We are still in Genesis and will be through the entirety of the summer. We won’t finish until the last week of September. This week we are in Genesis 26. So, if you’ve got a Bible you can go there, and I’ll pray, and we’ll launch right in. Good to see all of you and welcome to Mars Hill.

Father God, we thank you for a chance to study Scripture together today. We thank you that we get to learn vicariously through the life of Isaac, both those times when he was faithful and those times when he was unfaithful, and God, I pray as we study his life that we would glean some principles and some insights for our own lives. That our lives would be marked by faith in you, love for you, service to you and joy from you, and so, God, as we study we ask you to send the Holy Spirit to teach us and encourage us and rebuke us and correct us and inform us as we need, and God, we ask that when all is said and done that like Isaac we would love you and follow you. That you would bless us so that we could be a blessing to others, and we pray it would begin as we study your word in Jesus’ good name. Amen.

Now as we launch in, today you’re gonna learn a lot about a gentleman named Isaac. His dad was Abraham. His mom was Sarah. We spent many, many weeks learning about them. He is their son. He was married at about the age of 40 to his wife, Rebekah, who we will meet today. He gave birth to his twin sons, Jacob and Esau, when he was about 60. We’ll learn more about those boys next week. God today is going to open up this man’s life, and he’s going to give us snapshots of three aspects of his life. We’re gonna see his faith. We’re gonna see his finances, and we’re gonna see his family, and in doing this God is trying to teach us vicariously through the life of another believer, and this should be a clue to us that God likes for us to learn through the lives of other people. That’s why paying attention to the lives of those we know is very important. That’s why reading history and biography is also very, very important, and as we study Scripture today it is in large part a historical biography, one of the biggest glimpses we get into the life of Isaac, and we’re going to learn, again, about his faith and his family and his finances, both the good and the bad.

So we’ll jump right in. Genesis 26:1, “Now there was a famine in the land” – this sets the stage. We would call this a recession, an economic downturn. This is where Alan Greenspan gets on CNN and looks very dour. They call it a famine. In our day this means that jobs are scarce, that the cost of living is high, that inflation is not good, that unemployment is not good, that the breadlines and the soup kitchens are very busy, and that people are in financial trouble. It’s a time of stress and grief. How many of you, “Oh, yeah, that’s my life.” That’s what we’re talking about, and this is how many of you feel today because you live in Seattle, and I have good news for you. We’re number one. Forbes magazine says that we are the most overpriced city in America, congratulations. That means you will get jacked financially here more likely than anywhere in the country. So you’re number one, congratulations. They call it a famine; we call it Seattle. It’s an economic tough time, right? It’s an economic difficulty. We’re not pulling out of the recession as quickly as we would’ve hoped, and as soon as we do you can guarantee they’ll tax us and make sure we still struggle. That is in Hebrew called a famine. That’s what that means, financial hardship, times are tough.

“Besides the earlier famine of Abraham’s time,” – his daddy lived through a famine as well, and now he is living through a famine – “and Isaac went to Abimelech,” – just like his daddy. Abraham had went to Abimelech. This probably a different man – same last name – it’s a family name, kind of like Kennedy. It’s a family name that everyone knows – “king of the Philistines in Gerar.” So Isaac now is a man. His dad is gone. Like his dad he is in the middle of a famine. He’s gotta go to the king. He’s gotta figure out, “What am I gonna do? How am I gonna feed my family, pay my bills, take care of those that I love? How am I gonna make it through this financial hardship?” “The Lord appeared to Isaac” – just like he did his daddy – “and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt;’ – don’t do that. His daddy did that, picked up a girlfriend, led to all kinds of trouble. So he tells him don’t go to Egypt. Instead – “‘live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.’” Two great promises, God says, “I’ll be with you, and I’ll bless you.

“‘For to you and your descendants I give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.’” Here’s what he’s telling him. “Don’t’ leave the place that is hard. See, the place that he’s living – economic downturn, famine, financial hardship, high cost of living, times are tough. Down in Egypt there’s plenty of food. It’s not so hard, better job market, better upward mobility, better investment opportunity, and the question is, “Well, where should I live? Should I pack up my family and go to Egypt?” How many of you this is an issue? Rodney Stark, a sociologist at the U-dub says that the average person in Seattle has lived three places in the last ten years. A lot of people come and go and move. Homeownership in Seattle is generally lower than it is nationally. Only about 52 percent of Seattleites own the home that they live in.

That’s because people are coming and going a lot, why? Well, part of it is it’s a hard place economically to get traction. So people come here for school. They come here for a few years, but once they get married, or they want to have kids, they look at relocating out of Seattle for the same reasons that this man is looking at relocating out of the place that God has placed him because somewhere else has lower cost of living, better job opportunity, better cost of living, better upward mobility and market share, and he’s looking at it on paper saying, “Well, I know God told me to live here, but financially, it makes a lot more sense to relocate, to move here.”

And the point here is this. Be very careful that when you decide where you will live that your decisions are not exclusively made by what appears to be financial prudence on paper. Just because someplace has a lower cost of living or a lower unemployment rate or a higher ability for you to make a buck, don’t necessarily just assume, “That’s the place for me.” Okay? I’m not saying it’s a sin to move. I’m not saying that at all, but what you need to do is you need to hear from God in the same way that Isaac heard from God. God said, “Stay in the place where it’s financially hard. It’s tough to raise a family, and making ends meet right now is a real struggle.” But God called him to be there. God called him to be there, why? Well, because there’s apparently a need there for a believing family. There’s a need for ministry. There’s an enormous opportunity just like there is here in Seattle, the least churched city in the United States of America, least churched region in United States of America.

When they took a poll they had people across the country fill in the blank, “Are you Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Protestant, naked-crazy hippie; what are you? Just fill in your blank and that’s what you are.” And in the northwest the most common box that people checked was “none” – not N-U-N, N-O-N-E, none. (Laughter) And so the average person in Seattle their religion is nothing. There’s no religion. There is nothing there. Nationally, today about half of Americans go to church. In Seattle, about a third of Seattleites go to church. We live in what one book has called the “none zone” because the religious preference is none. When it comes to what is the most popular religion, the “none” box gets checked the most frequently, two-thirds of the time. We live in that kind of place. Spiritually, there’s not a lot of believers. Financially, it’s very expensive. It’s hard to get traction. It’s hard to get financial freedom and independence and mobility. So some people think, “Well, it’s spiritually hard, financially hard; I’m gone.”

But the question is what does God say? He will call some of you to go elsewhere. Praise be to God, no problem with that, but before you make these enormous life decisions you’ve gotta do like Isaac, and you gotta pray it through and hear from God and say, “God, where do you want me? Where do you want me?” Not just where does it make financial sense, but ministry wise, where would be the place for me to put down roots and be for a while; where would that be? And God tells them this, “I’ll be with you, and I’ll bless you. If you remain in the place that is spiritually and financially hard, I will be with you, and I will bless you.” And the point here is this. It’s better to be in a hard place with the presence and blessing of God than an easy place, disobedient, without God’s presence or blessing. If you’re in God’s will, he’ll take care of you. If you’re out of God’s will, you may be on your own. So what looks like a good opportunity may end up being a disastrous mistake.

So Isaac, he’s a believer. He’s thinking all of this through. “Okay, I’d like to, perhaps, move here. It’s better financially, but God says he’ll bless me and be with me. I’ll stay in the hard place.” That’s gonna be a good move on his behalf in an act of obedience. God further states, “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky” – right? You’re gonna have kids and grandkids and the whole nation’s gonna come from you. Ultimately, Jesus will come – “and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” Here’s the point. “I want you to stay here. Have kids. Have grandkids. Multiply, increase. I’m going to bless you and your family – you’re believers – and then you will be the means by which blessing goes out to other people. So I want to bless you to bless others.” This is how God works. This is how God works. You say, “Well, there’s not a lot of believers here.” Well then, birth some, and then have them share good news, and then they’ll see converts. “Well, there’s not a lot of financial traction here.” Well, let’s get going on that. Let’s claim some real estate. Let’s start some businesses. Let’s get things moving.

A lot of times Christians want to move to an area that has a lot of good churches and a lot of good businesses, and everything is nice and beautiful, but where they’re most needed is places where times are hard, not a lot of churches, not a lot of financial mobility. That’s a good place for God’s people to begin to be blessed by God so that the blessing then can be shared with others. That’s God’s plan for this family. And he didn’t know that as a Christian when you get blessed it’s for the purpose of blessing others. If you get money, it’s to help care for other people. If you get wisdom, it’s to help instruct other people. If you get energy, it’s to help serve other people. As God blesses us, we bless others. That’s why we’re here. We love this city. We want to bless this city. We want to serve this city. We want to help the city be a place that is financially and spiritually further along than when we first came, but it may take multiple generations to do that. Maybe our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids that are all working on this great city, and that’s what he’s telling Isaac.

“You, your kids, your grandkids are gonna be blessed to be a blessing. We have a long-term ministry here, and it started with your daddy, Abraham. He obeyed me, kept my requirements, my commandments, my decrees and my law. Your dad was living in Babylon. I moved him here. I gave him you. Now I’m gonna give you kids and them kids, and this is gonna be multiple generations of ministry to one city and one area and one people, and from there it will expand as well into other nations.” It’s gotten all the way to us today. That’s how successful this plan of God has been. And so sometimes we come into it just look at something saying, “Well, where can I make the most money?” And God’s saying, “There’s a lot more going on here. There’s ministry and legacy, and there’s the development of a whole culture that loves me so that other people would be invited to love me. First you need to pray it through and hear from me before you choose where you will live and where you will work.” This all is very important to the Lord.

It goes on then, “So Isaac stayed in Gerar.” He obeys God, good Christian guy. God says, “Stay, it’s gonna be hard, but trust me.” “Okay, God, I trust you. I’m staying.” Doesn’t sin like his dad and go to Egypt. “When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ – does this sound familiar? (Laughter) His old man did this twice. His crazy old man gave away his mom, Sarah, twice. He says, “Oh, my sister.” So, you know, he is a believer, and he didn’t go to Egypt like his dad, but he is gonna lie about his wife like his dad did. Now, some of you need to look at your mom or your dad and say, “Okay, where are their sins, and how am I repeating their sins?” (Laughter) And some of you laugh. You go, “Oh, my gosh, it’s obviously now that you point it out.” I know. (Laughter) That’s why you gotta – but sometimes we overlook the obvious.

How many of you now, you’re getting older, and you’re saying the things your parents said, and as you’re saying it you’re going, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard, and I know that.” But somehow monkey see, monkey do; I’m the monkey. You know, you gotta pay attention and say, “Okay, if their sinning or my parents have this habit of sin, my dad pimps out my mom a lot. I need to write that down somewhere and not do that.” (Laughter) He says, “She’s my sister” because he was afraid to say, “She’s my wife.” He’s a coward. Is cowardice a sin? Yes. Some dude’s, “Are you sure?” Positive, it’s a sin (Laughter) because faith has confidence, and unbelief has cowardice. You’re not supposed to be a coward. You’re supposed to be a man of God. “Hello. This is my wife. If you’d like to kill me, I work for God. Didn’t you see Sodom and Gomorrah? He’ll get you.” (Laughter) You come in with a little confidence. He doesn’t have that. He thought the men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah ‘cause she’s so hot. Okay, you know, some guys say, “I wish I had a hot wife.” Well, if you’re a coward, it’s not gonna be a lot of help for you. You’re gonna give her away anyway. (Laughter)

But he falls into his dad’s sin. You say, “Oh, man.” He did. Now he’s gonna learn from it. God’s gonna be patient and work with him, you know, but this becomes a problem in the family. Does he love his wife? Yeah, remember when they got married? It says that he met Rebekah, and he loved her, but it looks like he’s exposing her to harm. He doesn’t necessarily give her away like his dad gave away his mom. He didn’t go quite that far, but he did expose her to potential harm, but does he love her? Yes. He’s just evil and sins against her. He’s a Christian husband, that’s all. (Laughter) How many of you ladies, you go, “Man, my husband’s a meathead. He does and says dumb things.” He still loves you. He’s just evil and stupid, that’s all. (Laughter) He’s a Christian husband. It’s Biblical. This is what we do. We say and do stupid things to the women we love. That’s how you know we love you. (Laughter) So how many men do you go, “Yeah, that’s right. That’s true.” We’re just evil and stupid. It doesn’t mean we don’t love you. We do. We’re just evil and stupid.

So he sins against his wife. He succeeded not going to Egypt, but he failed in being a coward and not protecting his wife. “When the men of that place asked him about his wife” – there, this is what I’m looking for. “When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.” (Laughter) [Kissing noises] You know, he’s looking down, “What kind of crazy Kentucky family is this?” (Laughter)

Response: Yee-haw.

Yeah, “So Abimelech” – (Laughter) – I’m hopped up on cold medicine too. (Laughter) “So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, ‘She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?’ Isaac answered him, ‘Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.’” “She’s so hot you’ll kill me, so I lied.” So “Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us?’ – corporate guilt, not just individualistic. He’s got a good understanding of sin. “‘One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’ So Abimelech gave orders to all the people: ‘Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.’” Now here, is Abimelech a believer or an unbeliever? Unbeliever, is he moral or immoral? Moral, so you have the moral unbeliever.

Isaac, believer or unbeliever? Believer, is he moral or immoral? Immoral, so you got the immoral believer getting rebuked by the moral unbeliever, very complicated and confusing. Now just because someone’s not a Christian doesn’t mean they’re wrong. The point is this. Christians aren’t always right, and non-Christians aren’t always wrong. Christians aren’t always good, and non-Christians aren’t always bad. It doesn’t mean they love God. That they’re going to heaven. That all their sins are forgiven, but sometimes the unbelievers are more moral than the believers. People always say, “Well, you Christians are a bunch of hypocrites.” Yeah, we know (Laughter), but thanks for reminding us, you know? Don’t think that just because you’re the Christian you’re the good guy. We do this thing. I get a white hat; I’m a Christian. You get a black hat; you’re a non-Christian. I’m a good guy; you’re a bad guy. Well, here the unbeliever is the good guy, and the believer is the bad guy, and the unbelieving, good guy is chewing out, rebuking the believing, immoral, Godless man. Okay?

Some people say, “Oh, I can’t listen to my boss. I can’t listen to my parents. I can’t listen to my coach, my professor because they’re not even believers.” Well, it’s not whether or not they’re a believer or an unbeliever. The question is are they right or wrong? If they’re right, then listen. That rebuke might be well deserved. I’ve told you this story before. A couple of years ago I was feeling really, really sick all the time. I went into an unbelieving doctor with no bedside manner. He said, “You eat bad. You’re fat. That’s why you feel bad.” And then he walked out of the room. (Laughter) No, literally. I mean, didn’t hold me, nothing. (Laughter) I mean, just no love from this guy at all, and I was like, “Okay, so I’m fat, and I eat junk food so I feel bad.” Yeah, those are the points. Okay. And he was an unbeliever, and I couldn’t say – “well, you don’t love Jesus, so “pft” on you, you know, I’m fat, but I’ll be fat in heaven. You’ll be skinny in hell.”

You know, I can’t do that. (Laughter) He was right. He was totally right. I eat bad. I feel bad. I’m fat, and some of you are saying, “You’re still fat.” Well, imagine what I looked like before I dropped all that weight. I mean, it was true. I was fairly wide, you know? No need to be, right? I don’t lift things. I don’t work outside. I read for a living. You know, I don’t need a lot of girth for that. So he rebuked me, and you know what; he was right. He was right. I was being the believer who was acting in an ungodly way, gluttony. He is the unbeliever who points it out but was telling the truth. Sometimes we need to accept the stinging rebuke of an unbeliever ‘cause they’re right.

And here that’s exactly what happens. This brings humility. You know what’s interesting, if you don’t learn humility, you learn humiliation. That’s what Isaac gets, right? He’s learning humiliation here. He succeeded not going to Egypt, obeying God, but he disobeyed God. Now he’s gotta take a rebuke from an unbeliever, and it’s totally true. The story continues, “Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.” Here is the hundredfold blessing. This is the televangelist’s life verse right here. “Then man became rich,” and you all go [Applause] – “Rich, we vote yes. Yes. I’ve never memorized a verse, but this’ll be my first” – “and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.” Whoo, bling from the king; we got a verse. (Laughter)

Okay, so now we gotta talk about money. Now we gotta talk about money, all right? We dealt with his family a little bit. We’ve dealt with his faith a little bit. Now we gotta deal with his finances a little bit. Somebody says, “Don’t talk about money.” It’s because you don’t have any. That’s why we need to talk about it. Jesus talked about money about 25 percent of the time. So we’re gonna talk about money. Now, every freakish nut job I’ve ever heard on television pulls this verse out. “If you give a buck, you’ll get a hundred bucks. It’s the hundredfold blessing.” Even unbelievers at home are going, “I got a buck.” You know, like, you know, (Laughter), “That’s a great deal.” Wouldn’t it be great if your real estate went up a hundredfold or your stocks went up a hundredfold, or your retirement account got traction and went up a hundredfold? Yeah, that’d be great.

We gotta talk about this though. This is not a get rich quick scheme. There are two basic extremes regarding money. Prosperity theology is one. You guys heard prosperity theology? If you love Jesus, you’ll be rich. Usually the guy’s got a hanky. He’s sweating a lot and just talking all kind of nonsense, and something about sewing a seed, sewing it – nobody knows what that means. What that means is write another check. Write another check. Write another check. And usually that guy’s sweating and running around and collecting all kinds of money, and he’s got rims on his car, and you know, just that guy. That’s prosperity theology. The more you love God, the richer you’ll be. See Isaac, a hundredfold blessing. If you loved Jesus more, you’d be rich. That’s prosperity theology. It tends to flourish in the suburbs and places where there are poor people playing the lotto and praying a lot; that’s where it tends to flourish.

The opposite is a poverty theology. Poverty theology is very Seattle. “I’m naked. I live in a tent in the park, and I won’t ride a bike ‘cause I’ll run over a bug, and that’s murder.” (Laughter) “When I need to log on to the internet I go to the library ‘cause I don’t buy a computer ‘cause that takes electricity, and electricity ruins the world.” (Laughter) “I don’t bathe, and I don’t shave, and I drink herbal tea.” (Laughter) “Man.” (Laughter) Right, this is sorta the faux-hippy utopia, right? It’s just – that’s Seattle, man; that’s totally Seattle, okay? And so we have this poverty theology in Seattle that says, if you’re poor, you’re close to God.

And, see, what happens is it’s like this group is all, “We hate the man. We’re down with the man. We don’t like the man. We despise the man.” And this guy is like, “I’m the man.” You know, and these guys – (Laughter) these guys go at it, and we had a whole generation go from hippy to yuppy, right? They made this like, “We hate the man. We hate the man. We can be the man. Oh, yeah. Okay, cool.” (Laughter) “We’ll shave and go to work and get a minivan. Yeah, we’ll be the man.” (Laughter) And so there’s these two extremes, right? The rich and the poor and the poverty theology and the prosperity theology – now, Mars Hill, be honest, are we more inclined toward a prosperity or a poverty theology? Total poverty theology ‘cause you’re all broke. (Laughter) Oh, broke people are holy, why? ‘Cause I’m broke. (Laughter)

So we’ll talk about this, and I gotta lay it out for you. Now the little graph isn’t in your Bible. I made that up, but I’ll explain it to you. (Laughter) There’s two kind of rich people, two kind of poor people. Two are good; two are bad. The first we’ll talk about, a category one, is rich people who are also righteous. Is Isaac rich and righteous? Yes, he loves God. God just says, “You’re loaded.” (Laughter) In Hebrew, that’s what he said, and – (Laughter) and he’s righteous, okay? Here’s how you know you’re righteous, two things. How do you get your money? How do you get your money, and then once you get it, how do you spend it? That determines how you’re righteous, okay? If you get your money through ripping people off and stealing and doing crooked things, that’s not righteous. If you get your money, and you don’t invest it wisely, spend it wisely, tithe it, save it, then you’re not righteous.

Here’s my recommendation. Live off of 70 percent of your income. Tithe 10 percent. Save 10 percent. Invest 10 percent. Live off of 70 percent. The problem with most people they live off of, like, 127 percent of their income. (Laughter) “I can’t make ends meet.” Well, that’s ‘cause you don’t spend wisely. You don’t invest wisely. You don’t save wisely. You don’t tithe wisely. You don’t. There’s not righteousness. There are righteous rich people. Are there some righteous rich people in the world? Totally, are there some righteous rich people in Seattle? Yes, are there some righteous rich people in Mars Hill? Yes, yes, people who God has just blessed them. Their company took off. Their real estate went nuts. They bought in low on stock, and it went through the roof. God totally blessed them. They know it. They’re rich. How they got their money was through honest work and investment. How they spend their money is prudent and Biblical. There’s nothing wrong with being righteous and rich. Can you think of anybody else in the Bible who was righteous and rich? Abraham, his daddy was. Job started righteous and rich, and then was righteous and poor, and then became righteous and rich again. Jesus was laid in the tomb of a man named Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man. Jesus resurrected in the tomb of a righteous and rich man. There’s nothing wrong with being righteous and rich. How you get your money. How you spend it. That’s the issue.

There are other people who are rich, but they’re not righteous. They’re unrighteous rich. They get their money through crooked business dealings and ripping people off and just doing deplorable things, and then when they get their money they don’t tithe. They don’t invest. They don’t spend wisely. They don’t save wisely. They just blow their money on things that are not necessary. This is where you see that sometimes celebrities and stars and athletes file for bankruptcy, though they made enormous amounts of money, because they were unrighteous in the stewardship of their finances. They lived way beyond their means. They spent when it was unnecessary.

So here’s the deal. Don’t worry about being rich; worry about being righteous. Don’t worry about being poor; worry about being righteous. It’s not about rich and poor. America is broken down in rich and poor. America fights between rich and poor. It’s not between rich and poor. The issue is righteous or unrighteous. In Seattle people think, “Oh, we gotta tax the rich guys. We gotta get the rich guys.” Well, what if they’re righteous? What if they worked hard? They invested wisely. They saved prudently. They spent frugally. We punish them, why? What wrong have they done? Nothing. Some of you are going to be very rich. Praise God. Be righteous. Be a blessing to others, not just a consumer of the blessing that God would give you. Some of you are gonna have phenomenally successful companies. Some of you are going to employ lots of people. Great, be righteous. Treat your employees good. Treat your customers good. Take good care of those around you. As God blesses you bless others. Just be righteous.

Some of you are thinking, “Well, I don’t know if I should do this investment. I don’t know if I should pursue this financial income. I don’t know if I should take a chance and start this company. I don’t know if I want to be rich. I’m a Christian. I love Jesus.” Well, if God should choose to bless you just be righteous with your finances and praise be to God. We don’t, however, believe that everyone who’s rich is righteous. We don’t believe that the rich are closer to God.

On the other side, there are two kinds of poor people. There are righteous poor. There are people – they love God. They work hard. They don’t have much. We have brothers and sisters around the world today, they love Jesus, and they’re starving to death. They’re homeless. The economy has fallen out. The place they live is war torn. Famine has come. Calamity has come. They’re in a hard time in a hard place. They’re poor, but they’re righteous. They love the Lord, and they don’t have any means. This is how I grew up. This is how I grew up. I grew up righteous poor. I grew up in South Seattle down in Seatac. My dad was a union drywaller, hung sheet rock for over 20 years till he broke his back. My mom stayed home to raise five kids. We did not have much. We were poor, especially when work would get lean, and my dad wouldn’t get full time hours. It was real lean and real tight, but my parents were righteous.

My dad worked hard for his money. My parents were very frugal with their spending. They didn’t waste money. We were poor. We were a poor family, a working class, poor family, but you know what; it was a righteous family. The way my parents got money and the way they spent money was righteous. They were very generous to those in need. I still remember my dad, even when we didn’t have extra money or food, him taking care of other families. There’s nothing wrong with being poor as long as you’re righteous. Then you have dignity, right? Some of you are working class poor. Some of you don’t have much money. You don’t make much money. Unless God should do a miracle, you probably never will have much money, but you can still have righteousness. The way you get your money, the way you spend your money can be very righteous, and you can have your dignity. See, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor. It matters if you’re righteous or unrighteous.

The other category – can you think of anybody else who was righteous poor? Jesus Christ, homeless guy, God, righteous? Yeah, poor? Yeah, didn’t have a place to lay his head, depended on the provision of others for food and shelter. It’s not unprecedented, and it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you. The Father loved the Son. He loves you too. But there is another kind of poor that is a bad kind of poor, and I think particularly in our city this is often overlooked. There is a belief by many that all poor people are righteous, and that poor people are closer to God, and everybody who’s poor is poor because the man holds them back; the man keeps them down. That’s not true. Some people are poor because they’re unrighteous.

The neighborhood I grew up in was behind a Déjà vu strip club. There was a 7-11 there. This was my first job. Not the typical training ground for a pastor, and at that 7-11 I needed a job so I lied about my age. I was 15, and I falsified my birth certificate. I was not a believer. I could grow a beard, like, from age four, and my voice dropped when I was, like, six, so I could get away with it. I’m like a Chia Pet. I can grow a beard in, like, 15 minutes. (Laughter) And so I got this beard. I falsify my birth certificate. I go in; I lie about my age. The next thing you know I’m a clerk at a 7-11 selling lotto tickets and beer and cigarettes to adults at age 15, driving my own car to work too – whole other story (Laughter), and surrounding that area was a number of apartment complexes, and everybody would come into the 7-11 to buy things, and I’m working there, and what I noticed was it was surrounded with poor people, but there were two kinds of poor people.

There were what I would consider righteous poor. These were, often times, first generation immigrants, people that were new to the United States of America. They were just learning the culture, just learning the language. Some were fleeing religious persecution or political persecution in their home country. They had just arrived here in the country, and they were trying to get a job, trying to get acclimated, trying to get traction for their family. Many of them were Christians that were fleeing religious persecution. Many of them loved the Lord, worked hard, but they were very, very, very poor, and what I noticed was those families, it didn’t take long, and they moved because they would work hard. They would spend wisely. They would act righteously. They didn’t blow their money. They’d save up to buy a house. The family would pool their resources, start to buy other houses. They would take care of each other, and what I saw was righteous people who started poor, but if they kept that kind of attitude it wouldn’t be many generations, and they wouldn’t be poor anymore.

What I also saw in that store was unrighteous poor. As soon as the welfare checks and the food stamps would hit the mailbox, in they would come. They’d hand me a bill of food stamps, and they’d want me to give them cash back, which is against the law, because with cash then they could buy cigarettes and 40 ounces of beer, and they could buy rubbing alcohol to go home and clean their needles before they started doing drugs and freebasing. Every time that the welfare checks hit the store we would run out of 40 ouncers. We would run out of rubbing alcohol because everybody would go home and get drunk and get high. That’s unrighteous poor. That’s unrighteous poor.

And to say, “We need to punish the righteous rich to feed the addictions of the unrighteous poor,” I don’t believe that. I believe that’s very Godless. Punish the guy who’s working hard and smart to feed the guy who’s getting high. That’s wrong. That’s wrong. But if you don’t understand that it’s not about rich and poor; it’s about righteous and unrighteous, you’ll fall into the same trap. Poor people are not closer to God than rich people. It all depends on your relationship with God, and poverty and riches has very little to do with it. Righteousness and unrighteousness is what counts. We live in a city that automatically assumes poor people are righteous. I’m telling you; as a guy who grew up poor in a poor area, that’s not true. There are righteous poor. There are unrighteous poor.

As now a pastor of a large church, I know lots of people who are righteous and rich. I also know some people who are rich, and they’re unrighteous. And I’m just begging you, as a church, get your head around money, and don’t say, “Oh, rich/poor, those are the categories.” No, righteous/unrighteous, those are the categories. Those are the categories. And don’t start out saying, “Well, I’m gonna be poor ‘cause that’ll make me righteous.” No, it may make you unrighteous. You may be just lazy or foolish, but assume, “I need to work hard. I need to invest wisely. I need to tithe. I need to save. I need to live within my means. I need to be a person who conducts myself righteously, and if God should bless me, then praise be to God, and if not, it doesn’t matter; I’m still righteous.”

So many people get hung up on the money. I wish that most people were as concerned about their righteousness as they are their income. Isaac is a righteous man. He’s also a rich man, but the riches are just God’s grace to a righteous man. Does this make sense practically? I know it’s basic. My fear is if I don’t give you some context for this, we read this, and everybody walks out with prosperity theology. Godly people are rich. That’s not the case. There’s examples throughout Scripture for all of these kinds of people. Mars Hill, I want you in category one or three, righteous rich or righteous poor. That’s where we want to be. That’s where we want to be.

“He also had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.” How many of you think, “Man, if I could just get rich, that’d be great. All my problems would go away.” No, you just get different problems. Rich people have problems. Poor people don’t have certain problems. Like, no one breaks into your house to steal your bus pass, right? (Laughter) But they will break into your garage and steal your car, you know? If you have, like, a black and white 13 inch TV, it’ll be there. (Laughter) You could leave it out front. Put a sign on it, “Free.” It’ll still be there. You get a plasma screen. Your neighbor walks by, sees it, it could be gone. As soon as you become rich all of a sudden you got whole other series of problems. Gotta get a gun and a dog, and you gotta get an alarm system, and you gotta protect your junk, and you gotta figure out how to beat the tax man. You know, it’s just all this stuff.

It gets more complicated, and here’s what happens. As soon as God blesses him, other people envy him. How many of you have experienced this? “I got engaged.” “Oh, well good for you.” (Laughter) “We’re pregnant.” “We’re not.” “Well, I’m sorry,” you know? “I got a job. I got a job. I got a job.” “Well, I don’t have a job, and you’re making me feel bad.” We’re like, “Okay, great.” We’re supposed to rejoice with those who rejoice, but sometimes when God blesses one person somebody else gets covetous, what James calls bitter envy and selfish ambition. “Oh, great, you’re blessed. I’m not. God loves you. He must hate me.” (Laughter) “Apparently, yes, that’s the point, yes.” But how many of you have had this? Something good happens. You get married. You get a baby. You get a job. You buy a house, you know? Something good happens, and other people are jealous, envious. They can’t celebrate with you. They can’t be happy for you. Some of you think, “Man, if I just hit it big then I’d be happy.” No, ‘cause some people would turn.

“So all the wells that his father’s servant had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with dirt.” That’s pretty mean. Do you need a well? What come out of the well? Water and you need water to drink and breathe. That’s sorta the beginning of all other things. Water and air, they’re sorta neck and neck in so far as significance. You need them both. You need it to feed your crops, feed your family. You need it to feed your animals. You need your water. Everything grows around the well. The well is literally the center of your collective life, and what they do, they go around to all his wells, “Oh, rich dude, we’ll show him, fill them up with dirt.” This is the equivalent of your business goes good. You franchise it, and they burn them down. They take away your livelihood, your income.

The question now is God has blessed him, but he has a whole other series of problems. Some of you, you understand this. “I’m making money, and I’m getting killed on taxes. I got a whole other set of issues. My employees are stealing from me. My competitors are undermining me. Man, now that I’ve made a buck, it’s really getting hard to keep that buck.” How will Isaac respond? This is the question. His faith is being tested. It was tested with his family. Here it’s being tested with his finances. What will he do?
“Then Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.’” You’re doing too good, leave. Would you leave? Business is booming. It’s your land. You inherited it from your daddy. It’s your wells. God’s just blessed you a hundredfold. Would you leave? Would you say, “Tough, you take it up with God.” Here’s what he does. “Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.” He says, “Okay. If you guys are all jealous and bitter and petty, if God blessed me there, God could bless me here. Fine, I’ll move.” That’s a pretty gracious man, isn’t it?
See, he knows that his God is a God of grace, and he wants to show grace to those who are watching. Here’s the deal. He has to choose between his wealth and his witness. What does he choose? His witness – his witness, this is a man of faith. When it comes down to making a buck or having people think well of God and his grace, he chooses to lose money and preserve his witness. This is a man of faith. God blessed me here. If I maintain my witness, my integrity, my righteousness, he could bless me here too. I’ll just trust him.” Again, Isaac is not pursuing riches; he’s pursuing righteousness.
“ Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham,” – these wells belonged to him. They belonged to his dad. They were on his dad’s land, and his dad dug them. They’d filled them up. After his dad dies, he’s just taking back property that’s rightfully his – “which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.” This is property rights. “Isaac’s servants dug up the well and discovered there a fresh well of water.” Apparently they were good wells. Abraham died. A bunch of meatheads filled them up with dirt, and he goes there and re-digs out the wells. Is this a lot of time, work and expense? Yeah. If you’re a business owner that’s like they burn down your business. You go find another piece of real estate, and you rehab an old building, and you set it up for business again. You’ve gone to a lot of work. This is a loss over in your profit and loss column. This is an expense. This is a lot of work.
“But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen.” Now a whole other group of guys is jealous and angry. Here’s what they say, “The water is ours!” Is it? Where did the water come from? The well that was filled with dirt, did these guys dig out the well? These guys were apparently unrighteous poor. The well is there to be dug. They didn’t dig it out. They waited for him to dig it out, and then they want the water. How many of you work for this guy? (Laughter) You do all the work, and then I say, “It’s mine.” This is how some people are. There’s this sense of entitlement. “I didn’t do anything, but I have a right to profit.” No, you don’t, actually. Proverbs says if you don’t work, you don’t eat. It’s incentive. Here these guys could’ve dug out the well. They could’ve gotten the water. It’s been like this for years. They never did anything.
How many of you, your company finally got going well, and then somebody sued you, tried to take your rightfully earned money? All right, this is the guy who sits home all day, goes to the Bon, falls, hits his head and says, “I’m getting a lawyer. The Bon’s mine. I get the Bon.” No, you don’t get the Bon. You get up, (Laughter) but you don’t get the Bon. See, that’s the nature of an entitlement, litigious, unrighteous, poor society. Somebody works hard, and then we take what they make. That’s the attitude of these guys.
“So he named the well Esek,” – which means dispute – “because they disputed with him. So then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah” – opposition. It doesn’t matter where he goes. Somebody’s trying to rip him off. Somebody is trying to take away his income and livelihood. Someone is trying to undermine his business. How will he respond? How would you respond? Would you be like, “Enough already, I’ve dug out enough wells. I’ve moved enough times. We’re already in the middle of a famine. It’s an economic downturn. This is costing me a ton of money to get back on our feet. None of you has any legal claim. If I took this to court I could totally defend myself. This is ridiculous. This is litigious. This is unnecessary. I work for God. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Now would be a good time to back off.” That’s where I’d go.
That’s not where he goes though ‘cause he’s more righteous than me. “He moved on from there,” right? He starts in Belltown, moves to Bellview. Now he’s out in Duval. (Laughter) Right? The cost of real estate’s definitely in decline – “and he dug another well, and no one quarreled over it.” Why? ‘Cause it’s in Duval. Nobody cares. Nobody wants to be there. (Laughter) It’s like, “Oh, he’s in Duval. Well, he can have that one. It’s Duval.” He goes to the undesirable place in faith that if God could bless him in a hot market, God could bless him in a cold market. “He named it Rehoboth,” – which means room – “saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.’”
“Fine, I’ll take whatever you’ll give me, and you’ll see. God will take care of his people. God will bless.” Is this faith? This is total faith. Has he preserved his witness? Absolutely. It’s cost him wealth, but he’s preserved his witness. “From there he went up to Beersheba. That night the Lord appeared to him” – God shows up again and speaks to him – “and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham.” Let me drill down on this for just a minute. You men, you want God to be able to show up to your kids one day and say this same thing. “Hi, I’m God.” “Which God?” “The God of your daddy.” “Oh, well, I know all about you. My dad told me all about you, how you saved him and forgave him and sent Jesus for him and loved him and blessed him and provided for him. I know all about you. My dad told me all about you.”
Today, how many people do you know that if God came to them he could actually say this? “I am the God of your father, the God whom your father worshiped faithfully. That’s the God I am.” Not many people – not many people could God say that to today. To Abraham, Isaac’s daddy, he couldn’t say that about Tara, Isaac’s granddaddy because that man was an unbeliever. That’s why we don’t worship the god of Tara and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We worship the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because Tara, Isaac’s granddaddy, Abraham’s daddy, was not a worshiper of God. He was an unbeliever. Numbers says he was an unbelieving pagan man.
You men want to be part of a legacy. You want to worship God. You want your children to worship God. You want your grandchildren to worship God, and should God speak to them, you want God to be able to say, “I am the God of your dad. I’m the God of your granddad. I’m the God of your great granddad. That’s who I am.” Man, I tell you what; Abraham’s dead and gone. The only time he gets mentioned here is by God. Isn’t that beautiful? To remind the son that the relationship that God seeks with the son is like the relationship he had with the father. Man, I love this. I pray when I’m dead and gone that my grandsons worship the same God, Jesus, that I do, and if God should speak to them, that he could tell them, “I am the God of your grandpa. I am the God of your great grandpa.” That’s what we all pray.
“Do not be afraid,” – does he have anything to be afraid of at this point? He’s relocated a few times. They keep filling up his wells, the equivalent of burning down his business. It’s a famine. He’s blowing a ton of startup capital to finally get a chunk of real estate and a well. There’s no guarantee that he won’t get further litigation and opposition. Yeah, there’s a lot to be afraid of. Here’s what God says, “Don’t worry about it. Don’t be afraid of anything.” See, all we’re supposed to fear is God, and that’s it. Previously he had feared being harmed. God’s telling him, “If you’ve learned anything, learn not to fear anything but me.”
Here’s what God says, “I will bless you. I will increase” – he says, “I am with you,” – first thing, the presence of God and the blessing of God. God says, “I’m with you, and I’ll bless you. I’ll increase your number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.” “You’ll get kids, grandkids. I’m gonna take care of you, the future, the generations, the extended family. I’ll take care of everybody. Don’t be afraid. Remember two things, I’m here, and I’m good. I’m present, and I’ll bless.” Here’s the key. You may not be in the best place, but if God is with you, and God is for you, you’re in the best place. It doesn’t matter necessarily what everything looks like spiritually or financially. If you’re in the place God has called you, doing the things God has asked you, having integrity like God requests of you, growing in faith and worship of God, God will be present, and God will bless you. You will be okay. That’s what God is promising, and it’s a great comfort.
Here’s how Isaac responds. “He built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord” – love that. Apparently there wasn’t a church there, so he builds one. There wasn’t a place to go worship, so he made one. That’s why Isaac’s there. God wants to bless his people in front of the other people. He wants his people to worship him so that the good news of God would spread out that there’s this loving, gracious God who knows us and walks with us and cares for us and protects us and provides for us. So that, what? So that evangelism could happen. So that other people could hear about God, so what does Isaac do? He’s got a lot of things to do. He still doesn’t have a fully functioning well. He still doesn’t have a permanent, settled piece of real estate. He doesn’t have all of his business in order, but before he gets to all of his business he takes time to worship God. He sings, prays, has church, teaches his family.
Guys, it is so important that you don’t worship God just after he has provided, but you worship him before he shows up because that is the essence of faith. Some people say, “I have a hard time worshipping because with my family or my finances or my faith, it’s not a good season. It’s a hard time. God hasn’t straightened everything out. Why should I worship God?” You worship God by faith until you see him show up by sight. That is true worship. Worship is claiming the goodness of the character and the trustworthiness of the promises of God until he shows up, and our Bible is filled with promises. That God loves us. That he won’t leave us. That he won’t forsake us. That somehow before it’s all said and done he will work out everything for good. That one day, even if it’s in the life to come, we will be restored to perfect health. We will have restored relationships that are strained. That things will be corrected.
And we worship God by faith, until what? Until we see it. That’s why we’re here today. This is our little altar. This is where we come to worship God in faith, not because everything is the way that we wish that it were; sin has come into the world, but because we believe that God is not done, and that God is good, and that we need to be connected to God, and that righteousness is more important than riches, and that witness is more important than wealth, and so we set aside time for work. We set aside time for income, for what? For worship and witness, for honoring God and letting others see that he’s worth our time, that he is, in fact, our highest priority, and before we tend to anything else, even something as urgent as drinking water, worship comes first.
This is what he does. “There he pitched his tent,” – settles down – “and there his servants dug a well.” We’ve worshipped. Now we go to work. We spent our time with God. Our minds are straight. Our hearts are clear. Now we’re ready to work, dig the well. See, at this point he doesn’t even know if he’s gonna have drinking water, but he knows that God’s good. “Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. Isaac asked them, ‘Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?’” “What are you doing here? Every time I see you guys you stop up one of my wells and cut into my bottom line and be really mean to me, so why are you here?”
“They answered, ‘We saw clearly that’ – what? – ‘the Lord was with you.’” You know, friends, maybe this is what it’s all about. Maybe the whole thing isn’t about Isaac. Maybe it’s about Abimelech. Maybe God’s not punishing Isaac. Maybe he’s growing him in character and maturity, but maybe it’s primarily so that his witness would go forth for Abimelech. Maybe a lot of the hard times in your life right now aren’t God punishing you, aren’t God opposing you, aren’t God trying to harm you; it’s God trying to refine your character in a public way so that you will worship and trust him because lots of other people are watching. Friends, family, coworkers, they’re watching. They want to say, “Is he gonna be hostile? Is he gonna cuss us out? Is he gonna declare war? Is he gonna turn is back on God?” No, he keeps loving, forgiving, being gracious, just like the God he proclaims. He still loves that God. He still worships that God. You can’t stop that guy, and God keeps blessing him. Maybe this God is real. Maybe this is a God we need to know. That’s what it’s about. So many people are about riches and not righteousness. They’re about wealth and not witness. He’s about righteousness and witness. He wants to walk with God, and he wants others to be encouraged to walk with God too.
So often times we hit this hard points tested with our faith or our family or our finances. We stop worshipping. That’s when we need to worship most fervently, why? Because it renews our heart, and it’s a witness to others that we trust God until he shows up, not just because he does. I love this about Isaac. He’s suffered tremendous loss. In the middle of it all the unbeliever comes and says, “God is with you. We all see it. We all see it.” “So he says, ‘There should be a sworn agreement between us’ – between us and you. ‘Let’s us make a treaty with you.” Let’s sign a contract. Isn’t it interesting, once somebody does know that you love God, God loves you, that God’s blessing you, all of a sudden they want a contract, and here’s what they want the contract to say, “That you will not do us any harm.” Okay? “Let’s right this down. You be nice to us, okay? Now that you’re getting powerful, and rich, and prominent” – could Isaac at this point leverage this deal, say, “Oh, yeah, I’m powerful, rich and prominent. God loves me. I want my land back. I want my wells back. I want a public apology.”
He could leverage this. He doesn’t. He lets it all go. He’s demonstrating, “My God is a God of grace. I have everything I have by the grace of God. It doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to God, and if you’ve stolen it, you’ve stolen it from God. That’s between you and God.” He’s pursing righteousness, not just riches, witness, not just wealth. Here’s what he says, “We want a contract with you that you won’t do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace.” That’s a bit of an overstatement, isn’t it? (Laughter) The guy keeps getting his wells filled up with dirt, and he keeps getting run out of town. Isn’t it interesting though, if you would be struggling, people kick you when you’re down. You finally get on your feet. Things are going pretty well. Then everybody wants to be your friend, and they all say, “Hey, buddy.” You’re like, “Buddy? I don’t remember that.” “And now you are blessed by the Lord.” That’s true. They see it.
How is Isaac gonna respond? How many of you, you would just rub their face in it? How many of you would at least demand an apology and all of your lost money back? Here’s what he does. “Isaac then made a feast for them.” Oh, man, that’s convicting. Isaac said, “You can be my friends. I forgive you. I love you. I understand who God is, and I understand what God does. I have sinned against God. He has forgiven me and blessed me. You have sinned against me. I will forgive you and bless you. God has made me a friend though I was his enemy. You will now be made my friend though you were my enemy.” He’s just showing the gospel. He’s just showing the love and the grace and the mercy of God. That’s all he’s doing. His witness is intact. Forgives the debt, forgives the theft of land, lets it all go because what he’s worried about is the salvation of these people, not just his income.
“Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace. That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug.” See, they were still working on the well when he said, “We’re at peace. I don’t want my well back. I don’t want my money back. I don’t want my land back. I forgive you.” He still didn’t know if he was gonna have water in his well. He could still dehydrate. He could still starve to death, but here’s what he said, “God, you’ll take care of us.” This is faith. “They said, ‘We’ve found water!’” God showed up. God blessed us. After we trusted him he showed up. “He called it Shibah,” – which means oath – “and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba” – which means well of the oath.
Looks like his life is great, isn’t it? Beautiful wife, nice piece of real estate, booming business, the presence of God, the blessing of God, everything’s great. “His son Esau was forty years old, married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.” This is the last two verses of the chapter. His meathead son married two strippers and gave him an ulcer, the end. (Laughter) How many of you go, “That’s a different ending.” I was expecting, “They live happily ever after, drank a lot of water, the end.” (Laughter) Right? No, why? This really troubled me all week. It was a great story, and then the son marries the two strippers and gives his dad an ulcer. This is the Christian life. Amen? This is the Christian life. It’s not, “And then we conquered all our problems and got naked and just swam in the well and ate the fruit.” (Laughter) It’s not like that. The test of his character regarding his finances leads to a test of character regarding his wife, leads to more tests of character regarding his finances and his faith, and then it comes back to where his character is again tested with his family.
How many of you keep thinking, “If I could just get through this one thing, then it would be smooth sailing forever,” and you get there, you’re like, “Duh, there’s always something else. If it’s not the family, it’s the finances. If I get the finances nailed down, then it’s the faith. Once I get the faith nailed down, then it’s the family again, and it’s always something.” Welcome to the Christian life. There is no, “And they live happily ever after,” until you die, and you go to heaven, and the curse is over, and the effects of sin are lifted. In the meantime, God in his providence allows us to go through different circumstances and hardship and trial and testing, why, ‘cause he hates us? No, ‘cause he’s growing in us faith, worship, so that we can have witness.
So that other people would be blessed and God blesses us, so that, what? So that it wouldn’t be a place that is in financial ruin and spiritual darkness. That God could financially and spiritually begin to bless a people, who bless a people so that there becomes this process of transformation to where it’s not just one family that loves the Lord. It’s many families. It’s not just one family who’s righteous and rich. It’s many families that are righteous and rich, and they can employ other people and take good care of their customers and allow other people to get traction so that, what? So that God’s blessing flows through his people to others.
Here’s my conclusion, if you had to look at your life today, where is your biggest test of character? Where are those places right now you say, “Man, I wish I didn’t have to deal with this, wish I didn’t have to go through this. I wish God would just take it away because it is just frustrating and hard.” Is it in regards to family? Your parents driving you nuts? Your kids driving you nuts – aunts, uncles, cousins? You’re single? You don’t have a family? You got a cat that’s driving you nuts? (Laughter) You wish you had a family to drive you nuts? At least if I had a wife to drive me nuts it would be a wife and not a cat. It’s frustrating. How many of you are there? Yeah, I’m frustrated with my family. Okay, God’s testing your character. God’s growing you. God’s working through that. He brings everything into your life, not to crush you but to grow you. So you can have a witness for others.
How many of you right now it’s your finances? “I’m broke. I got nothing. I’m unemployed. I’m underemployed.” Well, keep digging your well. Keep sending out your resume. Keep working your plan. Eventually you’ll hit water, but you gotta keep digging. A lot of people are like, “Jesus, bless me.” Jesus will tell you, “Dig your well. Work your job. Put out your resume. Watch your spending.” How many of you right now it’s finances? “If I just had more money, I’d be happier.” No, you’d just have different problems. How many of you right now it’s faith? You’re having a hard time worshiping ‘cause life’s not as good as you were anticipating. You feel disappointed. You’re not sure God’s a good God. You’re not sure God’s in charge. You’re not sure that God’s for you and not against you. You’re not sure that God’s with you and not left you. You’re not sure that God is a God who’s going to bless you. You’re getting envious and jealous of others. You can’t rejoice with those who rejoice. Your faith is waning.
Okay, here’s where we always come to. We always come to this point in the service where we take the story. We pull out the principles. We look at our life, and we ask two questions. Where have I sinned, and where have I been blessed? Am I sinning in regards to my finances? Am I sinning in regards to my faith? Am I sinning in regards to my family? Then I need to repent of that, and God’s grace through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection will do two things – forgive me and empower me to go live a new life as a new creation in Christ. Also, where has God blessed me? Where should there be gratitude? In all of this do you have an opportunity to be a good witness? Do you have an opportunity to live in righteousness? Do you have an opportunity to be a blessing to others? Do you have an opportunity to worship God? How has God provided with family, with finances, with faith? How has God already shown up? Thank him for the ways that he has shown up, and worship him until he shows up in those other ways that are desperately needed.
We bring you to this point, and we call you to the Lord Jesus, and then we’re gonna respond in worship. Some of you will worship today just thanking God for blessing. Some of you will worship God because others can thank God for blessing, and you rejoice with them, not be envious and jealous like the Philistines, and some of you today will worship God knowing that with family or faith or finances there are real needs, and God will need to show up, but in worship you are thanking him in advance because you are banking on the character of a good, sovereign God until it becomes sight. So when you’re ready you can partake of communion which is remembering Jesus’ body and blood shed for our sin. If you’re not a Christian, you need to ask Jesus to forgive your sin first and commit yourself to him before you partake, and then you’re welcome to. We’re gonna give of our tithes and offerings. We’re gonna sing and worship, and we’re gonna leave here, for what? For witness, the whole world is watching in a place that’s not unlike the place of Isaac, financially hard, spiritually dark. God starts here because he wants to bless many. I’ll pray.
Father God, thanks for a chance to study together with your people. Thanks for the great insights from the life of Isaac. God, I pray for those of us who are struggling tonight with faith. We have serious doubts about who you are, what you can do. We’re having a hard time worshiping. We’re becoming envious and jealous. We see you caring for others, and we feel like we’ve been neglected. That you’re not with us, and you’re not for us. God, I pray that you would grow us in faith and that you would teach us good things through this. God, for those who are struggling with family, the marriage is not what they anticipated. The children are not what they anticipated. The parents are not what they needed. Maybe it’s like Esau, somebody’s gotten married to somebody that they shouldn’t have, and it’s just a source of much grief in the family.
God, I pray that through this though things may not change that we would change. That we would grow in righteousness. That we would grow in worship. That we would grow in witness. And, God, for those who are struggling in regards to finances, I pray, God, first of all, that they’d repent of any financial sin. If they’ve been racking up debts, spending foolishly, wasting money, not working hard, God, I pray you would forgive them and give them the kind of empowering grace to allow them to have their money redeemed as well as their soul.