Learning Lessons from Isaac

Life is full of principles that must be learned or you will keep repeating lessons that God wants you to learn.

Genesis 26:12

Want to reap a harvest? Sow

1. Isaac sowed

Genesis 26:13

You can’t expect a harvest if you don’t sow.

No farmer goes to the field, expecting a harvest if he hasn’t sowed.

“He sowed in that land”, Where he was. Where there was a famine.

Somebody needs to hear this. Yes! There is a need for foreign missionaries, but there is also a need in our own neighborhoods.

Why don’t you start a life group at your home, where you can invite your neighbors, share a meal, discuss the Bible, and make a difference in your community?

Maybe you need to start a life group with your own household, because some of them haven’t experienced God, yet.

He saved some seed and sowed, instead of consuming all the seed.

There is a famine, in this country. There is a famine of love and caring, giving and responding to the needs of others.

Plant and forget about it. It will grow in due time.

Let’s look for opportunities to sow. Not sowing to get something, but sowing from the gratitude of our hearts because of what we have been given,

I’m not talking about “Prosperity” theology. I’m not talking about “If you want God to bless you, then sow into this ministry and God will bless you, financially…blah, blah, blah…”

Sowing is not just about money. Galatians 6:7-9. What are you posting on Facebook? How are you treating your family? How do you act in public? Evaluate what you are sowing…

Genesis 26:14

1. Isaac Overcame obstacles

When God blesses you, people will get jealous of you, because they think they are more qualified to receive God’s blessings.

It’s not about qualifications. It’s about getting what God has for you.

They envied Isaac.

Genesis 26:15

They filled his wells with dirt

Genesis 26:16-22

Esek: Contention

Sitnah: Hostility

Rehobath: Broad Places

Church folks…you started going to a church, hoping to find a church family that would love you and reach out to you. A place where you could get involved and do ministry that God had birthed in your heart. But, the enemy fought you and every time you would get to work and dig a well, the enemy would shovel dirt back in, or claim the well as their own. So you moved on and looked for another place to dig a well.

Pastor…Every church you’ve gone to, the enemy has fought against you. You left from there and went to another church and the enemy followed you. Every well that you dug had someone standing there complaining about the well. Had someone trying to claim territory. God has a well for you, with fresh water. Don’t you dare give up. Keep diggin’.

I’ve been in churches, that when we entered that land, we found famine. We started to dig a well so that the people would find the water that their lives needed. We dug a well of sound biblical teaching. People resisted because it sounded different from what they had heard before. We dug a well of praise and worship, and people pushed dirt back into the hole, because it didn’t come from the hymnal. We dug wells of building relationships and outreach, but those who were there before us resisted because this new well offered water to those who were a different culture and a different color. We dug wells and found resistance from those who had already marked their territory.

We met so much opposition that eventually we had to move on.

Maybe you’re listening to this and you find that you are on the other side of the equation. Maybe you have fought everything and everyone. Maybe you’ve criticized the pastor and thought that he worked for you. Maybe you thought that you were doing the right thing by protecting the territory that you had occupied for so long. Maybe you are the reason so many people have left your church. Maybe you are the reason your last pastor finally gave up the fight and moved on. Maybe you need to grab a shovel and start digging, without arguing about how it’s done. Just get off your backside, grab a shovel, and lend a hand. Jesus said “workers are few…” he said nothing about supervisors.

I love this story and I love Isaac. I love his spirit and I love his heart. He worked hard and the enemy followed him and he moved on and they followed him and he moved on and they followed him. But, there came a time when God said they have followed you for the last time.

Somebody needs to hear this, today. They have resisted you, fought you, talked about you, lied about you, and defeated you for the last time! God will bring you into the place he has established for you!

Genesis 26:23-24

God says “I’ve got your back!”

So let’s recap. Every time they mistreated Isaac, he responded in a Godly way. How do we respond when people push dirt into our wells? We can’t respond like the world responds. God has called us to act differently than the world acts. God wants to bless you.

This means that some of you are going to have to go back to the people that you hurt, and apologize.

Some folks gotta learn to take stuff and not respond in a bad way. People are gonna talk. Let ‘em talk. They can’t hurt you. They can’t make you sad, or mad, or depressed. Only you can allow that to enter your life.

God said "Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you.” “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”

Isaac was basically saying “If you smack me on the cheek, I’ve got another one.”

2 things today:

1. Be a sower

• Have a lifestyle of giving. I’m not just talking about money, but that’s a part of it.

• Quit being a tightwad with what God has blessed you with.

• I saw a thing of FB the other day that said ““When you have more than you need, build a longer table not a higher fence.”

• You want God to be generous toward you, so why would you be less than generous towards others.

• Listen for God’s voice as he speaks, through the Holy Spirit, to your spirit.

• It’s hard to hear someone when you keep them at a distance.

• It’s hard to hear the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit isn’t alive in your life.

• We live in a culture where everybody wants to receive and few want to give.

• Too many people are taking, from church, without a thought of giving, to church.

• What would happen to churches if people walked in and said “What can I do?” instead of “What can I get.” “How can I serve?” instead of “How can I be served?”

• How many pastors would turn a cartwheel if some asked “What can I do to serve you, Pastor, and the church?” and then actually followed through and became an active doer?

• Every church, every ministry needs people who will pour themselves into its needs.

• So many people don’t commit, either with their membership or their attendance because they are more interested in what they can get than what they can give.

• So many people feel bad, about their lives, so they go to church. That makes them feel better, so they stop going. They only go when life gets tough and they need a booster shot.

• If you want to reap, you’ve got to sow.

1. Stop letting obstacles, in life, slow you down

• Too many folks give up on stuff, because they run into obstacles.

• To many pastors have left the ministry because they have encountered obstacles

• Too many Christians have stopped attending church, at all, because they have faced obstacles

• There will always be challenges. Until we learn to face these challenges, we are going to struggle.

• Sometimes, we have to realize that a different job, a different church, a different spouse is not the cure to the problems we are facing. Maybe we need to learn how to face those problems, head on, so they don’t follow us to the next place.

• Zsa Zsa Gabor, with 9 marriages, was her own problem.

• Yes! Church folks will hurt you. Yes. The pastor will disappoint you. There are no perfect people or perfect churches.

• If you find a perfect church, don’t join it, because you will mess it up.

• Stop visiting churches with a consumer mindset. Stop trying to find out what they can offer you. Try finding a church where you can offer yourself to what they are doing.

• You don’t stop going to the grocery store because someone got on your nerves. You don’t stop going to the bank because someone upset you. You don’t stop going to church because someone made you mad.

• You don’t let what people do and say stop you from doing what God has called you to do.

• The enemy wants nothing more than for you to stop doing what God has called you to do. The enemy will use those around you to cause you to want to put the brakes on.

• Don’t let people determine your destiny.

• They talked about Jesus. They beat him. They killed him. But on Sunday morning he rose and he didn’t give up.

• He didn’t allow their rejection of him keep him from doing what God wanted him to do.

Portions of this sermon are adapted from sermons of other ministers