Temptations of the Father…

Good morning everyone, it is so good to be here this morning with you all. Right now we get to send out the kiddos to their class where you have the opportunity to learn about God in a way that makes sense to you. Then, remember, you gotta pay attention real good so that you can come find me after service and tell me something you learned today. Then of course we also want to welcome those of you joining us online, etc.

We are currently back in Genesis where we left off last year and this year we are specifically looking at Isaac and what relationship Isaac had with God, and how God will provide for and use Isaac through various issues that will for sure come up. It’s interesting to think about the things that we learn from our fathers, even when we didn’t know about specific things from our fathers.

For instance, my father and I took very similar life paths, even though it was not intentional. What I mean by that is my father and I both grew up in the church. We both left the church in our formative years, and then we both came back to church at some point. My father and I were both heavily involved in drugs and alcohol and living a life that was clearly against Biblical values. My father and I also both ended up serving churches and then, something I learned later in life, we both were baptized after serving in church as leadership. What happened is that we both realized that we had not been Biblical baptized and when the Lord convicted us of that, we both stepped into obedience and were baptized immediately. I can tell you that was actually one of the hardest things I did was to admit that I had not been baptized because I was already serving as a youth pastor instructing others to follow Jesus in baptism, but I had never done that myself. It’s really interesting to see how my father’s life and my life actually in many way mirrored each other through various paths that we each independently took. Also, to be clear, my father did not know of many of the things that I did, and I did not know about things that he had done, until we have a series of conversations where we discovered this reality. Now, after this became apparent there were other things that I specifically watched out for to ensure that I no longer followed in my fathers footsteps, that I didn’t even know existed.

So how is it that there was a cycle to break? Well, as I was reading and studying this week a really interesting thought came to mind. See, in James 1 we read about the purpose of trials and temptation. We read about how faith will be tested either by trials or temptation. The practical reason for that is that a faith that can’t be tested, can’t be trusted. So, God tests us through trials to bring out the best in us, and Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in us. Now, in one way or another, each new generation of believers must experience the same trials and temptations that future generations have endured. That doesn’t always mean the exact same trials and temptations as in the case of my father and I, but all believers must be tested over the same concepts to produce a faith that will actually stand the test of time. So, the question is, what kind of trials and temptations are you enduring, and parents, are you preparing your children for those tests? In other words, are you teaching your children how to overcome the temptations and how to endure the trials that they will experience. You cannot protect them from this, becuase if they do not experience these trials and temptations then how will they trust their own faith. You see, your kids, those kids back in their own class right now, can not survive life on your faith…They must develop a faith of their own. It is your job to allow to to develop that faith and teach them about that faith so that they can strengthen their own faith and endure whatever trials may come and resist the temptations that will come. When it comes to me and my father, I did not know about all of his trials and temptations, but once we talked about it openly, I knew what to prepare for and I was able to resist those temptations and my faith was strengthened through those trials. Parents, don’t think you are protecting your kids from your trials, if you are not open and honest about these things (in the appropriate context of course) you are only robbing them of the lessons you’ve already learned.

Now, let’s take a look at all of that in the context of Isaac and his father Abraham. What we will see today is really interesting because what we will see is

The Temptations of the Father…

This is a crazy thing that if you have never read about this story, or realized what was going on here, this is gonna blow your mind. So, let’s go ahead and take a look at this story and see what we can learn from Isaac this morning.

Genesis 26:1–11 ESV

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’ ” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

Ok, so from this passage there are actually a few similarities between Abraham and Isaac. I know, most of you are realizing the big one about how Abraham called his wife Sarah his sister, and now Isaac has done the same thing…but there is something else going on here that is really interesting. So, we aren’t reading the whole chapter here, but if we were to read the whole chapter, we would see that Abraham is mentioned 8 times, and the word “father” is found 6 times in this chapter alone. That is to draw our attention to what is going on here. However, we are talking about trials and temptations this morning so the first thing that we notice is

The Temptation to Run: (1-6)

Now, way back in Gen 12 we read about how God took a man named Abram and told him to leave the place he knew and go to the place that God would show him. Then, God took him to a place and told him that this was the place God had chosen for his descendants, and God said that he would have a massive line of descendants. However, things were uneasy, and there was a famine in that land, so Abram left that place and went to Egypt. Abram decided that it was best to do things according to his own plan. See, Abram thought at that time that that instead of trusting God, it was far better to abandon the place God told him to go and run to another place. How many times do we do that ourselves? Listen, I know it sounds easy for me to talk about how easy it is to trust God to provide for you because clearly God has always provided for us. However, that trust and that faith did not come without cost. We have been nearly at the point of homelessness and had to make the choice to trust God when it would have been far far easier to trust ourselves.

Let me tell you about a story. Beth and I had been married for around 3.5 years and we were serving as a volunteer youth pastor in a church in Mishawaka, In. I had seniority at a good job that provided for us financially through having a place to live as part of the pay. We had 2 kids, Isabel had just been born less than a year prior. I felt god move in my life that it was time to take the step to move from volunteer youth pastor to a paid position as God had been leading me in that direction. So, I took a position as a part time youth pastor at a church in Lafayette, In. That was about 3 hours south of Mishawaka and we had no family in that area. Now, God had provided for us previously when we left Puerto Rico, so we felt we could trust what God was leading us to. However, it was clearly easier to move to a place that was around family. Now, since this was a part time position, I would need a full time job in order to pay the bills. So, I connected with a sister company that I already worked for, and I went down to interview for that company. I got the job pretty rapidly so it was very clear that God was providing for this move.

However, after we moved, and we were living in the apartment that was provided for by the company. Then, I lost that job. This was like 2 weeks later that I lost this job…Now, I could very easily had gone back to where we lived in Mishawaka and they would have happily given me my job back and all would have been well. However, Bethany and I did not feel peace about that, even though I very much wanted to do that in order to provide for my family. We prayed about it, and we decided not to go down that path, but to stick it out and trust God. In time, God gave me a job that led to a better position and led to us purchasing our home and much more ministry than we were able to do at the first place. However, there was an “in between” time where we were close to being homeless. I had to move my family into a very sketchy area that was a bit dangerous, but we trusted God every step of the way. As a father and husband, I cannot tell you how much of a failure I felt like at that time. It looked like I would not be able to provide for my family. It was hard, but because God had been faithful up until that point, it was easier to trust. You see, I tell you that because I do know what it is like to choose to trust God with the incredibly hard stuff. That decision to stay in Lafayette, and later that decision to move my family into a sketchy area could have proven to be horrible…However, something I have learned is that the safest place in the world is in the will of God. It has been said, “The will of God will never lead us where His grace can’t provide for us.” When you are stuck in unbelief, you will ask, “How can I get out of this?” When you choose faith, you will ask, “What can I get out of this?” These are two very different mindsets that every single one of us must choose between.

Did you catch what God did for Isaac? You see, God made promises to Abraham and those promises included Isaac. However, God now reaffirms his promises to Isaac and I think that is so important. You see, Isaac is now faced with a hard experience, namely a similar famine that his father experienced. However, God told Isaac that he was going to protect and provide for him as a reminder that this promise was still true. God allowed Isaac to go to Gerar as that was still a part of the promise that God had made to Abraham. However, he told him not to go to Egypt as that is outside of the land promised to Abraham.

See God had a conversation with Abraham and undoubtedly Abraham told Isaac about that promise. However, God took the time to remind Isaac about this promise when Isaac needed to be reminded. Wouldn’t it be nice if God still did that for us? If God would simply remind us about his promises for us then I do think it would be so much easier to stand against the temptations and stand strong during those trials that will come against us, don’t you think? So God reaffirmed his promises to Isaac, and God reaffirms his promises to you daily. How does God reaffirm his promises to you daily? Through his written word. Scripture reaffirms God’s promises. However, you will only be reminded of those promises if you are actively reading his word. You see, Abraham and Isaac did not have the written word of God, so God reaffirmed to Isaac the way that he did. However, you and I have the written word of God, so we have those promises available to us every single day. Isaac was for sure tempted to run, just like his father. However, he chose to stay where God told him to. That isn’t the only temptation that we just read about though. Next we see the

Temptation to Lie: (7-11)

Isaac was able to escape famine, but then he was placed into a situation where there was no escape. In order to be protected, Isaac had to either lie, or choose to trust God. Now, here is the interesting thing. This is a lie that Abraham had used twice in his life. Abraham lied in Egypt and in Philistia, which is where Isaac is right now. Now, remember the tendency that we have already seen of Isaac towards being deceptive. Remember what I said last week about faith. I said that “Faith is living without scheming.” Scheming is an area that we have already seen Jacob fail in, and now we will see Isaac, Jacob’s father, fail in this same way his father before him failed, by lying. Actually, telling lies seems to be one of humanities favorite ways to escape responsibility, or get out of perceived danger. We’ve all done it at some point in our life.

So what happened here with Isaac? Isaac was asked about this woman who he was with, namely his wife Rebekah. However, instead of trusting God for protection, Isaac followed in his fathers footsteps with this exact lie. So why did Isaac feel the need to lie? Well plainly speaking, Isaac was afraid that he would be killed. Previously Abraham said of this same place that there was no fear of God in this place. Essentially he was saying that there are no morals because morality comes from God, the creator or right and wrong. However it was shown to Abraham that this is a place that apparently does fear God when the king has a dream from God in which he warns the king of the judgement that they will bring upon themselves. Maybe this story has stayed with the royalty and so they have decided that this is not an evil that should be tolerated. If this is true then it would be apparent that Isaac had already forgotten the promise that God had just reaffirmed to him. Not only that, but just last week we talked about how Isaac had prayed over his wife. His prayer was a prayer that showed his faith in the promise that his father had previously told to him. So, he has been shown to be a man who believes the promises of God, and God has just reaffirmed these very same promises, so why does Isaac fail to rest in those promises? I would say for the same reason each and every one of us fails to rest in the promises of God. We fall to temptation. Remember, temptation is Satan’s way of getting the worst out of us, and sometimes we fall to that temptation and we absolutely show ourselves to be faithless…at least in that moment.

When Isaac was faced with difficulty, he was tempted to run and to lie. When you and I area faced with difficulty, we are tempted with the same thing. We can run from whatever we are facing, and we can lie our way out of it. Sometimes, we do run. We run by avoiding doing what we know we need to do. Maybe this is as a spouse or as a parent, but we run the same. We run and avoid the confrontation that is going to be very difficult. We lie in hopes of avoiding what we know we need to face. We have all done something that we are ashamed of, or maybe our lie is to avoid perceived danger. However, the temptation to run and lie comes from a place of not trusting the promises of God in our lives. Listen, you may be right, being honest might cost you something. Facing that danger, might be that you lose something that you treasure. However, is that thing more valuable than God’s promises? Do you know God’s promises? God has promised that he will always provide a way out of the hardships of life. We read that in 1 Corinthians 10:13. God has also promised to work all things together for good. We read that in Romans 8:28. God has also promised that he is slow to anger and rich in mercy. We read that in Numbers 14:18. God also promises to forgive you of your many trespasses. We read that in 1 John 1:9. See there are many promises of God that we forget if we are not actively reading those promises. When I forget the promises of God, it is far easier for me to fall to those temptations and not endure those trials which will strengthen my faith.

This morning we have seen the reality that God’s promises are real. We were reminded that even back in Genesis God protected Isaac instead of allowing him to fall. God did this because he is faithful to his promises. How has God kept his promises in your life? How has God forgiven you of your own sin, every single day? Are you living in that reality, or are you afraid of what might happen, like Isaac was? Listen, I don’t know everyone’s situation here today, but I do know that there are many here today who are relying on God’s promises every day, and there are others who are just now learning about God’s promises. I know there are some here today who have been reminded that they need to cling to God’s promises and there are others who are just now hearing about God’s promise to provide for you. Whatever your situation I want to encourage you to connect with God before you leave here and reaffirm your reliance on him and not on yourself. Abraham tried to provide for himself, Isaac tried to provide for himself, later we read about how Jacob will try to rely on himself, and you have been trying to rely on yourself. Release that this morning and refocus on the promises of God.

Let’s Pray: pray that God will remind us of his promises in our life and give us the strength to let go of trying to provide what only God can provide