Episode Details

Transcript generated by AI. The sermon was not. Please comment if you notice any errors.

If you want to take your Bible and turn, we're going to be in Genesis chapter 26 this morning, Genesis 26. If you need a colored pencil, there's a few on the floor now.

Do the promises of God depend upon the worthiness of the recipient? Do the promises of God depend upon upon the worthiness of the recipient. Do you need to check certain boxes before God is willing or able to work through you or for you? Those are important questions. Think about the things that are promises from God. Salvation is a promise. Forgiveness of sins is a promise. Eternity with Christ is a promise. Do those promises ultimately depend upon God, or do they ultimately depend upon you? That's a crucial question to answer, and Genesis 26 is going to help us answer those questions this morning.

Genesis 26, we'll read the first five verses. We'll just move section by section through. We won't go all the way to the end of the chapter. We'll stop at verse 33, but we're just going to read the first five verses here. Genesis 26, verses 1 through 5.

Now there was a famine in the land besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land. and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring all these lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

Cade, can you do me a big favor? Could you go turn the AC off for a minute? I don't think I'll preach long enough for it to get hot in here. But I'm going to roach my voice trying to yell over the top of it.

Before we get going, we should just like re-situate where we are in the book of Genesis. So chapter 25 introduces us to Isaac. And we had met his wife, Rebecca, in chapter 24. Okay. And then here, after the end of chapter 25, where we meet Isaac's sons, Jacob and Esau. Thank you. Here we come into chapter 26, and the focus pulls off of the sons and goes back onto Isaac. And probably... It actually goes back in time. So a lot of times these Old Testament narratives aren't necessarily given to us in chronological order. And so when we get the generations of Isaac and then it starts telling us about his sons, that's a normal narrative pattern in the book of G