord, the God of my master, Abraham.
Who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son.
Now then, if you are going to.
Show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me.
And if not, tell me that I may return to the right hand or to the left.
Bless you.
All right, here we go.
Number two.
In knowing God's will.
Knowing God's will is trusting in God's plan.
There's part of it for us.
When we look at obedience, we think that obedience is to the rules.
And that as I walk in obedience, then what I can then go and do is then do what I want to do?
Operate in the gray, live in the area of uncertainty.
But what we find when we look at scripture is that we see that knowing God's will is not just obedience to what God has called us to, but it's trusting in God's plans.
God's plans are covered in both his promises and his providence.
All the way back 30 minutes ago in verse twelve, right, the servant says, if he's going to be successful, this is seemingly an impossible task.
Right?
I mean, just think about this.
Go to a place that far away to a people who you're unsure of.
He didn't have anything to go by.
Nothing.
And bring back a lady from my son who's willing to come.
The only way in verse twelve that this plan is going to be successful is if God grants it success.
God grants it success.
What if we prayed as we took steps in faith, that God, if this is your will for my life, may it succeed.
And God, if this is not your will for my life, may it fail.
That's faith.
Faith is willing to endure failure if where we are is where God doesn't have us to be.
Because all failure is.
Is just understanding in that point that I need to redirect what I've been doing.
This servant says, God, for this to be successful.
It's not about me simply finding a woman who's willing.
But it's if, Lord, you granted success, entrusting God's plan for you in your life is also trusting in God's standard for success.
God, what do you have for us in understanding the providence of God?
God, that all of these things that happen and exist are still in your hand, Lord, and you're in control.
And as you make the tough decision, as you seek what God may have, as you look to take that step, God, it's all in your hand, God, may it be success if it's from you and Lord, and may it fail if it's not.
Trusting in God's plans is about trusting in the commandments, in the commands, and trusting in the outcome, but also trusting in the details.
I think we look at step one and we look at conclusion ten.
And somewhere in the journey in between there of the details, we think that we're going to work those out.
But romans eight tells us, right, that God works all things for the good, for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That God is the God of the details.
That God is working and moving while we sleep, while we're awake, while we speak and while we're quiet.
That God is working in those that God oftentimes in our willingness and in our unwillingness, is working and moving in all outcomes and situations and the details that lie there in between.
And it's trusting in that.
I mean, what took this passage of scripture so long is because this servant is saying, this is how the Lord led.
This is what happened.
This is how what's confirmed that the Lord has led.
And in fact, in verse 15, that's what he says, the Lord has led me.
When Jesus called his disciples to become disciples, what did he say?
Follow me, follow me, follow me.
Jesus gives us the plan.
Follow me.
What amazes me when I hear stories from others and when I look at stories of my own life where it was very clear and evident of God's.
Plan and God's purpose for my life, there's a phrase that comes out often.
And it is this.
It was very clear that this is.
Where God was leading.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a couple of guys about my call ten and a half years ago.
To come here and be the senior pastor.
And I said it wasn't the first church that I had spoken with about becoming the senior pastor.
But in the other churches there were just things that were unclear.
There was things that were uncertain.
But as I walk through and pray, God, would you make clear, and would you make evident as we walk through this in unity with my wife, of walking through in unity in discussion with the search team and the elders that were a part of it, what I can tell you is, having never been a senior pastor before, of not fully knowing what to expect as we walk through this journey, what was happening throughout all this is God made clear that this is where God was leading.
And we trust that there's confidence for.
This servant to stand all day at.
A spring and say, no, God, this is where you're leading.
This is where you're leading.
And then when Rebecca came, he said, this is where you've led.
This is where you've led.
I think oftentimes we try to take the matters into our own hands, but here's what I'll say to you in your plans.
Stop trying to lead God and start letting God lead you.
What does that mean?
Well, you know what it means.
You may have to wait.
We don't like to wait.
One of the commands over and over Old Testament and New Testament is God calling his people to wait.
Wait.
Sometimes in order to have the great confidence in where God is leading, what you and I have to do is practice something that is enabled and empowered.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Within us to be patient and to wait.
What it may mean is that it may mean that you need to turn in a different direction.
You may have to head down a different path than the one that you've gone down.
You've maybe head down a path that you've cleared out, that you've laid a foundation for.
You've gotten all the bumps out of the road.
You've poured time and energy and effort into this path that you've determined, and then all of a sudden, you realize, whoa, there's a lot of great things on this path, but God's not on this path.
And you may have to head into a different direction.
Or three, you may have to go.
You may have to know Jesus when.
He calls those first disciples that had.
Just got done fishing with all that was there, Jesus says, come and follow me.
And then he went.
And sometimes to follow Jesus, what it means is when he goes, guess what?
We got to go, too.
The question I have for you, are you trying to take God, or is God trying to take you?
Right.
Some examples that we see in our lives where we hear this.
There's two that I hear, right.
One that I hear from people who are married.
It's probably the most common one that I get about God's will for their.
Life, and then the second from single people.
So you can probably guess where the.
Second one's going, right?
Number one, how about a new job?
Is this God's will for my life?
Here's what I found that we do when we look down and we see the benefits.
It's more money, it's more retirement.
It's better advancement.
God must be in that, right?
There's disconnect from family.
There's disconnect from church.
So maybe God isn't leading in that.
Direction with some of our single individuals.
The beauty of the significant other, right.
We got the boxes.
We're attracted to them.
That's number one.
Let's be honest.
Right.
Number two, our personalities align.
We've got similar hobbies.
They're successful.
They're driven.
They make us happy.
They check all the boxes.
We're good when we're together.
We fit, we get all the feelings.
Right.
But their relationship with God is lacking or nonexistent.
Then I'd probably say that you may.
Be really attracted to them.
They may have a lot of money in the bank.
There may be a lot of compatibility.
That's there.
But I would be willing to bet that God isn't leading in that direction.
And for us, maybe we need to stop trying to take God where God hasn't been and where God won't go.
So the servant explains why he's here at the very first in the encounter, he explains.
He says he sells the idea.
He shares the call and shares the idea.
God has greatly blessed Abraham, and then he's blessed Isaac, blessed with money, with influence, with power.
He's a man of God who desires to obey.
He has led me here.
He has heard my prayer, and God has answered it with Rebecca.
And then over and over and over again, he proves how.
But that's only part of the equation.
She's got to be willing to go.
And probably more importantly, if you're sitting here sitting beside your daughter this morning, like, we got to see if we're going to let her go.
Verse 50.
Then Laban and Bethul answered and said, the thing has come from the Lord.
We cannot speak to you, bad or good.
Behold, Rebecca is before you.
Take her and go and let her be the wife of your master's son.
As the Lord had spoken.
When Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord.
And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold and garments and gave them to Rebecca.
He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments.
And he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there.
When they arose in the morning, he said, send me away to my master.
Her brother and mother said, let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days.
After that, she may go.
Let's pause here for a minute.
My dad heart gets that, you know.
She can go.
Just give us some time.
Verse 56.
But he said to them, do not delay me since the Lord has prospered my way.
Send me away, that I may go to my master.
And they said, let us call the young woman and ask her.
And they called Rebecca and said to her, will you go with this man?
She said, I will go.
So they sent away Rebecca, their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men.
And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gates of those who hate him.
Number three.
No one, God's will.
No one, God's will is being prepared to say yes.
No one.
God's will is being prepared to say yes.
Let me ask you this question.
Are you preparing yourself today to say yes to God?
Tomorrow.
Are you preparing yourself today to see yes to God tomorrow?
Rebecca was going to get water, a task that she would have done every day.
There's nothing special about it.
There was nothing different about that day.
She was just going to do what she always would do.
And then she meets a man and her whole world is turned upside down.
Her family, when they see this, they acknowledge God is in this.
But could you give her ten days for us?
Now?
What reason?
We don't know.
Maybe they wanted to throw her a party.
Maybe they wanted to spend some time together.
Maybe they just wanted some time to process all that had taken place.
Maybe they just were like, maybe we can rethink know.
We don't know.
But look at what Rebecca says.
She says, no.
If this is of God, then we go.
How do you prepare yourself today to.
Say yes to God tomorrow?
By saying yes to God today.
Knowing and desiring God's will for your life is not centered around the big major milestones that we circle on a calendar.
Knowing and living in God's will for your life is knowing and trusting God's will for your life in the mundane things like drawing water down by a spring and saying, yes to God.
Yes to God.
What stands out to me about Rebecca here is her maturity.
There's no way.
There's no way that this encounter with Abraham's servant was the first time she had said yes and trusted God.
There's no way, because you don't leave all of that behind to make the decisions to go.
If your life hasn't been marked by faithful yeses.
Backstory of Jesus with the disciples as they ministered with him, what did Jesus do?
He gave them smaller capacities to serve and then entrusted them with more and more and more.
Talking to somebody this morning.
Over the last year, we've gone through a big change in the Bradbury house.
I've talked about it a lot on the stage.
It's the change of the Bradbury kids driving, right?
Here's what I parents who have teenagers.
That drive, you know this.
Those of you who don't have teenagers.
To drive, you don't know this.
So let me share it with you.
In order for them to drive, you're.
Going to give up something.
You know what you're going to give up?
Money.
It's expensive, man.
It's expensive for them to drive.
Cars are expensive.
Gas is expensive.
Tires are expensive.
My speakers don't work right or expensive like it's expensive for kids to drive, and no one told me how expensive car insurance was, right?
Forget about free medical insurance.
I want free car insurance is what I'm talking.
Know that's expensive.
But here's what, you get time.
You get time.
Saturday morning, Aaron and I woke up.
We woke up early that morning, and Emma's got dance.
And our Saturday morning rotation is typically, do we take to dance for the carpool or do we take Emma to carpool?
And I looked at Aaron.
She's like, well, which one of us is going to go this morning?
And I said, neither.
She can drive herself, right?
We got this.
She's got this.
We're paying for it.
Go.
Insurance is going to cost what it cost.
Go.
But here's the deal.
Before my kids drove a car, before they drove a car, they had a tricycle.
After they had a tricycle, they had a scooter.
After they had a scooter, they had a bike.
Eventually, because we're kind of rednecked from the south, they rode on John Deere lawn mowers and golf carts and four wheelers, right?
They did all of those things.
And when they were able to drive illegally and legally, we drove in parking lots.
And then once they got that license, we took them down side roads, and then we moved them from side roads to main roads, and then we got them to interstates.
We kept moving on and moving on and entrusting them with more and more within this.
Here's the deal.
Spiritually speaking, you and I want God to entrust us, figuratively speaking, with the interstate level of his will.
But you and I have not been faithful.
With the tricycle he first gave us in the steps for us, we see Rebecca make this monumental decision in her life.
No, I'm not waiting.
I'm going.
How did she make that decision?
Because it was step by step by step of faithfulness.
A group of disciples who ran, who ran when Jesus got arrested, and most of who died the death of a martyr because of steps and steps of faithfulness, of knowing God's will and saying, yes, her confidence was not in the servant, was not in Abraham, was not in Isaac.
Her confidence was in God.
And in a life of serving him, she had built her faithfulness on him.
So how does this love story conclude?
Verse 61.
Then Rebecca and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed the man.
Thus the servant took Rebecca and went his way.
Verse 62.
Now Isaac had returned from Birlah and was dwelling in the negeb.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.
And he lifted his eyes and saw.
And behold, there were camels coming.
And Rebecca lifted her eyes.
And when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel and said to the servant, who is that man walking in the field to meet us?
The servant said, it is my master.
So she took her veil and covered herself.
And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.
And then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother, and took Rebecca.
And she became his wife, and he loved her.
So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
Number four.
Knowing God's will.
Knowing.
And I added this.
I apologize.
It's not on the screen.
Knowing and doing God's will is experiencing the peace of God.
It could have gone bad, right?
It didn't.
And we see this beautiful picture of these two strangers who have come together.
Another question to get asked often is, but I want to live in and experience the peace of God in my life.
As a believer, what I've come to know, when to see is this, that the peace of God is the most strongly experienced and lived in at the center of his will.
The closer I am to the center of his will, the greater the peace is in my life.
They met.
It's magical.
They get married.
Everything's great, right?
Well, here's the thing about Genesis 24.
If you're here with us, last week we talked about Sarah's death.
So you would think that Genesis 24.
Since it's after 23, happens after Sarah has died.
But that's not necessarily the case.
Genesis chapter 24 may have actually happened after Sarah's death or the events of this unfolded during her death.
But what we do see, what I think that we can draw from here, what I think is great and powerful, is that if you've experienced that, as we've talked about, that losing someone close to us, that the means of comfort that God would give Isaac was not found in his meditations, in his wealth, in his servants, or even in his father Abraham, but in the grace of God.
Where Isaac would find comfort was in.
His wife, was from her, what she would give him in the person of who she is.
See, in Christ, you and I have peace with God.
The Bible tells us that we're the enemies of God.
Before relationship with Christ and peace with God is twofold, that Christ in his death on the cross restores that relationship, and we're no longer considered enemies, but we're considered family, and that peace is brought there.
But also there's not only the peace with God.
But there's the peace of God that in Christ what we have is the peace of God.
Colossians 315 says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.
And be thankful.
Philippians four, six through seven do not.
Be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
Let's pause so when the chaos and the craziness of life happens, when you don't know where to turn and what to do, the command do not be anxious about anything.
Verse seven.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This is it.
My mom's dead.
My world's turned apart, but I have the peace of God.
In these moments I'm uncertain of what to do.
I'm uncertain of where to turn.
But the peace of God that is found, and it is found the closest at the center of his will.
The peace of God is found in trusting the promises, the nature and the character of God.
You see, we think the peace of God is found in the removal of stress and difficulty of life.
But the peace of God is this, that in the midst of the stress and the difficulty of life, knowing that God will never leave you nor forsake you, knowing that he is in control and knowing that he works all things for the good of those who love him, that's where peace is found.
That's the peace of God.
My hope and prayer for all of us is this.
Number one, before you can know the peace of God, you have to have peace with God.
And that today if you do not have peace with God, that today you'll admit that you're a sinner, that you'll believe in the Jesus of the Bible, of who the Bible says he is, that he died for your sins on a cross, that he was buried, that he rose three days later from the grave, and that he ascended to heaven, and then that is where he is, and he will turn and take back all that is his for himself.
And that you will confess today that Jesus is Lord and savior.
But I hope for all of us, those that have the peace with God, that today.
Yes?
Do I want your difficulty to go away?
Absolutely.
But more importantly than that, I want you to know that the peace of God is found in the person of God and he's with you.
Would you pray with me?
God, we thank you for today.
We thank you for this morning.
Lord, we thank you for this passage of scripture.
We're not an easy, not a short, not a brief passage of scripture, but, Lord, a powerful passage that points us.
To remind us of your promises and your providence.
Lord, I pray.
That we would seek to trust you.
Trust to follow your commands.
Trust to know that you're in control.
And, Lord, trust that you'll determine the success that we long for.
Lord, I know that there are so.
Many in here who wrestle with that, Lord.
They think they're unqualified to know.
Unqualified, Lord, to do.
And Lord, that we would see that we have all that we have in Christ to obey you, to follow you, to know your will for our life, and to live confidently in that God as we prepare to respond to you in worship.
Lord, I pray if there's anyone here.
Who does not know you as their lord and savior, that today would be the day of their salvation.
God, I pray if there's anyone here, Lord, who has been unwilling or desiring to take a step of faith and trust you in a specific area in your life, God, that today would be that day.
Lord, may our heart's desire be simply to say yes to you.
It's in Jesus'name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willowridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.