God Provides for His Promise (2)

Introduction

GPS

How many of you are solely dependent on your phone to get you around town?

ATL - Missed two stops

How many of you desire for clear direction in your life?

Transition

Well the good news is that God makes a way for us to pursue Him through things like prayer and obedience. And we read about that in stories like where we are tonight.

Setting the scene

Abraham and his son Isaac

Sarah had just passed. Abraham incredibly old. Promise has been made, its been upheld, but once more there is this certain tinge of wondering how God is going to make a way....

C.I.T. - God providentially works to bring about His purposes.

Proclamation

12 “Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “make this happen for me today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 I am standing here at the spring where the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw water. 14 Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”

15 Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah—daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah,k the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor—coming with a jug on her shoulder. 16 Now the girl was very beautiful,l a virgin—no man had been intimate with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up. 17 Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water from your jug.”

18 She replied, “Drink, my lord.” She quickly lowered her jug to her hand and gave him a drink. 19 When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.”

Application

i

In what areas of life do you wish you had clear guidance?

School?

Family?

j

Relationships or maybe no relationships.

There is no doubt that this life that we’re living in has so much about it that we don’t understand. But where there is mystery, we can lean into God’s loving care.

Exposition

We see that here in this episode, if that’s what you want to call it. Look here, Abraham’s beloved servant “prayed… make this happen for me today and show kindness to my master Abraham.”

He’s not praying for his own benefit, He’s not even really praying for Abraham’s benefit, but instead he is cherishing this promise that God made to his master long ago. He long’s after God’s promise. To make from Abraham many nations. He longs for His purposes.

Is that the same way that we long for God’s purposes? Are we like that?

Application

We should respond in life with a mind-set that if something is going to happen, that God has to “make-it” happen.

That’s exactly what’s happening here as Abraham’s servant prays specifically and expectantly.

14 Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”

Application

He’s not saying God prove yourself to me but he is saying, “God I have journeyed several hundred miles, for a long, long time, we know this to be your promise and purpose so make it happen and make it obvious!

Sidenote:

Camel’s

We read about Rebekah here and we read that she is beautiful but apparently she’s ripped too. Must be doing some Crossfit...

But do you pray in such a way? Do lean in and depend on Him in such a way?

When have you experienced God answering your prayer? What happened? How has that shaped your life today?

Expectant that God will come through? Desperately?

If you sit there and say, “I don’t know.” God hasn’t answered my prayers because I don’t pray.” I just want to ask you, why not? God clearly demonstrates here that He provides for His children! Pray! Pray boldly, pray in a way that makes you lean completely into Him.

I’m not saying go and pray for a Ferrari, cause that has nothing to do with God’s will on your life in that He has created you to be with Him. He loves you. He wants you to lean into Him and Him alone for all of your needs, none more important than to save you from sin and destruction. That’s what Paul is talking about in that famous Romans passage when he says, “ - ...we know that for those who love God, all things works together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”

- And we know that for those who love God, all things works together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

We read on in verse 23...

Proclamation

k ;

l ; ;

23 “Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

23 “Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Please tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

B Lit they are finished drinking

24 She answered him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 She also said to him, “We have plenty of straw and feed and a place to spend the night.”

26 Then the man knelt low, worshiped the Lord, 27 and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld his kindness and faithfulness from my master.

m

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .

n ; ;

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .

Application

Application

In what areas of life do you wish you had clear guidance?

Application

Why should we respond in life with a mind-set that if something is going to happen, that God has to “make-it” happen.

Exposition

Application

This is Rebekah checking all the boxes. She is from Abraham’s homeland which means that she doesn’t worship any foreign God’s and this is God making good on His promise to make a people from Him and people that would be God’s.

When have you experienced God answering your prayer? What happened? How has that shaped your life today?

So you can imagine that this servant here is lighting up like a Christmas tree. I found her! I found this needle in a haystack! I got someone that you just have to meet! It’s like ancient Christianmingle.com

If you sit there and say, “I don’t know.” God hasn’t answered my prayers because I don’t pray.” I just want to ask you, why not? God clearly demonstrates that He provides for His children! Pray! Pray boldly, pray in a way that makes you lean completely into Him. Im not saying go and pray for a Ferrari, cause that has nothing to do with God’s will on your life in that He has created you to be with Him. He loves you. He wants you to lean into Him and Him alone for all of your needs, none more important than you salvation.

Application

Guys, this is what it looks like to seek and obey God’s will. Sure there is a mystery to this life but for those who are in Christ are a new creation! Right? You have a redeemed heart! One that desires God, for His will and for His glory. You don’t desire.

- And we know that for those who love God, all things works together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

Where do you want to go to college? Well how do you feel that God has gifted you and where do you want to go to do that? God won’t let you operate outside of his bounds and if you nudge up to them, you best believe me that he’ll set you straight. For better or for worse he’ll set you straight.

If you want to be an engineer, a doctor, a writer, whatever, go and do that if that is how God has uniquely prepared you to make His name great. Shoot, you can garbage picker, because you love God, want to serve the community and be pursuing God’s purposes!

So Rebekah returns with this servant to Isaac and we pick up in verse 63…

Proclamation

63 In the early evening Isaac went out to walk in the field, and looking up he saw camels coming. 64 Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.

67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah to be his wife. Isaac loved her, and he was comforted after his mother’s death.

K Or pray, or meditate; Hb obscure

Application

l

Do you know that all of this is a part of a divine and sovereign plan that not only works out for your good, but also for all of God’s people?

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .

Application

We read on to see very clearly what we’ve seen with Noah, Moses, and Abraham as well. These are guys and many others throughout all of Scripture are really wonderful heroes of the faith, but fallen no less.

Noah becomes a drunkard. Abraham pimps out his wife to save his own skin, and Isaac goes through his own family mess with his two sons warring over his inheritance.

But we see clearly that God uses such imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will. So that means that no matter where you are tonight, if you love Jesus, if you are just kind of “eh” about this whole christianity thing, or if you all around do not believe. God can and does reach out to you tonight and draws you near, right now, to join him where you’ve belonged all this time, within the outstretched arms of all of God’s family.

So if you believe, great. Let’s party, right? It’s good to goof off and enjoy one another as God’s family. But if you are on the fence or skeptical I want you to know that that’s okay too, but I do ask, what is holding you back? Whatever your answer might be to that question, let’s talk about it. Me, anyone of these leaders, your believing friends, we would absolutely love to tell you how God saved us from our terrible messes and made us His own.

Illustration

That’s what he has done all along. Since the beginning of all time, from Creation, to the Exodus, to the promised land, to Jesus coming to this earth we see that God has always been about the business of bringing his beloved back to himself.

We see one of the greatest Scriptural metaphors at play here in this “wife/bride” language. That’s indeed what Paul uses to refer to God’s church in the New Testament when he speaks of the church as the“Bride of Christ.”

Just as God moved heaven and earth to bring Rebekah to Isaac, he did the same to bring himself to you. As Abraham’s servant travelled hundreds of miles to find a bride for his master’s son, God travelled through all time and space to bring you back to himself.