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.

Well we are in the middle of a series in Genesis where we are learning about Isaac and how God has and will use Isaac to impact us today in 2024. It’s amazing to think about the fact that we can learn something from this ancient story and this man who lived in the ancient near east. That is what that location and time period is called is the ancient Near East. It is so incredible to me that we can learn something from a guy who lived over 4000 years ago. I mean he doesn’t know the political environment that we live in today. He doesn’t know the social environment and the climate that we live in today. How can we legitimately think that this man who has such a different life than we have today in 2024 has anything to contribute to our life today? Well, I’ll tell you how…because God said there is something that we can learn about who he is and about who we are from the stories that we read about this man who lived so long ago. God has specifically chosen the stories that we are going to read today, God has specifically chosen those stories because there is something that he, as the creator of the universe, know you and I need to learn about. That is how we know we can learn something here. However, and this is important, we can only learn something if we are willing to humble ourselves to God and listen to what he has to say to us. So, can we all agree to do that this morning? If you are with me on this, then join me in prayer this morning as we seek to learn from Isaac how we can grow in our own relationship with God.

Pray: pray that all hearing will humble ourselves to listen to God and see what God would teach us about himself, about ourselves, and about his plan for us.

Amen…so let’s take a look at what is going on with Isaac this week. This week we are going to be in Genesis 26 again and we are going to be starting off in a moment with verse 12. Just as a reminder we are picking up with Isaac living in Gerar which is in Philistia. See, Isaac when almost to Egypt and God told him not to go to Egypt so he went back to Gerar which is in modern day Egypt, but in that time it was between what we think of Israel and Egypt. He stayed there and lied about his wife, which caused a bit of a dustup with the King, but they worked it out and God protected Isaac based on the promises he made to his father Abraham…oh, and God reaffirmed his promises to Isaac.

So, that is where we pick up this week. Now this week what we are going to see is some competition over the land that they are living. You see, we will see that God is blessing them and they are doing increasingly well and those around them are a bit uneasy about that, so Isaac is going to move in order to keep the peace. However, there is something more that I think we can glean from what Isaac does this week. Let’s go ahead and look at how Isaac is

Re-digging Old Wells

What does that even mean? Well, Isaac literally is going to go back through and re-dig the wells that his father Abraham has dug in the past in this region. Now we are going to see blessings and conflicts and we will even be reminded of the assurance of God’s promises as we look through this passage this morning. We are going to start in verse 12, but we will go through the rest of the chapter this morning. Let’s start by taking a look at

Genesis 26:12–17 (ESV)

And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

In the same passage here we see both

Blessing and Conflict: (12-17)

Yeah, at the same time we see both of these concepts. You see, here’s the deal…both Isaac and his neighbors the Philistines had access to the same dirt, the same water, and the same weather. However, somehow Isaac’s work produced a crop 100 times what he planted. Now, I’m no farmer, but Im gonna guess that is a pretty good crop. I mean, if I invested and for every $1 I invested, I recieved $100…thats a pretty good investment. That is what Isaac is experiencing. He is receiving 100% return on his investment in agriculture. I can imagine that his neighbors were pretty salty over that. I mean, how is it that he is getting that while they are having normal average yields. They will likely, and arguably rightly, assume that Isaac is doing something unethical to get this kind of yield when they are not. Remember, they all have access to the same environment. Here’s what they don’t know though. See Isaac is not receiving this based on his own work. God has blessed Isaac. Isaac is not receiving a great yield because he is a great farmer, or has some secret to livestock. No, what Isaac is receiving is based on the grace of God, not the work of man. That sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem though. Isaac is a deceiver, how can God bless the untrustworthy? Think of it this way. How can God bless a believer who is consistently lying and deceiving his unbelieving neighbors? Remember that Isaac has already proven himself to be untrustworthy to this community by lying about his wife. Now if he lied about his wife, what else has he lied about? Here is what we know is true. God keeps his promises despite man’s failure. And I for one am forever grateful for that fact! You see, God blessed Isaac because Abrahams faith, and God blesses you and I because of Jesus’ sacrifice.

This does bring conflict with the world around us though doesn’t it? You see, the Philistines saw Isaac’s growing wealth and drove them away from where they were. They assumed he was doing something unsavory. They assumed this because he had done some things that were unsavory. The world around Isaac saw him as a threat to their own happiness and so they drove him away. They didn’t ask how he was so prosperous, they simply reacted to what they did not understand. What they saw is that Isaac was the cause of their lack of prosperity, so they attacked him by closing up the wells that provided the water he needed for his crops. Think about how we experience a similar reaction from the world around us. We live in a world that is searching for joy and peace, however they are not experiencing that joy and peace because they are looking to the wrong source. Believers can experience joy and peace, not because of anything we can do, but because of who we know. However, the world around us doesn’t understand that so they drive us away. They will say that God should be relegated to your own house and should not have anything to do with education, or with politics, or with the culture that we live in. They will attack believers, not physically, but socially by saying that if you believe in a “fairy in the sky” that simply shows your own ignorance. However, even through all of this, and it will simply continue to get worse, God keeps his promises despite man’s failure.

That’s not all though we read through this chapter though is it? Let’s keep reading

Genesis 26:18–35 (ESV)

And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” From there he went up to Beersheba. 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.” 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 Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, Isaac said to them, “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 to 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.” He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

Here we see that

Searching leads to Assurance: (18-35)

The question is, what are we searching for? Well in Isaac’s case, he was searching for peace. In your case, you are likely searching for some version of peace as well. Maybe it is peace in your marriage, or peace in your finances, but it is still peace that only the Lord can provide. We see that with Isaac here this morning. You see, no matter where Isaac traveled, the enemy kept following him. No matter how many wells that Isaac’s men dug, the enemy kept taking it over. Here’s the deal though. You see, to find a well of spring water meant that there was a constant flow of fresh water. It meant that there would be enough water…so the Philistines took that well too. Isaac’s men dug a well and it was taken, so they named it Esek because it was continuous. Then they dug another well and called it Sitnah meaning hatred, becuase they fought over that one too. It was like no matter where they went, it wasn’t far enough from his neighbors who wanted what he had.

See, Isaac is traveling and searching for peace with his neighbor. What is really interesting from this story with Isaac is the difference of strategy between Isaac and his father Abraham. You see, Abraham was confrontational, while Isaac avoids confrontation. What is really interesting about that is there are people within Christendom that would be adamant that you must always be confrontational with the culture around you. There are others that would say that you should always seek to preserve peace with the culture around you. However, what we see here is that God can use both of those things. Theologian Warren Wiersbe says it this way,

In every difficult situation of life, it requires discernment to know whether God wants us to be confronters like Abraham or peacemakers like Isaac; for God can bless and use both approaches —Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Authentic, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1997), 19.

I love that God can use both of these approaches. Honestly, I am not one that loves confrontation, however, there are times when as believers we need to confront the culture around us. For instance, when it comes to the evil of things like murder of the pre-born or the transgender ideologies, we need to be confronters. When it comes to things like political correctness, maybe we need to be more peace makers like Isaac.

Isaac has searched for peace where only God can give peace. That is why it took returning to Beersheba where the Lord had enabled Abraham to enter into a covenant with the Philistines in that same place. it is there that God reaffirms his promise to Isaac again, which leads Isaac to worship. My question to you is, how many times does God need to reaffirm his promise to you to cause you to worship in the midst of your situation? Isaac is a pilgrim that is wondering around and worshiping the Lord on the move. Just like Isaac, all who have trusted Jesus Christ are strangers in this world and pilgrims heading for a better world. The body we live in is our “tent”. Life here is temporary because this tent is fragile. So, while we’re still here, let’s remember to worship the Lord and be a witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. God reaffirmed his promise to Isaac…again. And God reaffirms his promise to you daily as you read his Word.

Here’s the deal though. When God is faithful, even unbelievers see his blessings. That is what led to the agreement between Isaac and Abimelech. What is more important than Isaac having the wells that he needed to provide for his growing family? Isaac had the opportunity to share his faith. Isaac choose to be a peacemaker, and then confront Abimelech when the time was right because it offered an opportunity to have Abimelech sit down with Isaac where Abimelech acknowledged that God had blessed Isaac. We don’t know what they talked about during that feast, however, since the Philistines whole purpose for coming there was to acknowledge that God had blessed Isaac, I cannot imagine that God and his blessings would not have come up and been at least a chunk of their conversations. So of course that leads me to ask you if you are every open about why you are doing well? What I mean by that is there are undoubtedly people in your life who have asked you questions like, “How are you managing so well through this?” or, “You always seem to happy, why is that?” Have you been open about your relationship with the Lord and how God has blessed you, or are you holding that for a more opportune time?

Listen, I get it…it can be uncomfortable to acknowledge where our hope actually comes from, especially when we don’t feel particularly hopeful in that moment. So, how do we fix that? Well, I would say that we need to remember where our hope actually comes from by spending time in the Word. Listen, I know I say that every single week but that’s only because its actually that important! Next, after we remember where our hope comes from, we need to meditate on where our hope comes from. When we have spent time meditating on where our hope comes from then we will rest in that hope that only comes from the Lord. The final question I want to answer this morning is, how can we

Read & Apply Scripture

If we look at Isaac’s experience from a spiritual point of view, I think we can learn an important lesson. You see, in the Bible, wells many times symbolize blessings from the hand of the Lord. Here’s the deal, Christians keep looking for something new, when we need to re-dig the old wells of spiritual life that God’s people have depended on from the very beginning—Scripture, prayer, worship, faith, the power of the Holy Spirit, sacrifice, and service—wells that we’ve allowed the enemy to fill up. The truth is whenever there’s been a revival of spiritual power in the history of the Christianity, it’s been because somebody has dug again the old wells so that God’s life-giving Spirit can be free to work. That is what brings about the assurance that we have searched for. This is why we are looking at things as a church. We are taking this year and we are really focusing on re-digging those old wells and understanding exactly who we are as a church, and what God is preparing us for.

However, even when we refocus on the Lord, the enemy is always waiting, watching and hoping you will slip up causing another conflict…just like we see when Esau decides to marry outside of the faith causing conflict once again.

This morning we are all coming from different perspectives and different backgrounds. This morning we have all had different experiences this past week. There is one thing that we all 100% have in common though. We all have the exact same wells to re-dig and the exact same Scripture to focus on. If that’s true then why do we all respond differently to the situations that we all face? Well, I guess because some of us haven’t yet re-dug those wells of our spiritual fathers…This morning let me encourage you to take a minute and re-dig that well of faith in the Lord. Maybe you need to re-dig that well of worship or of prayer. Whatever it is, don’t leave without re-digging that spiritual well so that you have access to the living water that pours out of the life of Christ. Maybe you are here and you would say that your wells have always been dry. Let me suggest that you are digging the wrong wells. Take some time this morning and focus on the Lord for the first time and surrender to clear teaching of Scripture. Admit your need of a savior and accept the gift of living water from a well that will never run dry.

Let me be clear for a moment. You are a sinner and you need a savior. Jesus Christ died to pay the debt of sin in your life. Jesus is the only way to receive life with the Heavenly Father. If you have not yet made it very clear that you are relying not on yourself, but on Jesus who died, was buried, and was resurrected to life as your only hope, then do that today!

Let’s pray: pray that God will convict each of us as we ignore the life he has called us to, and that God will make clear to every person here today that there is only 1 way to experience the peace and joy that we are all searching for.